Ben Uri Gallery to go fully virtual

THEBENUriGalleryandmuseumhas changed in its focus to become “a digital institution with a physical presence, rather than the museum norm, a physical institution with a digital presence”.

According to David Glasser, Ben Uri’s executive chairman, the shift will make it the first fully virtual museum of its kind in the world.

Mr Glasser has been overseeing the move, in the pipeline since 2018 when BenUrisoldanumberof worksatSotheby’s to fund its new direction. The sale prompted criticism and resignations from top advisers, including Nicholas Serota, chair of Arts Council England.

Ben Uri was founded in Whitechapel in 1915 and throughout its long history has gone through financial crises and even the loss of its gallery in 1996.

In 2002 Ben Uri moved to Boundary RoadinStJohn’sWoodandlatterlyithas specialised in the work, lives and contributions of Jewish and immigrant artists to Britain since 1900.

Thepandemic,andthelownumberof visitors able to go to Boundary Road — a low footfall in common with many galleries, says David Glasser — has accelerated Ben Uri’s digital ambitions.

Now it is broadly divided into three sectors: Ben Uri Digital, expanding “their unlimited potential”; the Ben Uri Research Unit, which will continue to have a physical presence at Boundary Road including an extended art reference library and archive; and the Ben Uri Arts and Health Institute, which develops researched and evaluated art interventionsforolderpeopleandthose living with dementia. They are soon startingthethirdyearof fullyresearched trials at Nightingale House.

The new virtual Ben Uri offers vast resources at benuri.org. It includes 40 exhibitions, 100 films, artist research and school-designed learning, together with details of the charity’s archive exhibitions going back to 1925. Ben Uri’s extensive collections are available to view for free. The Boundary Road building is hoped to re-open in late October.