Building the Collection

The criteria for works being added to Collection are:

Work must be excellent (of high quality and ambition)
Work must be recent
Works must demonstrate an important stage in an artist’s career
Works will be by artists who have not been purchased by the Arts Council, with the exception where work demonstrates a significant shift in an artist’s practice.

Gallery scene with stone sculptures, clay pots, plants in raised Perspex holders and a large central artwork held up by large legs on black steel rods showing hands stretching green material on a yellow background.

Barbara Knezevic | ‘Exquisite tempo sector’ | 2016 | Multimedia Installation

Purchases are overseen by the Collection Acquisitions Committee made up of members of the Arts Council, artists already represented in the Collection and independent experts.

Members of the committee are drawn from diverse backgrounds to ensure a wide range of approaches to the consideration of artists and practices.

The committee meets several times each year to consider, discuss and decide which new artworks should be acquired, in line with the criteria and policy for acquisitions.

a figure dressed in a red dress and shows dives head first into an orange sofa that is covered in butter, with tubs of butter lying on the floor beside them

Áine Phillips | ‘Buttered Up’ | 2017 | HD digital video | 6 min, 43 sec⁣⁣⁣⁣