The Contemporary Art Society (CAS) and Frieze London have announced they are partnering on a new acquisition fund to support museums in the UK regions. This year’s £50,000 fund has been awarded to Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (Mima). The museum in the north-east of England plans to buy a work at Frieze London in October that addresses the migration crisis, according to Caroline Douglas, the director of CAS.
The public institution beat 70 other members in an open competition for the award. “Mima made a fantastic case to acquire a work that focuses on the most urgent topic of our time,” Douglas says, noting that Middlesbrough has the highest concentration of refugees in the country. “They are doing some radical thinking about the role of the museum in the 21st century.”
Mima describes itself as a “useful museum” after Cuban artist Tania Bruguera’s concept of Arte Util, a type of art with a social function. “It means that the museum is not just a repository for beautiful things, but reaches out to the community and uses art as a means of social change,” Douglas says.
Alistair Hudson, the director of Mima, says that the “urgent issues” facing the region have persuaded him to “evolve a new institutional model”. He adds: “Ours is a vibrant, complex, post-industrial region that was created by migrants, and we view this story as an asset to inform and shape our culture and influence social change.”
CAS set up its original collections fund in 2012—acquiring works by Simon Fujiwara for Leeds Art Gallery and Hito Steyerl for GoMA Glasgow, among others—although the society has been quietly supporting UK museums since its foundation in 1910. Last year it placed 43 works of art and craft with 22 museums up and down the country.
Frieze London and CAS’s new collections fund is co-chaired by Beatrice Lupton with Cathy Wills and Anna Yang. The committee includes Nicola Blake, Hugo Brown, Theo Danjuma, Jill Hackel, Helen Janecek, Ken Rowe and Paul Smith.
