The Freelands Awards 2026 winners have been chosen in recognition of progressive art education approaches with demonstrable impact.
Wolverhampton Art Gallery has been selected for two stand-out projects, MORE ART INC and ArtForum, delivered as part of its Arts and Culture Youth Programme, which sees the team work with young people to help build skills and careers in the creative industries, inspired by the gallery’s collections and temporary exhibitions.
They join The Burton at Bideford in North Devon, and SIGNAL in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, as the three winning organisations to receive an award of £100,000 each.
The winners will also collaborate with Freelands Foundation on case study films to share their art education work as a resource and inspiration to other organisations in the sector and beyond.
Freelands Foundation’s mission is to champion art education. Despite the increasing pressures they face due to declining funding and rising operational costs, visual arts organisations continue to be important sites of life-long teaching and learning. This first of its kind award recognising and celebrating visual art education in the UK is the result of learnings from a decade spent supporting visual art education, during which Freelands Foundation has seen galleries, museums and visual arts organisations as spaces for inspiring and progressive art education.
The judges for the Freelands Awards 2026 are: Artistic Director, Freelands Foundation, Dr Henry Ward; broadcaster, writer and producer Gemma Cairney; artist Joy Gregory; curator and writer Jenni Lomax; and art historian and educator Dr Ben Street. Following an open call and subsequent review of a broad range of entries from galleries and art organisations of different scales and models across the UK, the judges selected a group of organisations to visit in person before deciding on the three inaugural winners, all running innovative programmes committed to and rooted in their local communities.
Dr Henry Ward, Director of Freelands Foundationand Chair of the Freelands Awards 2026 Judging Panel, said: “Chairing the jury and having the opportunity to read about, then visit, these extraordinary organisations and projects has been an incredible privilege.
“We are all too familiar with the challenges facing arts education and the constant pressures on the sector. Yet the inaugural Freelands Awards winners are inspiring examples of the progressive work taking place. All three demonstrate innovative, collaborative approaches to visual arts education, working closely with their local communities, responding to the specific places in which they are situated, and creating programmes where everyone is learning.
“Together, they reflect the remarkable breadth of this work, engaging everyone from primary school children and teachers to young people and emerging artists. Visiting them was a joy, and the judges were inspired to see first-hand the extraordinary impact they are having. They are true beacons of hope.”
Wolverhampton Art Gallery’s Arts and Culture Youth Programme strands are all free to attend and include ArtForum, a hands-on youth group for 14–25-year-olds who make their own artwork and gain practical experience staging exhibitions and events. MORE ART INC is an incubator supporting emerging artists aged 16-30 from the city and surrounding areas, that equips participants with the tools to navigate creative industries. Participants are demographically and economically diverse, often with no previous experience of galleries, exhibitions or artistic practice.
The programme is designed to create a pipeline of opportunity through multiple levels and stages of arts education, with members of ArtForum moving into MORE ART INC and beyond to continue their artistic development through exhibitions and residencies at arts organisations across the UK.
Wolverhampton Art Gallery is owned by City of Wolverhampton Council.
Councillor Stephen Simkins, Council Leader, said: “This is a fantastic endorsement of the work taking place at Wolverhampton Art Gallery - and a celebration of the amazing talent in our city.
“The art gallery youth programmes have created opportunities for young people from across the city, some who didn't think that art galleries were somewhere they belonged but have now gone on to start inspiring careers in the creative industries.
“This award will enable the art gallery team to be even more ambitious in our offer and approach to working with young people, bringing new cultural investment into the city.”
This new vision for the Freelands Awards replaces the Foundation’s previous annual award focused on enabling UK arts organisations to present an exhibition of new work by a mid-career woman artist which ran for eight editions between 2016 and 2023.
Wolverhampton Art Gallery’s ArtForum young curators/creatives group for ages 14 to 25, runs on the first and third Wednesday of each month during term time only, between 5pm and 7pm, and is free.
Anyone interested in getting involved in the gallery’s youth programme activities should visit: Young People | Wolverhampton Arts Culture or check out Facebook and YouTube (Wolverhampton Art Gallery), and Instagram (Wolvesartandculture).
