Art UK replaces Your Paintings 6 Mar 2016

The new website Art UK is replacing Your Paintings as the online home for art from every public collection in the UK. More than 3,000 collections are represented, dwarfing the 50 British collections on Google Art Project and making it the most comprehensive single site for UK art. It launches with the nation's entire collection of 200,00 publicly-owned oil paintings - watercolours, drawings and artworks in other media will be progressively added. In 2017, a major HLF funded project to add UK public sculpture will begin, with some in 3D.

The site is partly financially sustained by over 500 Partner Collections, which pay an annual subscription to appear on the site, and in return will receive commercial opportunities and be able to add additional artworks. Many NMDC members, from the Ashmolean to National Galleries Scotland are Founder Partners, among the first 200 to join the scheme. Kim Mawhinney, Head of Art at National Museums Northern Ireland, said, "some projects have the capacity to be epoch-making and the development of Art UK may be such a moment in terms of access to art.“ ArtUK (list of partners), Guardian