Today Ben Uri has never been stronger compared to either when we started 18 years ago or at any time in our 103-year history.
Our purpose in 2001 was to try and secure a viable, productive future for Ben Uri following its gallery closure in 1996 and it was only kept alive after by the determination of our predecessors.
Eighteen years later, we have succeeded and the great legacies of the past are celebrated within an alive and vibrant institution.
We have the forward strategy, personnel, skill sets, infrastructure, methodology and now (part of) the money needed to secure a distinctive productive long term future driven by public benefit.
We added 300 works to the collection, including masterworks by Auerbach, Bomberg, Chagall, Epstein, Gertler, Herman, Kramer, Rosenberg, Soutine and Wolmark. Our educational films are on the National Education Network accessible to 20,000 schools.
We have curated more than 60 major shows and toured them nationally and internationally with surveys on Jankel Adler and Arthur Segal to come. Our scholarship has been recognised as pre-eminent after 15 years studying Jewish immigrant artists who came to Britain.
We have published more than 40 books and catalogues distributed internationally, principally on Jewish artists within the artistic rather than religious context. Our archives will be made available to the public for the first time next year and the collection is available to view and search on line, as are more than 50 short films.
Our research library added more than 200 books and will also be available to the public for the first time next year. After 10 years, our professional team are leaders in the field of researched art interventions using our collection for those living at risk of or with dementia.
Ben Uri’s ‘earned’ income in the 6 years up to 2000 was £293,000 and its costs were £419,000. In the 17 years to 2017, our earned income was £5.64m and costs were £5.53m. Collection acquisitions in the six years to 2000 was nil compared to £800,000 in the 17 years to 2017.
Net asset value went from £116,000 at the end of 1995 to £6.21m at the 2017. Unrestricted funds remain as scarce as they have always been and the Trustees addressed this decisively this autumn in the best interests of the charity. We greatly respect, but disagree with, the 11 of the 26 member advisory panel who felt obliged to resign.
We question the public benefit of having a majority of our collection languishing in long-term storage. What is the public benefit in having, for example, 60 sketches by Dagahani, 48 prints by Kaplan, 30 cartoons by ‘Vicky’ or 28 woodcuts by Pins when only one or two are rarely, if ever, exhibited?
We now critically measure return on investment programme by programme based on public benefit and engagement. The same formula evaluated the benefits of keeping certain seldom displayed works against the potential benefit their sales value will generate.
The comfort memories of a tight knit Jewish community in London, with Ben Uri as its centre of art and culture, is long gone .
Ben Uri can survive long-term either by large financial reserves, which we have never had (nor, as it happens, have any of the nine people who have written or spoken to the press in protest against our plan made any charitable donations to it since at least 2008) or by ensuring relevance and generating distinctive public benefit and added value.
Einstein identified the inevitability of generating the same result from repeating the same formula. Darwin recognised that it is the responsiveness to change that ensures survival.
Our strategic plan is built on the relevance of our existing strengths and focuses on two of the great challenges of our time: immigration and mental health for the elderly. The plan is online.
The Trustees and senior colleagues will continue to make the difficult and critical decisions as that is our responsibility. As a result, Ben Uri will continue to proudly represent, and bring credit to, the community from within the national mainstream cultural sector.
David Glasser is Executive Chair of Ben Uri
