New Collecting Awards
Art Fund
Through the New Collecting Awards we aim to support the next generation of ambitious curators across the UK.
The awards offer 100% funding for focused collecting projects, enabling curators to expand museum and gallery collections into exciting new areas or deepen existing holdings in significant ways.
Awardees also receive a generous funding allocation for research, travel and training, plus the support of a mentor and the Art Fund team.
With this seventh round of the programme, we particularly hope to support curators to:
diversify representation in their collections
make their collections and the narratives therein more relevant to their audiences and communities
Who we'll support:
We welcome applications from curators who are:
in the early stages of their career, or who have had limited opportunities to collect.
employed by or working in partnership with museums and galleries that are accredited or working towards accreditation.
We will also consider applications from freelance curators or researchers, provided you can demonstrate that you will be officially affiliated with a museum or gallery for the duration of your project, that the works acquired will join a public collection and that your participation will have a longer-term institutional impact.
In your application you will be expected to demonstrate why receiving a New Collecting Award would benefit not only your museum/gallery and its collections but also, crucially, your own professional development in a way that would not otherwise be possible.
Full details can be found in Guidance for Applicants.
Funds available: We have up to £150,000 available to award. Awards typically fall between £30,000 and £80,000.
You can apply for any amount but should demonstrate that the sum is reasonable and proportionate in relation to the type and number of works you propose to collect.
We expect that applicants will allocate up to 10% of their award for research and professional development related to their collecting project.