Own Art is Arts Council England’s new interest free loan scheme. It is designed to make it easy and affordable for people to buy contemporary works of art including paintings, photography, sculpture, glassware and furniture. Around 250 galleries across the country are participating in the scheme. You can buy art, interest free, from any of these.
Arts Council England aims to put the arts at the heart of national life. One of the ways we do this is to encourage people to live with art they love. We also want to help artists live by their creative output and support galleries who sell high quality contemporary art.
How Do You Own Art ?
Own Art can be used to take out a loan to buy it. Assistance with this is available.
You need to be:
Over 18 years old
Resident in the UK
In possession of a bank or building society account that can operate standing orders
You will need to take two forms of identification with you to the gallery – something with an address on it (passport, driver’s license or utilities bill) and something with your signature on it, such as a credit or debit card.
Assistance is available to complete the credit agreement. After satisfactory credit checking, a standing order will be set up to make the repayments.
How Much Can You Borrow?
Flexible financing options are available for individual items or several items at a time. Items can also be obtained at different times and from different galleries, subject to the applicable agreement conditions.
The amount you borrow is then paid back over a maximum of ten equal amounts.
Some galleries may ask you to pay a deposit of 10%. This will be returned if, for any reason, your application for credit is unsuccessful.
There are no extra costs. There is no charge for the credit (APR 0%). This means the total amount payable under the loan, and the deposit, is not more than the cash price of the piece(s) of work you purchased. There’s no administrative charge or handling fee either.