May 2026

Mildred Fund Research 2023 to 2025

Anna Cutler

“The story so far is about understanding context, confirming outcomes, and identifying structures. It has unveiled unseen attitudes, behaviours, and decisions as well as investing in relational practices that nurture wellbeing. Without wishing to overwork a metaphor, it is very much like tending an abandoned field: figuring out what to clear away and when to double-dig. Getting to grips with the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of what flourishes where. It means that we have some educated choices to make in what we want to grow, or even how we might wish to rewild.”

Context

In any arts project, we want to know what – if anything – has been of value or has changed for participants, organisations, artists, and perhaps even for the discipline itself. Have the project’s aims been met and aspirations realised? If so, how has this happened? Can we do it again – and do it better? If not, what went wrong? What can we discover by looking closely at our work? How can we identify and draw out the key processes, practices, materials, behaviours, and content that will help us understand and develop the best possible conditions for creating quality arts experiences for young people?

This text outlines the development of the Mildred Fund programme and what we have discovered so far through research conducted in 2023/24 and 2024/25. The work is shaped by our commitment to long-term visual arts programmes with young people aged 13 to 19, focusing on supporting student wellbeing amid a context of complex and intersecting social and emotional pressures. The educational backdrop is a climate defined by systemic constraints: funding cuts, mental health challenges, pupil absenteeism, timetable pressures, and staff recruitment and retention issues - and accountability measures which have devalued arts subjects. The personal and societal backdrop for young people includes increasing pressures and anxieties around self-identity and a sense of belonging. 

Our work began with four visual arts organisations from across the country undertaking projects in both schools and community settings. These initiatives embraced a wide range of art forms – including painting, film, sound, collage, and photography – and involved young people from diverse circumstances, including those who have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), are neurodiverse, part of LGBTQ+ groups, and students in both mainstream and alternative settings. Managed in galleries by small learning teams with many artists and facilitators, the Fund embedded research across the programme, inviting shared reflection from the outset – an inductive form of research that built from the experiences of all involved, framed by specific questions and areas of focus on wellbeing at each site. This enabled us to explore complementary and contrasting features of practice that support young people’s personal, social, and creative wellbeing.

Research 2023/2024

What we uncovered in 2023/24 was much as one might anticipate in arts learning: multi-dimensional benefits for young people’s confidence, wellbeing, and personal development. At the heart of this were trusting relationships, built early through consistent presence, empathy, and an understanding of young people’s backgrounds. Trust, combined with attentive, caring responses to individual needs, enabled deeper engagement and provided a secure foundation for personal growth.

We frequently find an increase in student confidence as a primary benefit of engaging with art for young people across personal, social, and creative domains. In this work, we found it in abundance: participants felt more self-assured, more willing to speak up, and more able to express themselves creatively. They became more comfortable in their own identities, developing resilience, agency, and self-belief, often because they felt genuinely seen and accepted. Collaborative creative work strengthened social skills, communication, and a sense of belonging and community. Artistic processes that were slow-paced, process-led, and free from judgment encouraged experimentation, risk-taking, and respect for personal preferences, helping young people develop skills, ownership, and pride in their work. Wellbeing appeared to be supported by safe, inclusive environments that can benefit mental health, emotional regulation, and sometimes academic performance.

The research also highlighted several benefits for the galleries and artists. This work has the potential to drive organisational change, shifting how institutions understand their purpose, operations, and audiences. Partnerships with schools and community groups can strengthen community ties and position galleries as responsive, relevant community anchors. Inclusive, process-led approaches may encourage experimentation and innovation. Staff and artists can also benefit through professional development, gaining skills, knowledge, and capacity to design and deliver more impactful programmes.

Much of the 2023/24 research revealed elements that those working in arts and learning will likely recognise – we see these findings frequently. However, it also highlighted three less familiar aspects: a form of attentiveness marked by a hyper-focus on the needs of young people; confidence as a catch-all term for a far wider set of skills, emotions, social attitudes, and behaviours that require further exploration; and the tightly interwoven nature of these two elements with concepts of wellbeing.

Research 2024/2025

In 2024/25, the Mildred Fund expanded its programme to seven visual arts organisations, employing an even wider range of art forms. With many outcomes and core themes now identified, we were able to look more deeply into the three highlighted areas above and examine new or unexpected findings. We gained clearer insight into how and why particular approaches and practices supported specific outcomes. In effect, we began to relate the detailed observations to the larger structural features underpinning the work. These included, but were not limited to, the emergence of foundational principles, recurring themes, approaches and behaviours, as well as relational participatory artistic practices.

The 2024/25 research suggested that what was found in terms of trust and relationships, consistency and flexibility, student voice and agency could all be understood as foundational principles for working with young people. On closer view, attentiveness was not only an important feature; it was the central, underlying concept, understood as deep noticing, responsiveness, reflection, and care that kept young people at the centre of the work. Confidence was being built through the multi-layering of personal, social, and creative capacities, which helped students feel seen, heard, and trusted and shaped the whole ecology of a programme – from space and time to content, methods, and organisational relationships.

Attentiveness also reshaped our understanding of wellbeing from that of individual need to a collectively generated experience; an agent of change that gave participants a sense of belonging, connection, purpose, and value. This depth of attentiveness is neither simple nor straightforward. It is often slow, always relational, meticulous, and challenged by systemic obstacles and instability in the youth and education sectors. It was present across all Mildred Fund projects, and always hard-won.

The 2024/25 research also reframed the notion of progress through the lens of inclusion, adapting standardised measures to recognise participants’ differences; small but significant shifts, such as regular attendance, quiet sustained engagement, or trying something new. Co-production, shared decision-making, and supporting young people to resist: to challenge ideas or activities were powerful drivers of agency and impact, enabling them to stretch their imaginative muscles and begin to ‘rewild’ their thinking. Involving young people as co-researchers, which has seen a welcome return to arts-learning practice, further strengthened self-understanding, project analysis, and ownership.

Summary

Research gave greater opportunity to look more closely and to develop our knowledge. The focus on attentiveness, relational and inclusive practices, collective wellbeing, and co-production began to explain, in greater detail, why and how outcomes were achieved through the kinds of behaviours and artistic practices taking place, and therefore how they might be more effectively constructed in the future.

Over two years, the Mildred Fund took us from identifying familiar arts-learning outcomes – confidence, personal growth, and organisational change – to uncovering the deeper structures that make these possible. The work shifted from highlighting benefits to understanding how processes and practices actively shape programmes and their outcomes. This expanded view reframed progress, centred young people’s voices, and revealed art’s role in rewilding the attention of all participants, from students to staff.