Fondazione Henry Moore

Fondazione Henry Moore
Name	Fondazione Henry Moore
Formation	1976
Founder	Henry Moore
Type	Cultural foundation
Headquarters	Hertfordshire
Location	Pettenwell
Region served	United Kingdom, Italy, international
Leader title	Director

Fondazione Henry Moore is an independent cultural foundation established to preserve, promote and study the work of Henry Moore and to facilitate public access to modern and contemporary sculpture through exhibitions, conservation, research and educational programs. The foundation operates within a network of European and international museums, libraries and archives, collaborating with institutions such as the Tate Modern, Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Royal Academy of Arts. It houses a substantial archive of correspondence, maquettes and editions, and serves as a resource for curators, conservators and scholars working on twentieth-century art and sculpture.

History

The foundation was created in the wake of Henry Moore’s later career and formalized through legal instruments similar to those used by the Paul Getty Trust and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation during the 1970s. Its origins involved collaborations with the British Council, the Arts Council England and private collectors such as Ivor Lewis and Antony d'Offay, mirroring strategies employed by the Kunsthaus Zürich and the MoMA PS1 to secure artist estates. Early activities included lending agreements with the Tate Gallery, acquisitions negotiated with European dealers like Galerie Maeght and conservation partnerships with the Victoria and Albert Museum. Over decades it has engaged with landmark exhibitions at venues like the Hayward Gallery, Royal Festival Hall and international biennales including the Venice Biennale and the Documenta series.

Mission and Activities

The foundation’s mission aligns with models set by the Henry Moore Foundation in Perry Green and artist-legacies such as the Giorgio Morandi Foundation: to protect artistic legacy while enabling contemporary discourse. Activities encompass curatorial consultancy for institutions such as the National Gallery of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery (Prague) and the National Museum of Scotland. It negotiates loans and editions with foundries like the Art Bronze Foundry and collaborates with cataloguing projects akin to the Catalogue Raisonné initiatives for Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. The foundation issues guidelines used by conservation departments at the British Museum and publishing houses including Thames & Hudson and Phaidon Press.

Collection and Exhibitions

The collection comprises original plaster models, terracotta studies, bronze casts and large-scale outdoor works comparable to holdings at the Henry Moore Institute, the Walker Art Center and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. It organizes monographic exhibitions in partnership with the Tate Britain, the Serpentine Galleries, the Stedelijk Museum and the Kunsthalle Zürich, and facilitates loans for retrospectives at venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Centre Pompidou, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Hermitage Museum and the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna. Exhibition programming has included thematic shows addressing modernism contexts and cross-disciplinary projects with the Royal College of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art.

Conservation and Research

Conservation work follows protocols developed alongside the Courtauld Institute of Art conservation department and specialist laboratories at University College London and the Rijksmuseum. Research initiatives include cataloguing projects, provenance studies, technical analysis using methods popularized by the Cleveland Museum of Art and collaborative conservation treatments undertaken with the Getty Conservation Institute. The archive supports doctoral research at institutions such as the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, the University of York and New York University, while publishing technical bulletins similar to those from the National Gallery Technical Bulletin.

Education and Public Programs

Educational outreach reflects practices developed by the Tate Education programs and partnerships with the British Council to bring sculpture workshops to community venues and schools linked to the Arts Council England and the National Literacy Trust. Public programs include lectures with scholars from the Courtauld Institute of Art, symposia co-hosted with the Institute of Historical Research and family activities modeled on initiatives at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Brooklyn Museum. Residency schemes and fellowships are run in collaboration with the British School at Rome, the Hanya Holm Foundation and regional universities.

Governance and Funding

Governance is overseen by a board of trustees drawn from trusteeship models used by the National Trust, the British Library and the Royal Opera House, with advisory committees composed of curators from the Tate Modern, the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Funding derives from endowments, philanthropic donors in the tradition of the Wellcome Trust and corporate sponsorships similar to partnerships between the Barclaycard and major museums, supplemented by income from loans, reproduction rights and fundraising events paralleling those of the National Portrait Gallery.

Visitor Information and Facilities

Facilities include climate-controlled storage and study rooms comparable to the Paul Mellon Centre and the Archive of Modern Conflict, a research library with holdings like those at the Senate House Libraries and exhibition spaces configurable for indoor and outdoor sculpture similar to the grounds of Horton Court and the Glyndebourne estate. Visitor services coordinate guided tours, access to digital catalogues modeled on the Europeana portal and on-site events in cooperation with partners such as the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and regional museums.

Category:Cultural organisations