Metadata: Ben Uri Gallery Archives
Collection
- Country:
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Holding institution:
- Ben Uri Gallery and Museum
- Holding institution (official language):
- Ben Uri Gallery and Museum
- Postal address:
- 108a Boundary RoadSt John's Wood London Greater London United Kingdom
- Phone number:
- Telephone: +44 20 7604 3991
- Web address:
- https://benuri.org.uk/
- Reference number:
- Ben Uri Gallery Archives
- Title:
- Ben Uri Gallery Archives
- Title (official language):
- Ben Uri Gallery Archives
- Date(s):
- 1915/2015
- Language:
- English
- German
- Yiddish
- Extent:
- c. 250 boxes
- Scope and content:
- This collection is the corporate archive of the Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, with material dating to the gallery’s inception. It includes exhibition catalogues and the work of the art committees, material including correspondence relating to the management of the collections. The archive contains material relating to the appointment of Officers , membership of the Council, Annual Reports and AGM papers. The financial papers include accounts and valuations but also details of fundraising.There are volumes of press cuttings (since 1915) and details of social media campaigns and outreach and an extensive series of artist files featuring correspondence and publicity material. There is also a large volume of material relating to its music, literature, film, lecture programmes, as well as the Yiddish Circle, Memorial Meetings series, and the dinner, dances and parties, as well as their Studio Programme.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Ben Uri was founded by Lazar Berson, a Russian-Jewish émigré in 1915 in Whitechapel, in London's East End. It was originally an art society, and from 1925, also a gallery and club for Jewish immigrant artists who were unable to access mainstream art societies at that time, due to social discrimination and obstacles faced by migrant communities; it began to build a collection from 1919 onwards and was significantly enriched during the 1930s by the influx of so-called 'Hitler émigrés'.In the postwar period, Ben Uri became the cornerstone of the Jewish community’s cultural activity until the late 1970s. In 1995, Ben Uri gained museum status but lost its Soho gallery when the synagogue building in which it was housed was sold. A new Board of Trustees was elected in October 2000, led by current Chair of Trustees, David Glasser, to deliver a radical strategy to reshape and reposition the institution. The charity/museum was relaunched in 2001 by the new Board, with a new name, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, renting its current gallery in St. John’s Wood since June 2002.Between 2001 and 2018, Ben Uri curated some 100 exhibitions, toured to 25 different cities across 3 continents, published and distributed over 40 books and catalogues, nationally and internationally, and produced over 100 short films. Its scholarship on Jewish and immigrant artists is recognised internationally. Furthermore, Ben Uri has also pioneered a new approach to using art differently through its Arts and Dementia programming, within its Arts and Health Institute; working with universities, its content and structure are the result of research and evaluation. The objective is to upscale and establish a new national standard for art interventions.Most significantly, in 2018 Ben Uri published its long term Sustainability and Public Benefit Strategic Plan which embraced a digital future as its primary vehicle of engagement - supported by a physical presence - rather than the reverse. In 2029 it transformed publicly by launching the 'First Full Scale Virtual Museum and Research Centre' at www.benuri.orgwww.benuri.org features the museum's collection (including new acquisitions), principally reflecting the Jewish and immigrant contribution to British art since 1900, and containing an itemised exhibition list from 1925 onwards, as well as an archive containing thousands of digitised items, and shortly, a digitised catalogue of its art reference library. It also includes online exhibitions, podcasts and audio material, as well as showcasing the work of Ben Uri's two principal and distinctive public benefit-generating initiatives: the Ben Uri Research Unit for the study and digital recording of the Jewish and immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900 (BURU), and the Ben Uri Arts and Health Institute (BUAH), which addresses and researches the role and construction of art interventions, using the museum's collection as a resource, for the growing demographics of older people living in social isolation and/or with dementia.
- Access points: locations:
- London
- Subject terms:
- Art
- Access, restrictions:
- Access to the physical archive collection is available by appointment and consultation with the gallery staff. Emails expressing interest in the collection or queries about other archives which the gallery houses, as well as artefacts and artwork, may be sent to: archives@benuri.org.uk or admin@benuri.org
- Yerusha Network member:
- AIM25
