Alistair Hardaker
Image: Inside Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery 2024 (Birmingham Museums Trust)
‘Your Museums, Your Move’ aims to raise at least £2 million over two years
Birmingham Museums Trust has launched a fundraising project which hopes to raise £2m over the next two years.
The capital is hoped to support the trust’s costs, of which half are covered by public funds.
In September, the trust launched a five-year strategy, which includes the financial aim of becoming a “sustainable, more independent organisation that provides affordable, surplus-generating paid services and experiences that add social and economic value to Birmingham, and will have secured funding to support its priority capital projects.”
The plans include steps to secure capital funding and alternative revenue streams, while continuing to advocate for public investment. The trust Birmingham Museums Trust operates nine museum sites across Birmingham: Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum, Aston Hall, Blakesley Hall, Sarehole Mill, Soho House, Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, Weoley Castle, and the Museum Collection Centre.
Sara Wajid and Zak Mensah, co-chief executives of Birmingham Museums Trust, said its museums “are at a critical crossroads”, calling the fundraising project a “call to action to the people of Birmingham and beyond, including businesses and organisations, to invest in the city’s greatest cultural asset”.
“We are very grateful to receive regular funding from Birmingham City Council and Arts Council England, but the reality is that for every pound we receive we must raise the same again to keep the doors open.
The co-chief executive said previous lifeline funding from the Museum Renewal Fund earlier this year had “made a real difference in the short term”, but the funding must be spent by the end of January.
“This campaign is vital to ensure that the city has museums that make us all proud – for learning, remembering and imagining.”
