Latest projects we have supported
Birmingham Royal Ballet
£12,500 in support of Ashton Classics with Birmingham Royal Ballet, a dance and music showcase that celebrates the work and legacy of Frederick Ashton. BRB will perform 11 extracts of Ashton's work from fan favourites to rarely performed pieces to demonstrate the diverse range of his distinctive work to audiences at the Birmingham Symphony Hall in February 2025.
Towner, Eastbourne
£89,000 to pay for the installation of solar panels on the roof of the gallery, a move that will save some 12% of the building's high electricity bills per year.
The Wigmore Hall Trust
£100,000 towards its Director's Fund, established by its Director John Gilhooly to help the Hall survive without any public funding.
£150,000 over three years to support the Hall's Vocal Series.
The Victoria and Albert Museum
£50,000 to enable the V&A to purchase an album of designs by AWN Pugin relating to his collaboration with the builder George Myers. Following the Museum's recent purchase of the AWN Pugin Archive highlighting his work with metalwork manufacturer John Hardman & Co,, also funded by RMDSF, this will strengthen substantially its Pugin holdings.
The Architecture Foundation
£150,000 over 5 years to establish an annual Rick Mather Lecture, underlining Rick's important work in the field of sustainability, and to contribute to the Foundation's general costs.
The Royal Ballet
£25,000 to support the new production of Ashton's ballet Les Rendezvous in June 2024; and £25,000 to help the Royal Ballet support the visit of the Sarasota Ballet with an all-Ashton programme in the same period.
Parmigianino, The Madonna and Child with Saints John the Baptist and Jerome ('The Vision of Saint Jerome'), 1526-7 (NG33), following conservation and reframing. © The National Gallery, London
Studies of Saints John the Baptist and Jerome, a Crucifix, and Various Heads, about 1525-7. Red chalk. 13.5 x 22.1 cm. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California (Inv. 87.GB.9). Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program.
The National Gallery
£47,560 to fund Dr Maria Alambritis to undertake research around Parmigianino'sThe Vision of St Jerome(1526-7), supporting the exhibition at the Gallery to mark the painting's return to public view for the first time in a decade, following conservation treatment.
Anonymous British, The Beast of Gévaudan carrying off a woman, etching on laid paper, WA2003.Douce.14203. © Ashmolean Museum
Boëtius Adamsz. Bolswert, Frontispiece to the series 'Landschappen met boerderijen', with ten lines of Latin verse in a dolphin cartouche, topped by a shepherd and a shepherdess, engraving and etching on laid paper, WA2003.Douce.13779. © Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum
£50,000 to fund an 18-month internship by Sophie Scott in order to digitise, research and catalogue the Museum's extensive and diverse Douce Collection of prints and to make it accessible online.
The Garden Museum
£39,000 to fund Mary Duggan Architects to develop the design of a new pavilion for horticultural maintenance and training to the successful award of planning permission and listed building consent.
Music Preserved
£23,160 over two years to fund the digitisation and publication of recordings in the Music Preserved collection, plus the production of podcasts related to its material.
Chelsea Physic Garden
£81,000 to fund two 18-month traineeships over three years, following the success of the earlier 12-month traineeship. The trainees will benefit from the range of plants and expertise available in the garden, giving an excellent grounding for their horticultural careers.
Earlier projects we supported
The Great Dixter Trust
£150,000 over five years to fund an annual scholarship, enabling an outstanding existing scholar to extend their study at Great Dixter beyond the first year. Great Dixter is an inspirational garden and gives exceptional training to its Christopher Lloyd Scholars, many of whom have gone on to hold important horticultural posts. The scholar for this year is Robert Flack.
Human Dignity Trust
£30,000 over three years to support its work using the law to advance and defend LGBT rights around the world. 66 jurisdictions around the world still criminalise private, consensual sexual activity between people of the same sex and the Human Dignity Trust uses strategic litigation and legislative reform to change this.
Chelsea Physic Garden
£25,000 to fund a horticultural traineeship for 2023/24, providing an amazing opportunity for a budding horticulturalist to learn the skills and expertise needed for a successful career.
Towner, Eastbourne
£50,000 to help with the adaptation of Rick Mather's design to accommodate a larger café with an expanded offer supporting growing audience numbers at the gallery especially in its Centenary year.
The Courtauld
£26,696 to fund the purchase of a proof impression of The Parrot by Mary Cassatt, addressing a significant gap in their holdings of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.
The Wigmore Hall Trust
£150,000 over three years to support its International Vocal Series, featuring some of the world's most important recitalists.
The Victoria and Albert Museum
£50,000 towards its acquisition of an archive of design drawings by A W N Pugin relating to his work with John Harman and Co, an important addition to the V&A's Architecture and Design Collections.
The Frederick Ashton Foundation
£30,000 over three years to support their Shadowing Scheme, which provides training for those who will be responsible for mounting Ashton's ballets around the world.
The Dame Margot Fonteyn Scholarship Fund
£15,000 over three years to support bursaries for outstanding young dancers to participate in the Royal Academy of Dance's annual Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition.
Manchester Art Gallery
£27,000 to allow the gallery to purchase two of the Black Paintings by Derek Jarman, which will help it develop its collection of contemporary art and its relationship with sections of the LGBT+ community in the city.