Our Mission


Art for All works to support UK cultural heritage institutions to open digital collections for unrestricted public reuse. We take the position that no new rights should arise in faithful reproductions of public domain works and other non-original data.

Open access transforms the enjoyment that people gain from public collections and leads to new knowledge and creative works. Institutions benefit too, but change can be difficult.

Our role is to campaign for the necessary support from government and cultural heritage institutions. Convincing government and the collections themselves to give the public meaningful access and re-use of digital content is our key goal. In this digital era, open access is a necessary part of fulfilling a public mission.

In doing so, Art for All seeks to help clear the path toward meaningful access to the breadth of cultural materials cared for by UK institutions.

First Steps

  • Talk to museums, libraries, archives and other collecting institutions. We will directly encourage and support collections moving to unrestricted public reuse of digital content through open licensing.
  • Talk to collections users. We will consult with and attract support for our mission from diverse groups of collections users.
  • Hold “Sharing is Caring” events to bring collecting institutions and their users together to foster debate about the important role of image re-use in fulfilment of public mission.
  • Gather data on open use of public collections as a shared evidence base to guide future decision making in the sector.
  • DCMS Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): review and recommend changes to KPIs to reflect actual usage and demand.
  • Convene DCMS and collecting institutions to meet to discuss the issue of unrestricted public reuse of digital content.

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