The Hugo Burge Foundation Residency

The Hugo Burge Foundation is a charity that runs creative spaces in a number of locations in the Scottish Borders which support artists to become financially sustainable along with projects that inspire art in the community, schools and the next generation.

Their key focus areas for supporting artists are:

• Funded residencies
• Providing opportunities and places to nurture creativity in the local community via schools and young people as well as social enterprise.
• Enabling access to creative opportunities that would not otherwise happen both in Scotland and across the UK
• Delivering a programme of workshops, classes and other opportunities for everyone to access creative skills.

The Hugo Burge Foundation are offering a  residency opportunity in partnership with the Royal Society of Sculptors. One Royal Society of Sculptors member will be selected to participate in a month long residency based at the Tower Studio. Onsite Hobbit Pod accommodation will also be available for the artist and one other for the duration of the residency.

The 2026 residency will run from Monday 22 June until Wednesday 15 July inclusively.

The successful artist will receive a £350 per week stipend and £500 towards travel costs (receipts will need to be provided). The residency is funded by the Hugo Burge Foundation.

Applications will be assessed by:

Lucy Brown, CEO, Hugo Burge Foundation

With a background in theatre, arts, law and business development, Lucy has led the Foundation since early 2022. Her motivation is to remove perceived barriers around arts and to provide support for those of us who want to explore our creativity. Lucy has worked with arts organisations, funding bodies and businesses to expand the scale and scope of creativity in the workplace. She is the Chief Executive Officer of The Hugo Burge Foundation

Dr James Fox, Creative Director, Hugo Burge Foundation

James is an art historian, writer, curator and multi award-winning, BAFTA-nominated, broadcaster. After positions at Harvard and Yale, he is currently Director of Studies in History of Art at the University of Cambridge, where he has taught for fifteen years. He specialises in British art, modern art, the cultural history of colour, and British craft traditions. His most recent book, The World According to Colour: a Cultural History, was published by Allen Lane in 2021. He is currency writing another book called Craftland: In Search of Britain's Vanishing Trades, which explores the country's lost and endangered crafts. Convinced of art's huge social importance, James works with museums, schools, charities and the media on both sides of the Atlantic to engage broader audiences in this most life-enhancing of subjects

Applications for the 2026 Hugo Burge Foundation Residency are now open until 27 February 2026.

Applications are welcomed from all Royal Society of Sculptors members and fellows provided they have not been awarded a Society residency in the 12 months prior to the applications opening. Please note that for your application to be accepted, your annual membership fee must be paid in full by the submission deadline or an existing quarterly direct debit be in place.