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The Guardian
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Art Fund to launch £5m project for UK museums to share their collections
A £5m project in which 20 museums will share their collections and expertise with each other could revolutionise the touring model in the UK. Going Places has been developed by Art Fund, the charity that secures art for public collections while providing financial support for museums, and will will involve local people when the nationwide project launches in May 2026. Billed as 'the UK's largest ever collaborative touring project', several institutions will work together on themed exhibitions, while 'pooling resources, sharing expertise and working together'. Museums that wanted to take part met up and underwent a 'matchmaking' process where they identified themes that interested them before splitting into groups. Museums Worcestershire, OnFife and Penlee House Gallery and Museum in Penzance will collaborate on exhibitions ingfocus on the female artists within their collections. Aberdeenshire Council, Armagh city, Banbridge and Craigavon borough council and the Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool take on the theme of 'journeys', encompassing 'migration and exile to the milestones, traditions and celebrations'. Blackwell Arts & Crafts House, Dovecot Studios, Tŷ Pawb and William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, east London, reconsider the arts and crafts movement as 'a starting point to consider the politics, social values, and new possibilities emerging around contemporary forms of manufacturing'. Art Fund's chief executive, Jenny Waldman, said the project was a way for museums to reduce costs at a time when many are facing funding squeezes. Waldman said: 'Our museum directors surveys told us 63% of museums want to work with other museums on ambitious shows because they bring in new audiences but they are expensive.' An exhibition at the Bowes Museum in County Durham. Photograph: Bowes Museum 'People can see the extraordinary collections we've got across the UK, museums can reach new audience and it is done in a sustainable way.' Local communities will also have the chance to collaborate with curators and decide what will be included in exhibitions. Waldman said the scheme was similar to the highly praised initiative by the Manchester Museum when it involved the local south Asian community in giving input into its £15m galleries that opened in 2023. Waldman said: 'The Manchester Museum showed that if the items and stories are interesting to the communities who are making the exhibition then its likely they will be interesting to other people too.' skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to The Guide Get our weekly pop culture email, free in your inbox every Friday Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion Going Places is funded by grants, with £2.86m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and £1.5m from the Julia Rausing Trust, the philanthropic organisation. Simon Fourmy, director of the Julia Rausing Trust, said the project represented an 'innovative collaborative approach in the creation of touring exhibitions', while National Lottery Heritage Fund chief executive, Eilish McGuinness, said Going Places allowed museums to 'share diverse and much-loved collections in a unique and dynamic way'. Last week the shortlist for the Art Fund museum of the year 2025 prize was revealed. It featured museums from all four nations of the UK, including Beamish in County Durham, Chapter in Cardiff, Compton Verney in Warwickshire, the Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast and Perth Museum, home of the Stone of Destiny, in Scotland. A prize of £120,000 goes to the winner and an additional £15,000 is awarded to each of the finalists. Last year's winner was the Young V&A in Bethnal Green, east London.
Hindustan Times
05-05-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Neville Tuli's back, and he wants to teach us about India's heritage
Back in 2006, at a modern and contemporary Indian art sale by Sotheby's auction house in London, a bidding war over a work by Francis Newton Souza drove up the Goan modernist's work to over 600,000 pounds ($1.1 million). The underbidder who lost out was Neville Tuli, whose paddle became a topic of conversation in subsequent news articles. An auctioneer himself, he went on to bring home five miniatures, a work by a mid-19th century Belgian painter, as well as a Ram Kumar and an untitled Akbar Padamsee. His morning's expenditure was a handsome 663,000 pounds ($1.25 million), The Art Newspaper reported. Tuli, now in his 60s, has been a contentious figure in the Indian art scene ever since he set up The Tuli Foundation for Holistic Education & Art (HEART) in 1995. In 2000, he started Osian's Connoisseurs of Art Private Limited (OCA) in Mumbai. His aim, he once told a journalist, was to create 'the greatest arts and culture institution in the world'. He authored a book on Contemporary Indian art, held large exhibitions of not only art but also film memorabilia, with society's who's who in attendance, and conducted auctions. He also collected widely, from Hollywood memorabilia to Japanese Samurai masks and modern Indian artists as well as contemporary Indian art. Over the course of the following decade, he established an archiving, research and documentation centre, a wealth management service, an art authentication and valuation service, a film festival, an art journal, and even sponsored a team in Durand Cup Football. In 2006, OCA launched Osian's Art Fund that was, at one time, valued at ₹100 crore. However, by 2013, Tuli had lost much of the goodwill, art and money he had accumulated in the past decade. There were several reasons for this. The Art Fund crashed during the global recession of 2008 and forced Tuli to contend with a liquidity crisis and an angry crowd of influential stakeholders and litigious investors; he faced criticism for scaling up his organisation too fast, and for driving up the price of modern and contemporary art indiscriminately. In 2013, the Securities Exchange Board of India ordered the Art Fund to be closed. A few years later, prominent scholars and gallerists questioned the provenance of some of the works of an Osian's auction in New Delhi. Tuli denied all charges of inauthenticity at the time. But by then, he had sold his home in Mumbai and moved to Delhi and relative obscurity. 'I needed space with gardens and animals. I realized that I was totally ignorant of the Internet. At one point of time, I was totally against an artwork becoming a thumbnail. I thought it was a desecration of the aesthetics of the art object,' Tuli said. That is no longer the case. On April 30, he launched part of what he claims is 'the world's single largest knowledge base on the last 250 years of India'. The website named after his new organisation registered in 2023 — Tuli Research Institute of India Studies (TRIS)— carries information about different aspects of Indian art, culture and heritage, divided across 16 research categories 'to create the first framework for India Studies,' Tuli said. Comprising hundreds of visuals, the site allows viewers to structure their exploration through modules that have been created along the lines of an academic syllabus. The topics on offer right now are eclectic — The Sensual Discipline within Creativity, The Changing Smile of Childhood and its Second Coming, Uncertainty — as are the references within each subject. For instance, the Economics of Art and Cultural Industry, makes connections across fields from mid-century Hindi cinema to colonial painters. The master-lists of these references have been built over 30 years, Tuli said. 'I came back to India with one objective and only one objective. How to change what I thought was a deeply mediocre, totally unjust educational framework that did not give access to everyone or generate any joy or possess the quality which great learning and knowledge gives,' said Tuli. Such encyclopediac ventures, at least on Indian art and cultural heritage, are far and few in between. MAP, a private museum in Bengaluru, runs the MAP Academy which offers a digital resource on the history of art in south Asia. Run by Abhishek Poddar, the resource was launched in 2022. Sahapedia, another venture started in 2011, remains an open resource on Indian and South Asian cultural histories. For someone who was once critiqued for the lack of transparency in his dealings — at one point, the price of artworks that the OCA Art Fund tracked, were based on an Art Index created and managed by OCA and a financial daily — the agenda driving Tuli's latest venture has more connection to his past than he might care to admit. In 2011, long after the market crash, an Indian Express article quoted Tuli saying that he was only interested to work on the digitisation of a knowledge base of Indian art. His firm had also purchased land in central Mumbai, where the single-screen theatre Minerva, stood, with the aim of building a museum and exhibition space. He called it Osianama, and started a website as a precursor. However, the land went to IDBI bank towards repayment of Osian's debt. The TRIS website seems to be the culmination of this effort to build a repository of knowledge. And true to style, Tuli promises it will expand as he adds other subjects.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Allied Arts Council unites local arts organizations for collaborative fundraiser
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — Leaders at local arts organizations are uniting under one banner to support their programs and activities. The Allied Arts Council announced a collaborative fundraiser with six other arts organizations this week to support musical and theater experiences. The Arts Fund is a grant local arts organization can apply for, and the fundraiser will help supplement what they receive. We try to raise the funds in order to help support financially those agencies that are funded through the Arts Fund Grant," Executive Director Jessica Agnew said. Creative Arts Productions, Performing Arts Association, Robidoux Resident Theatre, Saint Joseph Symphony, St. Joseph Community Chorus and the St. Joseph Youth Chorale are involved in the fundraiser. "We couldn't survive without it, to be quite honest with you," Nancy Schmidt-Brunson, Managing Director of the St. Joseph Symphony, said. "And it's not just the Arts Fund and the money that they give us in the way of grants every year. It also is the Allied Arts Council itself and the support that it gives to all of the independent agencies that are a part of it." Schmidt-Brunson is the only full-time employee at the St. Joseph Symphony, with two employees working part-time. "Because I have the resources of the Allied Arts Council, they can fill in the gaps for me," she said. Money gained from the Art Fund can make up 10-35% of a budget depending on the organization. Agnew compared the efforts of art organization volunteers spreading awareness of the fund to members of a symphony. "You have a cast of actors coming together to put the show together for patrons," she said. "That's exactly what it feels like for the Arts Fund and for being able to work together with the Allied Arts Council to be able to collectively be one voice together. Anyone interested in learning more about the programs or donating can visit
Daily Record
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Perth Museum in the running for prestigious prize
City centre visitor attraction is on shortlist for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2025. Perth's landmark museum - home of the Stone of Destiny – is once again in the running one of the most prestigious cultural prizes. It is one of five finalists for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2025, which is the world's largest museum prize. The popular visitor attraction, which opened at the end of March 2024, welcomed over 250,000 visitors in its first year - smashing its visitor target of 167,000 by 50 per cent. Since opening the £27m museum has received a clutch of awards and has been nominated for three Museum + Heritage Awards. Culture Perth and Kinross chief executive Helen Smout said: 'We are thrilled to be in the running as Art Fund Museum of the Year 2025, and honoured to be the only Scottish museum on the shortlist. 'This nomination belongs to the people of Perth and Kinross, Scotland, and all our staff, volunteers, supporters, and contributors who have helped make Perth Museum a very special place since we opened just over a year ago. 'We are changing perspectives on what a small, regional museum can achieve. 'Regardless of who takes home the grand prize, we already feel like winners.' Perthshire North MSP and First Minister John Swinney said: 'This is a fantastic achievement that speaks to the quality of Perth Museum, and the significant impact it has had on the local area. 'I extend my sincere congratulations to all those involved in making Perth Museum such a memorable and engaging place to visit. 'Being shortlisted for such a prestigious prize is a testament to their hard work and ingenuity.' Art Fund, the national charity for museums and galleries, shortlists annually five outstanding museums for Museum of the Year. The 2025 prize recognises inspiring projects and activity from autumn 2023 through to winter 2024. In addition to looking at the overall achievements of the organisation, the judges are tasked with identifying impactful projects that spotlight the wide range of remarkable people, including museum staff and volunteers, who bring museums to life by engaging with communities, families and younger visitors, artists and creatives. Perth Museum tells the story of over 10,000 years of Scottish and world history through a local lens. Alongside the Stone of Destiny, the Museum displays Perth and Kinross's Recognised Collections of National Significance as well as iconic loans and exhibitions. The winner of the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2025, announced on June 26, will receive £120,000 and £15,000 will be given to each of the four other finalists. The prize is funded by the generosity of Art Fund's members who buy a National Art Pass. During the shortlist celebration period (29 April to 26 June), Art Pass holders can enjoy free entry to the new Macbeth exhibition at Perth Museum, and 50% off all paid exhibitions at Perth Museum and Perth Art Gallery year-round. Art Fund director Jenny Waldman, speaking on behalf of the judges said: 'Congratulations to Perth Museum on being shortlisted for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2025. 'This year's finalists are inspiring examples of museums at their best – deeply connected to their local communities, responsive to the world around them, and alive with energy and ideas. 'Each one offers a distinctive experience, showing the endless creativity and care that goes into making museums inspiring and exciting spaces for everyone. Art Fund is proud to celebrate their work and support their ambition through Art Fund Museum of the Year. We hope people across the UK will be inspired to visit these remarkable places and museums in their local area to discover the powerful role they can play in our lives.' The Museum + Heritage awards ceremony will take place in London on May 15.
STV News
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- STV News
Scots attraction shortlisted for Museum Of The Year Award and £120,000 prize
Five UK attractions have been shortlisted for the Art Fund Museum Of The Year Award 2025 with a chance to win its £120,000 prize. Beamish, The Living Museum of the North in County Durham, Chapter in Cardiff, Compton Verney in Warwickshire, Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast, and Perth Museum have all been nominated for the award, with the winner being announced on June 26. The winner will be announced at a ceremony in Liverpool, the first time the award has been presented outside London, with the four losing finalists receiving £15,000 each. Beamish, The Living Museum of the North is an open air museum, looking at life in the north east of England in the 1820s, 1900s, 1940s and 1950s, while Chapter is a Welsh arts centre made up of a gallery, artist studios, theatres, cinemas, a cafe bar, and community garden. PA Media Beamish, The Living Museum of the North is among the museums shortlisted. PA Media Compton Verney is an art gallery with six installations, Golden Thread Gallery is a Northern Irish contemporary art gallery and Perth Museum looks at 10,000 years of Scottish and world history through a local lens. Art Fund director Jenny Waldman, who will chair the judging panel, said: 'This year's finalists are inspiring examples of museums at their best – deeply connected to their local communities, responsive to the world around them, and alive with energy and ideas. 'Each one offers a distinctive experience, showing the endless creativity and care that goes into making museums inspiring and exciting spaces for everyone. PA Media Chapter in Cardiff has been nominated. PA Media 'Art Fund is proud to celebrate their work and support their ambition through Art Fund Museum of the Year. 'We hope people across the UK will be inspired to visit these remarkable places and museums in their local area to discover the powerful role they can play in our lives.' The award aims to recognise inspiring projects and activity from autumn 2023 through to winter 2024, looking at the overall achievements of the organisation, impactful projects, staff and volunteers, and community engagement. The prize is funded by Art Fund members who buy a National Art Pass. STV News is now on WhatsApp Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News
