The Foyle Foundation has announced a new £18m fund for legacy projects of long-term benefit, national importance and strategic value.

The foundation, which was created in 2000 to implement the will of the late Christina Foyle, will close at the end of this year having distributed more than £180m to over 7,000 charities and schools in the UK.

Twelve projects have been awarded legacy grants totalling £15.4m, with two further projects set to be announced later this year.

The British Library receives £1m towards the transformation of its West Yorkshire site in Boston Spa, Leeds. The legacy grant will support the creation of a new learning centre and viewing gallery at the art storage facility.

In London, the National Gallery receives £2m to support its bicentenary programme. NG200, which launched last May, comprises of a year-long festival of art and a suite of building projects.

Across the city, the V&A East Storehouse receives £2m for the creation of the Foyle Creative Centre – two creative studios and two workshop spaces. The purpose-built public space and working store situated in a section of the former London 2012 Olympics Media Centre in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park opens on 31 May.

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The Foyle Foundation has also granted £798,000 to the Art Fund to support Mini Wonders, its early years programme for the museum sector.

Eight lead museums are currently involved in the programme, and the funding will help provide creative resources, information and guidance to enable teachers to access their local museum and embed museum learning in their teaching.

“In addition to an increased budget for our normal grant giving programmes in our final year of operation, the foundation wished to make a range of strategic grants across the country which would be of national and regional importance and of long-term benefit to sector leaders,” David Hall, chief executive of the Foyle Foundation, said.

“This would ensure an enduring legacy for the Foyle Foundation and make a long-lasting positive impact on the lives of young people and others and show imaginative ways to encourage philanthropy for those who have the ambition to support the arts and learning.”

The other recipients of legacy funding are:

  • The Poetry Society (£500,000) to support the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award for the next 10 years.
  • Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (£2m) for the redevelopment of the Cardiff Old Library as a new centre for arts and education.
  • Sadler’s Wells Trust (£1.1m) to support and provide long-term seed funding for new choreography, new commissions and adventurous creative projects. 
  • Ulster Orchestra (£1m) for the creation of permanent home for Ulster Orchestra in Belfast on the peace line.
  • Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society (£1m) towards the development of its first physical home in the Southbridge Community Resource Centre, former Schoolhouse on Infirmary Street in Edinburgh’s Old Town.
  • National Theatre (£1.5m) towards its £125m fundraising campaign Stories Start Here.
  • The Glasshouse International Centre for Music Gateshead (£2m) towards its 20th anniversary year plans.
  • Britten Pears Arts at Snape Maltings (£500,000) to support building renovations to improve energy efficiency and sustainability.