Goldsmiths’ Foundation awards £628,000 to organisations and projects focused on craft and hand skills
We are pleased to announce that £628,000 in funding has been awarded to support organisations and projects focused on craft and the teaching and practice of hand skills through the Goldsmiths’ Foundation’s Summer 2026 round of Open Grants funding.
Stonemasons at Gloucester Cathedral
The Goldsmiths’ Foundation funds organisations and projects that focus on vocational skills and training, working at the intersection of creativity and social change. Projects supported in this round of funding range from an eight-month collaboration between Dame Zandra Rhodes and 20 young creatives from Stoke-on-Trent to create a collection of clay jewellery and accessories for the 2027 British Ceramics Biennial, through to the creation of a bursary fund that will enable students from disadvantaged backgrounds to train on a 40-week traditional wooden boat building course in Lyme Regis, and the live conservation of Gloucester Cathedral’s medieval Great Cloister through its Heritage Craft Skills and Public Engagement Programme.
“As the use of artificial intelligence and automation begins to reshape the working world – particularly for those entering industries for the first time – the development and support for skills and crafts that cannot be replicated by machines but live in the hands remain critically important. The projects we have funded in this round span the length and breadth of the United Kingdom and will create real opportunities for people working in endangered crafts, and those who have special educational needs, are turning their lives around in the criminal justice system or are from disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds. In every case, building or convening communities to share the very human experience of learning, working and growing together.”
In this funding round a total of 16 awards have been granted, that support more than 25 endangered craft skills, across seven craft types:
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Govanhill Baths Community Trust
British Ceramics Biennial
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Blackpool Grand Theatre
Second Stage
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Boat Building Academy, Lyme Regis
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Midlands Arts Centre (MAC)
The Hand Engravers Association of Great Britain
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Gloucester Cathedral
The Scottish Crannog Centre Trust
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The Silk Heritage Trust
Onwards & Upwards
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Intoart
MAKE Southwest
Sir John Soane's Museum
Heritage Crafts
The Makers Guild in Wales
Each of these projects equips people with exceptional skills, either in silversmithing, jewellery, or the wider creative industries in alignment with our newly launched five-year strategy – which sets out a vision for a thriving creative ecosystem fuelled by skills, where traditional craft, manufacturing excellence and technical innovation create exceptional opportunities for the next generation of makers.