Sort of art foundation almost inspiring amateur (7)
I believe the answer is:
origami
'sort of art' is the definition.
'foundation almost inspiring amateur' is the wordplay.
'foundation' becomes 'origin'.
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'inspiring' is an insertion indicator.
'amateur' becomes 'am' (as in am-dram).
'origin' with its final letter taken away is 'origi'.
'origi' going around 'am' is 'ORIGAMI'.
(Other definitions for origami that I've seen before include "US record label" , "Japanese art of folding paper into decorative shapes" , "folding stuff?" , "Artistic paper folding" , "that's folding" .)