Centenary Programme
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2010 was our centenary year. During the past 100 years we have donated more than 8,000 works to public collections in the UK where they are enjoyed by audiences everywhere.
In 2010 we marked our centenary through a programme of events, talks, displays and projects developed in close partnership with our sixty-four Member Museums and Galleries.
On 9 April 1909, a group of leading art world figures gathered at the home of arts patron, Lady Ottoline Morrell, 44 Bedford Square, Bloomsbury to discuss the foundation of a new society, which would promote the understanding and appreciation of contemporary art and develop public collections of contemporary art in the UK.
Initially known as the Modern Art Association, its founding committee met three times between April 1909 and May 1910, when the organisation was given the name it retains to this day.
Through our responsive and strategic programmes we continue to play a pioneering and unique role in supporting those institutions committed to developing their collections of contemporary art.
To download the Centenary Programme (pdf) please click here
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Establishing a Platform
An array of ideas and approaches to making more visible to audiences the impact that gifts and bequests have on the successful development of public collections.
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Talking Around Collections
A national talks and events programme that brought artists closer to the opportunities and challenges of working with public collections and drew audiences closer to a direct exchange with many of the artists working with us as part of this programme.
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In Fellowship
Working towards establishing new strategies for curating and working with public collections.
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The Guide
The Guide, a pocket book to the Contemporary Art Society’s sixty-three Member Museums, enables the reader to navigate England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland through their public collections of modern and contemporary art.
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100 Years of the Contemporary Art Society - What's Next?
The Centenary publication — drawn from the year’s programme; a collections of artist’s editions and new writing that records the Centenary Programme and looks forward to anticipate how public collections will be used, researched and developed in the future and available now.