The Copland Foundation Attingham Scholarships

The Copland Foundation Attingham Scholarships

 Each year, The Attingham Trust offers three programs that explore historic residences, their collections and landscapes. These are the Attingham Summer School for the study of the English country house, Royal Collection Studies and the Attingham Study Programme. From time to time, additional courses are offered such as the London House School. For more details, please refer to The Attingham Trust website.

The Copland Foundation offers a number of valuable scholarships for Australians to attend Attingham Trust courses. These are:

 The Alex Copland Attingham Scholarship

Alex Copland attended the Attingham Summer School in 1975 and held the course in high regard. The Alex Copland Scholarship is for the Attingham Summer School. It covers the cost of the course as well as travel and some accommodation expenses. No more than one Alex Copland Scholarship may be awarded each year.


 The Nina Stanton Attingham Scholarship

Nina Stanton was the first Chairman of The Copland Foundation and an ardent supporter of The Attingham Trust. Her generous legacy provides scholarships which can apply to any of the courses offered by The Attingham Trust. Several Nina Stanton Scholarships may be offered each year. The Nina Stanton Scholarships cover course fees only.

Where the course is residential and accommodation and meals are included, these fees will be covered by a Nina Stanton Scholarship. Optional additional expenses such as a single supplement will be at the scholar's own expense.


Download Scholarship Guidelines and Application

Applications must be submitted in full (including references) by the deadline. Failure to do so will immediately disqualify a candidate. Applications should be submitted electronically to the Copland Foundation (including applications for Royal Collection Studies). If you wish to send a hard copy, please include a USB with electronic versions of all documents.

Please note the Attingham Trust requires all scholarship recipients make a small personal financial contribution to support the work of the Attingham Educational Charitable Trust.

Details of the courses for 2025 are posted on the Attingham Trust website from mid-October.

Applications for Copland Foundation Attingham Scholarships 2025 close on November 28, 2024.

Attingham Summer School

  This program was first held in 1952. The Summer School has three main purposes:

  • to examine the architectural and social history of the historic house in Britain and its gardens and landscape setting
  • to study the contents of these buildings- their paintings, sculpture, furniture, ceramics, silver, textiles and other applied arts - as well as the planning, decorative treatment and use of the interiors
  • to stimulate debate on the problems relating to the conservation and presentation of the country house and its contents

Attingham scholars usually study approximately 25 country houses - usually on specially arranged visits - accompanied by specialist staff tutors and visiting lecturers. Seminars and lectures set the country house in a broader artistic and social context, and time is given for discussion and for developing contacts, a popular and important ingredient of the course. A specialism cannot always be studied in depth, but there are excellent opportunities to broaden one’s knowledge of architecture and the decorative arts.

Royal Collection Studies

The Royal Collection Studies was established in 1996 and is an annual course organised on behalf of the Royal Collection Trust by the Attingham Trust.

Based near Windsor, with visits to both occupied and unoccupied palaces in and around London, it studies the patronage and collecting of the Kings and Queens of England from the 15th century onwards. The teaching includes lectures and tutorials, as well as visits to both the occupied and unoccupied palaces in and around London. As the School is held during a period when the Royal Family is not in residence, Windsor Castle forms a central theme. The course is primarily intended for those professionally engaged in relevant work, including curators, academics, architects, conservators and art market experts.

Attingham Study Programme

The Attingham Study Programme is a nine day course studying historic houses and their collections within a social history context in specific regions of Britain and occasionally abroad. Each year there is a completely new programme which concentrates on about twenty houses in a specified region. Comprehensive study of each property includes its architecture, the fine and decorative arts, interiors, garden design and ownership. This programme is designed for museum curators, lecturers, architects, conservationists and art market experts, as well as more general enthusiasts interested in the fine and decorative arts. While many participants have been on other Attingham courses, this is not a pre-requisite for attendance.

Applicant Guidelines

  To be eligible to receive the Copland Foundation Attingham Scholarship, an applicant must be:

  • an Australian citizen
  • resident in Australia if applying for an Alex Copland Scholarship
  • at the time of application and if selected as the recipient, employed within:
    • the field of art, including art restoration
    • the field of furniture restoration
    • a fine or decorative art public gallery
    • a historic house museum, or
    • any other museum which is significantly involved in the acquisition and conservation of fine or decorative art, or furniture
    • the field of heritage architecture

Applicants should also be aware that they are ambassadors for both the Copland Foundation and the organisation for which they work. Scholarship recipients are expected to conduct themselves accordingly.

Additional Criteria

Preference will be given to applicants who:

  • are in the middle stage of their career development, and have a proven track record of working with collections, conservation or historic houses.
  • occupy a senior position in their organaisation.
  • give something back to their organisation and/or community above and beyond the requirements of their salaried position.
  • show an ability to significantly contribute to development in the fields of heritage houses, conservation and/or fine and decorative arts within Australia.
  • are highly motivated and committed to further education, and who display confidence when addressing members of general public or a group of their peers.
  • would benefit from exposure to international institutions and professionals, and would be an active contributor to debate during the Summer School. 

Applications

  All applications for the Scholarship must be in the form as set out.

Awarding of Scholarships

The Scholarships will be awarded by the Trustees of the Copland Foundation, based on the recommendations of a pre-selection committee of Australian Attingham alumni. The decision of the Trustees will be final and conclusive, and no correspondence will be entered into. No materials submitted will be returned.

Notification of Awards

The successful recipients will be advised as soon as possible of the award.

Acknowledgement & Report

Every recipient will be required to acknowledge the assistance of the Scholarship in any reports or articles, either published or unpublished. Copies of such material (including the report sent directly to the Attingham Trust) and any publicity surrounding the Scholarship recipient must be forwarded to the Copland Foundation.  Within 3 months of the conclusion of the Attingham Summer School, a lecture (The Alex Copland Lecture) based on the activity supported by the Scholarship must be presented by the scholarship recipient and hosted by the recipient's employer. The target audience is at the discretion of the employer, however the Trustees of the Copland Foundation must be invited to attend.

Scholarship Recipients

R. Reason   

Summer School 2008

M. Martin   

Summer School 2009, Study Programme 2015 (Nina Stanton Scholarship)

C. Morris   

Summer School 2010

J. Dickens   

Summer School 2011

A. Dunsmore   

Royal Collections 2011

K. McConnel   

Summer School 2012

S. Gregg   

Royal Collection 2012

M. Scott   

Summer School 2013

J. Gare   

Summer School 2013

R. Bell   

Royal Collections 2013

S Murphy   

Summer School 2014

K. Phillips   

Summer School 2015

E. Czernis-Ryl   

Royal Collections 2015 (Nina Stanton Scholarship)

L. Zilles   

Summer School 2016

C. Fry   

Royal Collections 2016 (Nina Stanton Scholarship)

V. Mauldon

Summer School 2017

E. Czernys-Ryl

Study Programme 2017 (Nina Stanton Scholarship)

C. Payne

Summer School 2018

M. Betteridge

Royal Collections 2018 (Nina Stanton Scholarship)

R. Pinchin

Summer School 2019

A. Syme

Royal Collections 2019 (Nina Stanton Scholarship)

M. Queale

London House Course 2019 (Nina Stanton Scholarship)

S. Babister

Summer School 2022

D. Hansen

Royal Collections 2022 (Nina Stanton Scholarship)

S. Murphy

Study Programme 2022 (Nina Stanton Scholarship)

S. McCormack

Summer School 2023

A. Shiell

London House Course 2023 (Nina Stanton Scholarship)