Art Fund launches Teacher Art Pass

Dominique Nok, Curatorial Assistant at Midlands Art Centre, in Zaibunnisa, an exhibition by Maryam Wahid.

Today, Art Fund launches Teacher Art Pass, a new membership programme offering all the benefits of a National Art Pass at a highly subsidised price for teachers.

From just £25 a year, Teacher Art Pass members will get free entry to 250+ museums, galleries and historic houses across the UK, 50% off major exhibitions, fortnightly updates on what to see with our Art in Your Inbox newsletter, a subscription to Art Quarterly magazine, and Art Map, our annual guidebook on using the pass.

We’re launching Teacher Art Pass following research we conducted across 2021 and 2022 to find out what support UK teachers needed to use museums and galleries more often in their teaching practice.

Teachers are a priority audience for Art Fund because we want to reach the next generation of museum visitors, professionals and donors. Many children today do not have the opportunity to access museums and galleries, but teachers have the power to influence this – with the right support.

Thanks to the generous support of the Clore Duffield Foundation, in 2021-22 we were able to give 1,000 teachers a National Art Pass to find out if the benefits would positively impact both their personal levels of inspiration and their teaching practice. Participating teachers also took part in surveys and research workshops exploring what wider support we could offer them in addition to the pass.

While our research showed that the pass did positively impact teachers, it also revealed a big communications gap between museum learning teams and teachers; as a result, while many teachers have an interest in museums, and many museums have a great schools offer, teachers sometimes have a very low awareness of that offer.

Teacher Art Pass is a step towards supporting teachers and museums to be more connected, and aims to enrich the personal and professional lives of teachers, spark creativity and innovation in the classroom and positively influence the next generation. It also forms part of our wider commitment to helping museums connect with young people, schools and families – since 2020 we have steadily increased our support for projects in this area, thanks in part to supporters and members who donated to our Energise Young Minds campaign in 2021/22.

Teachers can buy a pass at artfund.org/teacher-art-pass