The Errantry Fund - Whitechapel Gallery

Donald Rodney, In the House of My Father, 1997. Image © The Donald Rodney Estate.
Joy Gregory, Fierce and Fearless, 2022, Photography by William Morris Gallery, London Borough of Waltham Forest / Nicola Tree.
Hamad Butt, Transmission, 1990, Glass, steel, ultraviolet lights and electrical cables Dimensions variable.
Joy Gregory, Cinderella Tours Europe (Bridge of Miracles, Venice), 1998-2001 Courtesy the artist.

‘Errantry is a poetics.’ — Édouard Glissant

‘The purpose of errantry is to trouble the expected.’ – Rhea Storr, filmmaker

The Errantry Fund is a dedicated and forward-thinking new philanthropy fund developed by Whitechapel Gallery to invest in artists of the Global South and the diaspora whose work has been neglected or under-represented in the mainstream art world.

The Errantry Fund takes its name from Martiniquan writer, poet, and philosopher Édouard Glissant, who conceived errantry as a strategic and philosophical mode of freedom—resisting fixed identities and embracing movement, multiplicity, and relation. Rooted in the Caribbean as a space where diverse cultures, ethnicities, and diasporic experiences intersect, the Fund celebrates blackness and radical imagination as fluid, mischievous, creative, and precarious.

All funds invested in the Errantry fund will be directed towards supporting and championing the work of under-represented artists of the Global South and the diaspora. The funds will be specifically used to support exhibitions, publications, public programmes and dedicated awards to empower and champion these currently under-served artists at Whitechapel Gallery.

By supporting the Errantry Fund you will be directly enabling artists and perspectives that will effect change and ensure that their work is seen and experienced by the widest possible audiences.

Further Information

To support the Errantry Fund, or for further information, please contact:

supporters@whitechapelgallery.org

The Errantry Fund will:

Present ground-breaking major exhibitions of significant artists of colour, addressing historic imbalances in representation;

Champion the contribution of underrepresented artists of colour to contemporary art and society;

Partner with institutions to tour the exhibitions and introduce the work of important artists of colour to wide and diverse audiences nationally and internationally;

Publish significant monographs on the artists we present, commissioning new writing and scholarship;

Contribute to the re-writing of established national and international art histories to address significant gaps and omissions;

Inspire and influence younger generations of artists of colour, empowering and encouraging them to pursue their dreams;

Broaden and diversify the audiences for contemporary art and ideas, forging new points of connection and inspiration;

Enable diasporic communities to engage creatively with the work of artists whose works reflect their identities, lives and experiences;

Provide curatorial research, diligent preparation and conservation care required to present the work of artists who have not benefitted from consistent commercial support;

Invest in young emerging artists of colour and commission new works which can be career-changing;

Encourage commercial galleries to support and invest in artists of colour;

Advocate for works by artists of colour to be purchased by national art museums to safeguard their legacies in the future.

Be part of a bold community of supporters who want to make a tangible difference to the stories and histories that shape art institutions. Together we will ensure our sector reflects the times we live in, speaks to, and with, diverse artists and audiences and enables an even greater range of voices, cultures and visions to rise to the fore.

The Errantry Fund has been generously supported by:

Founding Circle: Bimpe Nkontchou, Frank Bowling and Rachel Scott, Ford Foundation

With thanks to: Rana Begum and Joy Labinjo

To support the Errantry Fund, or for further information, please contact:

supporters@whitechapelgallery.org

Whitechapel Gallery is a registered charity No.312162

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