Credit: Turner Contemporary
About us
Supporting UK art institutions to inspire young people aged 13 to 19 through visual art and creativity.
Institutions from across the UK are invited to apply for funding to support their work in enabling young people to find their creative voices.
What we do
Programmes focus on the Fund’s mission to improve the lives of young people by building their social, personal and creative confidence and wellbeing through art, working with artists within a gallery or museum context.
Programmes are funded for three years, and happen in partnership with schools and community groups. We support twin-strand programmes working with two community partners:
- a school (or multi-academy trust) with high levels of free school meals or pupil premium
- a community youth group
Occasionally we support single strand projects with either a school or a community group.
Working collaboratively and regularly with artist educators, young people explore artists’ work through gallery collections and exhibitions, and create their own collaborative work and responses for public display.
Credit: John Sainsbury
How we work
You can see more information about how we work in our strategy map.
Before funding is agreed we provide a small R&D grant so that galleries and museums can consult with schools and community groups to establish the needs of the young people in their local community.
Context for our work
The Fund has been established to support young people’s development and potential through new visual art opportunities – in a challenging social context. Art has an evidenced role in supporting outcomes for young people and in providing them with skills for life and for work at a time when we know that many young people are living with a number of challenges in their lives, as this data collected by the Cultural Learning Alliance reveals:
Child mental health
1/5
An estimated 1 in 5 UK children has a probable mental health problem.
Child Poverty
4.5 million
An estimated 4.5 million UK children are growing up in poverty.
Pupil Absenteeism
17.63%
17.63% of pupils in England are absent for 10% or more of their lessons.
Happiness levels
25%
25% of UK students are not satisfied with life compared to OECD average of 18%.
School trips
50%
Cuts to state school trips more than doubled to 50% in 2023.
Arts in the pandemic
Arts
Arts subjects were hit particularly hard during Covid.
The long tail of Covid
Results
GCSE results are predicted still to be negatively impacted by the pandemic into the 2030s.
Arts in schools
GCSEs
There has been a decline of 41.7% in secondary arts take up since 2010.
Arts learning teams
Galleries
Learning teams in arts organisations are often reduced in size in comparison with before the pandemic.
Credit: Hannah Kemp Welch Project 4
“There is no right or wrong way of doing art, so there’s so much freedom and room to experiment and explore … It’s also really fun.”
Young participant
The Mildred Fund was founded by Midge Palley OBE in 2022 to address the multiple challenges impacting young people’s lives. The Fund was developed following the success of the Creative Connections programme at the National Portrait Gallery in London.