Art Gallery receives £26,000 grant to digitise collection

Southampton City Art Gallery has received a £26,000 grant to digitise a significant portion of its art collection.

The National Lottery project grant will help make more of the gallery’s collection available online for the public to view.

Currently, only the gallery’s oil paintings and sculptures have been digitised, in partnership with Art UK.

The new project will focus on works on paper, which have not been digitised before.

These pieces, roughly 1,500 in total, have not been often displayed due to their sensitivity to light. They are also not listed in a public catalogue.

The gallery will work with Southampton Solent University to carry out the project.

Councillor Lorna Fielker, leader of Southampton City Council, said: “We’re thrilled to have been awarded this grant from Arts Council England, on top of the £2.23m investment supporting the refurbishment of the Art Gallery from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s Museum Estate and Development Fund.

“Culture is fundamental to shaping our vision of this wonderful city, and we need to keep investing in our nationally important cultural assets to increase public access.”

The digitisation project is set to start in early 2025 and finish by early 2026, during the gallery’s ongoing refurbishment.

The gallery plans to use the digitised images to keep the public engaged during the refurbishment. This will include virtual exhibitions on the gallery’s website and the Art UK website, as well as a social media campaign.

Southampton Solent University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor James Knowles, said: “Art has a profound impact on communities, and projects like this one are essential in ensuring everyone has access to public art.

“I am therefore delighted that Solent is partnering with Southampton City Art Gallery to bring art to our communities and give our students meaningful work experience which reinforces their connection to the city and its history.”

The Southampton City Art Gallery has a fine art collection that is recognised as nationally significant, with pieces dating back eight centuries.

The new project is expected to make a large part of this collection more accessible to the public.