New Funding Model Behind The British Pavillion

08 June 2009, The Art Newspaper

Steve McQueen’s work set to end up in a public collection thanks to Outset and the Art Fund.

By Louisa Buck

Not only is a new and eagerly anticipated film work by Steve McQueen to be unveiled in the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, but the piece itself also owes a substantial part of its existence to an important new funding collaboration in the UK. This relationship has been forged between the philanthropic patrons of Outset Contemporary Art Fund and the Art Fund, Britain’s leading independent art charity.

While the British Pavilion is maintained by the British Council, the body has limited recourses to support the production of new work. So along with the artist’s galleries (Thomas Dane in London and Marian Goodman in New York), Outset and the Art Fund are not only helping to fund the piece but are also dedicated to placing at least one edition in a public museum or gallery.

“We are thrilled to be supporting an artist of the calibre of Steve McQueen and are delighted to have brought in the Art Fund as partner in the initial project that was suggested to us by Thomas Dane,” says Outset’s Candida Gertler. “It is the remit of Outset’s production fund to support the most exciting and ambitious work and then to donate it to a public institution.” The Art Fund, which already has close links with McQueen, having purchased his “Queen and Country” commemorative stamps for London’s Imperial War Museum, is in agreement. “Outset are founded from the same principles that the Art Fund started from, which is the need to have the very best art in public collections—that’s where we began in 1903, that’s where we still are and that’s where they are too,” says Andrew Macdonald, the Art Fund’s deputy director.