Collecting

Collections are at the heart of everything museums do. The Art Fund believes that museum collections must evolve to remain dynamic, vibrant resources which inspire and engage.

The Art Fund is committed to helping museums collect by giving grants towards the purchase of works of art, by distributing gifts and bequests to museums and through our campaigning activity.

We have an active approach to encouraging and funding acquisitions. In exceptional cases we offer ‘seed money’ towards significant works of art.

For instance, we used our £500,000 grant to challenge other funders, including the National Heritage Memorial Fund, to recognise the significance of the Macclesfield Psalter and Turner's Blue Rigi by making a major contribution. 

Read more about our call for a bolder approach to collecting (April 2006)

2009 Museums and Galleries Survey

Throughout 2009 we will be undertaking a survey of museums and galleries to help us to paint a picture of the sector in the current art market – and hopefully help us to decide where the priorities of government and funding bodies should lie.
More information about the survey and how to take part

The Collecting Challenge: The Art Fund Museum Survey 2006

The Art Fund published the key findings from its UK-wide research into acquisitions. The findings reveal a crisis in funding but also a lack of will on behalf of central and local government to support collecting. The Art Fund is calling on both central and local government to recognise the importance of collecting to the work of museums.

Contemporary art

Art Fund international

The Art Fund has introduced a number of measures to promote awareness of the importance of contemporary collecting. In 2007, The Art Fund announced Art Fund International, a £5 million initiative aimed at developing the collections of international contemporary art in UK regional museums and galleries.

Art Fund International is one of the most important and ambitious schemes The Art Fund has ever launched and one which we hope will encourage a radical change in the scale and ambition of contemporary art collecting in the UK.

To read more about the winners click here

Collect

In 2007 The Art Fund announced its Art Fund Collect scheme, developed in partnership with the Crafts Council in which a shortlist of curators were able to cherry pick significant works by artists and makers of international status at Collect International Art Fair.

Read more about Art Fund Collect 2009

Art Fund Commissions

We also support contemporary collecting in other ways - in 2006 The Art Fund  commissioned a skyspace by James Turrell at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.