England’s civic museums can apply for the £20m Museum Renewal Fund to improve access to collections, support education and increase visitors to regional institutions.
England’s civic museum can now apply for support from a new tranche of government grants.
The £20m Museum Renewal Fund is now open for applications, and is designed to support regional museums with a local authority link.
The funding programme is being delivered by Arts Council England and will run from now until March 2026.
It will be open to regional and local museums, with a funding or governance link to a local English authority.
It is hoped the capital will be used in projects which improve public access to collections and buildings, as well as community and educational programmes.
It said the funding will “ensure museums can continue to serve communities, care for and share collections, and tell our national story at a local level”.
Funding will be used to support community programmes, support and grow schools activities, and drive more visitors to museums.
It said it will also back projects focussed on revenue generation, investing in organisational change and IT upgrades, and supporting jobs in the local community.
This follows the announcement from the Culture Secretary last month of the £270 million Arts Everywhere Fund.
Grants will range in size between £10,000 and £1m. Eligible museums will be wholly owned by or operated by a Local Authority, manage the majority of collections and buildings on behalf of a Local Authority, have been previously owned or operated by a Local Authority and now operating as an independent trust, or have a governance link to a local authority defined in its current governing document.
Sir Nicholas Serota, chair of Arts Council England, said the fund will “help these cherished institutions address immediate pressures and enable them to look ahead and plan a sustainable future serving their communities.
