LONDON.- Building on the outstanding successes of the ARTIST ROOMS tours in 2009 and 2010, which have seen over 60% of the ARTIST ROOMS Collection shown at institutions across the UK in the first two years, with 377 works lent in 2010 alone, National Galleries of Scotland and Tate announced plans for 2011. The tour in 2011 will include venues in Dumfries, Hull, Kendal, Kilmarnock, Leeds, Llandudno and Orkney and 23 ROOMS will open in that year. The Art Fund, the national fundraising charity for works of art, also announced today that, for the third year running, it is sponsoring the UK tour with funding of £250,000 including funds set aside for regional galleries to spend on promotional, community and educational activities.

Nineteen venues will show ARTIST ROOMS exhibitions and displays in the new programme for 2011 from the collection created by Anthony d’Offay and acquired by the nation in February 2008. A further two venues will show Ed Ruscha as part of the Highland tour of this artist’s work which began in 2010. ARTIST ROOMS On Tour with the Art Fund and supported by the Scottish Government has been devised to enable this collection held by Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland, to reach and inspire new audiences across the country, particularly young people.

Highlights of the 2011 tour will include:

A Damien Hirst ARTIST ROOMS display at Leeds Art Gallery, in Hirst’s home town and place of study. This will be the first time Hirst’s work has been shown in a major display in Leeds and will include his seminal piece Away from the Flock 1994

Ed Ruscha’s The Music from the Balconies 1984, a major oil painting given to ARTIST ROOMS by the artist in 2009, will be included in an extended exhibition at Wolverhampton Art Gallery. This work has never before been seen in the UK outside London.

Major Warhol exhibitions will go on show at venues in the south of England. At Southampton City Art Gallery, for the first time, all of the paintings by Warhol in the ARTIST ROOMS collection will be shown together while Warhol’s film and photography works will be shown simultaneously at Southampton University’s John Hansard Gallery. Warhol’s practice will also be the subject of a significant show at The De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill which will feature additional loans alongside key works from ARTIST ROOMS.

A selection from Anthony d'Offay's long loan to ARTIST ROOMS of 177 photographs by the master photographer August Sander will go on display at the Dean Gallery in Edinburgh, providing an opportunity for an increasingly wide audience to view his extraordinary works

The ARTIST ROOMS tours are estimated to have reached around 12 million people nationally, including those in London and Edinburgh. Outside the Capitals, ARTIST ROOMS will have been seen by the end of the second year of the tour by over one million people, from Thurso to Bexhill, Eastbourne to Helmsdale and from Llandudno to Stornoway. And by the end of the third year, 70 ARTIST ROOMS will have been shown across the UK, the work of 28 artists will have been shown and 39 venues, including Tate and National Galleries of Scotland will have taken part. A total of 372 works went on tour in 2009 with a further 377 lent in 2010. Works will travel in 2011 to six venues participating in the tour for the first time ensuring the collection will continue to reach new geographical areas and audiences. Six of the venues in 2011 being announced today have shown ARTIST ROOMS in previous tours, thereby continuing to build a network for contemporary-art audiences locally.

Individual ARTIST ROOMS which have proved especially popular have included, Beuys at the Hunterian Art Gallery in Glasgow in 2010 which attracted over 37,000 visitors, Beuys at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill in 2009 with 56,000 visitors, Warhol at Wolverhampton Art Gallery in 2009 with 87,000 visitors, Diane Arbus at the National Museum in Cardiff in 2009 with over 33,000 visitors, Diane Arbus at Nottingham Contemporary in 2010 with approximately 64,000 visitors, Ron Mueck at Manchester Art Gallery in 2010 with 66,000 visitors and Andy Warhol at Perth Museum and Art Gallery attracting over 50,000 visitors in the first four months. The collection has also been seen in more remote parts of the country including the Pier Art Centre in Orkney with Bill Viola attracting over 14,000 and An Lanntair in Stornoway attracting around 10,000 to the Ian Hamilton Finlay ARTIST ROOMS exhibition in the last month.

The full 2011 ARTIST ROOMS tour will be as follows:

Aberdeen Art Gallery
Diane Arbus - 5 February - 9 April 2011

The Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney
Alex Katz and Cy Twombly - 26 March – 4 June 2011

Southampton City Art Gallery and John Hansard Gallery, Southampton
Andy Warhol - 27 March - 26 June 2011

Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries
Vija Celmins - 21 May – 31 July 2011

Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Ed Ruscha - 28 May – 29 October 2011

Ferens Art Gallery, Hull
Francesca Woodman - 11 June - 23 October 2011

Leeds Art Gallery
Damien Hirst - July – September 2011

Dick Institute, East Ayrshire Council, Kilmarnock
Bill Viola - 3 September - 24 December 2011

The De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea
Andy Warhol - 24 September 2011 – 8 January 2012

Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Lakeland Arts Trust, Kendal
Richard Long - October – December 2011

National Museum Cardiff
Joseph Beuys - 22 October 2011 - 15 January 2012

Mostyn, Llandudno
Anselm Kiefer – 26 November 2011 – 10 March 2012

Continuing into 2011 will be the Ed Ruscha ARTIST ROOMS Highland tour that began in 2010 at Inverness Museum & Art Gallery:

Swanson Gallery, Thurso
Ed Ruscha - 15 January - 26 February 2011

Timespan in Helmsdale
Ed Ruscha - 5 March - 16 April 2011

ARTIST ROOMS exhibitions in 2011 at National Galleries of Scotland and Tate galleries will include:

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Jeff Koons - February – June 2011

Dean Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
August Sander - February – June 2011

Tate Modern, London
Diane Arbus, Joseph Beuys, Jenny Holzer - spring 2011 - spring 2012

Tate Britain, London
artist to be confirmed - September 2011 - April 2012

Tate Liverpool
Robert Therrien - 24 June - 16 October 2011

Tate St Ives
Agnes Martin - 14 May - 25 September 2011