The Art Fund in 2013/14 The Art Fund in 2013/14 Annual Report 2013 2 Chairman’s welcome 3 Report of the board of trustees 6 Outstanding acquisitions – all year round 13 Collecting in new ways 16 Advocacy 20 Funding new collections 24 Gifts to museums through the Art Fund 29 Museum of the Year 32 Promoting museums 36 Art Everywhere 40 Supporting curators 44 Helping art reach more people 48 Fundraising appeals 52 Making the most of art and museums 54 Our year in numbers 56 Catalogue of acquisitions 88 Finance review 106 Our thanks 2 The Art Fund in 2013/14 3 Chairman’s welcome Report of the board of trustees In recent years there has been a marked increase in the public’s appetite for museums and galleries and all they have to offer as social spaces for reflection, pleasure and inspiration. The numbers speak for themselves: 2013 was another record year, in which 53 per cent of the adult UK population visited a museum. Against such a background, the Art Fund Our wish to help museums share their Our members tend to be committed and Our mission Our forward strategy identifies five key has made leaps forward in its mission to collections with widening audiences saw devoted museum-goers: one recent survey The Art Fund’s mission is to increase the areas of work. We will: increase access to and enjoyment of great us fund a number of tours and display showed that 53 per cent have increased public’s access to and enjoyment of art. • continue to develop an imaginative art. In 2013 we raised more money than programmes, and we put £170,000 towards their visiting since buying a National Art Pass For more than a hundred years since our programme of charitable activity that: ever before to support museums across the training and development of curators. and joining the Art Fund. That is why we foundation in 1903, we have helped UK a range of acquisition-led activity – and, We’re also raising money in a host of new have an Art Guide app, annual Art Guide, museums and galleries to buy and display – delivers clear public benefit by as part of our wish to fund our charitable ways: for example, 2013 saw the launch exhibition guide leaflets in museums all thousands of great works; we have lobbied helping museums to acquire and programme more sustainably, we paid all of our first ever crowd-funding campaign over the UK, fortnightly e-newsletters and and campaigned to save items at risk of exhibit works of art our grants to museums entirely from income for Art Everywhere – a project that led to Art Quarterly, all offering in-depth information leaving the country or being lost from – encourages the public to visit them raised during the year, without recourse to 22,000 poster billboards across the country and commentary about where to go and public view; and, most recently through the – champions and supports curators our reserves, which fund our running costs. featuring beautiful, simple reproductions of what to see. National Art Pass, we have increased public – leads debate and discussion around This is just one of the many reasons why my great works of art from UK museums. It was appreciation of art by promoting museums current art and museum issues last full year as chairman of the Art Fund has an exhilarating initiative. This will be my final Annual Report as and making it easier to visit them. been so satisfying. chairman of the Art Fund. I would like • increase the number and range of We welcomed 16,000 new members to to thank my fellow trustees and staff for Art Fund members and supporters, In 2013 we helped museums acquire the the Art Fund in 2013 – a 12 per cent net their support throughout my decade here, ensuring that our work reaches the largest number of acquisitions in any of growth of membership on the previous year, but most of all I would like to thank our widest possible audience the last ten years; membership rose above bringing in £4.8 million of membership supporters: our members, patrons and 100,000; and we did more than ever before income. This is a record high. Many of donors. It has been a privilege to chair • increase income from all sources to to enable the sharing of collections and our members make regular additional this organisation through a period of support our grant-giving individual works of art across museums. contributions, which brought in a further extraordinary change, development Above all, we encouraged more people to £470,000. Through our major donors, and growth. • strengthen understanding of the visit museums more often. including members of the Art Fund Council Art Fund’s role and identity as the and the Wolfson Foundation, a supporter David Verey CBE national fundraising charity for art We raised a total of £10.6 million and spent for over 30 years, we raised a further £1.4 Chairman £9.4 million of that on charitable activity. million. And we are hugely grateful for • improve organisational efficiency Altogether we helped fund the purchase of supporters who remember us in their wills: and governance to ensure robust 368 works of art for 74 museums, committing 2013 saw receipt of no less than £1.9 million decision-making and wise application £4.4 million towards works of art worth a from legacies. of our resources total of nearly £39 million, ranging from a 3,000-year-old Bronze Age hoard and a Thirty-six new museum partners joined the 14th-century panel by Pietro Lorenzetti to National Art Pass network last year, including works made in 2012 by artists such as Mark Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, Auckland Titchner and Alice Channer. Castle in Durham, Creswell Crags near Worksop and the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts in Norwich – all offering Art Fund members special discounts. This took the total number of museums, galleries and historic houses in our network to 688. The board of trustees meets at the Art Fund’s new home, 2 Granary David Verey, chairman Square, King’s Cross of the Art Fund London © David Levene © David Levene 4 The Art Fund in 2013/14 5 Artist Paul Emsley The press gathers at the John Atkinson standing with the National Portrait Gallery Grimshaw first painted portrait for the unveiling. View of Leeds from of HRH The Duchess Woodhouse Ridge of Cambridge, 2012, 1868, Leeds Art Gallery commissioned by the This painting returned to National Portrait Gallery, Leeds for the first time in London, and given 30 years. by Sir Hugh Leggatt in memory of Sir Denis Mahon, through the Art Fund. © Jorge Herrera January Display of two dresses Idris Khan from a collection of No. 19 from 21 Stones fashion ensembles series, 2011 1970s–90s Whitworth Art Gallery Design Museum, London Manchester Lady Ritblat pledged The Gallery bought seven her fashion collection works from the 21 Stones to the Design Museum series, created using through the Art Fund. repeatedly stamped It was amassed over statements, both personal three decades. and from the Qur’an. © Photo: Luke Hayes © Idris Khan 6 The Art Fund in 2013/14 7 Eric Ravilious Biblical, from one of two Outstanding acquisitions – scrapbook albums c. 1916–39 Fry Art Gallery all year round Saffron Walden At the heart of our charitable work is our grant-giving towards museum and Through works of art, museums help make sense of the world in which we live – from gallery acquisitions. In 2013 our funding enabled works of art spanning artefacts that are thousands of years old to thousands of years to be added to UK collections: from a 3,000-year-old objects created yesterday in response to the world about us. By acquiring material hoard of over 350 objects discovered in a field near Boughton Malherbe culture from across history, museums both in Kent – the third largest Bronze Age hoard ever to be found in Britain – illuminate our past and make imaginative leaps into the future, inspiring museum to Roger Hiorns’s Seizure, now at Yorkshire Sculpture Park as part of the visitors for years to come. Arts Council Collection. Art Fund support is often more valuable than the sum that is given. The expertise and knowledge of our board of trustees means that other funders often follow their example; an Art Fund grant is often seen as giving a vital stamp of approval to a prospective acquisition. Pietro Lorenzetti One of the most significant acquisitions we supported in 2013 was Christ Between Saints Paul and Peter, a highly important 14th-century painting in tempera by Pietro Lorenzetti bought by Hull’s Ferens Art Gallery after it was temporarily barred from export. The only fully autograph work by Lorenzetti in the UK, it was secured thanks to our early grant of £200,000 (supported by the Wolfson Pietro Lorenzetti Foundation), the Gallery’s Endowment Fund Christ Between Saints contribution of £856,000 and £758,000 from Paul and Peter the Heritage Lottery Fund. c. 1320 Ferens Art Gallery, Hull As the oldest item in the Gallery’s collection by 130 years, it has brought new context and significance to the existing display of figurative art. The National Gallery, London, conserved the painting as part of its ongoing commitment to support regional museum collections. ‘In 2013 the Wolfson Foundation directed part of our annual grant of £500,000 to the Art Fund toward the acquisition of the Lorenzetti triptych by the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull. The acquisition is an example of the Art Fund’s critical role in supporting museums of all sizes, across all regions.