Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Joy Gregory, Claudette Johnson and 2026 Turner Prize-shortlisted artist Tanoa Sasraku are among those donating works to a series of autumn auctions raising money for direct, unconditional funding for independent artists across the UK.
Running from 21st September to 16th October 2026, The Arts Foundation fundraising programme will combine an online auction, a dinner and live auction at Toklas in London, and selected works offered through Sotheby’s October Contemporary Day Auction.
All proceeds will support the charity’s Arts Foundation Futures Awards, which provide five £20,000 Fellowships each year across different artistic disciplines, alongside £1,000 for every shortlisted artist.
Among the headline works are Antony Gormley’s Draw (2025) and Anish Kapoor’s Omo (2019), alongside pieces by Allison Katz, Florian Meisenberg, Marcus Coates and photographer Harley Weir.
There’s also a rare first edition of Free Love (1995), signed by author Ali Smith, herself an Arts Foundation Short Story Writing Fellow in 2001.
Artists supporting artists
What makes the auction particularly interesting is that many of those contributing have direct experience of what this kind of unrestricted funding can mean.
Former Arts Foundation Fellows donating include Joy Gregory, Tanoa Sasraku, Carol Morley, Sam Lee, Jochen Holz, Joanna Pocock, Savinder Bual, Ken Grant, Alex Hartley, Holly Hendry, Permindar Kaur, Love Ssega and Charlotte McLean.
Sasraku, who received an Arts Foundation Visual Art Fellowship in 2021 and is shortlisted for this year’s Turner Prize, described the award as transformative:
“The Arts Foundation Fellowship transformed my career as a visual artist in myriad ways. From the effect that such a substantial and sudden injection of capital had on my mental wellbeing, providing me for the first time since leaving home with a solid financial safety net, to the sense of validation and boost in confidence that the accolade of becoming a Fellow has afforded me.”
Sasraku is shortlisted for the 2026 Turner Prize for Morale Patch at the ICA, with the Turner Prize exhibition opening at MIMA, Middlesbrough, on 26th September.
The auction comes at a moment when making a living independently as an artist remains increasingly difficult. Unlike project funding, the Futures Awards are unconditional: artists decide themselves how the money is used.
“The Arts Foundation funds artists’ potential, not just achievement,”
said Mary Jane Edwards, Director of The Arts Foundation.
“Every year we watch what unconditional support does for an artist, not just the money, but the permission it gives them to take risks they couldn’t otherwise afford.”
She describes a particular point early in an artist’s career when “the work is fully formed, but the infrastructure required to sustain it is not,” and where one unrestricted investment can substantially change what happens next.
Founded in 1993, The Arts Foundation has awarded more than £2 million to artists at pivotal points in their careers. Previous recipients include Sir Wayne McGregor, Ali Smith, Sir Rufus Norris, Asif Kapadia, Carol Morley, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Sarah Kane.
The Foundation recently doubled its main Fellowship to £20,000, citing inflation, the cost-of-living crisis and the financial precarity faced by artists.
Art, dinner and a few unusual lots
It isn’t all artworks.
Experience lots include dinner with Simon Schama; a private curator-led tour of Renoir and Love at the National Gallery followed by tea for six; and an evening hosted by Royal Ballet Director Kevin O’Hare CBE, including dinner and tickets for Wayne McGregor’s MADDADDAM at the Royal Opera House.
There’s also dinner and a movie with filmmaker Carol Morley, a Highland dance workshop with Charlotte McLean, and a tour of Margate’s Quench Gallery with artists Lindsey Mendick and Guy Oliver.
Online bidding opens 21st September and runs until 5th October, culminating in a dinner and live auction at Toklas that evening, with a performance by jazz musician Daniel Casimir and a DJ set from BBC Radio 6 Music’s Nemone Metaxas.
Selected works will then go on public view at Sotheby’s, 34–35 New Bond Street, London, from 9th–15th October, before being offered as part of its Contemporary Day Auction on 16th October 2026.
The result is a fairly simple cycle: artists whose careers were helped by direct support are now helping fund the artists coming after them.
Find out more and bid through The Arts Foundation
