Alain de Botton is one of the most prominent living authors in the United Kingdom, writing best-selling books that, as he puts it, 'tackle questions of everyday life from a philosophical point of view'. He is also involved in making a number of TV documentaries accompanying his books.

Art Commissioners is a consultancy to the world of arts. It advises corporate clients and collectors, curates exhibitions and creates publications, films and events internationally.

From its European base the consultancy embraces a global network that includes artists, museum curators, directors of Art Fairs, events and private galleries.

Art Commissioners has been responsible for commissioning site-specific works by leading contemporary artists such as Richard Serra, Anselm Kiefer, Sol LeWitt, Richard Long, Anish Kapoor and Cai Guo-Qiang, among others.

In collaboration with its sister company, Ivorypress, it has curated major exhibitions such as the 10th Venice Architecture Biennale of 2006 and has acted as consultants in the Blood on Paper exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, which explored the concept of artists books from the early twentieth century to the present-day.

For 15 years Art Forum Berlin has been a key event on the cultural calendar presenting a wide range of contemporary art from painting, sculpture and photography to installations, drawings, graphics, performance and video art.

Specialised exhibitions focusing on young art (Focus), art in the exterior space (Plein Air) complement the general programme. In addition, museums, galleries and private cultural institutions in Berlin present a multifaceted programme of exhibitions, receptions and events.

Artnet is an online resource for the art world which enable the visitor to research the price of fine art with an illustrated archive of 2.9 million international auction results; explore artworks for sale in a network of 1200+ international galleries, from Old Masters to Contemporary Art; and track the financial performance of over 4000 artists driving the auction market. The company also publishes online monographs in conjunction with artists and an online art magazine.

The Association Internationale Des Musées D’Agriculture (AIMA) started in 1966 with a conference of agricultural museum staff in Prague. Today, the organisation has evolved into a global platform for the agricultural discurse and is frequently referred to as the International Association of Agricultural Museums.

The associations aims to educate the public about the importance of agriculture and facilitates the dialogue about agricultural topics and discoveries between museums across the globe. AIMA regularly publishes scientific papers and museum case studies presented at the triennial International Congress of Agricultural Museums.

Bachchor Gütersloh was founded 1946 by Eduard Büchsel and soon built a reputation for its concerts and recordings. Sigmund Bothmann took over the choir in 1992 and revitalised the Bach repertoire as well as the heritage of other European composers.

The choir has collected awards at the Westfälischen Musikfest 1994, Europäisches Chorfestival 1996, Rheinisches Musikfest 1999 and Landes-Chorwettbewerb Nordrhein-Westfalen 1997 in Wuppertal. At the German National Choir Contest Deutscher Chorwettbewerb 1998 in Regensburg Bachchor was awarded a third prize.

In addition to three CD recordings of J.S. Bach, C.A. Cartellieri, P. Hindemith and I. Strawinsky, Bachchor has recorded 35 concerts for broadcasting.

Benjamin Franklin House is the world's only remaining Franklin home and is one of the most important Anglo-American heritage site on either side of the Atlantic. It offers a diverse range of learning activities for school groups and families.

The house presents the excitement and uncertainty of Franklin's London years using rooms where so much took place as staging for a drama which seamlessly integrates live performance, cutting edge lighting, sound and projection technology.

The centre is a focal point in Europe for Franklin and Franklin-related study, featuring a full set of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin, as catalogued by Yale University, and an active symposia programme.

The British Library is the UK's national library. As one of the world's largest research libraries it holds over 150 million items. The Library's collections include around 25 million books, along with additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC.

As a legal deposit library, the British Library receives copies of all books produced in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, including all foreign books distributed in the UK. It also purchases many items which are published outside Britain and Ireland. The British Library adds some three million items every year.

Founded in 1753, The British Museum is the oldest and greatest publicly funded museum in the world. Its collections focus on human history and culture and with more than seven million objects are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world.

The British Museum Friends support and assist the Museum in the maintenance and expansion of its collection and in its services to scholars and the general public.

The British Museum Press publishes award-winning illustrated books for academics, students and the general public. Inspired by the collections of the British Museum, titles range from the fine and decorative arts to history, archaeology and world cultures.

Britten-Pears Foundation is committed to promoting the legacy of the British composer, Benjamin Britten and his partner, the tenor, Peter Pears.

Based in Aldeburgh where Britten and Pears lived and worked, the foundation is an important supporter of Aldeburgh's and East Anglia's cultural life, organising the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts as well as preserving Britten's collection of works and his former home – The Red House.

In addition to it's cultural efforts, the Britten-Pears Foundation encourages the interest in Britten and holds performances and events to develop a better understanding of the composer's works and vision.

A space for art, education and communication in Rio de Janeiro, Casa Daros is an institution of Daros Latinamerica, one of the most comprehensive collections dedicated to Latin American contemporary art, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.

The Daros Latinamerica Collection consists of about 1,200 paintings, photographs, videos, sculptures and installations by more than 117 artists including Cildo Meireles, Doris Salcedo and Julio Le Parc. The collection is housed in a neoclassical 19th century designed by architect Francisco Joaquim Bethencourt da Silva (1831–1912) in Rio de Janeiro's Botafogo district.

Founded in 1910, the Contemporary Art Society exists to encourage the appreciation and understanding of contemporary art and to develop public collections and collectors in the UK. The Society is a national membership organisation, including contemporary art enthusiasts and collectors, curators and artists, commercial galleries and a nationwide network of regional museums and art galleries.

For 100 years, the organisation has acted as a catalyst in the contemporary visual arts, developing audiences, artists, curators, collectors and collections alike. The Society played a unique and visionary role, donating more than 8,000 works to institutions in Britain, where they are enjoyed by audiences of tens of millions.

Danny Lane is perhaps best known for his monumental sculptures made of horizontally stacked glass. His work ranges from the design and production of glass furniture combined with wrought iron, to large-scale architectural commissions, which incorporate both engraving and stacking techniques.

Since its inception in 1971 the Fundação Edson Queiroz has been realising social, educational and cultural projects in the north-eastern region of Brazil. Set up by industrialist Edson Queiroz and today presided over by his son Airton Queiroz, the foundation is part of the Edson Queiroz Group – a conglomerate with interests in energy distribution, mineral water and soft drinks, paints, household appliances, agriculture, communication and education.

True to its founder's aim to stimulate social and economic change through education, Fundação Edson Queiroz's most prized project is the Universidade de Fortaleza (Unifor). In addition to the university's graduate and postgraduate education programmes with its 25,000 students, Unifor's Cultural Space has been organizing exhibitions of internationally renowned artists such as Miró, Rembrandt, Rubens and Vik Muniz for more than 20 years.

Vale is a global mining company with headquarters in Brazil and operations in more than 30 countries on five continents.

The aim of the Vale Foundation is to contribute to the economic, environmental and social development of the regions where the mining company operates. The Foundation's activities focus on education, health, employment, culture and sports.

The Goethe-Institut is Germany’s worldwide operating cultural institution. Founded in 1951 as a successor to the German Academy, it promotes the study of the German language abroad and encourages international cultural exchange.

The 136 institutes around the world offer an elaborate programme of events, festivals and exhibitions in the fields of film, dance, music, theatre, literature and translation, fostering knowledge about Germany and providing information on the country’s culture, society and politics. It also maintains long-standing relationships with international partners such as the British Council, Instituto Camões or Deutsche Welle.

Knabenchor Gütersloh e.V. is an initiative of the Music Academy North-Rhine Westphalia and the Church in Gütersloh. 65 boys from the age of 6 to 13 perform under the expert guidance of Ernst Leopold Schmid and Sigmund Bothmann.

At the invitation of the German Goethe Institute, the choir first presented its musical programme during a concert tour to Turin in 2007.

This is a little known gem of building in the far north east of Berlin. Apart from glamorous public buildings like the National Gallery, Mies van der Rohe also built this modest private house for the entrepreneur Karl Lemke. It has been faithfully restored to its modernist origins following years of neglect under the communists who used it as a launderette. It is now a museum and gallery. During the restauration process Thomas Manss & Company produced all the fund raising literature and exhibition promotions.

Miguel Rio Branco is one of the most important contemporary artist practicing in Brazil today. His work oscillates between the poetic and documentary, combining painting, collages, films and installations with his primary means of expression: photography.

A member of photographers group Magnum since 1980, Rio Branco has been shown in exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Aperture Foundation in New York and the São Paulo Bienal. Since 2011 he has a pavilion dedicated to him at the contemporary art centre in Inhotim.

The Moreira Salles Institute is a distinguished not-for profit organisation founded by the ambassador and banker Walther Moreira Salles in 1992 that has since evolved into one of the cornerstones of Brazil’s cultural life.

Dedicated to the research, collection and promotion of the visual arts, music and national literature, the institute's collection includes works by Marcel Gautherot, Pixinguinha and Carlos Drummond de Andrade.

With its locations in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Minas Gerais it does not only promote its own collection but curates exhibitions with important international artists, which have featured Saul Steinberg, Robert Polidori and Frederico Fellini in the past. Its magazines Serrote and Zoom specialise in art and photography respectively and their online radio station Batuta broadcasts a variety of Brazilian music.

The Museum of London traces the social and urban history of the world’s greatest city. It is an amalgamation of the Guildhall Museum, founded in 1826, and the London Museum, founded in 1912. Both collections came together in 1976 to form the new Museum of London.

The museum holds the largest archaeological archive in Europe and continues to occupy its original building. A second public site, the Museum of London Docklands opened in 2003 and is housed in a Grade I listed warehouse at Canary Wharf.

The NPG, as it is known, is London’s storehouse of historical portraits of the great, good and notorious men and women of Britain, located next to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. It holds the most extensive collection of portraits in the world. In recent years, the gallery has increasingly become interested in portrait photography.

Patrick Heide Contemporary Art originated from a project space on London’s Church Street, Patrick Heide Art Projects, which opened in 2004. The initial group of contemporary artists formed the basis of today's ever growing gallery programme of international artists including Minjung Kim, Alex Hamilton, Károly Keserü, Thomas Kilpper, Francesco Pessina and Nicola Rae.

The Stiftung Preussische Schlösser & Gärten is responsible for running and maintaining 21 stately houses and gardens in Berlin and the surrounding region of Brandenburg.

When the friends of the Schlösser & Gärten set up a company to run museum shops at the various sites, Thomas Manss was commissioned to develop an identity that would reflect the grand nature of the properties.

Tate Britain is the national gallery of British art. Located in London right at Vauxhall Bridge, it is the oldest in the family of four Tate galleries which display selections from the Tate Collection.

The displays at Tate Britain feature selections from the Tate collection of British art arranged in a broad chronological sweep from 1500 to the present. Within this chronology individual rooms explore particular themes or show one artist in depth. Special attention is given to three outstanding British artists from the Romantic age. Blake and Constable have dedicated spaces within the gallery, while the Turner Collection of about 300 paintings and many thousands of watercolours is housed in the specially built Clore Gallery.

Tate Britain is also host of the Turner prize show, showcasing Britain's most debated fine arts award.

Created in the year 2000 from a disused power station in the heart of London, Tate Modern displays a collection of modern and contemporary art representing all the major movements from Fauvism on. It includes important masterpieces by both Picasso and Matisse and one of the world's finest museum collections of Surrealism, substantial holdings of American Abstract Expressionism, significant collections of Pop art and contemporary art since the 1980s.

The impressive Turbine Hall hosts much-talked about temporary installations, the building also features a vast shop with Tate merchandise and an extensive book programme, all stored in Vitsœ shelves, bars and a restaurant with spectacular river views.

The Art Fund is Britain's leading independent art charity. Formed in 1903, it is committed to the goal of enriching and preserving the public collections of art in museums, galleries and historic properties throughout the UK. The Fund gives grants towards the purchase of works of art of all kinds and periods, and distributes the works of art it receives as gifts or bequests.

The Fund has more than 100,000 members.

The Metropolitan Police Service is the largest force in the United Kingdom. Widely known as ‘the Met’, it is responsible for law enforcement in Greater London.

The idea of the Met’s crime museum was conceived by a serving officer in 1875 with the intention of giving police officers practical instruction on how to detect and prevent crime.

The collection contains an extensive selection of weapons, all of which have been used in murders or serious assaults in London. Together with myriad pieces of evidence, the cases document the changing nature of crime and go on public display for the first time in the Museum of London’s exhibition ’The Crime Museum Uncovered’.

The Garden Museum offers visitors a glimpse into the uniquely British love affair with gardens.

The Museum was set up in 1977 in order to rescue the abandoned ancient church of St Mary-at-Lambeth from demolition. The church is the burial place of John Tradescant (c1570 – 1638), the first great gardener and plant-hunter in British history.

A £7.5million redevelopment project started in 2015. The aim was to restore the ancient structure of St Mary and transform it into a modern museum with larger gallery spaces, modern displays, additional facilities and a garden that has the atmosphere of a private garden, but is open to everyone.

The Islamic Art Society was set up by the Emir of Qatar to look after the country’s collection of Islamic treasures. Based in London, the organisation was at the centre of an ambitious plan to transform the tiny Gulf State into a major cultural destination. Acquisitions were intended to go on display in five museums in the capital Doha. 

The London Design Festival unites the UK's creative community by bringing together individuals and organisations from across the design spectrum. The Festival allows creatives the opportunity to explore issues, showcase ideas and generate business with a specifically invited global audience.

The London Design Festival is the UK’s biggest annual celebration of design and reflects London’s status as the world creative hub. It is made up of a wide range of design disciplines. Supported by government, the design sector, and leading businesses, the Festival offers a platform for the best design talent.

The Museum of English Rural Life houses the most comprehensive collection of objects, books and archives relating to the history of food, farming and the countryside. The Museum was established in 1951 and is a part of the University of Reading and its long-standing academic tradition.

The 2016 opening of the Museum’s new galleries was celebrated with a completely rethought display of the collection masterminded by exhibition design company GuM. The display injects a most welcome dash of magic into the Museum’s aim to deepen the public understanding of rural life and the countryside.

Luton International Carnival is one of the UK’s biggest events, attracting over 150,000 people to Luton. To extend the activities of the Luton International Carnival, the UK Centre for Carnival Arts was established in 2007. Since then, this vision has been much enhanced and extended, successfully positioning the UK Centre for Carnival Arts as a national organisation and leading agency for carnival in all its guises.

The William Morris Gallery, located in the designer's one time family home, is the only public museum devoted to this key proponent of the English Arts and Crafts movement, which flourished from the 1880s to the 1920s.

The Gallery's collection illustrates Morris's life and work, and is located in Walthamstow's former Water House, a substantial Grade II* listed Georgian building set in its own extensive grounds.

A major refurbishment and extension of the building has been masterminded by architects Pringle Richards Sharratt together with their museum design firm GuM. The newly designed spaces promise spectacular displays from the Woodpecker tapestry woven at Morris's Merton Abbey workshops to The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer printed at Morris's Kelmscott Press.

The Gallery also holds a substantial collection of furniture, textiles, ceramics and glass by Morris's followers in the Arts and Crafts Movement.