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UK Gallery Partnerships Get £5m From Art Fund To Buy International Art
By Caroline Lewis
05/11/2007
Image: a red sculpture in the shape of a heart made out of translucent plastic objects
New Art Gallery Walsall, part of the winning West Midlands partnership, is currently exhibiting work by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos. © Joana Vasconcelos
The five partnerships to share the Art Fund International Prize of £5 million for collecting art from outside the UK have been announced.
Each partnership between UK museums and contemporary art organisations will receive £1 million to be used over the next five years in building collections of international contemporary art.
The successful partnerships are:
• Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives in partnership with Arnolfini
• Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, in partnership with The Common Guild
• Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art (mima) in partnership with The Drawing Centre, New York
• Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, in partnership with Photoworks, Brighton Photo Biennial and ArtSway
• West Midlands partnership: Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and New Art Gallery Walsall in partnership with Ikon
Image: photograph of the exterior of a large Georgian building with a lawn and bed of daffodils
Eastbourne's Towner Art Gallery has won in partnership with other south coast art organisations. Courtesy Towner Art Gallery and Museum
“We were stunned by the amazing response to the initiative,” said David Barrie, Director of the Art Fund, “particularly by the enthusiasm and ideas generated by the museums working in partnership with contemporary art organisations.”
“The vision and ability of the five winners was particularly impressive – now comes the exciting task of acquiring and commissioning work to make their ideas a reality. These are the spaces to watch as we begin to realise the enormous ambition of developing international contemporary art collections around the country.”
The Bristol partnership won for its proposal ‘Glass Walls: Reflections and Interactions’, which focuses on art responding to urbanisation, tradition and identity, globalisation and migration.
Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art partnership is to focus on photographic, video, audio and text-based works, while the mima partnership wants to build up a collection of drawings by artists in North and South America.
Image: photo of a large modern glass fronted building and a lawned area
mima opened in January 2007. Courtesy mima
Taking Eastbourne’s position on the south coast as a starting point, the Towner Gallery partnership will use the idea of Edges as the basis for its collecting, looking for images that reflect of physical boundaries and social frontiers.
The West Midlands partnership’s collection theme is ‘The Metropolis – reflections of modern urban life’.
The Art Fund International scheme emerged from discussions prior to the charity’s centenary exhibition and international conference in 2003. It was clear that UK museums have long failed to collect art by living non-British artists. Only 17 per cent of Art Fund grants in the last 20 years have gone towards the acquisition of contemporary art, and 83 per cent of it was for work by British artists.
The prize required museums to form partnerships with contemporary art organisations for the first time. Nearly 90 organisations, as part of 29 partnerships, entered applications for the prize, with ten invited to make full proposals.
The prize money will be allocated for specific purchases between now and 2012.
Bristol's City Museum & Art Gallery
Queen's Road, Bristol, BS8 1RL, England
Open: Open every day, 10am-5pm
Arnolfini
16 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA, England
T: 0117 917 2300
Open: Arnolfini is open seven days a week from 10am until 8pm and entrance is completely free. The cafe bar is open from 10am to 11pm except on Sundays when it closes at 10.30pm.
Closed: Please note that the galleries close at 4pm on Sat 24 and Sat 31 Dec.
Arnolfini is closed 25, 26 & 27 December
Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow
Gallery of Modern Art, Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow, G1 3AH, Strathclyde, Scotland
Open: Monday-Wednesday 10am-5pm
Thursday 10am-8pm
Friday 11am-5pm
Saturday 10am-5pm
Sunday 11am-5pm
Closed: 25th & 26th December
1st & 2nd January
mima - Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
Centre Square, Middlesbrough, TS1 2AZ, England
Open: From January 28 2007: Tues-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 12.00-16.00.
Closed: Monday
New Towner Art Gallery Eastbourne (reopening Autumn 2008)
New Location, Devonshire Park, Eastbourne, East Sussex, England
ArtSway
ArtSway, Station Road, Sway, SO41 6BA, Hampshire, England
Open: Tue-Sun 11.00-17.00
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, B3 3DH, West Midlands, England
Open: Mon-Thurs & Sat 1000-1700
Fri 1030-1700
Sun 1230-1700
Ikon Gallery
1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace, Birmingham, B1 2HS, West Midlands, England
T: 0121 248 0708
Open: Tuesday - Sunday 11am - 6pm
Closed: Closed Mondays except Bank Holidays, and during installation of exhibitions. Please call to confirm opening times
The New Art Gallery Walsall
Gallery Square, Walsall, WS2 8LG, West Midlands, England
Open: Tues-Sat 1000-1700
Sun 1100-1600
Open Bank Holidays
Closed: Closed Mondays
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