Grants of between £30,000 and £50,000 are available to UK registered charities, Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs), and exempt charities providing skills and training in the craft industry.
Following a successful inaugural grant programme in 2025, the Goldsmiths’ Foundation has reopened its Open Grants Fund to applications from UK charities that focus on vocational skills and training, working at the intersection of creativity and social change.
The 2026 grants programme is focused on supporting UK projects and organisations providing skills and training in the craft industry (ie any activity involving skill in making things by hand). This can be core craft or craft used in another creative field, such as hand engraving in jewellery making, hand embroidery in the fashion industry or puppet-making for the theatre.
The aims of the Foundation are to:
- Build capacity and resources for technical and vocational skills development in creative industries, especially within historically underfunded communities.
- Realise the role that skills development, and creative people, makers and designers can play in addressing issues of social justice, and
- Create the infrastructure for a more equitable creative industry sector.
Grants are aimed at:
- Strengthening technical and vocational skills infrastructure in underserved craft communities.
- Championing the contribution that skilled makers, designers and craftspeople make to more just and equitable communities, and
- Growing the systems and networks that allow craft and vocational practice to thrive equitably.
In 2026 the Foundation aims to fund a portfolio of craft organisations who represent change through development of technical and vocational skills, who wish to learn from each other and (further) realise the potential of the creative industries for personal, cultural and social transformation.
A total budget of £600,000 is available for allocation across the UK, from which grants of between £30,000 and £50,000 will be awarded. The Foundation will expect applicants to have sought and secured matched funding towards their project.
Grants can be used for operating/core costs or for a specific project.
Further information, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), an Eligibility Checklist, a webinar about the Open Grants Fund and an online application form can be found on the Foundation’s website.
The deadline for applications is 10am on Monday 11 May 2026.