The Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Grants Programme
The Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Grants programme has been created to help curators working with fine and applied art collections maintain and develop their specialist knowledge and expertise. It has been established through the auspices of Jonathan Ruffer and Anthony Mould, who share with the Art Fund a belief in the importance of nurturing curatorial skills and supporting serious research. The Art Fund will award grants totaling £50,000 annually through this scheme.
Through consulting our colleagues across the sector we have learned that one of the main barriers to curatorial development is a lack of funding for travel and research. Curators therefore have fewer opportunities to deepen their understanding and engagement with the collections in their care, or to develop expertise.
While this programme aims to help sustain curatorial development and collections-based research, it is not intended to replace statutory funding. We hope it will demonstrate the importance and benefits of continued investment in curatorial expertise, and stimulate the provision of funding from other sources.
- Aims
- Eligibility
- What we will support
- Exclusions
- Size of grant
- Terms and Restrictions
- Application form
- Successful applications
Aims
Grants awarded through this programme aim to help sustain and promote curatorial development and collections-based research through making grants to individuals. In all our grant-making, the Art Fund is committed to delivering public benefit, and we achieve this through supporting the development of museum collections so they are well presented and readily available for the public to appreciate and enjoy. Applicants will therefore also be expected to make a case for how our funding will help further this aim. However, we accept that research can and should be exploratory and creative. We therefore welcome adventurous applications, and will not always expect material outcomes (for example in the form of acquisitions, exhibitions or publications) to be an immediate consequence of our support.
Eligibility
The programme is open to curators who work across the full range of fine and applied art collections in museums and galleries that hold at least provisional accreditation and are open to the public. In addition, in recognition of the need for new skills, knowledge and research to benefit museum collections for the future, these grants are also available to researchers, art historians and academics from other relevant and related disciplines, retired curators, and other museum professionals who plan to work within and alongside museums to improve the use and understanding of their fine and applied art collections.
What we will support
Applications from individual UK curators, scholars and researchers to undertake travel or other activities to extend and develop their curatorial expertise, art historical interests, and collections-based knowledge.
Applications may include requests to support:
- Travel and accommodation
- Training courses/programmes of study
- Books and subscriptions to add to a museum’s research resources or library
- Translation, transcription and other similar services
- Temporary administrative cover to enable time away from work to undertake research (including training costs to enable another member of the team to provide adequate cover during time away)
We are willing to consider funding other kinds of activity, provided the applicant can make a substantive case for its contribution to the furtherance of curatorial skill and collections-based research projects. Applicants can also request support towards additional research activities to augment existing museum projects or research proposals.
Exclusions
We will not normally consider funding:
- Equipment – eg computers or related hardware, or cameras
- Photographic costs
- Reproduction/copyright costs
- First-class travel
- Research projects being undertaken by undergraduate or postgraduate university students.
Size of grant
The Art Fund will consider funding requests for a minimum of £200. There are two categories of grant: one up to £2000; the other above £2000.
We wish to see our support have an immediate impact and are happy to consider requests for 100% funding. Applicants will be required to ensure the travel/activities proposed are realistic and represent the best value for money.
If completion of the research project or other activity proposed is contingent on receiving other sources of funding then applicants will be required to indicate where else they are applying for support, the expected outcome (if known) and timescale for the decision.
Grants of £200 - £2,000
A total of £20,000 will be available annually for grants at this level. Without wishing to be proscriptive, we would anticipate applications at this level being, in the main, small and discrete grants for travel (e.g. for research projects or visits to galleries/exhibitions/artists’ studios/art fairs), professional training courses, or research expenses such as translation services etc.
There are no fixed deadlines for applications of £200 - £2000. Applicants must allow at least one month between the submission of the application and the intended start-date for the activity. If the application includes funding for travel, applicants must allow sufficient time to book tickets that represent the best value for money.
Grants of £2,001 and above
A total of £30,000 will be available annually; approximately £10,000 will be available in three rounds. This will naturally limit the scope of proposals, but the Art Fund hopes that applicants will nonetheless be creative and ambitious, and bold with regard to the amount of funding they request if they feel their ideas warrant significant investment. Applicants should therefore expect each funding round to be competitive.
At this level we would expect to see applications for a programme of research or a coherent series of activities. We would also anticipate some requests for temporary replacement staff cover.
There are 3 deadlines per year for applications of £2,001 and above. These deadlines correspond to the meetings of the committee. Please telephone the Programmes office at the Art Fund for these deadlines.
Terms and Restrictions
- The Art Fund will accept a maximum of two applications per individual per year for any size of grant.
- Applicants will need to have a letter of support from the Director (or equivalent) of the museum by which they are employed or within which they wish to undertake the research project. Applications cannot be considered without this letter.
- Applications are administered by the Art Fund. Decisions on applications are made by members of a committee convened by the Art Fund and chaired by Anthony Mould. Its decisions are final.
- The committee may choose to award a smaller grant than requested, towards specific elements of the application only.
- Grants can be made in a single payment or to an agreed schedule, and will be paid to the museum bank account. Grant recipients must be able to prove costs through submitting receipts.
- 90% of the grant can be paid upfront following the submission of an invoice by the recipient’s employer/institution. 10% of the agreed grant will be withheld until the grant recipient submits final receipts.
- Recipients will be expected to submit a short report (including images) with their final receipts that assesses the funded activities with regards to the development of the individual’s curatorial expertise and the actual or potential benefit to museum collections.
Application Form
Applications are open for this programme.
For more information or to discuss an application please contact Sarah Philp, Head of Programmes, on 020 7225 4803 or at sphilp@artfund.org
Successful applications include:
- £500 to Derby Museum to support travel costs to research 17th and 18th century cabinets of curiosity
- £1,500 to the Whitworth and Manchester Art Gallery to support a research trip to Nigeria and Cameroon ahead of a major exhibition of contemporary West African art in 2012
