Trust New Art: contemporary art in historic settings

National Trust is working in partnership with Arts Council England over a three-year period to increase the capability and quality of the charity’s work with the contemporary visual arts and craft sector. Residencies, commissions and a staff training programme are building the capacity of this major UK charity to work with the arts beyond the initial 2009-12 partnership.

In 2010, over 500,000 visitors had the chance to see projects and we worked with many artists and curators, including Sir Peter Blake, Mariele Neudecker, Jem Finer, Susie MacMurray, Meadow Arts, Museumaker and Parabola. The partnership developed through a mutual interest in giving amazing experiences to people in innovative ways. We share the belief that placing high-quality and innovative contemporary art within historic settings can inspire today’s artists and audiences and encourage new ways of looking at the work and the world.

National Trust is a conservation charity with a visitor experience business. It cares for over 300 places in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, including large houses with collections and gardens, along with smaller built properties. Less well known is that we look after over 250,000 hectares of land and over 700 miles of coastline. We have nearly 4 million members, and receive no statutory funding to carry our work. We work closely with over 60,000 volunteers who give their time and energy to help make these places open and accessible. We know that tens of millions of visits are made to our paid entry properties, and we estimate that over 100 million visits are made when our free to access land is factored in.

Arts Council England has a mission to develop promote and support the arts, helping the largest number of people possible to have high quality arts experiences. By investing in upskilling such a large, networked organisation as the National Trust, new opportunities open up for artists, arts organisations as well as audiences. Its investment of £150,000 for the partnership was combined with £165,000 from a National Trust dedicated arts fund to create a three-year post and a programme budget that could stimulate this work.

The Trust is changing its attitude to the places it looks after. Conservation is paramount and always will be, but we can be more creative with how people experience the places in our care. Contemporary art and craft are not a single ‘magic bullet’ approach: some places are so spectacular, or so delicate, that interventions with art could be too much and interfere with ‘spirit of place’. The Trust is putting the management of its places into the hands of the property teams, with advice and support provided by a national consultancy of specialists: places that want to do contemporary art can choose to do so and feel supported in that choice.

For some large ‘show palace’ type properties (Petworth House; Kedleston Hall; Croome Court; Ham House), commissioning contemporary art continues the legacy of patronage of the arts, collecting and connoisseurship demonstrated by the owner families through the centuries. For other places, it is their stories that inspire creativity: Nymans was the home of Oliver Messel, a major stage designer of the 20th century, his home a natural site for creative interventions; Orford Ness, a coastal gravel spit is also home to significant cold war nuclear development installations, now rusting and collapsing in the salt air, and have been the inspiration for Louise K Wilson and Dennis Creffield.

The ‘Trust New Art’ programme has been created through the partnership to provide a framework for the Trust to work with the arts beyond the sporadic activity of the last 30 years. The aim of the programme is to connect more people to National Trust places using contemporary art and craft. Interventions are to be temporary, as we are not seeking to build a collection of objects, but create opportunities for experiences. ‘Spirit of place’ must be at the heart of the experiences created, either the inspiration for new commissions, or the rich and resonant context for hosting existing work.
A ‘core’ programme of commissions is underway, with many delivering in 2012. In addition, the ‘associated’ programme helps to promote and develop further projects and partnerships that have emerged as knowledge of the Trust’s new work with contemporary art and craft has developed – we are pleased to now be working with Arts Council Collection. Running in parallel with this is an ‘organisational learning’ programme – training and advising property teams and using the expertise of a contemporary art advisory group including artists, freelance curators, and staff from some of our foremost arts institutions such as Tate St Ives, Contemporary Art Society, Royal Academy and Crafts Council.

The Trust’s work with contemporary art and craft is only just beginning, and there is amazing potential for further activity in other artforms. We are prepared to challenge our traditional audience’s expectations, and feedback to some projects suggests this is the case. But the positive feedback outweighs this and suggests people are open to the new possibilities of what heritage and contemporary art can achieve.