WHO WE ARE

We are former members of the Art Fund Kent Events Committee who, after the fundraising committees were disbanded, decided to continue their event organising and fund-raising activities independently as Arts4Kent.

The new charity is registered with The Charity Commission (Charity Number 1187880).

WHO WE GIVE TO

Funds raised by Arts4Kent will be given either directly to museums and art galleries, or indirectly to similar organisations through the Art Fund. The intention of the funding is to assist museums and art galleries to make acquisitions to strengthen their collections; to support funding of special projects and occasionally to support efforts to save iconic art works from being sold overseas. More details can be found on the Grant Making Policy page.

GRANT AWARDS

We are delighted to announce that, thanks to your support over the last year, our grant of £3000 to Charleston House to help save one their most significant paintings, ‘Lessons in the Orchard’ by Duncan Grant, has been successful and it will now stay part of their permanent collection.

Previous Grant Recipients

• The Art Fund; The success of the acquisition of the Portrait of Mai (Omai) by Sir Joshua Reynolds was the result of a collaborative effort  with major contributions and donations from over 2,000 individuals, trusts, Art Fund members and National Portrait Gallery supporters. Now in public ownership, visitors will be able to see the portrait on display in the UK for the first time in 18 years.

• Towner Gallery, Eastbourne; In celebration of it’s centenary the gallery is hosting a number of important exhibitions including the Turner Prize and an important retrospective of the works of BarbaraHepworth.  The exhibition will be the most significant display of her work ever shown in the SouthEast and will include works from The Hepworth Wakefield’s permanent Collection, Tate, National Galleries of Scotland, private collections and also include five sculptures from the British Council collection.

• Touchbase; a dynamic and innovative community group located in Folkestone’s Creative Quarter. They take an innovative and holistic approach to supporting adults and young people with physical disabilities, learning difficulties, neurodiversity and sensory impairment. They provide a wide range of creative activities at the centre, and take a person entered approach so that members’ projects are tailored to meet their specific needs and interests. Touchbase was nominated by one of our subscribers and provides a wide range of creative activities.

• The Cranbrook Museum; Our donation is to cover the cost of the latest acquisition for the Cranbrook Colony Collection. This group of artists, mostly living in Cranbrook in the 1800s and known as the Cranbrook Colony, painted scenes of everyday life. One of their founders was F.D.Hardy and it is one of his works that has been purchased for the Museum to join two of his other works already in the Colony Room. The Museum is open from April to October in the afternoons and any Arts4Kent supporters who would like to see this newly acquired work would be warmly welcomed by the curators and their volunteers.

• Lullingstone Roman Villa; Our grant to the English Heritage Wall Painting appeal is to specifically assist in the conservation of the Roman wall painting at Lullingstone Roman Villa in Kent. Lullingstone Roman Villa contains an extremely rare survival of a Roman wall painting depicting water nymphs. Deep under the north wing of the villa a small cellar was used as a cult room, probably relating to a water deity or the veneration of water nymphs, with a small well or cistern located in the middle of the floor. The walls of the room were decorated with paintings, including a depiction of three water nymphs in a niche. This is by far the oldest wall painting in English Heritage’s care.

  Only two figures of the wall painting survive, and expert analysis has revealed salt efflorescence has developed on the painting's surface. English Heritage have performed emergency stabilisation of plaster and paint work at the site and have done a full survey to document the surviving painted plaster fragments in other areas. During 2022 English Heritage will carry out treatment and conservation of the paintings. The grant from Arts4Kent will support this conservation project.

• Art Fund; we gave £1,000 to the Art Fund’s ‘Join Together for Museums’ appeal to raise money to support UK museums during lockdown. Our small grant was matched with a further £1,000 by an anonymous donor. In a modest way these amounts helped the Art Fund achieve it’s goal of raising £1 million through this appeal.

• The Alexander Collection; Based in the Alexander Centre, Faversham, a historic house run by a not for profit Community Interest Company, the Alexander Collection is an annual exhibition of quality contemporary art by professional artists from Kent with around 5 or 6 artists being featured each year. The 2020 event was greatly impacted by the pandemic as was the Alexander Centre’s ability to raise sponsorship funding for a 2021 exhibition. Arts4Kent made a grant of £1,000 to help ensure that the 2021 Alexander Collection takes place.

We’d like to thank all our supporters and event participants for helping make these grants possible.