About Us

Working in partnership with galleries, innovative spaces & new artistic talent to bring art to the widest possible audience.

 

Our Story

The Ingram Collection is one of the largest and most significant publicly accessible collections of modern British art in the UK, available to all through a programme of loans and exhibitions. Founded in 2002 by serial entrepreneur and philanthropist Chris Ingram, the majority of the collection was donated by Chris in 2016 to the Ingram Art Foundation, which was established and funded by Chris to assist in fulfilling his ambition to make such works widely available for public display.

The collection now spans over 100 years of British art and includes over 600 artworks. More than 400 of these are by some of the most important British artists of the twentieth century, amongst them Edward Burra, Lynn Chadwick, Elisabeth Frink, Barbara Hepworth and Eduardo Paolozzi. The collection’s main focus is on the art movements that developed in the early and middle decades of the twentieth century, and there is a particularly strong and in-depth holding of modern British sculpture.

The Ingram Collection also holds a growing number of works by young and emerging artists, and in 2016 established the Ingram Prize, an annual purchase prize created to celebrate and support the work and early careers of UK art school graduates.

Explore the site to find out more about our collections, where to see them, and how to borrow them.

OUR PEOPLE

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Chris Ingram, Founder

Chris is known as the inventor of the modern media agency. In 2008 Chris was recognised by Campaign’s Hall of Fame as one of the individuals who have helped shape the UK’s advertising industry. Chris is actively involved in the charitable sector through his family trust, The Ingram Trust, which supports approximately two dozen charities both national and international as well as locally in Surrey.

He says: “The moment I became passionate about art was in the late 1960s. While touring the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg I came across a large room full of Impressionist paintings. It was a eureka moment! Collecting began much later and only started seriously when I discovered Modern British Art”.

Chris has been described as “one of the most active and thoughtful collectors of Modern British Art today.” (Stephen Deuchar, Director, The Art Fund, 2010-20.)

 

 

New Install "Century: 100 Modern British Artists"; Jerwood Gallery; Hastings, W. Sussex; 22nd October 2016 © Pete Jones pete@pjproductions.co.uk

Jo Baring, Director

Jo joined The Ingram Collection in 2013 from Christie’s, where she had been a Director of Christie’s UK and was head of the 20th century British & Irish Art department. She has worked in the field of British Art since 2001. Jo studied Modern History at Brasenose College, Oxford and holds an MA in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art. 

 

 

 

 

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Alison Price, Collections Manager

Alison joined The Ingram Collection in 2014 from Sotheby’s, where she worked across a range of specialist departments, most recently as Business Manager for the Old Master Paintings department.  She studied English at Jesus College, Oxford and holds an MA in Early Modern Studies from King’s College London.

 

 

 The Lightbox

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The Lightbox © Ian Rudgewick Brown

Works from The Ingram Collection are on medium-term loan to The Lightbox gallery and museum in Woking, Chris Ingram’s home town.  Four exhibitions each year are drawn exclusively from the collections, and art works are also rotated on display in the public galleries, increasing the opportunity for the public to see some of the finest examples of Modern British art. Much of The Lightbox’s learning and engagement programme is built around the collection, with unrivalled access to works across the collections for projects involving students, mental health service users, blind and partially sighted visitors and other community groups.

This relationship began in 2008 when Chris Ingram agreed to loan The Ingram Collection to a new gallery and museum planned for Woking.  The Lightbox won the prestigious Art Fund Prize in its first year, and has achieved widespread acclaim as one of the most exciting cultural spaces in the South East.

To see our current exhibitions at The Lightbox click here.

 

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We are proud to be a Founder Partner of Art UK, the online home for art from every public collection in the United Kingdom.

Find us here

 

 

 


Ingram collection images

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for permission to reproduce images and we are grateful to everyone who has assisted us.  Please contact us if any acknowledgements have been omitted.  Our particular thanks to John-Paul Bland Photography.