We are delighted to announce the recipients of six awards in Cycle I of Outset’s major arts funding programme, Outset Partners.
Established in 2018, Outset Partners is a dynamic collective of international philanthropists who work together to meet the evolving needs of the global cultural sector. The group is facilitated by a Research and Strategy Lead for each cycle, who crafts a framework for Outset Partners’ decision-making, supporting their uniquely iterative and consensus-driven approach to funding transformation in the arts. Outset Partners are keen to learn what art institutions need, why they need it, and where they want to be tomorrow. Partners are willing to take risks on behalf of genuine innovation and the prospect of meaningful impact.
In its first cycle of funding, the programme has awarded a total of £275,000 across a range of agenda-setting museums, galleries and organisations to support challenging new art projects with a demonstrable transformative aspect for the creative sector.
TRANSFORMATIVE AWARD £150,000
A one-of-a-kind Transformative Award is designed to afford the opportunity for one significant project to radically re-think the art institution of the future. £150,000 is awarded jointly to the Whitworth, the University of Manchester and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven for their initiative, The Constituent Museum: Collecting Relations and the Transformational Potential of Arte Util. Using the methodology of Arte Útil (‘art as a tool’ or ‘useful art’) developed by artist Tania Bruguera over the last ten years, the two museums will radically transform their core protocols by redrawing relationships with local constituency groups, creating an agency for them to inform the museums’ collecting, curating and presenting.
Charles Esche (Director of Van Abbemuseum) and Alistair Hudson (Director of the Whitworth and Manchester Art Gallery) said:
‘We are delighted to have this generous support from Outset. As an organisation dedicated to supporting public institutions with private means it has become a vital stimulus for creating and presenting contemporary art. Outset values art as a public good and positive contribution to society. Our museums are also committed to those goals and we will use the Transformative Award to experiment with ways to repurpose the museum as a new social power plant to collectively generate ways of navigating the huge economic and political transition ahead.’
The Whitworth
The Whitworth is proudly part of The University of Manchester and serves as a bridge between the University and the people of the city; a place to meet, play and learn in public. Its mission is to use art for social change; founded in 1889 as The Whitworth Institute and Park in memory of the industrialist Sir Joseph Whitworth for "the perpetual gratification of the people of Manchester", with clear practical aims to counteract the malaises of inner-city life and to educate and inspire a city of makers and manufacturing. The Whitworth re-opened to the public in 2015 after a major £17 million redevelopment by architects MUMA. It has welcomed over one million visitors since re-opening, and more than doubled its previous annual records. The redevelopment doubled the public space and created state-of-the-art new facilities to house the collection of over 55,000 works of art and included expanded gallery spaces, a study centre, learning studio, and a collections centre. The gallery was crowned Art Fund Museum of Year 2015, nominated for the prestigious Stirling Prize and named Best Emerging Cultural Destination in Europe. www.manchester.ac.uk/whitworth
The gallery has historically been at the centre of civic and cultural life and this is also its future.
Van Abbemuseum
The Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven is a leading Dutch art institution and a founding member of the L’Internationale confederation of museums. It has an international collection of more than 2,700 artworks, including key ensembles by El Lissitzky, Rene Daniëls, Nedko Solakov, Hito Steyerl and Gülsün Karamustafa. The collection includes classic modernist works by Braque, Chagall, Picasso, LeWitt, Judd and Nauman. The relation between art and social change is an important topic for our exhibitions and collection presentations. Hospitality, storytelling and internationalism are important for the Van Abbemuseum and we encourage both ourselves and the visitors to think about the collection as a cultural "memory"; the role of art in globalisation; and how we include many different communities in our activities. We always strive to be a source of wonder, inspiration and imagination for our users.
Spike Island Spike Island is an international centre for the development of contemporary art and design, located close to Bristol’s harbourside. It is a place where artists and the public can meet, enabling audiences to engage with artists’ research and production. Within the 80,000 square foot building, Spike Island offers visitors a year- round programme of internationally relevant exhibitions, events and activities, as well as providing working space for artists, designers and creative businesses. The link between the production and presentation of art on this scale and under one roof is unique within the UK. Spike Island’s programme emphasises the commissioning of new ambitious work and often provides artists with their first significant gallery exhibition in the UK. Production services support the development of commissions, including in-house post-production facilities for artists’ film and video, audio-visual technical services and equipment provision for ambitious moving image installations, on-site fabrication workshops, resin rooms, skilled art technicians and fabricators.
BALTIC
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art is a major international gallery situated on the south bank of the River Tyne in Gateshead, England and has welcomed over eight million visitors since 2002. BALTIC presents outstanding, experimental and inspiring world-class contemporary art across 2,600 square metres, making it Europe’s largest dedicated
contemporary art institution. BALTIC’s distinctive and ambitious programme of free entry, changing exhibitions has included the work of over 450 artists from 60 nationalities in 220 exhibitions including Michael Dean, Lubaina Himid, Heather Phillipson and Rasheed Araeen. BALTIC is a registered charity and its mission is to create a greater understanding of the world through outstanding, experimental and inspiring contemporary art which has power, relevance and meaning for individuals and communities.
IMPACT AWARDS £25,000
Five additional Impact Awards of £25,000 each are awarded to public institutions for a range of projects that demonstrate crucial areas of support for the public, artists and curators. According to the Outset ethos, these can be through enabling innovative exhibitions and artistic productions with an international reach; empowering educational initiatives or providing professional development opportunities; institutions enriching public collections; or projects that enhance the creative infrastructure through providing workspaces and strengthening communities.
Chisenhale Gallery to support the realisation of the destructors, a major new film commission by London-based artist Imran Perretta, enabling the pooling of resources to support, mentor and develop the practice of a young artist at the beginning of their career. The film is co-commissioned by Chisenhale Gallery, London; Spike Island, Bristol; the Whitworth, The University of Manchester; and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead.
Chisenhale Gallery commissions and produces contemporary art, supporting international and UK-based artists to pursue new directions and make their most ambitious work to date. For audiences, the gallery provides opportunities to experience this process of art production through participation and critical reflection. The gallery operates as a production agency, exhibition hall, research centre and community resource. Chisenhale Gallery has an award-winning, 36-year history as one of London’s most innovative forums for contemporary art. With a reputation for identifying new talent, the gallery is committed to engaging diverse audiences with a focus on young people. Chisenhale Gallery is a registered charity and part of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio.
Hayward Gallery to support the exhibition, Kader Attia: The Museum of Emotion (13 February – 6 May 2019), the first major UK exhibition by French-Algerian artist, Kader Attia. Spanning a wide range of media, the works in the exhibition inventively explore the ways in which colonialism continues to shape how Western societies represent and engage with non-Western cultures.
Hayward Gallery, part of Southbank Centre, has a long history of presenting work by the world’s most adventurous and innovative artists including major solo shows by both emerging and established artists and dynamic group exhibitions. They include those by Bridget Riley, Martin Creed, Antony Gormley, Tracey Emin, Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Jeremy Deller, Anish Kapoor, René Magritte, Francis Bacon and David Shrigley, as well as influential group exhibitions such as Africa Remix, Light Show, Psycho Buildings and most recently Space Shifters. Opened by Her Majesty, The Queen in July 1968, the gallery is one of the few remaining buildings of its style. The Brutalist building was designed by a group of young architects, including Dennis Crompton, Warren Chalk and Ron Herron and is named after Sir Isaac Hayward, a former leader of the London County Council.
The International Curators Forum (ICF) has been awarded £25,000 per annum over the next three years, to support the research and development of a second iteration of the Diaspora Pavilion. First staged at the Venice Biennale in 2017, the Diaspora Pavilion was curated by David Bailey and Jessica Taylor, co-founded by David Bailey, Nicola Green, Peter Clayton and David Lammy, and was conceived as a challenge to the prevalence of national pavilions within the structure of an international biennale.
The International Curators Forum (ICF) is a London-based organisation focused on presenting professional development programmes for emerging arts practitioners, curating exhibitions and events that address diasporic culture in a global context, as well as connecting professionals around the world through organised international trips and residencies. Past projects include ‘Black Jacobins: The Caribbean Pavilion' at the 2010 Liverpool Biennial, the 2012 symposium and exhibition programme ‘Black Diaspora Visual Art’ in Barbados and Martinique, the 2016-2017 international knowledge-sharing platform ‘Curating the International Diaspora,’ and the 2016-2018 professional development programmes ‘Diaspora Pavilion and Beyond the Frame.’ ICF-curated film and performance events include ‘Island and Monster’ by artist Sheena Rose at the Royal Academy in 2016, 'Sensational Bodies’ as part of the 2018 Jerwood Staging Series and ‘Migrating Cities’ at Tai Kwun Art Centre in Hong Kong commissioned by UAL in 2019.
Kunsthalle Basel to support the first institutional exhibition in Europe of Dora Budor (24 May – 11 August 2019). The young Croatian-born artist (b. 1984) presents an ambitious and experimental site-specific exhibition. Using sound, dust, and environmental data, Budor turns the exhibition into a reactive biotope, acting as its own ecosystem.
Kunsthalle Basel commissions and produces ambitious, thought-provoking art and exhibitions by emerging artists. Established in 1872, the institution is renowned for its nearly 150-year history of engaging with pioneering practices in contemporary art. The exhibitions planned for 2019 expand on this tradition, nearly all including newly commissioned artworks while supporting artists to create some of their most audacious projects to date.
The V&A to support its flagship national schools programme, DesignLab Nation, launched in September 2017. Working in five regions, Sheffield, Sunderland, Stoke-on-Trent, Blackburn and Coventry, DesignLab Nation brings together secondary schools, museums and local industry, complemented by loans of V&A objects, to support the teaching of art, design and technology education. Highlights for 2018/19 include a ceramic tile by the Turner prize-winning artist Grayson Perry to Blackburn Museum, a brightly coloured scarf by luxury fashion designer Mary Katrantzou to the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry and an assortment of works by Christopher Dresser to Museums Sheffield.
The V&A is the world’s leading museum of art, design and performance, with collections unrivalled in their scope and diversity. It was established to make works of art available to all and to inspire British designers and manufacturers. Today, the V&A’s collections, which span over 5000 years of human creativity in virtually every medium and from many parts of the world, continue to intrigue, inspire and inform.
‘What is motivating today’s art institutions, and who do they want to be tomorrow? With the open call for visionary projects, the Outset Partners were able to survey the field of cultural ambition, hear and respond to the overpowering desire from museums to transform themselves, to bring voices previously on the margins into the heart of their activities. All of the chosen seven organisations demonstrated the courage to listen to the world around them and to be open to disruption of traditional power dynamics between institutions, artists and the public.
From school children holding world class design in their hands, to museum constituencies taking control of the future of collecting and exhibition making, these organisations are embracing new models and art practices with an emphasis on openness, collaboration and a society-wide journey towards a worthwhile future. Outset Partners believe it is vital to champion such brave, sensitive and intelligent transformation, and will support a remarkable body of work in the next few years.'Candida Gertler OBE, Co-Founder, Director, Trustee and Outset Director of Studiomakers Initiative
