Ready to take your creative career to the next level? The Mead Fellowship Awards, hosted by UAL Careers and Employability are your golden ticket to success! Applications for the 2025 Fellowships open this December, and it's your chance to gain game-changing skills in arts fundraising and grant writing. Find out more details here. Whether or not you win, you'll walk away with invaluable knowledge!
To help you craft an amazing application, we’re offering 3 webinars, 9 live Q&A sessions, and an online module called "Planning Your Creative Project." With these resources, you’ll be ready to submit a standout proposal that showcases your passion and vision.
This year, 7 winners have already launched incredible projects—read all about their inspiring work below!
Ali Wagner
BA Product and Industrial Design, Central Saint Martins
Dancefloor Intimacy
Dancefloor Intimacy seeks to inspire change in London's nightlife by promoting inclusivity and safety for autistic and neurodivergent individuals. Ali will develop an open-access educational website, a venue accessibility database, a printed zine, and an immersive final showcase exhibition. By addressing the lack of awareness and understanding surrounding neurodiversity in nightlife, the project aims to start meaningful conversations, drive tangible change, and ultimately promote a shift to a nightlife culture that prioritises inclusivity, empathy, and belonging for marginalised people.
Graphic education zine - a resource for nightlife professionals and a keepsake, featuring educational content and nightlife photography
"Receiving this award will enable me to bring this impactful project to life and advance my career by equipping me to manage and execute long-term research projects to the highest industry standards. It presents an incredible opportunity to produce thoroughly researched and captivating work while forging valuable industry connections."
Augustas Holcmann and Isis Powers-Bird
BA Fine Art: Computational Arts, UAL
BA Sculpture, Camberwell College of Arts
Felsenmeer
Felsenmeer is a research project in the North of Snowdonia (Llanberis). Exploring the themes of displacement and ecological decline, Augustus and Isis aim to redefine our interactions with the natural world, at the intersection of geology and history. They will investigate the history of Snowdon's landscape, through fieldwork within Llanberis, the slate museum, and five of the old slate quarries and copper mines. During their walking paths through these mining sites, they will examine themes such as class dynamics, material extraction, and environmental sustainability.
The pair will use recording devices and sensors that respond to materials such as soil, clay, and other various minerals, transmuting their vibrations into sound, and recording the subterranean environment. They will also produce a series of sculptural and photographic artefacts and use digital tools and technologies to analyse and interpret their findings, including data visualisation software, GPS devices and mapping software (so their artworks can be located). They will complete the project with two exhibitions - one within Snowdon, and the other in London.
Slate miners in Llanberis, North Wales
“The Mead Fellowship is an incredible opportunity to advance a long-held dream project, making a meaningful impact on conservation through collaboration. This award offers the chance to explore innovative ideas and develop practices that foster deeper connections between people and nature. It’s an honour to contribute to a sustainable future through work that preserves the environment and empowers others to engage with nature in transformative ways.”
Bibechana Pun
BA Graphic and Media Design, London College of Communications
Everything at the Centre of the Universe
‘Everything at The Centre of The Universe’ will be a 3D animated series. It follows a small crew of space junk cleaners with a mission to travel to the centre of their universe and clean up the garbage that has accumulated there. In this speculative future the entirety of space has been ravaged by the rise of consumerism and conglomerates, causing the universe to be plagued by waste. During their expedition they encounter a range of eclectic enemies who thrive on the industrialisation of space, as well as refugees pushed out of their home planets.
Bibi feels that the narrative is especially important in the current global climate, as year by year we see increasing displays of flagrant overconsumption, and the consequences of it on our world. She wants to keep the topic of consumer waste relevant, so that people do not minimise its impact or become desensitised to it.
Early sketches of the story during the ideation stage
“I am beyond excited to have been selected as one of seven recipients of the Mead Fellowship. It gives me such a great sense of joy and confidence to know that my ideas are connecting with others. Seeing original animated stories being funded, especially during such tumultuous times in the animation industry, fills me with hope for the future of Film and TV.”
Joseph Ijoyemi
MA Fine Art, Central Saint Martins
Tracing Roots: Exploring Nigerian Heritage Through Ondo's Treasures
Joseph is a Swedish-born Nigerian artist and a second-generation migrant. This project will enable Joseph to reconnect with his cultural heritage; a deeply personal exploration of identity and belonging to his Nigerian culture, resonating with the complexities of dual identity and fostering a unique and authentic narrative in his work. Joseph will focus on traditional blacksmith/goldsmith workshops and major festivals celebrated in Ondo Township, as well as conducting museum research. He will be looking at the rituals and materials used, encompassing elements such as attire, naming conventions, hairstyles, music, songs, burial customs, and gender roles. He will also be learning the techniques from traditional artisans to bring into his own creative practice.
Joseph's objective is to analyse the cultural objects crafted by blacksmiths and goldsmiths, discerning their distinctiveness, and identifying markers that distinguish their work from other cultures. He will be examining symbols, materials, and tools such as hoes, cutlasses, weaponry, traps, and bowls. He seeks to honour and preserve the fading legacy of Nigerian art making traditions, while presenting new, hybrid creations that bridge the gap between past and present.
Free the Obas Series. Medium: Screen Print, by Joseph Ijoyemi, 2023
"I am grateful to be selected for this year’s Mead Fellowship. This opportunity will not only open doors for collaboration in Nigeria but also allow me to expand my networks and build my practice professionally beyond Higher Education. "
Shahaf Beer
BA Theatre Design, Wimbledon College of Arts
The Jewish Dog
The Jewish Dog is a one-person-play Inspired by a book written by Asher Kravitz. The dog guides us through the experience of living in Berlin in the 1930s as the story filters the darkest period of modern Jewish history through the naive perspective of the dog. It offers a view of the Jewish life in Berlin under the Nazi regime as never seen before. Using contemporary theatre methods like close circuit camera projection, the actor will set up his world using found objects, and with a camera projecting live the image he sees on a bigger scale - we are experimenting with the audience's imagination, playing with the proportions of the actor and the world around him.
Shahaf Beer (Shahaf' is the Hebrew name for seagull) is a visual theatre maker, designer or scenographer however you would like to call him... Shahaf is an Israeli-Jewish artist based in London. He grew up in the community theatre, creating work for stage and street performances. Shahaf's recent work includes One Night Stand at The Royal Court Upstairs, Pygmalion at the Lyric Hammersmith Studio, collaboration with drag artist WetMess and Crying Shame by the queer collective Sweet Beef for Edinburgh Fringe.
The Jewish Dog concept art – not for kids but still playful, by Shahaf Beer
“It means a lot to me, as a recent graduate, to get UAL as an investor in my artistic practice by the support of the Fellowship award to The Jewish Dog.”
Tara Kelly
MA Theatre and Performance Design, Wimbledon College of Arts
My Name is Rachel Corrie
Tara’s project is to develop and design a new theatre piece based on the writings of the American activist, Rachel Corrie. The show will be performed at a London fringe theatre venue in 2025.
Rachel Corrie was an American peace activist who was killed by an IDF bulldozer in 2003, whilst defending a Palestinian home in Rafah, Gaza. Her diaries were made into a play posthumously by Alan Rickman and Katherine Viner, which was performed at the Royal Court Theatre in 2005 and subsequently censored in New York Theatres.
Now, more than ever, the situation in Palestine calls for a fresh look on Rachel’s life. Tara’s adaptation will interweave Rachel Corrie’s text with a parallel, Palestinian story, juxtaposing Rachel’s childhood and growing up with that of a character growing up in Gaza simultaneously. This will be developed in conjunction with Palestinian writers and creatives.
Set designs for the play
“Receiving the Mead Fellowship has given me the incredible privilege of being able make and put on my own theatre work about an issue I care deeply about. This is something I would not even have considered possible to do in London without the support of the grant. The process of applying was also a very helpful in shaping and developing my project into something real, and the grant body was extremely supportive and encouraging the whole way through. Moreover, it has been a confidence boost personally and professionally to receive positive feedback from the panel.”
Vlada Nebo
MA Fashion Photography, London College of Fashion
Goddesses, Monsters, Lovers
“Goddesses, Monsters, Lovers” is a photographic project about bisexuality, queer mythology and reclaiming our history.
The focus of the project is the character’s individual relationship with femininity and bisexuality, altering with changes in identity and self-perception, imagined in an editorial space. The project will explore desire, lack of desire, strength and vulnerability, self and public image. The aim is to expand the audience’s understanding of the terms “femininity” and “bisexuality” by featuring the stories of identities that have previously stayed on the margins of media narratives.
The project is intrinsically tied to classical myth and legends, as they form the narrative bones of the world. Classical mythological narratives remain a strong presence in contemporary culture, from theatre to fashion. However, based on distribution of societal roles and access to literacy, myth and legends have been documented in writing by male, often heterosexual and cisgender, authors. Initially Vlada will interview participants to document their stories. She will then work with stylists, makeup artists, set designers and movement directors to create an imaginary editorial space corresponding to each story.
Medea and Strawberries
This project is also about addressing a chasm in the industry - the fact that young queer artists are both critically underpaid and extremely financially vulnerable. It is about creating narratives currently missing in the popular media, in a way that promotes fair working practices and invests into the future of young artists.
“The Mead Fellowship is a uniquely important initiative that supports early career artists, especially in the light of drastic cuts to art funding we have seen in recent years. Being awarded the Fellowship feels like I am recognised as an artist for both my craft and my ideas. It hardly feels real, and it means a lot - I always thought initiatives like that were not made for me. With the Mead Fellowship, I felt supported by the team every step of the way.”