Reimagine Grants Programme – Third Round Application Open

The Art Fund has announced the recipients of the first round of the Reimagine grants and are currently accepting application for the third and final round.

The £2m Remagine grants will support large and small projects and professional networks.

Deadline for submissions for the third and final round of 2021 Reimagine grants is 11 October with recipients being announced in December. Organisations can apply for between £5,000 and £50,000.

To see the list of recipients of the grant, please click here.

To learn more about the programme and to apply, please click here.

MDNW Sustainable Improvement Fund – Recovery Grants 2021

Through a continued partnership with Art Fund, Museum Development North West’s Sustainable Improvement Fund – Recovery Grants programme is open to support North West museums with their recovery over the next 12 months.

The Sustainable Improvement Fund (SIF) is a major part of the Museum Development North West Programme (MDNW) and is taken from our core Sector Support Organisation funding from Arts Council England.

Through Museum Development UK’s continued partnership with Art Fund, MDNW has secured an additional £12,000 to add to our £50,000 SIF fund and award as Recovery Grants to support North West museums with their recovery over the next 12 months.

A single Accredited museum or museum working towards Accreditation can apply for up to £7,500. A partnership of museums or a museum service with multiple Accredited sites can apply for up to £10,000. Where a partnership of museums or a multi-site organisation is applying, the project must involve a minimum of two Accredited sites.

National Portfolio Organisations, national museums, English Heritage and National Trust properties are ineligible to apply, although they can be part of partnership bids.

The deadline for applications is 5pm Friday 10^th September 2021.

We will support organisational resilience of museums around three key areas:

1. Developing new sustainable offers for the future
2. Re-engaging with audiences
3. Creating and adapting programmes and services

Within these areas, museums can bid for a range of activity that meet the strategic needs of organisations in recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic and those that allow museums to build back better. These could include, but are not limited to:

• Adapt or develop new ways to connect with, and meet the needs of your communities
• Invest in the health and wellbeing and development of your paid and volunteer workforce
• Enhance existing or start new digital activities to increase reach
• Respond to the climate emergency and reduce environmental impact

N.B. Collections are not directly mentioned in the criteria – but they can be indirectly supported where it supports a museum to meet one of the three key areas listed above.

The full guidance and the application form for the Sustainable Improvement Fund –  Recovery Grants can be found below.

Sustainable improvement Fund – Recovery Grants Guidance

Sustainable Improvement Fund – Recovery Grants Application Form

Weston Loan Programme Open for Applications

From Art Fund:

The Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund provides funding and training for regional museums and galleries to secure important strategic loans from major UK collections.

The grants cover up to 100% of the costs associated with securing and displaying a loan, for example security reviews, insurance, transportation, conservation, installation and invigilation.

They also support activity related to maximising the impact of the loan, such as production of marketing materials, on-site interpretation and/or audience engagement activity.

Made possible with the support of the Garfield Weston Foundation, the programme aims to encourage new and stronger relationships between regional and national museums and galleries.

Take a look at some of the loans we’ve supported so far, across the first, second and third rounds of funding.

Who should apply

We can accept applications from UK public museums, galleries, historic houses, libraries and archives which are:

• regional and/or run by local authorities or universities, or have independent Trust status
• open for at least half the week for at least six months of the year (but we’d be happy to discuss this further)
• at least provisionally accredited

If your museum is not fully or provisionally accredited you’ll be asked to explain why, and to demonstrate a longstanding commitment to care for the collections to the same nationally recognised standard.

We’ll consider applications that:

• enhance or maximise the possibilities of already planned loans/exhibitions/programming
• enable ‘quickfire’ and ‘quick win’ loan requests
• support long-term relationship and display development

We don’t expect you to have confirmed approval of any loan request before you apply, but you’ll be expected to demonstrate that you have discussed the details in depth with the relevant national museum partner and ascertained the conditions that will need to be met to receive the loan, and the likely costs.

Funds available

£5,000-£25,000, though we are able to consider applications for more or less if there is a strong case to do so.

Click here for the full details.

MDNW Sustainable Improvement Fund – Recovery Grants 2021

Through a continued partnership with Art Fund, Museum Development North West’s Sustainable Improvement Fund – Recovery Grants programme opens today to support North West museums with their recovery over the next 12 months.

The Sustainable Improvement Fund (SIF) is a major part of the Museum Development North West Programme (MDNW) and is taken from our core Sector Support Organisation funding from Arts Council England.

Through Museum Development UK’s continued partnership with Art Fund, MDNW has secured an additional £12,000 to add to our £50,000 SIF fund and award as Recovery Grants to support North West museums with their recovery over the next 12 months.

A single Accredited museum or museum working towards Accreditation can apply for up to £7,500. A partnership of museums or a museum service with multiple Accredited sites can apply for up to £10,000. Where a partnership of museums or a multi-site organisation is applying, the project must involve a minimum of two Accredited sites.

National Portfolio Organisations, national museums, English Heritage and National Trust properties are ineligible to apply, although they can be part of partnership bids.

The deadline for applications is 5pm Friday 10^th September 2021.

We will support organisational resilience of museums around three key areas:

1. Developing new sustainable offers for the future
2. Re-engaging with audiences
3. Creating and adapting programmes and services

Within these areas, museums can bid for a range of activity that meet the strategic needs of organisations in recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic and those that allow museums to build back better. These could include, but are not limited to:

• Adapt or develop new ways to connect with, and meet the needs of your communities
• Invest in the health and wellbeing and development of your paid and volunteer workforce
• Enhance existing or start new digital activities to increase reach
• Respond to the climate emergency and reduce environmental impact

N.B. Collections are not directly mentioned in the criteria – but they can be indirectly supported where it supports a museum to meet one of the three key areas listed above.

The full guidance and the application form for the Sustainable Improvement Fund –  Recovery Grants can be found below.

Sustainable improvement Fund – Recovery Grants Guidance

Sustainable Improvement Fund – Recovery Grants Application Form

New Funding Opportunities from Art Fund

From Art Fund:

Reimagine Grants

Our new programme, Reimagine grants, have been developed in consultation with the sector and are designed to inspire creativity and increase stability across the sector. The aims of the programme are to support organisations as you transform your activities following the lockdowns and help build expertise, capacity, and connections to help achieve your aims for your organisation and your public.

The Reimagine programme incorporates and replaces our former project grants (Respond and Reimagine, Professional Network Grants and Small Project Grants). We trust this will provide a clearer, simpler application process as you navigate the next phase of recovery.

Small grants of £5,000 to £15,000, and large grants of £15,000 to £50,000 are available in three funding rounds. The first deadline is Monday 5 July.

More details and full guidance can be found here.

Headley Fellowships with Art Fund

We’ve launched a third round of our Headley Fellowships with Art Fund, which aim to support collections-based research and deepen expertise within museums. 

This programme gives curators working with all collections the time and resources to undertake research, develop their specialism and share knowledge with museum audiences and their colleagues in the sector. 

Projects could:

• Involve research into a part of the collections that a museum may not have the specialist expertise to use effectively, or where that specialist provision has been lost
• Interrogate collections through a decolonial lens
• Explore how collections and displays could be more relevant to communities

Each fellowship has a value of £27,500 to support up to 6 months of a curator’s time and the development of public and sector outputs including workshops, toolkits, exhibitions and public programmes. 

Deadline: Friday 30 July

More details and full guidance can be found here.

Museum Development UK Funding

Today we are also announcing further support to small and medium-sized museums across the UK by providing an additional £175,000 that will be distributed by Museum Development UK (MDUK) and their partners – Museums and Galleries Scotland, the Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Museums Council. Building on the successful partnership with MDUK and our collaborative response to the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, this funding, which will be matched by MDUK, will ensure our support can reach as many museums and galleries as possible.

More details can be found here.

Art Fund Museum of the Year 2021

From Art Fund:

Are you the next Art Fund Museum of the Year?

In 2021 we believe it’s more important than ever to champion the UK’s vital museums, and we are seeking applications from organisations whose achievements tell the story of the creativity and resilience of the sector over the past year.

The winner will be awarded £100,000, and each of the other finalists will receive £15,000.

We have endeavoured to make the 2021 application process light-touch and easy to access, and applicants and chosen finalists will be guided and supported fully at every stage.

Deadline for applications: midday, 1 June 2021. To find out more and to apply, visit https://www.artfund.org/museum-of-the-year

Art Fund Event – Sharing Collections: the future of borrowing and lending

From Art Fund:

We’re delighted to invite you to Sharing Collections: The future of borrowing and lending, a brand new series of free-to-attend live webinars. Each webinar, lasting an hour, will include a panel of professionals working across the arts sector in the UK today. They will explore the journey of borrowing loan objects and exhibition planning, as well as share their insights on the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on museums and galleries and what the future might look like for lending and borrowing as a result.  

The live events will take place online from 2-3pm on the below dates, but will also be available to watch on demand after the series has ended. Each session will focus on the following topics:

1.     25 March, Thinking about borrowing: research and planning   

2.     1 April, Making the case and getting it funded: securing your funds 

3.     22 April, Preparing for a loan: managing change and risk 

4.     29 April, Marketing and audience engagement: building a strategy 

5.     6 May, What do we do now: the future of borrowing and lending 

The series is closely connected to the Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund, which provides funding for museums and galleries to borrow works from national collections, encouraging the sharing of works more widely across the UK. Attending the webinars will be a useful introduction for potential and new applicants to the programme but isn’t a prerequisite and is open to all. Visit  artfund.org/supporting-museums/programmes/weston-loan-programme or contact Katie Lloyd, grants manager, at klloyd@artfund.org for further information.   

The series is supported by the Garfield Weston Foundation, and brought to you by Art Fund in partnership with the Touring Exhibitions Group (TEG), National Museums Directors’ Council (NMDC) and the UK Registrars Group (UKRG). 

Register and find out more information about the series here.

Covid-19 Recovery Grants Evaluation Report

In response to the pandemic, Museum Development UK* and The Art Fund worked in partnership to distribute recovery funding to museums across the UK.

The priority was to support the recovery phase of small to medium sized museums. These museums are often located in areas of low cultural engagement, are the main cultural offer in a locality, or based in urban areas with niche collections and specific cultural offers outside large city institutions.

In the North West The Art Fund’s contribution was combined with funding from Museum Development North West and a contribution from Curious Minds (the regional Bridge provider) to award 12 grants, totalling just over £70,000.

The investment programme supported organisational resilience and helped museums to reopen safely and effectively, to meet audience needs and expectations and to develop a sustainable offer for the future.

Projects are still ongoing, but this quantitative evaluation report shows the scope of
awards and grant distribution across the UK.

 

*Museum Development UK (MDUK) brings together Museum Development providers across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and allows for a shared understanding of the national picture. MDUK is a network of all national Museum Development providers and practitioners in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Its overarching goal is to support diverse, inclusive and innovative museums that welcome people from all backgrounds. Together it creates a thriving museum sector by raising standards, driving excellence and supporting people working in museums.

Art Fund opportunites: Weston Loan Programme and Clore Leadership bursaries

The Art Fund has recently advertised the following bursary opportunities:

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Art Fund bursaries for Clore Leadership courses

Clore Leadership recently opened applications for their Emerging Leaders and Leadership Pulse courses. They are offering four bursary places across the two courses. The bursaries will cover the entire course fee, and are open to all museum professionals working in the UK.

Clore Leadership provides leadership learning, enabling cultural leaders to have a positive impact on our sector and society. Emerging Leaders is an intensive course providing the essential skills and tools required by cultural leaders in the early stages of their careers. Leadership Pulse is a dynamic modular course for those seeking to sharpen their skills and knowledge in order to face head-on the challenges of 21st Century leadership.

More information can be found on Clore’s website.

Applications are made through the Clore website, and those interested in a bursary place should select ‘Art Fund bursary’ on the application form. The closing date for applications is 12pm, 26 October 2020.

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Round five of the Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund: Now open for applications

The Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund provides funding for museums and galleries across the UK to secure important strategic loans from major UK collections. Made possible with the support of the Garfield Weston Foundation, the programme aims to encourage new and stronger relationships between regional and national museums and galleries for the benefit of museum visitors across the country.

Grants of £5,000-25,000 are available to cover up to 100% of the costs associated with securing and displaying a loan, for example security reviews, insurance, transportation, conservation, installation and invigilation.  They also support activity related to maximising the impact of the loan, such as production of marketing materials, on-site interpretation and/or audience engagement activity.

Art Fund have just opened for applications, and welcome approaches from UK public museums, galleries, historic houses, libraries and archives which are regional and/or run by local authorities or universities, or have independent trust status. The deadline for applications is midnight, 6 November 2020.

For further details please click here.

Jonathan Ruffer curatorial grants

The Art Fund’s Jonathan Ruffer curatorial grants programme is still open for application.

The programme offers £75,000 in grants annually, supporting museum and arts professionals to undertake research and pursue professional development opportunities.

The grants can support costs associated with museum and exhibition visits, training courses and study programmes, and research resources – more information and guidance can be found here.

The deadline is Friday 4 September for requests of £2,000 and above.