Since 2017 the Manchester Contemporary Art Fund has donated funds for Manchester Art Gallery to acquire 14 works from The Manchester Contemporary which takes place alongside the annual Manchester Art Fair.
The fund is the initiative of Thom Hetherington, a Trustee of the Gallery’s fundraising charity. Thom’s passion for, and commitment to, the city’s collection led him to bring together a group of local business people who have contributed annually to support the fund.
The fund ensures that the city’s collection remains dynamic and relevant. It has funded work by artists represented by galleries in Manchester, London, Paris, Blackburn, Leicester, Stoke-On-Trent and New York. It offers the chance for younger, emerging artists to be represented in a major public collection, and have a closer relationship with the Gallery team and the donors who have supported their work.
This important partnership has led to the Fund being one of the largest of its kind outside London. It offers a unique opportunity for a new generation of Manchester business people to follow in the footsteps of the philanthropists who established and built the collection, a collection that began 200 years ago this year, and which belongs to the people of Manchester.
This year, to mark 200 years of collecting, the fund will triple in size to provide the gallery with £20,000 to acquire new works.
More about the Fund and its members, how to get involved and details of the artworks acquired can be found at: https://www.themanchestercontemporary.co.uk/mcrcontemporaryartfund
