Jerwood Art Fund Commissions launched

In a new partnership announced on 3 July 2024, Jerwood Foundation has awarded Art Fund a total grant of £402,000 over three years to launch Jerwood Art Fund Commissions. This will provide support to enable museums and galleries to commission early to mid-career artists, working across a full range of artistic media and making practices, to produce work of exceptional innovation and quality and further their artistic development at a pivotal stage in their careers.

In addition to providing support to the commissioned artists and enabling them to further their practice, Jerwood Art Fund Commissions will also develop the skills and confidence of UK museums and galleries to undertake commissioning projects allowing innovative contemporary artwork to join and benefit our public collections.

Embarking on this new partnership with Art Fund underlines Jerwood’s commitment to supporting excellence in the arts in the UK. Jerwood Art Fund Commissions will offer the full commissioning costs to museums and galleries to realise ambitious projects at a time when organisations face difficult choices in an uncertain economic climate. This unique Art Fund programme will benefit our national collections and their visitors, as well as early to mid-career artists enabling them to develop their practice at a pivotal moment in their careers

- Lara Wardle, Executive Director and Trustee, Jerwood Foundation.

Jenny Waldman, Director, Art Fund, said:

The current economic landscape is piling increasing pressures on museums, galleries and on artists. Yet if we want our public collections to be enriched with a diverse range of exciting contemporary art, support needs to be available for museums and galleries to work with living artists for the benefit of artists, collections and audiences. That’s why I’m so delighted that through this new partnership with Jerwood Foundation we’ll be offering grants for museums and galleries to collaborate with artists working across all visual art forms and disciplines on new commissions. I look forward to the inspiring and innovative contemporary artworks that will join our public collections as a result.

Jerwood Art Fund Commissions will support:

• Two museums to offer commissions of £70,000 - £100,000 per year over the coming three years, covering the full costs of delivering and presenting the commissions in each partner museum.

• Early to mid-career artists who are either based in or have a connection to the UK, and for whom a commission of this scale and profile would constitute a significant step forward in their artistic and professional development.

• Artists working across a full range of artistic media and making practices (e.g. textiles, sculpture, ceramics, glass, painting, mixed-media, film, photography etc).

• Commissions will enter the permanent collection of a public UK museum or gallery, including permanent public realm commissions. 

For further information, please visit Art Fund