The Art Fund in partnership with Thomas Dane Gallery has launched the Moving Image Fund for Museums in order to support the acquisition of artists’ film and video works by museums.
The first two galleries to benefit from the fund are Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne and Whitworth Art Gallery (pictured) in Manchester. The scheme, which is currently in its pilot phase, will provide £200,000 to each gallery over the next two years.
Announcing the new initiative, The Art Fund stated that in the current economic climate UK galleries struggle to find the funds to acquire film and video works.
Art Fund director Stephen Deuchar said that the fund “aims to bring significant film and video works into public collections on a more regular basis, promoting and protecting an increasingly important medium.”
He added: “We are extremely grateful to the generous consortium of supporters for making the Art Fund’s Moving Image Fund for Museums possible. We keenly look forward to seeing what the Towner Art Gallery and the Whitworth select for their first acquisitions.”
Thomas Dane and Martine d’Anglejan-Chatillon, partners at Thomas Dane Gallery, said: “Works of film, video and digital media are important expressions of the culture in which we live. Artists working in these media deserve to take their rightful place in public collections alongside the great exponents of painting, sculpture and photography.”
The fund is supported by donations from Ampersand Foundation, the Art Fund, Iain Canning, Thomas Dane Gallery, Gerry Fox, David and Rose Heyman, Pierre Lagrange, Rebecca Marks, the Outset Young Production Fund, The Rothschild Foundation and the Sfumato Foundation.
