Below you can explore some of the key moments in our history of funding art, engaging audiences and championing the UK’s museums. See some of the major works of art we’ve helped museums to acquire, and learn about how we’ve developed our support for museums over 12 decades.
Everything we do is made possible by our members, who buy the National Art Pass, as well as the support of trusts, foundations, partner funders, and donors. Thank you for making this possible.
A vision of art for all
Prompted by inadequate government funding for museums, in 1903 a group of artists and patrons including Christiana Herringham, DS MacColl and Roger Fry found the National Art Collections Fund.
If we are to influence public opinion we ought only to buy for the nation work that is of its kind first-class
Earning a place in public life
As membership increases, a great artist pays a visit, and museums acknowledge Art Fund members’ support.
Reaching 10,000 members
A major milestone is reached by the end of the decade.
Spreading the word
Art Fund enjoys its first outing on the tube.
Supporting museums in straitened times
When museums reopen their doors following the Second World War, Art Fund support is needed more than ever.
Marking 50 years
Our half-century coincides with a rather special acquisition.
We celebrate our 50th birthday. Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother attends Art Fund’s annual general meeting to mark the occasion.
Tate acquires Rodin’s The Kiss with Art Fund support.
Bolstering collections across the UK
Great works are secured for the public.
Expanding our support
Our funding goes towards an increasing breadth of art and objects, in different forms and from all eras.
Our first £500,000 grant
The people-power of our membership enables the purchase of a major work for Manchester.
Embracing the now
The acquisition of a work by a pioneer of video art signals a commitment to supporting moving-image work.
Art Fund supports the acquisition of video work for the first time. Bill Viola’s Nantes Triptych is acquired by Tate with Art Fund support.
Elsewhere, Canova’s Three Graces is jointly acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Gallery of Scotland with Art Fund support.
Art Fund recognises the value of touring and sharing collections as one of the most inclusive and sustainable ways of bringing art to new audiences.
The age of the free museum
80,000 art lovers are members of Art Fund by the end of our first century, while a campaign for free admission to national museums increases access to art for everyone.
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery acquires Shanti Panchal’s Two Distanced Figures with Art Fund support.
El Anatsui’s Man’s Cloth and Woman’s Cloth joins the collection at the British Museum.
We celebrate our centenary with a nationwide programme of events, including the major exhibition ‘Saved! 100 Years of the National Art Collections Fund’ at the Hayward Gallery, curated by Richard Verdi and attended by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
The National Gallery of Scotland acquires Titian’s Venus Anadyomene with Art Fund support.
Art Fund gives a significant grant to ensure that ARTIST ROOMS, a touring collection of modern and contemporary art jointly owned by Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland, is available to museums and galleries across the UK. 40 million people have since visited ARTIST ROOMS exhibitions.
Powering museum-visiting with the National Art Pass
The transformation of our membership brings National Art Pass benefits to hundreds of museums across the UK, and leads to 150,000 members by the end of 2018.
The Staffordshire Hoard is saved. Following a public campaign, Art Fund helps Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery to acquire the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver artefacts ever found.
Art Fund’s membership is reimagined as the National Art Pass, giving members free access to hundreds of museums across the UK and 50% off exhibitions.
We establish a curatorial traineeship programme in collaboration with the National Gallery to nurture the next generation of curators.
We launch our Jonathan Ruffer curatorial grants, to help curators undertake collections and research projects in the UK and abroad. Yinka Shonibare’s Fourth Plinth sculpture, Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, finds a permanent home at the National Maritime Museum with Art Fund support and following a fundraising campaign.
We give £2 million to help the National Gallery, London, and the National Gallery of Scotland jointly acquire Titian’s Diana and Callisto.
Tate acquires Constable’s Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows with Art Fund support.
The William Morris Gallery wins Art Fund Museum of the Year 2013.
We launch the New Collecting Awards, to help curators pursue new avenues of collecting for their museums; we also launch Art Happens, our free crowdfunding platform for museums.
The Wedgwood Collection is saved from being divided up and sold following the fastest fundraising campaign in Art Fund’s history, and Van Dyck’s final self-portrait joins the collection at the National Portrait Gallery with Art Fund support.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park wins Art Fund Museum of Year 2014.
We launch the Moving Image Fund to help museums acquire film and video work, leading to the acquisition of many significant works by international artists.
The Whitworth wins Art Fund Museum of the Year 2015.
One of the historic Armada portraits is saved for the nation. Art Fund helps Royal Museums Greenwich to acquire the most famous depiction of Queen Elizabeth I in existence.
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, wins Art Fund Museum of the Year 2016.
We launch the Student Art Pass, a significantly discounted version of the National Art Pass for full-time UK university students.
The Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund opens, providing funding for museums and galleries around the UK to borrow works from national collections, and we develop Art Tickets, our free ticketing system for museums.
The Hepworth Wakefield wins Art Fund Museum of the Year 2017.
Our membership figures reach 150,000.
The National Gallery acquires Artemisia Gentileschi’s Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria with Art Fund support.
Tate St Ives wins Art Fund Museum of the Year 2018.
We introduce the National Art Pass for Under 30s, aiming to increase access to art and culture for a wider audience.
The first recipients of the Headley Fellowships with Art Fund are announced; the programme supports curators to further develop specialist knowledge relating to the collections in their care.
St Fagans National Museum of History wins Art Fund Museum of the Year 2019.
For 120 years Art Fund has been a vital force for good in the cultural ecology. Benefitting everyone who loves art and material culture; museums, visitors and artists.
Connecting museums, people and art
As museums recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and look to the future, we commit to the three pillars of our vision: funding art, engaging audiences, and championing the UK’s museums.
Prospect Cottage is saved. In just 10 weeks, thousands of people respond to Art Fund’s major appeal to raise £3.5 million to secure the future of Derek Jarman’s iconic home.
In response to Covid-19, we launch a new funding programme, Respond and Reimagine, to help museums through the pandemic.
The five finalists for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2020 – Aberdeen Art Gallery, Gairloch Museum, the Science Museum, South London Gallery and Towner Eastbourne – are announced as joint winners, in recognition of the challenges museums are facing.
Our crowdfunding campaign Together for Museums raises £1 million to help museums respond to the pandemic. More than 4,500 people donate, and leading artists contribute artworks as rewards for donations.
The National Gallery acquires Thomas Lawrence’s ‘The Red Boy’; the Armada Maps join the collection at the National Museum of the Royal Navy; and Veronica Ryan’s sculpture honouring the Windrush generation, the first of two major works created for the Hackney Windrush Art Commissions, is unveiled.
Firstsite wins Art Fund Museum of the Year 2021.
Our Energise Young Minds campaign enables us to commit to spending £1 million on museum projects that inspire young people.
Thomas J Price’s sculpture Warm Shores, the second of two major works created for the Hackney Windrush Art Commissions, is unveiled.
The Horniman Museum and Gardens wins Art Fund Museum of the Year 2022.
Over 500 museums come together for The Wild Escape, a major project led by Art Fund engaging primary school children with UK wildlife in museum collections. We give £2.5 million, the largest grant in our history, to help save Joshua Reynolds’ Mai (Omai) from private ownership in a landmark joint acquisition between the National Portrait Gallery and the Getty, LA.
We launch the Teacher Art Pass, to help teachers use museums more in their practice and spark creativity in the classroom.
The Burrell Collection wins Art Fund Museum of the Year 2023, as we celebrate 10 years of Art Fund Museum of the Year.
