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Awarded £550,000 for Arts Council Collection National Partner Programme

Following a highly competitive selection process, we are one of just three national partners appointed to host the Arts Council Collection of contemporary artworks for the next three years. The award brings with it funding of £550,000 over the three years, April 2019 – March 2022 to deliver an ambitious programme of exhibitions in our two venues, and in off-site locations. The other partners are Firstsite in Colchester, Essex, and Sunderland Culture in Tyne and Wear.
We believe the funding will be transformational, creating new jobs, leading to more ambitious exhibitions and enabling us to work with the communities in Newlyn and Penzance in new ways.

“We want to invite local people and different communities to select work from the national collection, curating exhibitions which reflect their interests or concerns. Exhibitions will be presented at our galleries in Penzance and Newlyn, as well as in non-gallery locations across Newlyn, Penzance and Penwith, building on the success of our recent programme,” explains James Green, Gallery Director.

The funding will also enable us to create up to six new jobs to deliver this programme and we will be encouraging applications from right across the community.

“We are absolutely delighted to have been successful and given this opportunity. This is great news for the gallery, but also for Penzance and Newlyn. It means we can show even more outstanding contemporary art in West Cornwall, and create new jobs. We are looking forward to building relationships with the different community groups to bring about an exciting programme of exhibitions. We couldn’t be more thrilled!” says James.

“This is such good news for the gallery and demonstrates the confidence the Arts Council has in our ability to deliver such an ambitious project. It is also testament to the hard work of the whole team. I couldn’t be more proud of them,” said Miranda Bird, Chair of Trustees.

ABOUT THE ARTS COUNCIL COLLECTION

The Arts Council Collection is the most widely circulated national loan collection of modern and contemporary British art in the world, which now contains over 8,000 works including paintings, sculptures, prints and moving images. The collection is the principal source of modern and contemporary loans to museums and galleries across the UK. It has, for many years, played a valuable role in supporting galleries round the country through loans, touring exhibitions and curatorial training. The Collection welcomes requests for loans from galleries and museums as part of their exhibition and display programmes. Loans to UK museums and galleries are usually free of charge. For more information about the Arts Council Collection, go to www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk.