Mark Doyle awarded £65,000 from Art Fund

Touchstones Rochdale

Mark Doyle, Art Gallery Curator & Collections Manager at Touchstones Rochdale, has been awarded £65,000 to strengthen the existing holdings of work by female artists.

Now in its third year, the New Collecting Awards provides a budget to each winner to pursue a completely new avenue of collecting. This year the winners are working in museums and galleries based in Buxton, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London and Rochdale.

The winning collecting proposals include collecting eighteenth-century landscape depictions of Derbyshire and a project to strengthening holdings of work by female artists.

This latest round of funding included a special ring-fenced amount for pre-1600 curatorship, with support from The Ruddock Foundation for the Arts. The two collecting projects supported by this special funding are from the National Portrait Gallery in London and National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh.

Stephen Deuchar, Art Fund director said: "Our New Collecting Awards support the UK’s most promising, emerging curators by offering the much-needed funds - and invaluable access to advice – to help them learn at first hand the art of building museum collections. I can’t wait to see what they collect and how they present them to their visitors."

The programme responds to the need for ongoing collections development in our museums, underpinned by curatorial experience, vision and ambition. Award recipients also receive a specific funding allocation dedicated to their own professional development, to spend on research, travel and training costs, plus the ongoing support of Art Fund staff, trustees, and a mentor.