13/08/2020
The Golden Thread Gallery is delighted to announce that we have been awarded a grant through Art Fund’s Respond and Reimagine programme.
The grant will allow us not only to survive and re-open in these challenging circumstances, but to take a huge step forward in celebrating and protecting Northern Ireland’s legacy of contemporary visual art. The necessity of creating a permanent Collection here in Northern Ireland has been made even more clear to us through the Covid-19 crisis, which hit artists particularly hard. Building on our ten-year project of exhibitions and publications, ‘Collective Histories of Northern Irish Art’, which set out to create a useful historical context from which audiences and educators could engage with the stories of this place through the art of our time, we will now be able to establish the Golden Thread Collection with the highest standard of collection management systems and storage.
The Respond and Reimagine grant will also go towards the post Covid-19 adaptations required to re-open the Golden Thread Gallery safely, and to welcome back and rebuild our audiences, following almost six months of lockdown closure.
Art Fund’s Respond and Reimagine grants offer flexible and responsive funding designed to meet immediate challenges connected to the Covid-19 crisis and reimagine future ways of working. In the first round, 18 grants were given, from a total of 114 applications. Developed in consultation with museums and galleries, the grants meet needs in four priority areas of collections, audiences, digital, and workforce. They may also cover costs to support reopening, as well as encouraging creative and innovative projects as organisations look to reopen with fundamentally different operating models. Respond and Reimagine Grants will provide £1.5m in 2020 to support museums, galleries, historic houses, libraries and archives, and non-venue-based visual arts organisations, and is part of Art Fund’s £2m package of funding to support museums through crisis.
The deadline for the next round of Respond & Reimagine grants is 17 August 2020, and a final round will take place in the autumn.
The Board and Management of the Golden Thread Gallery would like to express our thanks to Art Fund for their generous support.
ENDS
Media enquiries:
Press Information
Saran McAvera, Deputy Director, Golden Thread Gallery
[email protected] / 028 90 330920
Notes to editors:
Golden Thread Gallery
Golden Thread Gallery (GTG) has played an important role in the provision of contemporary visual art in Belfast and Northern Ireland since it was established in 2001. Our mission is to present quality and innovative artistic programmes that capture the diversity of contemporary arts practice, and which engage, educate, challenge and inspire. We strive to build and engage the widest possible audience for contemporary arts, extending the reach of the arts, nurturing a deep understanding and enjoyment of current visual arts practice within the broader community, while developing, supporting and promoting the work of contemporary Northern Irish artists and visual arts practice. The GTG is a recognised charity, and our core funders are the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council.
Art Fund
Art Fund is the national fundraising charity for art. It provides millions of pounds every year to help museums to acquire and share works of art across the UK, further the professional development of their curators, and inspire more people to visit and enjoy their public programmes. Art Fund is independently funded, supported by the 159,000 members who buy the National Art Pass, who enjoy free entry to over 240 museums, galleries and historic places, 50% off major exhibitions, and receive Art Quarterly magazine. Art Fund also supports museums through its annual prize, Art Fund Museum of the Year, which was won by St Fagan’s National Museum of History, Cardiff, in 2019, and through a range of digital platforms.