Five UK museums win share of £75,000 prize for contemporary craft
15th May 2009
Independent charity The Art Fund and the Crafts Council today announced the winners of Art Fund Collect, a £75,000 award for curators to acquire a piece of contemporary craft for their museum or gallery.
Art Fund Collect took place yesterday, 14 May, the preview day of the Crafts Council’s international fair Collect, held at London’s Saatchi Gallery.
The winners are: Aberdeen Art Gallery; Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales; Bilston Craft Gallery, Wolverhampton; mima, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art and the V&A.
Aberdeen Art Gallery selected Neckpiece, 2009 by Umbria-based British jeweller Jacqueline Ryan for £26,550. Made from 18-carat gold, enamel and garnet, the piece displays the artist’s interest in natural formations.
Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales selected Red Stripe, 2008 by British glassmaker Rachael Woodman for £6,500. Dramatic in its use of colour, the work consists of eight glass tubes on a slate base.
Bilston Craft Gallery selected Propagation Project; Lichen Petals, 2009 by Japanese designer Junko Mori for £8,500. This highly dramatic, naturalistic work imitates the formation of lichen and is made from hand-forged steel.
mima, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
selected Bracelet, 1999 by Italian goldsmith Giovanni Corvaja for £29,000. The piece is made from 18 carat gold and 22 carat gold wire and juxtaposes intricate detail with bold geometric shapes.The V&A
selected Free Essence-6, 2009 by Japanese glassmaker Niyoko Ikuta for £5,700. This twisted, spiralling object consists of thin sheets of plate glass layered to trap the light.In a nail-biting race around Collect, ten shortlisted curators from around the UK had just one hour to select a new object for their museum or gallery.
An expert panel then selected the winning curators, awarding them a share of £75,000 to acquire their object outright. mima wins for the second time this year.
Andrew Macdonald, Deputy Director of The Art Fund, said: "These five museums have each come away with a beautiful and inspiring object representing the very best in contemporary craft. Art Fund Collect is proving to be a wonderful way for curators to be bold and select outstanding works ahead of private buyers, for the public to enjoy."
Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director, Crafts Council, said: "I extend my congratulations to the winning museums and galleries. The Crafts Council aims to make the UK the best place to make, see and collect contemporary craft, and Art Fund Collect is central to achieving all these objectives, supporting makers, public collections and opportunities for visitors to see the very best craft."
Now in its second year, Art Fund Collect was set up in 2008 by The Art Fund, the UK’s leading independent art charity and the Crafts Council, the national development agency for contemporary craft, to encourage museums and galleries around the country to acquire the best in international contemporary craft. Due to the success of last year’s Art Fund Collect, The Art Fund increased the prize from £50,000 to £75,000 this year.
A total of 23 applications were received for Art Fund Collect in February 2009. The
final shortlist of ten was announced in April.Now in its sixth year, Collect takes place from 15 – 17 May 2009 at the Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York's HQ, King's Road, London, SW3 4SQ.
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For more information or images contact Marina Bradbury,
Notes to editors:
The Art Fund:
The Art Fund is the UK’s leading independent art charity. It offers grants to help UK museums and galleries enrich their collections; campaigns on behalf of museums and their visitors; and promotes the enjoyment of art. It is entirely funded from public donations and has 80,000 members. Since 1903 the charity has helped museums and galleries all over the UK secure 860,000 works of art for their collections. Recent achievements include: helping secure Titian’s Diana and Actaeon for the National Galleries of Scotland and the National Gallery, London in February 2009 with a grant of £1 million; helping secure Anthony d’Offay’s collection, ARTIST ROOMS, for Tate and National Galleries of Scotland in February 2008 with a grant of £1million; and running the ‘Buy a Brushstroke’ public appeal which raised over £550,000 to keep Turner’s Blue Rigi watercolour in the UK. For more information contact the Press Office on 020 7225 4888 or visit www.artfund.org.
The Art Fund is a Registered Charity No. 209174
Crafts Council:
The Crafts Council is the national development agency for contemporary crafts.
The Crafts Council aims to position the UK as the best place in the world for making, seeing and collecting contemporary craft.
For further information about the Crafts Council visit www.craftscouncil.org.uk
The Crafts Council is supported by Arts Council England. Arts Council England works to get great art to everyone by championing, developing and investing in artistic experiences that enrich people's lives. As the national development agency for the arts, we support a range of artistic activities from theatre to music, literature to dance, photography to digital art, and carnival to crafts. Great art inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves, and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2008 and 2011, we will invest £1.3 billion of public money from government and a further £0.3 billion from the National Lottery to create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country.
