Policy & Campaigns

Sally Wrampling
Head of Public Affairs
swrampling@artfund.org

Alison McGovern
Public Affairs Manager
amcgovern@artfund.org

 
Policy & Campaigns. Image: Unveiling of Burghers of Calais by Auguste Rodin © Mark Crick 2004.

The Art Fund believes that everyone should have the opportunity to experience great art at first hand, and has been campaigning energetically on behalf of museums and galleries from its earliest years.

As an independent, membership-based charity which receives no funding from government, The Art Fund is uniquely well placed to help shape arts policy and speak out on behalf of museums and their visitors.

The Art Fund campaigns under three broad headings:

Support our Queen and Country petition

The Art Fund has launched an online petition for public support to help Turner Prize winning artist Steve McQueen OBE complete the original vision of his work Queen and Country

We think Queen and Country is a unique and important work of art, in the highest tradition of war art commissions. The work takes the form of a stamp cabinet containing a series of facsimile postage sheets bearing multiple portrait heads, each one dedicated to a member of the British armed forces who has been killed in Iraq. Steve McQueen regards that his work will only be complete when Royal Mail agrees to issue the work as postage stamps.

The Art Fund has bought the work outright for the Imperial War Museum, and has launched an appeal to help Steve McQueen finish his powerful memorial to those who have lost their lives during the Iraq conflict. Learn more about the appeal and sign our online petition.

 

Tax Effective Giving

The Art Fund has long campaigned for the introduction of tax incentives that will foster a culture of giving in the UK.  As the state’s contribution is being eroded – by demands such as the 2012 London Olympics - we need to look at creative ways of boosting income.

We believe that the creation of a ‘culture of cultural giving’ is the key to producing a sustainable, creative future for our museums and galleries. This can only be achieved if philanthropy is celebrated and mechanisms are in place to leverage private and corporate money in to our collections.  There are several tax effective ways
to give. 

In 2007 we commissioned law firm Allen & Overy to produce a report comparing the tax regimes in the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland and the US.  The report highlights the kind of mechanisms that governments have developed to encourage private owners to open up their collections for enjoyment by the public, or to transfer ownership of their collections to the public domain.  While most jurisdictions offer incentives to encourage outright gifts of works of art to cultural institutions, there is a notable absence in the UK of income tax relief for gifts of works of art. – this is something we campaigned for with the Living and Giving Campaign in 2005.  Although this did not find political favour at the time, we are still committed to encouraging a more stable balance between public and private funding.

 
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