Welcome to the Threshold
A living cultural foundation for emerging artists and the future of patronage - where creative potential meets public life.
A Threshold Architecture
Built to hold those crossing from potential to expression - from marginal to magnetic - a structure for art, education, and belonging.
Now ready to activate.
A Foundation for the Future of Creativity
It has become clear that much of the most meaningful and time-consuming work we do at New Blood Art has always been non-profit in nature.
For years, the gallery has carried this work at its own cost: university outreach, the Emerging Art Prize, artist development, and early exhibition opportunities. That dual structure has been powerful but limiting; neither arm, philanthropic nor commercial, can fully reach its potential while bound together.
The New Blood Art Foundation formalises what we have been funding for two decades. It provides a home for the work that sustains artists at the earliest stages of their careers. It exists to bridge the gap between creative practice and commercial sustainability, building real, practical routes for talented emerging artists to create a living from their work.
Creating autonomy for our philanthropic and commercial arms allows both to thrive: the foundation to expand its cultural and educational mission, and the gallery to focus as a distinct commercial entity.
This foundation is not a departure but a continuation, a structure built to safeguard what has always been at the heart of New Blood Art: championing artists before the market recognises them and bringing that new work to the world.
Emerging from over twenty years of practice, with the founder travelling from Aberdeen to Falmouth visiting degree shows and building relationships with tutors and artists across the UK, the foundation steps forward to extend that work. It holds a long-standing commitment to making opportunities for artists who are based outside London to gain exposure among London’s collecting audiences, helping to level the field for talent regardless of geography or background.
Through these enduring collaborations with UK art schools and initiatives such as the New Blood Art Emerging Art Prize, the foundation continues to connect artists and patrons within a shared cultural space.
We are in open dialogue with partners and collaborators who share this vision and who are invested in nurturing creative ecosystems and the future of cultural making in the UK.
Vision & Purpose
The New Blood Art Foundation exists to help artists build sustainable careers from their creative work, wherever they are based. It connects artists and the public through exhibitions, talks, and shared creative spaces, fostering a sense of community and belonging while strengthening the cultural life of the UK.
Proposed Activities & Programmes
• Emerging Artist Development – supporting artists at all stages where talent meets readiness, beyond traditional academic routes.
• Mentorship – delivered by established artists and industry professionals, helping early-career artists build the confidence and skills to sustain their work.
• Studios, Residencies & Selling Spaces – live, work, and showcase environments, both online and in physical locations, where art is made, lived, and shared.
• Public Engagement – workshops, art salons, and artist talks that open creative practice to the wider community.
• Commercial Integration – a live, artist-run Art Hall: a curated and dynamic marketplace for emergent work, made and shared in real time.
• Embedded Platforms – opportunities for creative retail, hospitality, and exhibition spaces that bring individuality, culture, and local vitality back into public life.
These programmes create real structures for artists to make a living from their work, while bringing the energy of new creativity into the everyday life of towns and cities across the UK. They aim to revive the spirit of individual making and cultural self-expression that once defined the country’s creative identity.
The Need
The UK has long lacked a collecting culture that spans social demographics. In much of Europe, owning original art is part of everyday life across income levels. People grow up with the idea that art belongs in the home. Here, collecting has often followed reassurance and fashion rather than instinct. Many people haven’t learned how to recognise original work or to trust their own response to it. Without that foundation, a large part of the market now centres on replicated images sold as originals.
The UK once had a strong culture of individual expression - visible in fashion, music, and street life. That individuality has thinned. What used to be creative originality has turned into social mirroring: people buying, wearing, and displaying what feels safe or validated. The loss of this cultural confidence, combined with the absence of a broad collecting culture, has weakened the country’s creative distinctiveness.
High-turnover “gallery” models have filled the gap, selling replicated images that imitate art without ever requiring engagement. This has narrowed public understanding of what original work is, while making it harder for genuine artists to build sustainable careers.
London remains the centre of visibility for emerging artists, yet it’s no longer a place most can afford to live. At this year’s Frieze, only around 7% of exhibiting artists came from working-class backgrounds. The result is a narrowing field of representation: we are largely seeing the work of those who can afford to keep going. The art we see no longer reflects the full range of experience or imagination that exists in the country.
The Foundation’s work directly addresses this divide. It creates practical structures for artists to build viable careers, while nurturing public understanding of real art and re-embedding creative vitality into everyday life.
Structural Field
We are currently in discussions and actively seeking alignment with partners who share the foundation’s vision. This is a live and open phase - guided by resonance, contribution, and shared stewardship.
Funding Architecture
The foundation will be capitalised through a blend of public grants, philanthropic partnerships, and earned income from programming and commercial alignment. Scale will be determined in collaboration with core partners to ensure ambitious, sustainable growth.
The foundation is in a dynamic pre-launch phase - finalising registration, formalising stewardship, and actively seeking alignment with visionary partners, funders, and stakeholders ready to bring this cultural ecosystem into form. Strategic conversations are underway.
Location and structure open to co-design
The Invitation