Our confirmed programme from April 2026 to March 2028
The future of Artquest
In 2026, Artquest will be 25 years old. Every 5 years, we take stock and reflect on where we are, how and where we fit in the sector, and look forward with new enthusiasm to new projects and services to artists. We’re planning some special events and resources for when we turn 25 years old in December 2026. In the meantime we can confirm our programme to artists and the arts sector.
Our story so far
Artquest was established in 2001 to provide advice and information to professional visual artists. Founded as a partnership between Arts Council England and University of the Arts London (UAL) as a service to help professional visual artists, we’re proud to continue to be the only free-to-access career development service for artists in the UK.
We remain one of the only such services in the world. We have never charged artists to access our services, and never will.
We’ve run programmes directly focussed on artists’ professional lives, answered thousands of artists’ questions through our website, and published countless articles online. We’ve always prioritised projects that support our mission: to make the arts sector more equitable for visual artists, exploring the structures of our art world and focussing on projects that no-one else is doing. The core of our mission has always been to share our learning widely, work with everyone, and signpost to existing services to eliminate duplication and save money.
Our achievements have been made possible with almost £2m funding from Arts Council England, and almost £3m worth of support from UAL, our host institution, and we are grateful for this continued support.
In December 2025, Arts Council England confirmed a 5% increase to grants to all of the arts organisations it funds. With this new financial stability, we have created the following programme for the period 2026 to 2028.
Website
Our 12,000 page, free to access website of professional advice and information. Main sections include:
- How to guides on all aspects of an artists career
- A comprehensive Directory of key arts organisations, networks, advisors and resources, including legal information
- Up-to-date, high-quality opportunities for artists
- Free ebook for early career artists on the key aspects of their working lives
Email helpline
Free email advice and on-demand one to one meetings covering artists’ career development and sector advice for:
- individual professional visual artists and
- small-scale, unfunded artist-led groups
- anywhere in England.
Our new process offers one to one meetings with artists when they need it, avoiding bookings or waiting. Artists in England? Ask us anything.
Professional network
Artquest Exchange, our in-house free professional network for artists. Offered only to professional visual artist members. By 2028, improvements to this service will include:
- New, clearer membership criteria
- International digital peer mentoring arranged through internal, secure communications.
- Peer-led one to one meetings for artist advice with new ethical code of conduct.
- Posting and finding paid freelance work through noticeboards and alerts.
- Ability to advertise and look for excess art materials to reduce waste and build networks.
- Finding and offering cost-neutral practice collaboration.
- Build local peer groups through new secure member proximity mapping.
Grants to develop your practice
Adaptations, our action research practice development grant for artists, will be refreshed for 2026. A new focus on artists who are returning from career breaks, with similar eligibility as previous rounds. As before, support will be directed toward artists from lower socio-economic backgrounds to experiment with new forms of income generation and sustainable business models.
Due to relaunch summer 2026 with a continued commitment to publish research fundings to support artists and the arts sector.
A unique source of workforce data
We will maintain and expand our Applied data partnership and insights project, adding suitable new partners. We will build public data dashboards to showcase elements of our work and share insights and news on our public newsletter. We will also build on our recent successes, working with the UAL Social Purpose Lab to continue the work we began on our Who Gets To Be An Artist report, presented to APPG Visual Arts.
As part of this work we will add a new member to our Advisory Group with experience of cultural data or research.
Understanding artists
We will continue our new research into defining Artists Business Models, aiming to make artists practice and employment better understood inside and outside of the art world. This research aims to make how and why artists work more legible to funders, policymakers and finance. In so doing, we hope to help improve sustainable career outcomes and diversity in the artist workforce through better evidence, case studies, data and stories.
This work could be useful to:
- art schools, in curriculum development, supporting the education of early career artists and their first few crucial years of practice.
- artists, in developing their professional careers and identifying associated new professional opportunities.
- arts funders and policymakers, to help influence a more responsive and useful employment context.
We will also continue our free annual 30/30 challenge for members in February each year.
Recent highlights
- Our recent survey to all 990 NPO directors and an analysis of Arts Council England public data to gauge the health of the sector. We want to build solidarity with our peers and reassure colleagues it’s not just them finding it hard right now.
- Launching new Applied Insights reports and Applied Metrics, the first public monitor from our Applied data partnership as new sector intelligence on the working experiences of artists.
- Scoping new consultancy opportunities with arts organisations to make open calls fairer and more equitable, building on our work with Museum of the Home and Whitechapel Gallery.
- Beginning new research into artists business models to help the worlds of finance and policy better understand how artists live and work, their motivations, strengths, and develop a business case for support.
- Continue to focus research and attention on artists with caring responsibilities, the socio-economic background of the workforce, and challenging inequitable procedures that are taken for granted in the arts.
- Seeking money and opportunities to develop our website, notably our Artquest Exchange social network, building new tools for peer-to-peer advice and networks supporting artists’ careers.
- Looking for new advisors to join our non-statutory Advisory Group, adding more commercial, data and research skills.