The relationship between private patrons and public museums and galleries – a thorny issue for the cultural sector – has, say arts professionals, improved in the past two decades.
“More experienced collectors tend to become far-sighted, and reach a point where they completely understand what public institutions are about,” says Stephen Deuchar, the director of the Art Fund.
London dealer Anthony d’Offay’s decision to sell 725 major postwar works to the nation for £26.5m in 2008 was widely considered a game-changing moment for UK patronage. Other recent philanthropic acts have boosted the collections of museums countrywide.
Spreading the gifts
Last October the Contemporary Art Society(CAS) announced a donation of over 300 works of modern and contemporary art worth over £4m from collectors Eric and Jean Cass for allocation to public institutions.
“The Cass gift is particularly enlightened as the works did not go to a major London institution, but to regional museums,” says Dida Tait, the head of development and external relations at the CAS. Hepworth Wakefield, Leeds Art Gallery and Wolverhampton Art Gallery were among the beneficiaries.
Later this month the CAS will open a display of Pop Art from the Cass Gift that were donated to Wolverhampton. It will include works by Karel Appel, Eduardo Paolozzi and Bridget Riley.
This year the CAS launched a collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery in London that looks at the history of philanthropy in the regions, assessing its impact on the development of regional collections.
The first display, which opened last month, is called Nothing is Beautiful Unless Useful (until 1 December) and looks at the relationship between art and social reform in north-west England during the late 19th and 20th centuries.
Patrons’ circles
Significantly, patrons’ circles are now a staple of national and regional museums. The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) offers three “levels” of patronage (silver, gold and platinum).
“Gold- and Platinum-level members are invited to our annual Director’s Circle Dinner and to our very popular Travel with the V&A cultural trips abroad,” says a museum spokeswoman. The CAS, meanwhile, organises numerous trips for its 60-strong patrons group to venues in the UK and abroad.
But the relationship between the public and private sectors can still be fraught. “Museums can appear bureaucratic; collectors are commercially minded and market savvy, and can often move more quickly,” said Camilla Nichol, the head of collections at Leeds Museums and Galleries.
Encouraging philanthropy
Like many other regional institutions, Leeds has historic links with local patrons. The Leeds Art Fund was founded in 1912 and is one of the oldest museum “friends” associations in the UK. “Private collections are a very important part of life in museums and galleries and sustaining those relationships is essential,” Nichol adds.
There are also issues around the government’s role in bridging the gap between patronage and public institutions. Crucially, most of the collectors interviewed here emphasise that the government must offer more tax incentives to private collectors.
Deuchar from the Art Fund is optimistic: “We’re seeing the early stages of the Treasury’s agreement to encourage philanthropy with projects such as the Cultural Gifts Scheme. The number of individuals that will be drawn into that scheme may be small but the government has to start somewhere.”
Gareth Harris is a freelance journalist
‘Some collectors like to see their name in lights’
Frank Cohen began collecting modern British art in the 1970s. In 2007 he opened a foundation in Wolverhampton called Initial Access that displayed works by emerging artists.
In April he unveiled the Dairy, a non-profit art centre in Bloomsbury, London. This was developed in collaboration with the Danish art adviser Nicolai Frahm.
“I’ve always been in favour of working with public institutions. When I opened my own gallery outside Wolverhampton, I collaborated at the same time with institutions such as the New Art Gallery Walsall and Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
Works drawn from my collection were loaned to various museums.
Museums must keep key patrons on board. The only way to do this is if the government offers more tax breaks for donating art to museums and galleries. It is, however, a hard job to get people to part with their money, and some collectors definitely like to see their name in lights.
Museums and galleries in the US are definitely more geared towards raising funds from the private sector, attracting more philanthropists.
I think that museum directors such as Nicholas Serota of Tate find the Dairy appealing. It’s not like other private galleries.
I’m not just showing works from my own collection, but also loaning pieces from other people’s holdings. In a way, it’s run like a public institution and, more importantly, there’s no admission charge.”
‘Don’t sit on your art’
The collector Nicky Wilson co-founded Jupiter Artland, a sculpture park in the grounds of Bonnington House on the outskirts of Edinburgh, in 2009. It now has more than 30 commissioned works on permanent display by artists such as Marc Quinn and Andy Goldsworthy.
“I’m on the board of trustees for the National Galleries of Scotland and the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh. It is enormously beneficial for me, by sitting on these boards, to become aware of the constraints, but more importantly the opportunities, presented in the public domain.
Equally I feel the institutions can gain through me an insight into the private sector and its business model. It’s important to be pragmatic about this issue.
The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art has, for instance, hosted an exhibition of contemporary works drawn from the holdings of the Greek collector Dimitris Daskalopoulos.
[Works from his collection were] displayed in pairings or as groups alongside works from the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and the gallery collection has been enlivened by the show. Another good example of an effective public-private partnership is the recent show of works at Hepworth Wakefield drawn from the collection of David Roberts [a Scottish property investor].
People should not just sit on their collections, or their expertise, but make sure these are shared with the public. The government must also ensure that patronage is a key part of its culture policy; any move that boosts philanthropy is a good thing.”
‘We look to the future’
Anita Zabludowicz founded the Zabludowicz Collection with her husband Poju in the mid-1990s, focusing on emerging art from the late 20th century to today.
Works drawn from the collection are on show in the couple’s north London project space. She is a trustee of the Tate Foundation and the Camden Arts Centre.
“It is very important for private patrons to collaborate with public institutions. It is evident that museums are only able to look to the past, whereas many private institutions are able to look to the future.
The artworks that we collect are often seen to be too emerging and too much of a risk to be in museum collections. One of the last things a museum wants is an unsuccessful or marginal artist in their collection. This is where we differ: we are private patrons with a privately funded institution for a public audience.
We believe that the works we collect should be seen in different contexts and in professionally curated exhibitions organised by ourselves but also by other museum and independent curators whom we collaborate with.
There are many ways to assist a museum, such as gifting works or assisting with acquisitions. We have given seminal works to museums, such as Wolfgang Tillmans’s Concorde Grid, which was gifted via Tate.
Partial gifting is also a very important way to help museums with acquisitions. Partial gifting is when a museum calls on its supporters to help acquire specific works for its collection.
Loaning works is also an important way to help museums and public institutions. We continue to make regular loans of works from our collection and on average have 50 works at a time on loan to museums and public institutions all over the world.”
‘Government could do more to encourage private/public collaboration’
Contemporary art collector Greville Worthington is a trustee of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, as well as the Henry Moore Foundation in Perry Green and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
“I have an extensive contemporary art collection built up over the past 25 years which includes works by artists such as Richard Long, Damien Hirst and Gavin Turk. In my view, how museums use the vast resources of private collections is a major issue; there’s a natural friction between the private and public sectors.
Museums and galleries seem to think that the provenance of private collections is difficult to quantify, and that they are giving private holdings, and their owners, added value by acting as some sort of showcase for works on loan from such collectors.
The government could do a lot more to encourage collaboration between private and public collections. A distinction needs to be made when private collectors donate and loan works; the government generally follows international models regarding the donation of works by offering tax breaks. But there’s natural caution when it comes to the question of loaning items.
It is simply impossible to loan works long-term to Tate, for instance. I also tried to lend a work by the contemporary artist Roger Hiorns to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, but was told that the institution could not justify the cost of storing the piece.
An organisation that could step in and broker new partnerships between the private and public spheres is the Contemporary Art Society.”
‘Art is key to progress’
Maryam Eisler is co-chair of the Tate’s Middle East North Africa Acquisition Committee, a trustee of the Whitechapel Gallery in London and executive editor of Sanctuary: Britain’s Artists and their Studios.
“I have enjoyed supporting some key visual arts institution exhibitions around the world, the most important three being the Gerhard Richter: Panorama exhibition at Tate [6 October 2011–8 January 2012], the Lichtenstein: A Retrospective [21 February–27 May] also at the Tate and the Iran Modern exhibition [6 September–5 January 2014] at Asia Society in New York.
In my opinion, and especially important in current times when public funding in the arts has been cut dramatically, private funding takes on a role of increased importance.
Art and culture are the key catalysts to critical thinking, open-mindedness, tolerance, and progress. To limit funding and thus advancement in the arts is an amputation to free thinking.
I am particularly interested in supporting a platform for Middle Eastern visual arts on an institutional basis, as I believe that the lasting power of institutional initiatives along with their associated cataloguing, referencing and research, gives a depth of information that will stamp and impregnate memories for many generations to come.
In the case of the Middle East, this institutional support is especially important given that where politics has often failed, art has in many instances managed to open doors to hope and dialogue.
The UK can look at the US in areas pertaining to an increased culture of patronage and understand more in-depth the significant consequences along with the change that this type of attitude may bring to society.”
“More experienced collectors tend to become far-sighted, and reach a point where they completely understand what public institutions are about,” says Stephen Deuchar, the director of the Art Fund.
London dealer Anthony d’Offay’s decision to sell 725 major postwar works to the nation for £26.5m in 2008 was widely considered a game-changing moment for UK patronage. Other recent philanthropic acts have boosted the collections of museums countrywide.
Spreading the gifts
Last October the Contemporary Art Society(CAS) announced a donation of over 300 works of modern and contemporary art worth over £4m from collectors Eric and Jean Cass for allocation to public institutions.
“The Cass gift is particularly enlightened as the works did not go to a major London institution, but to regional museums,” says Dida Tait, the head of development and external relations at the CAS. Hepworth Wakefield, Leeds Art Gallery and Wolverhampton Art Gallery were among the beneficiaries.
Later this month the CAS will open a display of Pop Art from the Cass Gift that were donated to Wolverhampton. It will include works by Karel Appel, Eduardo Paolozzi and Bridget Riley.
This year the CAS launched a collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery in London that looks at the history of philanthropy in the regions, assessing its impact on the development of regional collections.
The first display, which opened last month, is called Nothing is Beautiful Unless Useful (until 1 December) and looks at the relationship between art and social reform in north-west England during the late 19th and 20th centuries.
Patrons’ circles
Significantly, patrons’ circles are now a staple of national and regional museums. The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) offers three “levels” of patronage (silver, gold and platinum).
“Gold- and Platinum-level members are invited to our annual Director’s Circle Dinner and to our very popular Travel with the V&A cultural trips abroad,” says a museum spokeswoman. The CAS, meanwhile, organises numerous trips for its 60-strong patrons group to venues in the UK and abroad.
But the relationship between the public and private sectors can still be fraught. “Museums can appear bureaucratic; collectors are commercially minded and market savvy, and can often move more quickly,” said Camilla Nichol, the head of collections at Leeds Museums and Galleries.
Encouraging philanthropy
Like many other regional institutions, Leeds has historic links with local patrons. The Leeds Art Fund was founded in 1912 and is one of the oldest museum “friends” associations in the UK. “Private collections are a very important part of life in museums and galleries and sustaining those relationships is essential,” Nichol adds.
There are also issues around the government’s role in bridging the gap between patronage and public institutions. Crucially, most of the collectors interviewed here emphasise that the government must offer more tax incentives to private collectors.
Deuchar from the Art Fund is optimistic: “We’re seeing the early stages of the Treasury’s agreement to encourage philanthropy with projects such as the Cultural Gifts Scheme. The number of individuals that will be drawn into that scheme may be small but the government has to start somewhere.”
Gareth Harris is a freelance journalist
Frank Cohen
‘Some collectors like to see their name in lights’
Frank Cohen began collecting modern British art in the 1970s. In 2007 he opened a foundation in Wolverhampton called Initial Access that displayed works by emerging artists.
In April he unveiled the Dairy, a non-profit art centre in Bloomsbury, London. This was developed in collaboration with the Danish art adviser Nicolai Frahm.
“I’ve always been in favour of working with public institutions. When I opened my own gallery outside Wolverhampton, I collaborated at the same time with institutions such as the New Art Gallery Walsall and Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
Works drawn from my collection were loaned to various museums.
Museums must keep key patrons on board. The only way to do this is if the government offers more tax breaks for donating art to museums and galleries. It is, however, a hard job to get people to part with their money, and some collectors definitely like to see their name in lights.
Museums and galleries in the US are definitely more geared towards raising funds from the private sector, attracting more philanthropists.
I think that museum directors such as Nicholas Serota of Tate find the Dairy appealing. It’s not like other private galleries.
I’m not just showing works from my own collection, but also loaning pieces from other people’s holdings. In a way, it’s run like a public institution and, more importantly, there’s no admission charge.”
Nicky Wilson
‘Don’t sit on your art’
The collector Nicky Wilson co-founded Jupiter Artland, a sculpture park in the grounds of Bonnington House on the outskirts of Edinburgh, in 2009. It now has more than 30 commissioned works on permanent display by artists such as Marc Quinn and Andy Goldsworthy.
“I’m on the board of trustees for the National Galleries of Scotland and the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh. It is enormously beneficial for me, by sitting on these boards, to become aware of the constraints, but more importantly the opportunities, presented in the public domain.
Equally I feel the institutions can gain through me an insight into the private sector and its business model. It’s important to be pragmatic about this issue.
The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art has, for instance, hosted an exhibition of contemporary works drawn from the holdings of the Greek collector Dimitris Daskalopoulos.
[Works from his collection were] displayed in pairings or as groups alongside works from the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and the gallery collection has been enlivened by the show. Another good example of an effective public-private partnership is the recent show of works at Hepworth Wakefield drawn from the collection of David Roberts [a Scottish property investor].
People should not just sit on their collections, or their expertise, but make sure these are shared with the public. The government must also ensure that patronage is a key part of its culture policy; any move that boosts philanthropy is a good thing.”
Anita Zabludowicz
‘We look to the future’
Anita Zabludowicz founded the Zabludowicz Collection with her husband Poju in the mid-1990s, focusing on emerging art from the late 20th century to today.
Works drawn from the collection are on show in the couple’s north London project space. She is a trustee of the Tate Foundation and the Camden Arts Centre.
“It is very important for private patrons to collaborate with public institutions. It is evident that museums are only able to look to the past, whereas many private institutions are able to look to the future.
The artworks that we collect are often seen to be too emerging and too much of a risk to be in museum collections. One of the last things a museum wants is an unsuccessful or marginal artist in their collection. This is where we differ: we are private patrons with a privately funded institution for a public audience.
We believe that the works we collect should be seen in different contexts and in professionally curated exhibitions organised by ourselves but also by other museum and independent curators whom we collaborate with.
There are many ways to assist a museum, such as gifting works or assisting with acquisitions. We have given seminal works to museums, such as Wolfgang Tillmans’s Concorde Grid, which was gifted via Tate.
Partial gifting is also a very important way to help museums with acquisitions. Partial gifting is when a museum calls on its supporters to help acquire specific works for its collection.
Loaning works is also an important way to help museums and public institutions. We continue to make regular loans of works from our collection and on average have 50 works at a time on loan to museums and public institutions all over the world.”
Greville Worthington
‘Government could do more to encourage private/public collaboration’
Contemporary art collector Greville Worthington is a trustee of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, as well as the Henry Moore Foundation in Perry Green and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
“I have an extensive contemporary art collection built up over the past 25 years which includes works by artists such as Richard Long, Damien Hirst and Gavin Turk. In my view, how museums use the vast resources of private collections is a major issue; there’s a natural friction between the private and public sectors.
Museums and galleries seem to think that the provenance of private collections is difficult to quantify, and that they are giving private holdings, and their owners, added value by acting as some sort of showcase for works on loan from such collectors.
The government could do a lot more to encourage collaboration between private and public collections. A distinction needs to be made when private collectors donate and loan works; the government generally follows international models regarding the donation of works by offering tax breaks. But there’s natural caution when it comes to the question of loaning items.
It is simply impossible to loan works long-term to Tate, for instance. I also tried to lend a work by the contemporary artist Roger Hiorns to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, but was told that the institution could not justify the cost of storing the piece.
An organisation that could step in and broker new partnerships between the private and public spheres is the Contemporary Art Society.”
Maryam Eisler
‘Art is key to progress’
Maryam Eisler is co-chair of the Tate’s Middle East North Africa Acquisition Committee, a trustee of the Whitechapel Gallery in London and executive editor of Sanctuary: Britain’s Artists and their Studios.
“I have enjoyed supporting some key visual arts institution exhibitions around the world, the most important three being the Gerhard Richter: Panorama exhibition at Tate [6 October 2011–8 January 2012], the Lichtenstein: A Retrospective [21 February–27 May] also at the Tate and the Iran Modern exhibition [6 September–5 January 2014] at Asia Society in New York.
In my opinion, and especially important in current times when public funding in the arts has been cut dramatically, private funding takes on a role of increased importance.
Art and culture are the key catalysts to critical thinking, open-mindedness, tolerance, and progress. To limit funding and thus advancement in the arts is an amputation to free thinking.
I am particularly interested in supporting a platform for Middle Eastern visual arts on an institutional basis, as I believe that the lasting power of institutional initiatives along with their associated cataloguing, referencing and research, gives a depth of information that will stamp and impregnate memories for many generations to come.
In the case of the Middle East, this institutional support is especially important given that where politics has often failed, art has in many instances managed to open doors to hope and dialogue.
The UK can look at the US in areas pertaining to an increased culture of patronage and understand more in-depth the significant consequences along with the change that this type of attitude may bring to society.”