Our mission

To be considered the best and most interesting small art museum in London relevant to everyone.

To actively engage with the maximum number of people of all ages from every community around us whether from home and abroad.

To capture your interest and imagination about British and European modern and contemporary art in general and the lives, work and in particular the contribution made by artists of Jewish descent, with a distinctive focus on émigrés, within a broad artistic and social history context.

To recover the past and discover the new and present this to you in an accessible manner that seamlessly blends learning and enjoyment.

We do this through:

• Ensuring the visitor and staff experience come first in our thoughts and planning.
• Addressing Art, Identity and Migration in London and beyond as the backbone of everything we present.
• Exhibitions in London – curated by Ben Uri or in partnership with other museums nationally and internationally.
• Touring exhibitions – across the UK and internationally.
• Publications – internationally distributed scholarly but accessible exhibition books/ catalogues and curatorial papers presented at conferences worldwide.
• Collection – acquiring new, important works to keep raising the quality and distinctiveness of the 1300 strong unique and renowned collection.
• Collection – researching and making available the growing collection online and in exhibitions worldwide.
• Adult learning – through audio guides, lectures, curatorial tours, visits and publications.
• Schools across the UK – through the London Grid for Learning and the National Education Network making our programmes accessible to 25,000 schools.
• Artist Professional Development – through peer group meetings and programming.
• Social Health – our Art for Wellbeing programme designed as part of care packages for the young and the elderly.
• Talking, listening, reading and being receptive to our visitors’ opinions and views on how we can improve across every aspect of engagement.

Vision to our centenary in 2015 and beyond

• A distinctive, large (c30,000+ sq. ft.) building in the heart of the national gallery and museum milieu in central London to be the first permanent home of Ben Uri to house this extraordinary collection and institution.
• A building that is bursting at the seams with creativity from within our locale and far beyond – from school children, young people, traditional exhibition visitors and scholars utilising our library and archives.
• A building of sufficient prominence, size and central location that we can enlarge our business ‘preferred partners’ group for their commercial advantage and allow us to be financially self-sufficient and sustainable.
• Never lose sight of our remarkable heritage simultaneously inside the Jewish community and 20^th Century British and European Art.