We have formed a working group of stakeholders from across the visual arts and museums sectors to develop a shared strategy for developing our public collections of contemporary art.

A wider reference group has also been formed to act as an advisory body to consider the working group’s ideas as they develop. The working group will report back to DCMS with some first proposals in November 2008. It is anticipated that the strategy will be completed by summer 2009.

A number of research reports we have commissioned have informed the current options being discussed.

Sara Selwood of City University was commissioned to undertake a collections policy and literature review, focusing particularly on how Turning Point related to other collections schemes such as Art Fund International and the Contemporary Art Society’s Special Collections Scheme. Her report is available to download here:

Sara Selwood report
Appendix 1
Table 1
Table 2

Wendy Law (ex-Scottish Arts Council, independent consultant) and Tina Fiske (Glasgow University) were appointed to research international funding models and UK schemes that had supported contemporary art collecting. The executive summary and the full report and recommendations are published here:

Full report
Executive summary

A database was commissioned to review the potential for developing a national collections database, using the Arts Council Collection as a potential pilot:

Database

ixia, the public art think tank, were commissioned to review the relationship between the planning system, public art and museum collections. Their research is published here:

ixia report