Contemporary Art Society


The Contemporary Art Society is an organisation founded to encourage the awareness and appreciation of contemporary art in the United Kingdom. Using money donated by its friends and supporters, it purchases works of art which it then donates to public museums and galleries.

Background

Founded in 1910, the Contemporary Art Society has since then donated over 8,000 works to galleries and museums, including works by Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore.
The CAS enabled the donation of the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection of about 800 works to the Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester, previously on loan for ten years at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin.
The Contemporary Art Society received funding from Arts Council England towards its core costs; in 2014–2015 this amounted to £175,655.