Labour plans to get some of the 15,000-piece national art collection “out of the basement and into communities”, says the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, who hopes it will inspire the next generation of artists all over the UK.
“We are determined to get the nation’s great artworks out of the basement and into communities where they belong,” said Nandy, who made the comments at the announcement of this year’s Robson Orr TenTen award.
The project, in its seventh year, involves a British artist being commissioned to create a work that is displayed in UK government buildings around the world and goes into the national art collection, with previous artists including Lubaina Himid, Rachel Whiteread and Michael Armitage.
Nandy added: “I’m going to lead by example with the government art collection to make sure that people in every part of the country can see what an incredible treasure trove that is and in turn be inspired to go on and create for the next generation.”
At present the collection, which is celebrating its 125th year in 2024, is displayed in government buildings in the UK and around the world, including the residences of British ambassadors and in 10 Downing Street.
The Grenada-born British artist Denzil Forrester was this year’s recipient and created Altar, a painting depicting a dub-reggae dancehall in Falmouth, not far from his home in Truro, Cornwall.
Forrester made the work, which shows a crowd moving to the low frequencies of dub music in thrall to a DJ on the stage, in situ, as the party was in full swing. He has done that for decades, starting in the clubs of Stoke Newington and Hackney in London.
Forrester said the work was a celebration of Cornish nightlife. “I’ve shown how light and sound distort the space, and used an aerial view to watch the scene unfold from above,” he said. “So it incorporates a lot of what I use in my paintings, as well as the brilliant light of Cornwall.”
The Stephen Friedman gallery will sell prints of the work and the proceeds will be used to buy more art from under-represented artists in the government collection.
Nandy did not expand on how the new approach to sharing the national art collection would work. At present it is shared with institutions via partnerships.
Last month, the Fabian Society, a leftwing thinktank, released a report that suggested art in national collections should be shared not just with arts institutions but also GP surgeries, hospitals, town halls and libraries in order to get “art, heritage and culture to the people of the UK where they are and where they spend time”.
Since taking office, Nandy has been vocal about the lack of equal access to the arts around the country and in industries such as TV and film, with some studies suggesting the workforce is made up of only 8% of people from working-class backgrounds.
While thanking Sybil Robson Orr and Matthew Orr, the philanthropists who started the TenTen award seven years ago, Nandy said their contribution could help address some of the imbalance across the regions.
She said the national collection showed the incredible talent that “we have and have had over the ages in every part of our country”.
“While talent is everywhere in the country, we’re aware that opportunity is not,” she added.
The issue of what art hangs in government buildings has created headlines since Labour came to power.
Last month, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced plans to replace every painting in the state room at No 11 Downing Street with artworks of or by women, saying she wanted to mark the lives of the “amazing women who have gone before us”.
Keir Starmer has also reportedly had a portrait of Margaret Thatcher removed from No 10, according to his biographer Tom Baldwin.