Grundy Art Gallery first opened to the public in 1911. The building was commissioned by Blackpool Council in 1908 following a bequest of over 20 paintings and a financial gift from brothers John and Sir Cuthbert Grundy, both of whom were artists.

The Grundy Art Gallery’s Collection, which is currently displayed as part of the temporary exhibitions programme and is not on permanent display, includes Victorian oils and watercolours, modern British paintings, oriental ivories, ceramics, photographs and souvenirs of Blackpool, and contemporary prints, jewellery, sculpture and video.

There are a number of significant British artists represented in the painting collection, including Anna Airy, Craigie Aitchison, Samuel John ‘Lamorna’ Birch, Stephen Bone, Reginald Grange Brundrit, Jeffrey Camp, Thomas Sidney Cooper, Charles Ernest Cundall, Frederick William Elwell, Richard Ernst Eurich, Stanhope Alexander Forbes, Patrick Hughes, Augustus Edwin John, Laura Knight, Moffat Peter Lindner, John Linnell, Charles S. Ricketts, David Roberts, Charles Spencelayh, Henry Scott Tuke, and Lucy Kemp Welsh.

The Grundy Art Gallery is a longstanding member of the Contemporary Art Society and the majority of its important modern works have been acquired through this association.

The Gallery continues to seek out new acquisitions opportunities which are appropriate for the collection with a focus on culturally relevant artworks in all media.

Since 2015 Grundy has been collecting works centred around the broad theme of ‘light’ and has recently purchases artworks by Joseph Kosuth and Tracey Emin though the support of private galleries and public partners Sprüth Magers, White Cube, the ArtFund, the V&A Purchasing Fund and the John Ellerman Foundation.