Telling the stories behind great art works

"In December 2008 I was studying on the MFA course in curating at Goldsmiths College in London when Caroline Douglas, the Head of the Arts Council Collection came to talk to us," explains Dingle. "She told us about the Collection and about a new initiative – Select.ac, a curatorial competition for post-graduate students to create an exhibition drawn from the Collection." Set up in 1946, the Arts Council Collection's remit was to support artists living and working in Britain through the purchase and display of their work. It is the largest national loan collection of modern and contemporary British art and the work contained in it can be seen in public exhibitions around the UK and all over the world. Dingle was so inspired by Douglas's presentation and her enthusiasm for the Collection that he began to think about the kind of exhibition he would like to put on.

"There was one piece of work, A Portrait for the Selection Committee by Catherine Yass, that really inspired me and was extremely important in forming the basis of my proposal," he says. "It made me think about the different ways in which works for the Collection were purchased." He submitted his proposal outlining what his approach would be – to look at how and why certain works entered the Collection. "What I was interested in was unpicking those narratives. There is a story behind each work – every piece can be traced back to an individual or a committee; a process of acquisition."

It was this unusual approach to the Collection that appealed to the competition judges, who included Penelope Curtis, the former Henry Moore Institute curator now the new Director of Tate Britain, and Caroline Douglas. "We were looking for something challenging but achievable," says Douglas. "We were hoping to open up the Collection to new ways of thinking. Robert's proposal stood out because it was a very intelligent and interesting approach to the Collection; it was also quite ambitious and it involved a huge body of research which was very attractive to us." In February last year they gave Dingle the opportunity to create the exhibition he had envisaged.

Dingle's show concentrates on the period between 1973 and 2009 and features 31 works by 21 artists including David Batchelor, Gilbert & George, Peter Sedgley, Catherine Yass and Bettina von Zwehl. With historical text and interviews, the show traces seminal moments in the Collection's history capturing the voices of the artists and selectors involved in the acquisition process. A major consideration was to ensure that the exhibition contained a cross-section of the different ways in which work is acquired by the Collection – whether given as a gift by a collector, bought by particular selectors or purchased with the aid of additional funding. All these routes were explored and the stories behind each work researched and then related in the exhibition. "It was fascinating delving into those narratives," says Dingle. "It meant interviewing artists, collectors and Arts Council staff about what they remember about the purchase of a particular work. The whole exhibition is really about bringing out those stories that are particular to the Collection."

The piece which originally inspired Dingle is, of course, in the show and he considers it to be a favourite. "Without knowing about that piece, I wouldn't have formed the idea for my proposal – and then it was amazing to be sitting talking with the artist in her studio, just a few months later..." However, there is another work that captured his imagination: John Frankland's installation You Can't Touch This, a huge gold elevator lobby, donated to the Collection by Charles Saatchi. "From the beginning I wanted to include it in the show but it's technically very tricky to install. When I mentioned it to Caroline Douglas, though, she did everything she could to make it happen and we had a lot of help from the artist, who was very supportive. The fact that it's in the exhibition embodies for me the dedication of everyone who works at the Collection to ensure that they show as much as they possibly can."

From Douglas's perspective there was no question that the piece would appear. "We are really happy to do this sort of thing because it is all about ambitious thinking," she says. "That work is the biggest single piece in the show and it has an important place in British Art History; it looks amazing and what's really exciting is that nobody has seen it for a decade."

She says she is delighted with Dingle's show and the plan is to run the Select.ac competition bi-annually. "We have all put a huge amount of time and energy into the project and it has been massively rewarding." Dingle agrees: "It's been an amazing experience and I've learnt so much about curating along the way. It's not a solo activity – it's about working as part of a much larger team."

The Gathering: Building the Arts Council Collection 1973-2009 is at the Longside Gallery, YSP, March 4-April 18. 01924 832631.