New fund helps museums make purchases at Frieze New York – The Art Newspaper – International art news and events

Frieze New York’s Focus section has gained an unusual new source of institutional buying power. A newly launched acquisition fund is helping museums purchase works at the fair, with the first round of acquisitions already entering the collections of the Brooklyn Museum and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

The Sherman Family Foundation Acquisition Fund will contribute $50,000 each year to support artists and galleries exhibiting in Focus, the section devoted to solo stands from galleries founded fewer than 12 years ago. The Baltimore-based foundation was established by the collecting couple George and Betsy Sherman, whose new initiative links fair participation more directly to museum collecting.

In the fund’s first year, the Brooklyn Museum acquired two works by the late US conceptual artist Bettina (Bettina Grossman) from the Manhattan gallery Ulrik: Traffic Patterns, from the series Phenomenological New York, and another untitled work from the same body of work.

The Baltimore Museum of Art acquired three works through the fund. They are Both Banks I (2026) by Japanese artist Reika Takebayashi from London-based Public Gallery, PILLAN SIKILL 1 (2024) by Chilean artist Seba Calfuqueo from W-Galería in Buenos Aires, and Festival 7 (2025) by Joanne Burke from London’s Soft Opening. Each artist will receive an unrestricted $5,000 award as part of the program.

The fund also appears designed to widen the reach of younger galleries and artists at a moment when museum acquisition budgets remain under pressure. Antonia Marsh, director of Soft Opening, called Burke’s purchase her first museum acquisition and described it as a major moment for an emerging artist. Nicole Estilo Kaiser, director of Public Gallery, said the gallery was encouraged by the opportunities and placements that emerged from the presentation.

By tying museum collecting to a fair section built around newer galleries, the Sherman Family Foundation Acquisition Fund offers a model that is both practical and symbolic: it supports artists, rewards galleries, and places contemporary work into public collections at the point of sale.