Ben Uri Gallery and Museum Limited

Ben Uri is a unique cultural and socially engaged charitable institution and museum founded by a Russian Jewish immigrant artist, Laser Berson, who came to London from Paris in 1914, the first year of WW1. The charity - Ben Uri Art Society - closed in 1995 as there was insufficient support within the Jewish community to whom exclusively served for 80 years. In 2000 a new Board of Trustees led by businessman and art collector David Glasser was elected to try to re-establish Ben Uri as a living purposeful charity in the visual arts. The new board made comprehensive changes and introduced professional museum staff, clear strategic aims with distinctive public benefit within a wholesale change ... read more Ben Uri is a unique cultural and socially engaged charitable institution and museum founded by a Russian Jewish immigrant artist, Laser Berson, who came to London from Paris in 1914, the first year of WW1. The charity - Ben Uri Art Society - closed in 1995 as there was insufficient support within the Jewish community to whom exclusively served for 80 years. In 2000 a new Board of Trustees led by businessman and art collector David Glasser was elected to try to re-establish Ben Uri as a living purposeful charity in the visual arts. The new board made comprehensive changes and introduced professional museum staff, clear strategic aims with distinctive public benefit within a wholesale change of audience focus outside the Jewish only prism. Artists were contextualised by period, peer group and movement - no longer religion. The collection was equally widened. The banners of Art, Identity and Migration /// The Art Museum for Everyone were introduced and the new ethos was built around both statements. In 2018, 2 years before Covid 19 pandemic Ben Uri carved and published a transformative Sustainability and Public Benefit Strategic Plan which reshaped traditional museum practice and made the seismic leap to become the UK's / Europes' first full, full content, full service Virtual Museum. The virtual museum soft launched on the 24 July 2020 with a number of departments yet to be incorporated including the Shop and the Ben Uri Arts and Health Institute, There are many distinctive features including 40 exhibitions across 3 platforms, 60 second insight films and audio adventures featuring another Ben Uri innovation 'Brief Lives' sharing 5 minute coffee or tea break chats about an artist or theme. Mission: To exploit low and hi tech digital communications across all areas across all nations to: 1] share research and different presentation vehicles with the general public in Britain and abroad illustrating the Jewish and Immigrant contribution to British visual arts since 1900 through the Ben Uri Research Unit (BURU) - charged with creating the country's first comprehensive digital resource available to all. 2] build a collection of pre-eminent works by immigrant artists to Britain since 1900 in parallel with our research unit focus - Ben Uri Collection (BUC). 3] develop fully accredited, researched and beneficial art interventions for those living with or at risk of dementia using the Ben Uri Collection through the Ben Uri Arts and Health Institute (BUAH)