Updating our Royal Charter

Art Fund is a charity established by Royal Charter and the charity’s governing documents are a Royal Charter adopted in 1928 (as amended by supplemental charter in 1976) and Byelaws adopted in 1928. Earlier this year, we confirmed to members that the Board of Trustees have agreed to modernise Art Fund’s Royal Charter & Byelaws, with a proposed amended draft shared with all members for consultation in March 2023. Further to this member consultation and following consultation with the Privy Council, the Board of Trustees have now agreed a final version (see below) of the amended governing documents and received informal Privy Council approval of the changes proposed:

View Art Fund’s proposed amended Royal Charter and Byelaws

Notice of Art Fund’s Extraordinary General Meeting

Date: 10 January 2024, 4pm to 4.30pm

Venue: Art Fund, 2 Granary Square, London N1C 4BH

The Board of Trustees are now asking members to vote on the amendments to the Royal Charter and Byelaws at a short Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on 10 January 2024 – formal notice of which is given below:

View formal notice of Art Fund’s EGM (as shared in Winter 2023 Art Quarterly)

All members are invited to the EGM and all members attending in person are entitled to vote. There are two resolutions – one relating to the Royal Charter changes and the other relating to the Byelaws changes. The amendments to the Royal Charter will be approved if 75% of those members present vote in favour of the changes. The amendments to the Byelaws will be approved if two-thirds of those members present vote in favour of the changes (but will only become effective if the Royal Charter resolution is also approved). Following member approval, the Royal Charter and Byelaws will be submitted to the Privy Council for formal consideration and approval.

If you would like to attend the EGM, please RSVP to rsvp@artfund.org. If you have any questions or comments, please provide these in advance of the meeting to charter@artfund.org.

Online information session for members

We hosted an online information session for members on Monday 13 March at 1pm. In the session, members saw a a presentation on why we are updating the governing document, the key changes being made and the proposed timeline from Art Fund’s Governance Manager and in-house legal counsel. You can see the slides here. You can also watch a recording of the session below.