Making Connections
Your donation will help museums to engage more visitors in 2024
Museums across the UK are doing brilliant work to connect with their communities: opening up their collections, bringing in more voices, and sharing more stories.
But with visitor numbers still below pre-pandemic levels, they need to be able to share their activities more widely. That’s why we want to commit £1.2 million in 2024 to funding museum projects that reach more people.
Help us fund more projects that bring people together
With our help, Chiswick House & Gardens were able to show ‘The Heart of Design’, an exhibition curated by local arts organisation Art Jar, featuring new artworks by local artists and community groups.
Part of Chiswick House’s wider ‘Black Chiswick through History’ project, the exhibition saw artists explore how design within the historic house and gardens has been inspired by the exchange of ideas, art and traditions from across the globe.
By encouraging collaboration between artists and local people, the project aims to encourage more visitors from across the borough to feel a sense of ownership of the space.
Empowering community groups through creativity is at the root of our practice. It has been a pleasure to work with local artists and Hounslow groups to showcase the talent of the Borough and fascinating to see how participants have responded to the theme
Help us fund more exhibitions that inspire local communities
Thanks to Art Fund members, we gave a grant to support the UK tour of Sonia Boyce’s Venice Biennale exhibition Feeling Her Way – giving visitors to Turner Contemporary in Margate and Leeds Art Gallery the chance to experience this unique, immersive installation, which celebrates the work of five great musicians.
The opening weekend at Turner Contemporary received 26% more visitors than any exhibition opening at the gallery since 2017, and over 98,000 people visited over the course of the show.
This stunning exhibition has really connected with our local communities. Leeds has got a great music scene, and Feeling Her Way is all about celebrating the Black British female voice
Help museums find new ways to connect
In 2023 our funding helped Ffotogallery in Cardiff to launch their project ‘Interventions: Gallery Reset’, which invites Wales-based artists to ‘take over’ the gallery space.
The first artist to take over the gallery was Swansea-based photographer Jack Moyse, who won an open call run by Ffotogallery in partnership with Disability Arts Cymru. Moyse’s exhibition featured works from his project You and I, which questions ableist attitudes, as well as a programme of events and performance pieces to further connect with visitors.
The Reimagine grant has opened up some incredibly exciting opportunities for us… and offers the potential to really experiment and challenge traditional concepts around photography within the gallery space. We are extremely grateful to Art Fund.
Can you help us make more projects like these a reality?
With visitor numbers across the UK still 20% lower than in 2019, museums are turning to us for support to connect with new audiences.
This is vital for their future.
With your support, we can fund the next wave of grants that will help museums to share their collections more widely, build lasting connections with their communities, and inspire more visitors in 2024 and beyond.
Will you give today?
Any donation, large or small, will go towards helping as many museums as possible. Thank you.
This campaign is run by Art Fund
We are a charity dedicated to helping museums and galleries across the UK.
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