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Gallery to expand LGBT collection

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Walker Art Gallery awarded funding for diverse new works.

The Walker Art Gallery has been awarded £60,000 by the Art Fund to expand its collection of works representing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) themes.

The funding will be granted as part of the New Collecting Awards, a landmark programme developed by the Art Fund to invest in talented curators with ambitions to develop collections within their galleries in innovative new ways.

Charlotte Keenan, Curator of British Art at National Museums Liverpool, is one of only five inaugural recipients selected from across the UK to benefit from the initiative, which will enable her to realise new ambitions for the Walker Art Gallery’s collections.

Charlotte Keenan said:

“I am thrilled to have been awarded this funding, as it will really help with the work I am doing as a curator and to progress the social justice agenda of National Museums Liverpool as a whole.

“I’m looking forward to bringing LGBT stories to our visitors through historic and contemporary art, opening up the collections to new audiences and allowing us to incorporate LGBT narratives into our permanent displays on a scale that has rarely been seen before.”

The funding will allow Charlotte to make several ambitious acquisitions of historic and contemporary art on behalf of the Walker Art Gallery, with each new work representing an LGBT theme or story.

The grant will also enable the Gallery to demonstrate how an LGBT perspective can enhance non-LGBT collections and reflect on the contribution of LGBT artists to art history – both nationally and internationally – within the gallery’s permanent displays.

Stephen Deuchar, Director of the Art Fund, said:

“Great museums depend on having great curators, so we’re keen to help support the profession wherever we can. The New Collecting Awards are intended to identify the star curators of the future and to support their collecting ambitions by giving them special acquisition grants, as well as offering mentoring and other assistance.

“We were extremely impressed by the quality of the applications, and by the presentations given by the 12 curators we shortlisted. We look forward to watching the five awardees in action – both through this project and in their longer term careers.”

National Museums Liverpool is committed to representing LGBT themes across the organisation and was recently awarded a grant of £91,863 from the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund to support its Pride and Prejudice project.

The New Collecting Awards funding will enable the organisation to build on the work that has already been carried out in this area in order to cement the future presence and visibility of LGBT-related collections across its museums and galleries.

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