New Horizons Growing Sheffield’s Art Collection

An image of ceramic works placed on a white shelf against a white wall. The ceramics are of various shapes, in blue, yellow, cream and black colours.

A photograph of a ski slope in Sheffield. There are lots of lightpoles, all with their lights shining brightly, creating a starburst effect in the cameras lens. A few different ski slopes are visible between the lights. A playground and picnic benches are visible in the foreground.

Lubna Chowdhary, Certain Times LII, 2021 © the artist. Photo © Andrew Judd

Dan Holdsworth, Untitled (Sheffield Ski Slope), 1998 © Dan Holdsworth

Sheffield’s art collection has been expanding and evolving ever since it was founded 150 years ago. Today, it continues to develop, celebrating artistic excellence that reflects the world we live in and helps us find our place in it.

The city’s collection was first established to make great art accessible to Sheffield’s people, and it’s this founding principle that continues to see the collection grow. Sheffield Museums is a charity and has to fundraise to acquire artworks for the collection. But over the past decade, many extraordinary works have found their home in the city thanks to the relationships we’ve fostered, generous gifts from artists and collectors, thoughtful bequests, and the support of key organisations like Art Fund and the Contemporary Art Society.

New Horizons presented highlights of the paintings, works on paper, sculpture and video art that have joined the collection over the last ten years. Work by artists including Lubna Chowdhary, Lucian Freud, Dan Holdsworth, Grayson Perry, Bridget Riley, Marlene Smith, Mark Wallinger and more demonstrated art’s great power to speak to our lives now.

The exhibition also looked to the future, inviting visitors to consider how Sheffield can continue to grow an art collection that is representative and reflective of today’s society.

Over at the Graves Gallery, the exhibition was complemented by displays that showcased the full breadth of the city’s art collection, with over 250 works spanning the centuries through to the present day.

Growing, caring for and sharing the city’s collections is only possible thanks to you and your generosity – please donate £5 to ensure that everyone can continue to enjoy the very best in art and design here, on their doorstep.