The Art Fund has awarded £1m each to five partnerships under its Art Fund International scheme.

The initiative will fund the launch of international contemporary art collections over the next five years to help encourage a fundamental change in the scale and ambition of contemporary art collecting in the UK.

The five winning partnerships are Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives in partnership with Arnolfini; Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, in partnership with The Common Guild; Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) in partnership with The Drawing Centre, New York; Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, in partnership with Photoworks, Brighton Photo Biennial and Artsway; West Midlands partnership: Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; and New Art Gallery Walsall in partnership with Ikon.

Art Fund director David Barrie said: “Now comes the exciting task of acquiring and commissioning work to make the winning ideas a reality.

“These are the spaces to watch as we begin to realise the enormous ambition of developing international contemporary art collections around the country.”

The scheme aims to address the Art Fund’s belief that UK museums have historically failed to acquire art produced by living, non-British artists.