Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft
The Museum in the Sussex South Downs reopened in September 2013 following a major award-winning rebuild by Adam Richards Architects. It holds an internationally important collection of works by the artists and craftspeople who were drawn to the village of Ditchling in the 20th century. The Clore Studio is a learning space with an outside terrace and an impressive craft-based learning programme for all ages, focused on various types of making: printing, craft, letterpress, weaving, pewter-casting and puppet-making.
Etches Collection
This new museum opening in summer 2016 will house the finest single collection of late Jurassic age fossils ever assembled in Britain. The 2,000 fossils have been discovered by Steve Etches over the past 30 years. Steve Etches has gifted the collection to the. The museum will be positioned on Dorset’s Jurassic coast, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with views over the Purbeck Hills and Bay. The Clore Learning Centre will be a flexible space on the first floor. It will host a wide range of activities including practical workshops.
Birmingham Royal Ballet
This is the Foundation’s first grant towards BRB, one of the UK’s major ballet companies. As part of the redevelopment and upgrading of their Thorp Street site, BRB has refurbished existing studio facilities to create more flexible learning environments, improving public access, and improving working environments for elite level dancers and students. The new Clore Learning Studio opened in 2015 and is home to a variety of learning activities for young people, doubling up as a small performance space.
Fixperts
Fixperts invites people who are good at problem-solving and making to meet someone with a day-to-day problem they find difficult to overcome (e.g. an elderly person unable to put on socks; a disabled child unable to sit unaided) and help them solve it. They make a short film capturing the story of the problem and the ‘fix’, and make the films available on line, thereby encouraging students to learn about how problems can be fixed through questioning, listening, thinking-through, designing, testing and improving possible solutions, and making the final prototype. You can see sample films https://vimeo.com/59575065 and https://vimeo.com/151030342. The Foundation has made a donation towards helping Fixperts to launch an education programme through which they will pilot the project as a teaching module in schools. Children will be given real problems to solve, combining core design principles with practical and transferable skills to solve everyday problems for people in need.
14-18 Now
The Foundation has purchased the iconic Poppies sculpture, Wave, for the nation. It is now touring the UK until 2018. For more information click here.