A leading British art charity has unveiled their latest award winners to help support UK curators grow and diversify their museum’s collections.
Art Fund has generously awarded £300,000 to five museums across the UK through their New Collecting Awards. The grants give curators the opportunity to 100 per cent research and purchase exhibits which will help to enrich their collections, while also exploring future exhibition directions.
The 2020 winners are National Galleries of Scotland (Edinburgh), Pitts River Museum (Oxford), Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery (Norwich), V&A (London) and the National Trust.
In the wake of Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, Pitts River Museum’s Marenka Thompson-Odlum will use the grant to collect contemporary works which highlight the colonial history of the museum’s previous collections, while also delving into new compelling storytelling methods.
While Andrew Ferrara from Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery will use the fund to build a collection of medieval East Anglia coins from 7th to 12th century. Along with Xiaoxin Li of the V&A researching and collecting contemporary Chinese studio craft, which is believed to be an area under-represented in not just China, but the wider world.
Generous donations by the Wolfston Foundation, the Ruddock Foundation for the Arts and Coral Samuel Trust make Art Fund’s New Collecting Awards possible, which has been running for the last six years. Since 2014, the generous initiative has awarded more than £1.8 million to 35 UK based curators.
Commenting, Jenny Waldman, Director of Art Fund said: “Supporting curators and their development is core to Art Fund’s charitable programme. Museums have been closed for much of this year due to the pandemic, but curators are still caring for, researching, and expanding museum collections for the benefit of audiences.
“During a year in which we all are reflecting more deeply on critical issues including equality and diversity, we are delighted to support projects broadening representation in UK collections.”
As well as the New Collecting Awards scheme, Art Fund is continuing to support the UK museum sector as this gravely challenging time. Late last year, the charity put together the Together for Museums initiative, which aims to raise £1 million to support visitor experiences reimagining their operations amid COVID 19 and beyond.
Find out how you can donate to the appeal here.
Elsewhere, Park West Gallery has unveiled a new art museum at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace.
