ArtUK wins National Lottery Heritage Funding

December 9 2025

Picture: artuk.org

Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:

ArtUK, the online home of the nation's catalogue of art, has won preliminary funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to work on a new phase of project work. Most excitingly and relevant for this blog, this will include 'plan[ning] a transformative programme around digitally sharing images of the UK's national collection of art, leading the museum sector towards making more of their public domain images freely available, and making vital investments in our digital infrastructure.'

According to the article linked above:

The ultimate programme will support public collections across the UK to adopt open access for images of public domain artworks – or in other words, artworks that are no longer protected by copyright and where no new rights can be asserted in the digital image surrogates.

Here are the main focuses of their plan:

1. Build the required digital infrastructure

2. Encourage and facilitate a major shift towards open image licensing by UK museums

3. Encourage creative re-use by audiences

4. Encourage community engagement across the project

AHN wishes the project all the very best!

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