The Art Fund is helping Tate raise the £6million needed to save the very first sketch Sir Peter Paul Rubens's (1577-1640) made for his magnificent ceiling paintings in the Banqueting House, Whitehall.

 

The Art Fund has launched an online petition for public support to help artist Steve McQueen complete his work Queen and Country.

A number of our members have raised concerns about the future of William Morris Gallery. We are investigating the situation and have spoken to members of staff both at the Gallery and at Waltham Forest Council.

Due to sustained pressure from The Art Fund and Tate among others, the UCLH NHS Trustees have now reconsidered their decision to sell the panels by Cayley Robinson.

The Art Fund is delighted to learn that Wandsworth Museum has received a last minute reprieve thanks to a generous donation from a local philanthropist.

 

We're delighted to announce that, thanks to the extraordinary response from the public to our appeal, the National Heritage Memorial Fund (the government's fund of last resort) has agreed to underwrite the remaining money needed to a maximum of £1.95m, so Turner's Blue Rigi is guaranteed to be saved for Tate.

In 2006 Shrewsbury Borough Council announced plans to close Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery (Rowley’s House) for a period of four years.   The Art Fund expressed concern at this, fearing that access to the collection during this time would be inadequate. 

The decision, announced in the 2001 Budget, that national museums and galleries would be able to offer free admission without losing their ability to reclaim VAT was the culmination of a hard-fought Art Fund campaign. Museums and galleries which previously charged have seen a 75% increase in visitor numbers since they opened their doors for free in 2001.

Two of the greatest works in UK public collections today, Holbein’s Christina of Denmark Duchess of Milan, and Velázquez’s ‘The Rokeby Venus’  would not have been there were it not for hard-fought campaigns by The Art Fund in its earliest years.

The Art Fund has long campaigned for improved tax incentives to encourage cultural donations and individual giving to museums. Its 2005 ‘Living and Giving’ campaign, which won widespread support, succeeded in pushing the issue firmly onto the government’s agenda.

The triumphant acquisition of the Macclesfield Psalter was the culmination of an intensive campaign and public appeal launched by The Art Fund. This remarkable medieval manuscript was saved for the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge in early 2005.

In 2004 The Art Fund expressed serious concern about the patterns of public collecting in the UK. It called for a change from the cautious and reactive approach to museum and gallery collecting, and announced that it will, in exceptional cases, offer ‘seed’ money towards works of national or international importance.

In 2003 The Art Fund held a ground-breaking conference as part of its centenary celebrations. The conference - ‘Saving Art for the Nation: A Valid Approach to 21st-Century Collecting?’- brought together a range of speakers and panellists to discuss fundamental questions concerning national heritage, national identity and culture, and the future of museum collecting worldwide.

The cherished Rodin sculpture in Victoria Tower Gardens was in desperate need of repair by 1999, when The Art Fund led the campaign to undo years of inadequate maintenance as well as vandalism. The sensitive restoring of the work, in line with Rodin’s original methods, was a triumphant success and has provided a conservation model for the Royal Parks Agency.

In these ten years alone The Art Fund campaigned on a range of issues affecting the cultural life of the nation - from persuading the Treasury not to sell off its collection of silver, to leading the campaign for free entry to national museums.