Welcome to the website of The Zibby Garnett Travel Fellowship

Final year of the Zibby Garnett Travel Fellowship

After 25 years of providing grants totalling £222,500 to 181 students to enable them to travel to over 40 countries to develop and refine their skills in the conservation of numerous different art forms, the Trustees of the Zibby Garnett Travel Fellowship have taken the difficult decision to make 2025 the last year in which grants will be awarded.

The Fellowship was set up by David Garnett in 2000 in memory of his wife Zibby, who died prematurely in 1999. For some years before she died Zibby had administered the Historic Decorative Crafts course at the Lincolnshire College of Art and Design (which later became part of Lincoln University) and had noted the great benefit gained by students studying abroad. David built the Zibby Garnett Travelling Fellowship on this foundation until his death in 2021 and the Trustees have continued this work.

For 25 years the Fellowship has been making grants to students at UK universities, craft apprentices and young professionals to help finance travel abroad for practical study and research relating to historic and decorative crafts, architectural conservation, historic landscapes and gardens, traditional building skills, sculpture and similar activities. Students prepare a written presentation after their trip and most also make an oral presentation to the Trustees and donors.

For the past year the Trustees have been exploring options to enable the Fellowship to meet its charitable objectives in these changing and increasingly challenging times with the resources available, while complying with the administrative and legal requirements of running a small charity. Options explored included merging with other charitable organisations with similar objectives or taking the difficult decision to close the charity.

After extensive discussion the Trustees have decided to close the Fellowship. They are confident that the void left by the closure will be filled by other charities which support the training of our emerging professionals and that future students will continue to enjoy the ‘life changing experience’ of foreign training programmes that Zibby conceived and the Fellowship has enabled.

Paul Tear, Chairman of the Trustees