Skills bursaries and seed grants support community-led research by galleries, museums, libraries and archives across England in three-year AHRC initiative.
The National Archives has awarded thirteen grants totalling just under £50,000 to make community-led research by galleries, museums, libraries and archives more inclusive and relevant.
The funding marks an early milestone in Spaces, Places and Belonging: Community Hub, a three-year project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
“These first awards are a great example of what this programme was created for – supporting bold ideas, building skills and empowering communities to explore and share their stories in meaningful ways,” said Sophie Anstee de Mas, community hub manager at The National Archives.
Four of the awards are for skills development. Photographer and researcher Lee Karen Stow received a bursary for specialist archival training as she uncovers overlooked histories of 20th century women factory workers. Perry Wood Primary School in Worcester received another skills bursary to develop a school and community archiving model inspired by their 75th anniversary. Other bursaries went to Scott L Pileckas for traditional leather working training and Sheffield Feminist Archive for website design training.
Seed Corn Grants have also been distributed to a wide variety of projects, including This New Ground, whose work encourages adults with a learning disability to produce their own oral testimonies with local archives in Portsmouth. In North Tyneside, the Remembering the Past project will use their grant to help different generations record their local heritage and memories.
Other Seed Corn Grants were received by Proud Gypsy Traveller CIC, Inspiring Yarns, which works to reduce social isolation across Northern Ireland, the London-based racial equality charity Voyage, Newleaf Foundation for socially disadvantaged communities in Greater Manchester, Black Men Teach CIC, which promotes the voices of Black men in education, The Museum X, a museum celebrating Black British history, and Southend Museums.
