Build collections Fund talent Go further Our guide for museums 2017 – 2018 Introduction 2 Curators’ Art Pass 5 Building collections 6 Acquisition grants Gifts and bequests Commissions Collecting initiatives Developing talent 14 New Collecting Awards Curators and expertise Training and networking Supporting museums 20 Art Fund Museum of the Year Art Happens Art Tickets Exhibition and touring programmes Special projects Connecting communities 30 Promoting your museum Our audience Collaboration Campaigning and advocacy 40 Public appeals Advocacy Sector research Contacts 47 Introduction 5 Art Fund helps museums and galleries in the UK to develop their collections and put them at the service of a wide range of visitors and communities. We offer grants towards acquisitions, to support curatorial practice or projects and to facilitate the lending, borrowing, display and sharing of collections. We receive no government funding: our programmes are made possible by those who buy a National Art Pass, supplemented by the generous support of many trusts, foundations, individuals and companies. We understand the financial challenges faced by museums today. As we ourselves are sustained by fundraising at many levels, we want to pass on that experience and offer a range of opportunities to others so they may unlock new sources of support, expand networks and reach broader audiences. To keep up to date with Art Fund initiatives, funding schemes, marketing opportunities and news, subscribe to our Museum Bulletin at artfund.org/bulletin. And do contact us at any time. Please see our list of contacts on page 47. Joseph Kosuth, Word Family Tree #1B, 2008, Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool. © Joseph Kosuth. ARS, NY and DACS, London 2017. Courtesy of the artist and Sprüth Magers. Art Funded £12,778 through New Collecting Awards (total cost £20,445) Curators’ Art Pass 7 123,000 members of the public already provide financial support to UK museums, through us. Meanwhile more and more curators are supporting the work of other institutions and colleagues everywhere by joining Art Fund themselves. If you’re intending to apply for an Art Fund grant for your museum, or simply want to show solidarity with your sector, please consider buying a Curators’ Art Pass. Any arts professional working in a museum or gallery can buy this pass and become an Art Fund member for just £20 (70% off our standard individual National Art Pass). Your personal membership keeps you in the loop with your contemporaries, includes a full subscription to our award-winning magazine Art Quarterly, brings discounts in hundreds of museum shops and cafés, and – should you need it – also offers free or reduced-price entry to over 320 cultural venues, plus 50% off major exhibitions. Art Fund works on the basis of mobilising communities to support the greater provision and enjoyment of art. Please make this commitment to help sustain your fellow museums, galleries and historic venues across the country. To order your Curators’ Art Pass simply log in or register via My Art Fund at artfund.org Building Acquisition grants 9 Art Fund gives grants totalling between £4m and £5m every collections year to support new acquisitions. We hope that each new acquisition will be transformative for its museum, so we ask applicants to indicate how they expect adding to their collection will change visitors’ understanding and enjoyment. But transformative doesn’t have to mean expensive. Our grants can range from less than £1,000 to more than £1m. And though we might be best known for major acquisitions, we recognise the potential impact of art of all kinds – from fine, applied and decorative art to visual and material culture from all periods in all media, including contemporary commissions. Last year alone we helped museums and galleries across the UK add nearly 250 works to their collections, awarding 75% of these grants to institutions outside London. Fully or provisionally accredited museums are eligible, as well as many other institutions with permanent collections held in trust for the public. ‘The extent to which the acquisition has raised the international profile of the museum’s ancient Egyptian collection, strengthened our scholarly reputation and added to our specialist network has somewhat surprised me. We received congratulations from Egyptologists all over the world, and have experienced a subsequent increase in interest in our collection.’ Grayson Perry, In its Familiarity Golden, 2015, Margaret Maitland, senior curator for the Ancient Mediterranean Crafts Council, Art Funded 2016 © Grayson Perry Courtesy the artist, Paragon | Contemporary Collections, National Museums Scotland Editions Ltd and Victoria Miro, London / Venice Art Funded £60,00 with a contribution from the Do you want to apply for a grant? Wolfson Foundation (total cost £95,200) Find out more at artfund.org/supporting-museums Gifts and bequests 11 The receipt of gifts and bequests of works of art is one important way in which museums can develop their collections. Encouraging this kind of private philanthropy has never been more important, and last year Art Fund helped owners and collectors place 113 works of art in 15 museums and galleries. We don’t just match-make; we can also facilitate the formal agreements and provide information on tax-efficient ways of giving art. When it comes to placing gifts and bequests the more we know about all public collections the better, so please do keep in touch with any changes to the collecting objectives or focus of your museum. ‘A key reason for creating a new gallery in Wakefield was to exhibit the exceptional Hepworth Family Gift, a group of Barbara Hepworth’s surviving working models for her bronze sculptures, which Art Fund helped make possible. Art Fund has continued to help us grow our collection during an increasingly challenging time for museums, including facilitating one of the UK’s largest bequests in recent years by collector Tim Sayer MBE. Their work is crucial in enabling public galleries and museums to build on the philanthropic imperative and foresight of previous generations.’ Simon Wallis OBE, director, The Hepworth Wakefield Miyagawa Kōzan II, Earthenware figure of two egrets, If you’d like to know more about gifts and bequests contact c1910-25, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, gifted by David and Anne Hyatt King through Art Fund, 2014 Emma Coleman in our programmes team: 020 7225 4822 Photo © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford or [email protected] Commissions 13 We’re always pleased to help museums and galleries work directly with artists. Since 2010 we’ve made grants totalling more than £1m towards supporting a range of new commissions that have each brought a permanent and original addition to a public collection. Recent commissions we’ve supported include Untitled (Stainless Steel Tree) by Anya Gallaccio for the Whitworth (2015); Gabriel Orozco’s garden for South London Gallery (2016); and Dance (All Night, London) by Melanie Manchot, commissioned by Art Night and acquired for the Arts Council Collection (2017). We’re happy to consider a variety of approaches to commissioning and acquiring. For example, DEPOT (2015) by Fiona Tan, commissioned by BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art as a temporary project, was linked to the acquisition of Tan’s Nele/Nellie (2013) for Laing Art Gallery, with Art Fund support. ‘Commissioning for a collection is always a collaboration between the artist, the museum and the producers. Art Fund always seeks to support, with its great team of experienced and well-connected staff.’ Mary Griffiths, senior curator (modern and contemporary art), Whitworth Art Gallery Anya Gallaccio, Untitled (Stainless Steel Tree) 2015, Whitworth Art Gallery, acquired with the assistance of Art Fund, 2016 © Anya Gallaccio. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2017. Photo: Janie Airey. If you are considering a commissioning project… Art Funded £35,000 (total cost £249,700) Find out more at artfund.org/supporting-museums Collecting initiatives 15 Steve McQueen, Ashes, 2002-2015, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, Courtesy Thomas Dane Gallery, Marian In recent years we’ve invested over £7m in a number of special Goodman Gallery © Steve McQueen collecting projects, focusing on material ranging from Art Funded £71,000 with a contribution medieval portraiture and Middle Eastern photography to from the Wolfson Foundation (total cost £236,447) performance art. Among these projects, the Moving Image Fund (conceived in partnership with Thomas Dane Gallery and a consortium of donors including the Sfumato Foundation and the Rothschild Foundation) addresses the challenges of collecting film and video and aims to encourage artists, gallerists and funders to work more closely with museums in bringing important new moving image work into the public domain. The Towner and Whitworth galleries were the first two venues to benefit from the Moving Image Fund, each receiving £200,000 to help develop their collections. In 2017 we expanded the fund to support two new museums, and we’re also working with Film and Video Umbrella to make four new commissions possible. ‘The Moving Image Fund has enabled us to keep our collection alive and breathing, create conversations between the past and present, acquire extraordinary works that will create new histories and new legacies, work with new artists and extend the reach, enjoyment and understanding of contemporary art to the wider public.’ Brian Cass, head of exhibitions, Towner Art Gallery Os everum et ute expla del veresequis que enimet aut If you want to extend your commitment to film and video contact icilia eos evernam enimil molupta venihitatem harciur, Robert Dingle in our programmes team: 020 7225 4871 or excearu ptaquib earcim sin. [email protected] Developing New Collecting Awards 17 Every inspiring exhibition, display or acquisition depends on talent the research, knowledge and creativity of a skilled curator. Our New Collecting Awards support the curators of the future by providing funding for ambitious, up-and-coming individuals to start new areas of collecting for their organisations.