Respect to the Arts Foundation Futures Awards 2026. If you’re reading this, please take time out, kick back and check this speech by Sir Ben Okri – pure inspiration for anyone willing to tune in.

The renowned poet and novelist Sir Ben Okri delivered a poignant and rousing welcome address at The Arts Foundation Futures Awards 2026. It was truly what we needed on the night… it lifted our spirits and confirmed the need to press on in these turbulent times.

Ben’s words were a visceral testament to power of artists to respond to and transcend personal and collective crisis, and a powerful reflection on why the universal spirit of art really matters.

For those of you not familiar with the Arts Foundation, it is a registered charity that supports individual artists and creatives in the UK with unconditional financial Fellowships through the Arts Foundation Futures Awards.

Since 1993, the Arts Foundation has awarded over £2 million to the most promising artists in the UK at a pivotal moment in their careers to enable them to concentrate on their creative development, experiment, and realise their artistic potential.

Historically, the annual Arts Foundation Futures Awards has provided five transformative £10,000 Fellowships, with all Shortlisted Artists receiving £1,000 towards the development of their practice. In 2025, the Arts Foundation raised the Fellowship Award amount to £20,000 to ensure it 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.

For 2026, the Foundation was thrilled to support the award categories: Film, Literature, Music, Theatre, and Visual Art.

These awards support UK-based, promising artists at pivotal career moments. The twenty artists shortlisted were announced on 7 January 2026, with the five artists receiving the no-strings-attached £20,000 Fellowship revealed at a celebratory Award Ceremony on 2 February in London.

The AFA’s Winners were: Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu (Theatre), Zein Majali (Visual Art), Dorothy Allen-Pickard (Film), Fahad Al-Amoudi (Literature), and William Marsey (Music), with each receiving a £20,000 fellowship.

I immediately went home and ordered a book by the Winner of the Arts Foundation Futures Award for Poetry – Al-Amoudi, Fahad – ‘When the Flies Come’ . It’s published by Oxford Brookes University and they appear to have a wealth of new, fresh poetic works– all modestly priced . Nice!)

Basically the Art Foundation Future Awards deliver a host of wonderful stuff… you can delve further into the Arts Foundation Futures Awards here… start browsing at https://artsfoundation.co.uk/

Enuff said! And finally, once more, BIG respek to Sir Ben Okri…. 🔥🔥🔥