Clore Duffield Foundation Celebrates 60th Anniversary With £30 Million Gift

Dame Vivien Duffield has made a major gift of £30m to the Clore Duffield Foundation to celebrate its 60th Anniversary.

To mark the 60th Anniversary, the Foundation is supporting a number of cultural education projects across the UK. The projects include new Clore Learning Centres, a cultural education partnership with Ark Schools, Teacher Fellowships, a pilot project for school trips in Scotland and a major grant  for the National Gallery’s Bicentenary. 

Dame Vivien Duffield DBE, Chair of the Clore Duffield Foundation, said: “To celebrate our 60th anniversary, we are making a major new investment in cultural learning projects across the UK. Right from my early philanthropic days creating Eureka! The National Children’s Museum in Halifax in the 1980s – and before – I have always had a commitment to supporting children’s engagement with the arts and heritage. It’s what I was given as a child in France, and it’s what all children and young people should have access to. I believe passionately that children and young people deserve the very best opportunities to benefit from the transforming power of our world class cultural organisations. I am delighted that we have been able to support such outstanding projects created in some of the best museums, galleries, theatres, gardens and historic sites across the country – even in royal palaces. Now more than ever, I believe that culture should be at the heart of our children’s learning.” 

Clore Garden at Tate Britain

The celebrated landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith Studio, in collaboration with architects Feilden Fowles, will create a new Clore Garden at Tate Britain. The project, realised in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society, will create a beautiful new green space on Millbank which will be open to all. The Foundation’s long relationship with Tate Britain goes back several decades to the opening of the Clore Gallery in 1987 created in memory of Sir Charles Clore.

Clore Learning Spaces

Since 2000, the Clore Duffield Foundation has funded more than 70 Clore Learning Spaces in national museums, performing arts centres and heritage sites across the UK. A number of new Clore funded Learning Spaces will open during the anniversary year including Kensington Palace; Natural History Museum; Paisley Museum; Theatr Clwyd in Wales and Garsington Opera. New Clore Learning Spaces have been announced at The Courtauld, the V&A Storehouse, Trent Park and at the Old Vic with further announcements expected later in the year. Clore Learning Spaces have also been refurbished at Kettle’s Yard, the National Galleries of Scotland, The National Theatre and the Glasshouse International Centre for Music. 

Ark Partnership

The Clore Duffield Foundation is supporting a pilot project in four Hastings schools, developing a new approach to arts education. Building on the foundations laid in the pilot year, the project seeks to engage every school in the Ark network by July 2027, ensuring that cultural learning and opportunities form a core entitlement, regardless of where they are in the country and their home circumstances.

School Trips

The Foundation is piloting an arts and school trips programme working with St Columbkille’s Primary School in Glasgow, in partnership with the Scottish Royal Conservatoire, which will be rolled out more widely later this year. 

Teacher Fellowships

The Foundation is supporting Art Fund to develop a Teacher Fellowship programme, supporting teacher placements in Clore Learning Spaces in museums and galleries, building relationships with local schools.

Performing Arts National Saturday Club

The Clore Duffield Foundation has supported the National Saturday Club to create 10 new Performance & Theatre Saturday Clubs across England, free for 13–16-year-olds. With a particular focus on engaging young people from underrepresented communities, the aim is to create opportunities for young people to create and engage with the performing arts within universities, further education colleges, theatres and cultural organisations nationally. 

The Clore Duffield Foundation has supported over 750 UK charities since it was formed in 2000, awarding grants of over £110 million to enhance the arts, Jewish life, education, health and welfare. Between 1980 and 2000 the Clore Foundation and the Vivien Duffield Foundation awarded over £51 million and £15 million respectively. Major beneficiaries include Tate, the Royal Opera House, the Southbank Centre, Oxford University and the Royal College of Art, who have all been supported by the Foundation to carry out major capital projects. The Foundation has also created a number of transformative programmes and institutions, including JW3, Eureka! and the Clore Leadership Programmes.

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