The Arts Council of Wales’s Collectorplan gives everyone the opportunity to own and enjoy art. Collectorplan is an interest free loan scheme that makes it possible to spread the cost of buying contemporary art and craft made by living Welsh artists over a 12-month period. The scheme covers a range of different items from paintings and prints to ceramics and handcrafted blankets and jewellery.
But it’s much more than just a loan; it also supports the livelihoods of artists and makers during the current cost of living crisis.
Collectorplan was suspended for three months at the start of the covid-19 pandemic, but it has since bounced back. 853 interest-free Collectorplan loans were approved during the 2021-22 financial year compared to 478 in 2020-21. An additional 13 galleries in all parts of Wales, have joined the scheme since the pandemic.
Dafydd Rhys, Chief Executive of Arts Council of Wales also said,
“Public funding for the arts has always had the twin goals of promoting great work and widening access to the arts. We believe art should be for everyone. Our aims with Collectorplan are to make owning pieces of art as easy and as accessible to as wide a range of people as possible, and to support artists and the staff of art galleries across Wales.
“Collectorplan has been in existence since 1983 and is one of the ways in which we can encourage the widening of access to the arts, while also supporting the livelihoods of artists and makers living in Wales, and help them continue to create great art.”
There are now 75 galleries across Wales offering Collectorplan interest-free loans in the run-up to the Christmas period, The scheme supports the local economy: local galleries see an increase in sales because of Collectorplan, and it helps artists and craftspeople make a living from their work.
END 22 November 2022
Notes to editors:
More information about the Collectorplan scheme is available here.
The galleries that have joined the Arts Council of Wales Collectorplan scheme since the pandemic are:
- Gallery at Home, Usk
- Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Merthyr Tydfil
- Found Gallery, Brecon
- Canfas Art Gallery, Ceredigion
- Life Full Colour, Caernarfon
- Oriel Llanteglos, Llanteg
- Ivy House Gallery, Llandeilo
- Blackwater Gallery, Cardiff
- 2 London Place, Borth
- Cardiff MADE, Cardiff
- Studio Cennen, Llandeilo
- Oriel Canfas, Cardiff
- Tides Fine Art Gallery, Swansea
The Arts Council’s submission to a recent meeting of the Senedd’s Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee on the cost-of-living crisis, can be seen here.