The Arts Foundation Reveals 2025 Winners Of £115,000 Prizes

The five winning fellows were revealed at an Awards Ceremony on Monday 17 February at Kings Place, London, featuring a welcome address from renowned choreographer Siobhan Davies and a live jazz performance from Daniel Casimir, the Arts Foundation's Jazz Composition Fellow of 2024.

The annual Arts Foundation Futures Awards support the UK's most promising artists and creatives at a pivotal moment in their career, providing £115,000 in unconditional grant funding, awarding five transformative £20,000 Fellowships, with all Shortlisted Artists receiving £1,000 towards the development of their practice.⁠

The Arts Foundation announced it had doubled its grant-giving this year to ensure its work continues to have the same life-changing impact and responds to inflation, the ongoing cost of living crisis and low artist income precarity experienced across the contemporary arts in the UK. The increase in the fellowship award sees the foundation become one of the UK's largest unconditional funders of individual artists, unique in its support across art forms - from Dance, Design, Film, Literature, Music, and Theatre to Visual Arts.   

Dance Fellow: Charlotte Mclean

Charlotte Mclean's choreographic practice draws from tradition, having competed in Scottish Highland Dance throughout her childhood. Her artistic ethos is rooted in community values, intersectional feminism and rest as a political act. Charlotte's first solo show, And, was received to critical acclaim at The Place London after a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe.  Her latest work, Futuristic Folktales was co-commissioned by The Place London and Tojo Theatre Bern. After a successful tour of Scotland, it joined the Made In Scotland Showcase at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2024.

Charlotte's latest show, not for glory, made with Jack Anderson, and in collaboration with Malin Lewis will be previewed on 27 April 2025 at Dance Base, Edinburgh as part of Pomegranates Festival, hosted by the Traditional Dance Forum Scotland. Charlotte will also premiere a new work entitled, spit, in collaboration with Giuliana Beya Dridi at Tojo Theater, Bern on 11-13 September 2025.

The Dance Award supported choreographers who are expanding the medium of choreography and developing original works. Jury member, Arts Foundation Ambassador and Choreography Fellow 1992, Sir Wayne McGregor CBE, said: 

"Charlotte Mclean's practice took my breath away - it was a revelation! Charlotte uses her choreography as a vehicle to engage with the sociopolitical world around her in such an energetic and rigorous way. She has compelling and clearly articulated ideas for the future, envisaging new models and ways of working with other collaborators from both in and outside of the dance world that I am so curious to follow.  It is a privilege to award Charlotte this year's increased Fellowship of £20,000, she is a truly deserving artist and someone who we all felt would continue to create magic in their work for many years to come.” 

Design Fellow: Kaye Song

Kaye Song is an architectural designer who studied at the University of Cambridge and the Bartlett School of Architecture. Her projects explore both the physical and emotional complexities of human landscapes.  Kaye is a member of the art and architecture collective, Assemble, and the co-director of Flimsy Works - a design studio making spaces that connect communities to the natural environment, developing designs closely with end-users and self-builders. Kaye is currently focused on projects that make green spaces more accessible; on low-carbon, light-touch construction methods that work in tandem with the shifting nature of the natural environment and its use.

Kaye is also developing an approach to make salt marshes more accessible through architectural interventions, exploring the role local communities have to play in landscape restoration. According to the RSPB, 85% of English salt marshes have been lost over the past two centuries due to their enclosure into agricultural land- restoring salt marshes presents an opportunity to potentially capture over 300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, making a substantial impact in the fight against climate change.

The Design Award championed contemporary designers with a focus on sustainability working across a broad range of disciplines, from product, material or industrial design to architectural practices. Jury Member and Creative Director of Universal Design Studio, Satoshi Isono, said:

"I am delighted to award the Arts Foundation Fellowship to Kaye Song. As a jury, we felt the experimental work developed under Flimsy Projects has strong potential to influence the architecture and design sector, embracing low carbon and light touch construction methods that engage with communities. I could clearly envision how the award would support her to move towards testing the scale of self-build and flexible structures that have a dynamic and sustainable relationship with landscape.”

Film Fellow: Tina Pasotra

Tina Pasotra is a filmmaker, director and artist based in Cardiff, Wales. She directed and co-wrote her debut narrative short film, I Choose, in 2020, which was nominated for Best Short Film BAFTA Cymru 2021. Tina was writer in residence for 5 Acts Productions ITV between 2022 and 2024, developing two original TV Pilot scripts. Tina's work and research have also received support from Arts Council Wales, British Council, Wales Arts International, Ffilm Cymru Wales, BFI Network, BBC Wales and C4, and she is a member of BAFTA Connect.

The Film Award supported film directors working in any genre of fiction filmmaking, focusing on independent and inventive storytellers. Jury member and film Director and Screenwriter, Joanna Hogg said:

“Tina Pasotra's work has an emotional quality which enables her to explore different realities, geographies and temporalities with such depth, tenderness and care. As a jury, we are thrilled to award the £20,000 Fellowship to Tina, she is a vital voice and a promising filmmaker. We hope this substantial resource will propel her forward to realise her clear ambitions for the future, full of exploration, play and the unknown!”

Theatre Fellow: TK Hay

TK Hay is a UK-based Singaporean theatre designer whose designs simultaneously comfort and disturb. TK's approach to design is informed by the geographical, social, and cultural contexts of each theatrical work, through which he aims to ensure the relevance and legibility of his designs across every genre of performance. TK trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and has designed for various theatres across the UK, including the Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre, Wales Millennium Centre, York Theatre Royal and Bush Theatre.

TK is currently designing for Scenes from a Repatriation at The Royal Court Theatre, opening on 25 April until 24 May 2025, and The PEA and the Princess at the Polka Theatre, which opened on 15 February, running until 30 March 2025.

The Theatre Award championed theatre designers developing innovative sets or production designs for theatrical presentation. Jury member and CEO of Shakespeare's Globe, Stella Kanu, who presented the award, said:

“The aesthetic of TK Hay's work stands out among his peers. It is visually captivating and his carefully crafted designs have an ability to communicate to the viewer the journey of the performance before the actors even step on stage. TK is a deserving recipient of the Arts Foundation Fellowship, and we have no doubt that this will propel him to the next phase of his career and enable him to make an important contribution to the sector as a whole.”

The award is supported in partnership with The David Collins Foundation, with development support from The Maria Björnson Memorial Fund.

Visual Art Fellow: Leo Robinson

Leo Robinson lives and works in Glasgow. His work constructs speculative systems of knowledge and ritual through the lenses of religion, psychoanalysis, and diasporic experience. With the creation of maps, diagrams, games, ritual objects and music, Leo introduces new networks of symbols as means to understand our connections to both inner and outer worlds.  In 2023, Leo completed a research and production residency at G.A.S. founded by Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, supported by Tiwani Contemporary. His work has been exhibited in major institutions such as; the London Mithraeum, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff and The Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow.

The Visual Arts Award includes artists working in any area of the visual arts, including installation, sculpture, photography, sound, painting and cross art-form practice. Jury Member and Associate Curator of Modern & Contemporary Projects, The National Gallery, Priyesh Mistry said:

“Leo Robinson's work is visually absorbing and thought-provoking in how we think about our spiritual lives and our imperial histories. Through his assembled installations he connects multiple traditions from such a broad range of cultures across time and geography, projecting a vision for a more optimistic, interrelated and joyous future.  We are absolutely delighted to award the Fellowship to Leo, and as a jury, we hope it will be transformative and help him achieve a new scale and depth of work.”

The awards mark over 30 years of the Arts Foundation's support for independent artists in the UK since it was founded in 1993, and whose alumni include eminent artistic practitioners, such as Wayne McGregor, Ali Smith, Asif Kapadia, Rufus Norris, Carol Morley and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

Mary Jane Edwards, Director of The Arts Foundation, said, “From reimagining Highland Dance, politically charged set design, and climate-positive architecture, to sharing layered stories about identity and belonging- the creative ingenuity, determination and focus of the Arts Foundation Futures Awards Fellows always inspire us. We're really proud to increase our support for independent artists this year and champion the livelihoods of creatives. We have no doubt all the artists and fellows will have a significant impact on our shared cultural life.”

The Arts Foundation Futures Awards 2025 Shortlisted Artists included:

Dance: Shanelle ‘Tali' Fergus, Charlotte Mclean and Anthony Matsena

Design: Ellie Birkhead, Jacob Marks and Lawrence Parent

Film: Luna Carmoon, Naqqash Khalid and Fridtjof Ryder

Theatre: Peter Butler, Ethan Cheek and Khadija Raza

Visual Art: Exodus Crooks, Mani Kambo and Raheel Khan

You can explore the work of all the Fellows and the Shortlisted Artists on The Arts Foundation website: artsfoundation.co.uk

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