Falmouth Art Gallery has secured more than £17,000 in grant funding, which will be spent on new and innovative projects.

The largest of the awards, £9,750, has come from the Arts Council and will be used to stage an innovative new exhibition and community education programme later this year.

The gallery is working with Andrew Lanyon and a collective of local artists on the project, entitled The Only Non-Slip Dodo Mat in the World, which will be launched on November 30.

The exhibition will ponder upon one question: “how does a person access their inventiveness?” Andrew Lanyon has set up unique artist “making days” where he has worked with Michael Chaikin, Paul Chaney, Peter Fox, Fi Henshall, Chris James, Sam Lanyon, Keith Newstead, Will Schofield, Paul Spooner and Carlos Zapata to explore the question.

The solutions the group have created represented the fruit of five years of observation of people’s inventiveness in different areas, from book making, tune finding, moving model making, painting and writing to acting and dance.

The exhibition will be made up of a quirky mix of sculpture, automata, installations, paintings, drawings and photography. Running alongside the exhibition will be a community education programme which will include a series of artist-led workshops and talks as well as workshops and events orchestrated by the gallery’s own award-winning education team.

A further grant of £7,000 has come from Arts Council England Renaissance Strategic Funds thanks to the gallery’s membership of a consortium of Cornish galleries and museums, For Cornwall.

Louise Connell, director of Falmouth Art Gallery, said: “Regionally, we do not benefit from very much funding, but by teaming up as a consortium we meet all their criteria and can share expertise.”

The gallery is using £5,000 of this grant to launch its own supporters’ scheme which it hopes to go live with at Easter.

“People will pay an annual fee and get discounts in the shop, special offers, behind the scenes tours and exclusive talks,” said Ms Connell. “People often tell us they want to join our friends group, but we haven’t had one until now. We want something light and fun so are going down the supporters’ scheme route.”

The other £2,000 has paid for new energy efficient lighting in the shop area which casts more light on the till area and the merchandise.

A final grant of £470 was awarded by Cornwall Council to buy two new dehumidifiers which have been placed in the council chamber in the hope of creating the perfect conditions to be able to hang Thomas Gainsborough’s portrait of Isaac Donnithorne and the new portrait of mayor, Geoffrey Evans.