At Art Fund we believe in access to art for all.
As a charity supporting museums, galleries and historic houses across the UK we know that we can make a real difference through the funding we offer and the partnerships we develop with museums. We want to help them make their collections relevant and accessible to all and continue the work they are doing to diversify their audiences and workforce.
Recently, among other projects, we have been proud to help Hackney Council honour the Hackney Windrush Generation with two new permanent sculptures for the area by Veronica Ryan and Thomas J Price, and to support the commission of new work by Black women and non-binary artists for Coventry Biennial.
We have provided funding for the newly founded Queer Heritage and Collections Network to recruit a project manager and develop their research, and for the charity Outside In to develop their activities with artists who face significant barriers to the art world due to health, disability, social circumstance or isolation. And our new ‘Reimagine’ grants are supporting a number of progressive projects, from the Contemporary Visual Arts Network for England (CVAN)’s efforts to address issues of inequality and decarbonisation in the sector, to Turner Prize-nominated collective Project Art Works’ work offering creative pathways for neurodivergent artists.
Our Headley Fellowships for curators are enabling research into many urgent issues for museums including the legacies of colonialism and empire, while our New Collecting Awards are helping curators to address gaps in their collections, including underrepresented subjects, histories and peoples. Meanwhile, a great many of the schemes we support, such as the Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund, help to bring art closer to local communities across the country through the sharing and touring of objects and works of art from national collections.
We know, however, that there is much work still to do, and that this process should be continuous, evolving and conducted in close collaboration with museums and the communities they serve.
Through the National Art Pass, we are already helping more people to experience more art, more often – but we want to take this further and are currently evolving inclusive approaches to growing our membership, from our Student Art Pass and Teacher Art Pass programmes to developing more flexible memberships for families.
We’re also committed to building our team and trustees from the broad range of backgrounds and experiences across the UK and are working hard to be an inclusive recruiter and employer, valuing difference and diversity, and building a workplace based on shared values of equality and mutual respect.
As an organisation we’re realistic about the work that lies ahead, and we are looking to learn from every conversation we have. This is reflected in our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) action plan, which will guide our work in the coming years. We will be holding ourselves to account and putting our principles into action, as we all work together to help bring about positive change and a fairer future for everyone.
