MIDDLESBOURGH.- A LINE IS A LINE FOR ALL THAT is a major new commission using vinyl for the 500m2 glass facade of the mima building by acclaimed New York artist Lawrence Weiner, and is the single largest commission ever produced by the artist in the UK. It is part of the Drawing in Progress exhibition at mima, that is now open to the public.

The exhibition shows a unique collection of some 40 post-war American drawings collected through the Art Fund International scheme that now form a significant strand of mima's collection - and is on show until March 2011.

mima has been collecting these works since 2007, in partnership with The Drawing Center, New York. All works have been acquired through Art Fund International, the £5 million funding initiative, launched by the Art Fund, the national fundraising charity for works of art, to encourage UK museums and galleries to build outstanding collections of international contemporary art.

mima is one of 5 partnerships within the scheme to each receive £1 million funding over a 5 year period. The theme for its collection is "drawings by artists from the Americas, across different generations and with varying degrees of renown". Works collected so far include those by Robert Breer, James Lee Bryars, Nathan Carter, Robert Gober, Michael Heizer, Ellsworth Kelly, Barbara Kruger, Adrian Piper, Fred Sandback, Robert Smithson and Al Taylor, amongst others.