Lottery win for SPRI

The award, announced today, is part of a new £3million grants package handed out by the HLF to 22 museums and gallery acquisition projects across the UK. Almost 100 museums nationwide competed for this one-off scheme.

The £200,000 SPRI grant will help increase their already impressive Inuit collection with some 250 key pieces from the period 1950-1990. This will give the Institute chance to provide a fuller examination of Inuit life, traditions and culture in Canada, Alaska and Greenland.

Professor Julian Dowdeswell, Director of SPRI, said: "The Arctic is obviously interesting not just in terms of its history - but especially so in terms of its culture. This unique grant will allow us to build our collection of Inuit material and greatly enhance our ability to project the changing Arctic world in more nuanced and inclusive ways."

Following the award, SPRI will offer training for volunteers in a variety of areas, including acting as guides for exhibitions and activities. The Institute also intends to organise creative writing and art workshops for school groups, print workshops for the general public as well as lectures, artist workshops and object handling events. There are also plans to create a touring exhibition.

Dr Huw Lewis-Jones, Curator of Art, who prepared the bid with colleagues at SPRI, welcomed the news. He said: “We are all hugely excited by this generous acquisition grant. It presents us with wonderful opportunities to draw together a network of artists, experts and scattered collections in Britain and overseas.

“It enables us to carry forward the advocacy of the late Charles Gimpel and many others who have been championing Inuit art for decades, whilst also, quite rightly, directing attention to the artists themselves working across northern Canada and Greenland.

“Through collection, exhibitions, and other outreach events we hope to engage a new audience with this fine sculpture and graphic material, not as a ‘tribal’ or ‘touristic’ handicraft, but as beautiful and sophisticated contemporary art, deeply rooted to the history, culture, and environment of the Arctic.”

The HLF awards come under the Fund’s Collecting Cultures scheme which aims to support acquisitions, curatorial skills, research and increased public development.

Dame Liz Forgan, Chair of the HLF, said: “Collecting Cultures is a groundbreaking scheme for the Heritage Lottery Fund – it’s the first time we’ve given applicants the opportunity to seek out and purchase what they need to develop and build their collections strategically.”