For the first time since Frieze launched in 2003, no purchases will be made by the Outset/Frieze Art Fair Fund to benefit the Tate’s collections. After raising £1.8m to buy 100 works by 69 artists at previous editions of the fair, the patrons’ group has decided to end its sponsorship of this annual tradition and will now channel its resources elsewhere.
Quite who will support the Frieze purchase fund in the future remains to be seen. “From next year, we will look for another partner, because the fund’s work has given us the opportunity to acquire major works,” says Nicholas Serota, the director of the Tate. “We look forward to launching a new fund in 2016,” he says, while acknowledging Outset’s longstanding support. Candida Gertler, Outset’s co-founder and director, says that supporting the Tate will remain an important part of the fund’s activities, but that ending its sponsorship “gives someone else the opportunity to take over this Frieze fund and to run it with new energy”.