The collaboration between online exhibition gallery space Animate Projects and the Tate Modern is providing the non-for-profit online organisation with a larger platform to showcase its work to mainstream audiences while it searches for a new funding partner.

As part of an annual one-off event, Animate Projects showed a series of its short films and animations in a special screening at the Tate Modern as a prelude to its upcoming online exhibition which goes live on December 21. The collaboration represents a deliberate shift on the part of animate to court a greater level of public exposure.

"We decided early on that we had to broaden our scope," explains Animate Projects manager Abigail Addison. "We've always wanted to try and get artists' work to as wide an audience as possible. Tate gives us an audience we wouldn't reach otherwise."

Animate Projects is a non-for-profit arts organisation seeking to develop initiatives that explore the relationship between art and animation. The films shown at the Tate were commissioned by Channel 4 and the site also has funding from Arts Council England.

For the past 18 years Animate Projects has received a steady flow of funding from Channel 4, until now: "We have to raise funds for our commissioning programme for next year. Channel 4 is going through some changes, so, for now, there's no commitment from channel 4 for another round of AnimateTV films," laments Addison.

The site has been going for nearly 20 years and offers artists a unique online space to show their work via broadcast, gallery, cinema, online and engage with an international audience.

For artist Petra Freeman Animate projects helped breathe new life into her career after taking a break to be a full-time mum.

"It's fantastic and has completely re-launched my ability to make films," enthuses Freeman. "To have something that isn't commercial as a platform to showcase my work is such a rare find."

Freeman's animation Tad's Nest is a darkly mystical fairytale exploring the memory of sensation. The work is painted on glass, layered digitally, and accompanied by the music of Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina. It featured at the Tate Modern screening and alongside other short films by other British film-makers Cordelia Swann, Sarah Wood, and Thomas Hicks.

Addison says Animate Projects is a unique resource and no other site deals with experimental animation in the same way. The site offers films, interviews and other information relating to work that shows on the site. It doesn't, however, allow comments from viewers to go up on the site in the same way video-centric creative social networking site Vimeo does.

But their new site, APEngine, is more for open debate and discussion across a broad range of independent moving image work from features on screen-based dance interviews with animators to clips from new feature films.

Addison says the organisation has a number of "ambitious projects" in the pipeline to be developed in the next year or so but for now they are working on how to secure funding from channel 4 or another broadcaster. The short films and animation featured at the Tate Modern will be in their upcoming online exhibition from December 21.