Bursary Awardees

A key aim of the Foundation is to encourage innovation and invention in

the spirit of Tommy's work, awarding small bursaries to industrial designers,

engineers, scientists and creative practitioners across the arts, to promote

experimentation and investigations into processes inspired by the mid-20th

century pioneering work of Tommy Flowers and his Post Office Research

Team that continues to impact our lives today.

Will Creswick_Bursary Awardee 1

In 2021, emerging Newcastle-upon-Tyne film-maker Will Creswick was supported by TFF to explore multi-screen editing and integration of Super 8 stock in his work, to meld with digital image capture. Will has gone on to enjoy great success in the music and fashion industries, with an increasingly prolific output, exploring lens-based innovation https://wilcre.co.uk/

Fyto Hydroponics_Bursary Awardee 2

This start-up working out of Hoult’s Yard, Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 2022, impressed us with their laboratory set up and dedication to making hydroponically-grown plant technology available to a wider public. Now partnering with Newcastle University, Fyto has attracted greater support from the Arrow programme https://www.ncl.ac.uk/business-and-partnerships/case-studies/fyto/

Working Glass_Bursary Awardee 3

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets Innovation programme and the Greater London Authority Make London initiative, along with the support of many local residents and groups, facilitated the construction of not only a mobile glassblowing studio but fostered the formation of Working Glass, a group of artists delivering creative learning in the London Borough of Havering: https://www.instagram.com/workinglass/

Oliver Beard_Bursary Awardee 4

Sound engineer Oliver Beard is collaborating with TFF to create a sonic work that explores the pioneering inventions of the Post Office Research Team, that were led by Tommy Flowers and Harry Fensom, who introduced noise-cancelling headphones. Blending the sounds of restoration aboard SS Robin with percussive tests around this 135 year old ship is producing a soundscape to be installed there in 2026: https://www.instagram.com/osbeardsound/

Anna Wolf_Bursary Awardee 5

TFF arranged access to a vast pontoon for multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter Anna Wolf, to create new compositions and interpretations for a public performance inside this vast vessel in June 2025, that was incredibly well received. Anna is now preparing for an immersive installation that is scheduled for the pontoon in Spring 2026: https://www.instagram.com/realannawolf/

Lens Lab Leeds_Bursary Awardee 6

Committed to impactful community engagement across West Yorkshire, the Lens Lab Project attracted TFF with their proven success in nurturing young emerging talent, our bursary allowing more research into traditional photographic process that offer immersive methods through experimental processes, offering more satisfaction that digital imaging: https://lenslabproject.org/

Jack M. Campbell_Bursary Awardee 7

Introduced to TFF by Harry Fensom's family, 22 year old composer and musician Jack M.Campbell has recently written and extensively performed a piece inspired by Alan Turing's Bombe, He is now working on a score responding to Colossus built by Tommy Flowers to greatly expedite the reading of Lorenz traffic, after the code was cracked by mathematician Bill Tutte, who after the war went on to teach at two universities in Canada, Jack's home country.

Untold Stories

Elyssa Sykes Smith / Studio Futurall / Zabou & Jimmy C / Annette Fernando / Frank Creber.

Residencies made possible by the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm for seven creative practitioners: / Annette Fernando (Sri Lanka) / Elyssa Sykes Smith (Australia) / & Frank Creber (UK) / / Jimmy C (Australia) & Zabou (France) / Studio Futurall (Netherlands/UK partnership) These residences produced a wide range of work encapsulated in out first publication Unearthing Poplar a scheme that ran for 18 months until November 2023. Two further grants from Power To Change and the National Lottery Heritage Fund have expanded our reach towards a national ambition with connections to overseas, aiming to create reciprocal projects in other countries.

Support from the Greater London Authority's Untold Stories programme allowed us to facilitate a wide range of creative practitioners to work out of a long-empty post office on Aberfeldy high street in Poplar, east London. Located on the very next street to where Tommy Flowers was born - and later went onto lead the Post Office Research Team - Making Space became a site responsive development hub for more artists, architects, engineers, film-makers, performers and social scientists from Canada, China, Denmark, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Lebanon, Nigeria, Scotland, the USA and Venezuela, building relationships with Brighton University, London College of Fashion, New City College Poplar, Roskilde University, and The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park.

THE TOMMY FLOWERS FOUNDATION

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