Trust New Art exhibitions and events

Many of our places were built with art at their heart. Since 2009, Trust New Art has been continuing this important creative legacy by connecting people to our places through contemporary arts.
For over 10 years, our arts programme includes visual arts, crafts, architecture, performance, writing and immersive installations. So far, we’ve worked with more than 300 artists to create new work inspired by the spirit of our places. The contemporary art will take you to unexplored areas, reveal hidden stories and help you see our places in different ways.
This programme is supported by partnerships with Arts Council England and Arts Council of Wales. We regularly collaborate with arts organisations to commission and present work of the highest quality. Find out how to get involved here as we begin to plan our future programme.
Discover what’s happening at a place near you…
Celebrating over 10 years of Trust New Art
In 2019 we celebrated the first decade of Trust New Art. It was marked by a bold experimentation which challenged assumptions and gave alternative perspectives. More than 150 of our sites were involved and we worked with many renowned creatives, including Lubaina Himid, sculptor Antony Gormley, pop artist Sir Peter Blake and writer Robert Macfarlane.
The artworks uncovered forgotten stories, stimulated debates and helped to connect people with places.
Get involved with Trust New Art
There are many ways to get closer to Trust New Art, whether through volunteering at property, visiting a project, or perhaps you are interested in developing a partnership or working with us as a Trust New Art artist.
The Trust New Art programme is planned up to three or four years in advance, although it was put on hold during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Projects can be initiated by our own teams, or through collaborations with other museums, galleries, universities, professional organisations and direct invitations to artists and curators.
We tend to work in an active commissioning way, rather than responding to proposals, unless they are of exceptional quality and closely align with our aims and objectives for that particular place. So on the whole, we do not encourage artists to submit proposals for review. Due to the large volume of proposals received, we can only follow up in exceptional circumstances and we are not able to return unsolicited material.
The majority of our commissions are selected through an open-call process, and we advertise these through our website, Twitter and Facebook feeds, and through Arts Jobs, Arts Council England’s opportunities board. If you are an artist and would like to hear about opportunities, please join our artist mailing list.
To get in touch email trustnewart@nationaltrust.org.uk.