Partner

With Us

Art Bridges materials at a CLP Convening in April 2022

Art Bridges Partner Convening New York City February 2020

Art Bridges and Partners, NYC convening, 2020

Art Bridges partners receive funding and strategic support to create projects based on traveling exhibitions and collection loans.

Art Bridges funds collection placements, traveling exhibitions, multiyear cohort programs, Learning & Engagement projects, evaluation, internships, fellows, and more. As a catalyst for change, Art Bridges provides national leadership as well as financial and strategic support to museums and cultural organizations by collaborating on innovative ways of thinking and engaging new and existing audiences for positive social impact.

Art Bridges offers two types of partnerships:

1. Lending Partnerships

Lending partners are generally museums with large or focused collections that are:

  • Interested in sharing their collections with broader audiences
  • Excited to work collaboratively with other arts organizations

Lending partners work with Art Bridges to organize traveling exhibitions from their collections. Art Bridges does not support loan shows.

Art Bridges may provide support for:

  • Single-collection exhibitions
  • Consortium exhibitions

2. Borrowing Partnerships

Borrowing partners are small, medium, and large-sized museums across the country that are:

  • Eager to engage their community with great American art
  • Committed to innovation, experimentation, and multidisciplinary approaches
  • Rural, urban, and suburban venues with acceptable facilities reports

Borrowing partners may borrow an approved traveling exhibition or works from the Art Bridges Collection.

Programming and evaluation support may be available for projects that involve an approved exhibition or collection loan.

Get Started

Begin a Partnership Conversation

Silver Linings: Celebrating the Spelman Art Collection at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art galleries, Atlanta, Georgia

Browse our traveling exhibitions. View the Art Bridges Collection. Read our partner stories to learn about successful projects.

Community painting day at Tony’s Gs Soul Food. Courtesy of the San Antonio Museum of Art, 2021.

We are eager to hear your ideas for engaging your audiences with American art, or for sharing your collection. Spend some time discussing internally how funding support from Art Bridges could help you and your museum increase access to American art.

Collection Loan Partnership Art Bridges Convening Swag

Each project is evaluated and developed in conjunction with our staff. To start a conversation, please contact us!

Collection Loan Partnership April 2022 Bentonville Arkansas

Collection Loan Partnership

The Art Bridges Collection Loan Partnership is a new initiative dedicated to bringing American art out of museum vaults and on view in communities across the United States. At museums across the U.S., a significant portion of their collections sit in storage. These collections include important works of art that are inaccessible to the public. While most museums would like to get art out of storage and on view, financial constraints and staff capacity impact their ability to lend artwork to other museums. The Art Bridges Collection Loan Partnership presents a new lending model that allows museums to circulate their collections.

Art Bridges Laptop Computer

Cohort Program

The Art Bridges Cohort Program is committed to supporting multiyear exhibition partnerships among museums nationwide. Originating in 2018, the Cohort Program (also known as the Art Bridges Initiative) has created eleven museum cohorts led by institutions in Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Detroit, Fort Worth, Hartford, Los Angeles, Norfolk, Philadelphia, Portland, and Washington, D.C. For each cohort, an organizing museum and its regional partners collaborate to create exhibitions that inspire and deepen engagement with local audiences.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres  "Untitled" (L.A.) installation Kenyon College Gambier Ohio

Art Bridges Collection Placements

Art Bridges demonstrates its commitment to access and inclusion by activating a dynamic and diverse collection of American art. Art Bridges Collection loans are available to museums committed to providing greater access for all communities. All our loans and partnerships begin with a conversation.

Frank S. Matsura  Frank S. Matsura: Portraits from the Borderland at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture Spokane Washington

Traveling Exhibitions

Art Bridges partners with outstanding lending institutions of all sizes to develop traveling exhibitions featuring American art.

Collection Highlights

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Currier Museum of Art programming

Learning & Engagement

Art Bridges collaborates with partners to connect new audiences with collection loans, traveling exhibitions, and cohort program projects. Art Bridges partner institutions with current collection placements or traveling exhibitions, as well as those that are part of the Art Bridges Cohort Program, are eligible to apply for Learning & Engagement support.

Museum visitors with Jeff Koons One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank

Evaluation

Art Bridges supports evaluation activities to promote the use of data for improvement and learning, and to help us better understand our impact.

Art Bridges Fellows Class 2, Summer 2023, Bentonville, Arkansas

Art Bridges Fellows Program

The Art Bridges Fellows Program is dedicated to creating diverse museum leadership with a national cohort of emerging arts professionals and mentors.

Art Bridges Interns Summer 2023

Internship Program

At Art Bridges, we are thrilled to work with interns from Northwest Arkansas and all over the country each academic year and summer.

Columbia Museum of Art gallery shot

Bridge Ahead Initiative (Archive)

Art Bridges launched the Bridge Ahead Initiative in May, 2020. This initiative committed nearly $6 million to help partner museums develop strategies to engage and connect with communities remotely while museums were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is a Woman in Every Color at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art

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William H Johnson Fighters for Freedom Fighting Justice Gibbes Museum of Art Audience Lecture

Projects We Love

See how our partners have activated traveling exhibitions and collection placements.