Tag: funding

More Industrial Heritage Sites Receive Government Grant Support

More Industrial Heritage Sites Receive Government Grant Support

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130 cultural venues, museums, and libraries will receive a share of £127.8 million to protect them for present and future generations. This latest Government support forms part of the ‘Arts Everywhere Fund’. This is in addition to the heritage grants announced earlier in the month which were funded by the DCMS/Wolfson Museums & Galleries Improvement Fund.

These new monies form part of three funding streams administered and delivered by Arts Council England on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport. These are:

  • The Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND) which has allocated £25.5 million to support 28 museums to undertake vital infrastructure works, and improve the visitor experience.
  • The Creative Foundations Fund (CFF) which has allocated £96 million to 74 arts and cultural venues to help theatres, performing arts venues, galleries and grassroots music venues address urgent infrastructure needs. 
  • The Libraries Improvement Fund (LIF) which has allocated a share of £6.3 million to 28 library services to help upgrade buildings and technology to better meet the needs of the community.

The industrial heritage museums and sites receiving support are:

  • Baltic Flour Mills Visual Arts Trust, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne – £3,649,800
  • Black Country Living Museum, Dudley – £454,159
  • Greater Manchester Transport Society – £244,000
  • London Transport Museum – £999,999
  • People’s History Museum, Manchester – £2,491,670
  • Port Sunlight Village Trust – £499,999
  • The Brickworks Museum, Southampton – £280,000
  • The Mill Arts Centre, Banbury – £135,000
  • Watermill Theatre, Newbury – £300,000
  • Whitchurch Silk Mill – £210,045

For further details follow this link: Arts Everywhere Funding – GOV.UK

People’s History Museum, Manchester. Image copyright Dr Michael Nevell.

Industrial Heritage Sites to Recieve Grants From the DCMS/Wolfson Museums & Galleries Improvement Fund

Industrial Heritage Sites to Recieve Grants From the DCMS/Wolfson Museums & Galleries Improvement Fund

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24 local museums in England have been granted a share of £4 million through the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund. The Fund brings together £2 million in match funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and independent, grant making charity, the Wolfson Foundation. It supports local museums by improving displays, enhancing collection care, and making exhibitions more accessible to visitors.

The five industrial heritage museums that have recieved £1,034,200 from this year’s grant round are:

  • British Motor Museum, West Midlands – £147,700
  • Black Country Living Museum, West Midlands – £272,000
  • SS Great Britain, South West – £46,300
  • National Tramway Museum, East Midlands – £210,600
  • Food Museum, East of England – £357,600

Full details of the all the museums receiving grants here: Local museums receive £4 million to improve accessibility to arts and culture – GOV.UK

The DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund provides capital funding for museums and galleries across England to improve displays, protect collections and make exhibitions more accessible to visitors. For 2025-27, DCMS and the Wolfson Foundation have each contributed £2 million to the Fund, which has benefitted more than 440 projects in its more than 24-year history.

One of the trolley bused that will be renovated at the Black Country Living Museum. Image courtesy of the Black Country Living Museum.

Museum Development Grants – Next Round Opening

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The next round of Museum Development grants for the English regions will be opening in the next few weeks. These include Open Grants, Small Grants, and bursaries from the five regional museum development networks in England, with grants ranging from £500 to £7000 depending on the region and type of activity. These are usually designed for accredited museums, or those sites working towards accredition.

Museum Development London are running a free online seminar detailing their grants for 2026-27 on the 23 April. To book follow this link: MDL grants programme 2026-27 coffee morning

Museum Development South East have two Open Grant streams. Round one is currently open and closes on 2 June. Round 2 opens on 21 September and closes on 4 November. For details on both follow this link: Open Grants – Museum Development South East

Applications for Museum Development Midlands Open Grants start on 30 April, with a deadline of 29 June. More details here: Open Grants · MDM

The Museum Development South West Open Grants scheme deadline is 15 April, but applications for their Capacity Grants opens on the 29 April. More details here: Capacity Builder – Museum Development South West

Museum Development North’s Continuing Professional Development Bursaries is a rolling programme, so applications can be submitted at any time from April to 3 December 2026. The scheme may close earlier if all funds have been allocated. Further details here: Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Bursaries – Museum Development North

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SS Great Britain Launches Fundraiser to Complete Museum Renovation Project

SS Great Britain Launches Fundraiser to Complete Museum Renovation Project

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The SS Great Britain Trust is looking to raise the final £180,000 over the next six weeks to help complete the major reinvention project of the museum, which lies next to the historic ship in the Floating Harbour. On 23 February, the old Dockyard Museum closed to make way for a refreshed museum scheduled to open in July 2026. This will bring to life the remarkable stories of the passengers and crew who travelled and worked aboard the SS Great Britain. Alongside the revamped museum there will be a new community hub, a safe and accessible space for local groups to gather, research, and host workshops.  

With £1.3m in investment already secured, the Trust are calling on visitors, local businesses, supporters worldwide, and the people of Bristol to get involved and help make the new museum a reality. The Dockyard Museum is being redesigned as an immersive experience focused on the “untold stories” of passengers who travelled aboard the SS Great Britain to destinations including New York, India and the Falkland Islands. The Trust has said that the “much-needed makeover” will “reveal stories from more of the passengers on board the SS Great Britain, but it will also allow today’s audiences to resonate with her history in an entirely new way”.

Further details on how to donate can be found here: All Hands On Deck – SS Great Britain

Eskdale Mill & Heritage Trust Fund Raiser

Eskdale Mill & Heritage Trust Fund Raiser

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An online fundraiser has been set up to help the Eskdale Mill and Heritage Trust to raise funds to run community events and support their volunteers in sharing the mill with the public and local community in 2026.

Dating back to at least 1578, and located alongside Whillan Beck in Boot, Cumbria, the stone-built Grade II* listed Eskdale Mill demonstrates 500 years of water power and the traditional craft of corn milling. Last commercially worked during the 1930s to supply animal feed to local farmers, the mill still produces its own flour and has a modern hydro-electric waterwheel making it possible to continue to harness energy through water power. It is the last remaining working water-powered corn mill in the Lake District National Park.

Further details on how to donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/community-events-and-volunteering-in-2026?attribution_id=sl:db5ff4c1-225d-4850-a2ba-60db8108f385&lang=en_GB&ts=1770758294&utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_dash&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=twitter

The Exhibitions Group Awards 10 Grants to Improve Exhibition Accessibility

The Exhibitions Group Awards 10 Grants to Improve Exhibition Accessibility

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The Exhibitions Group (TEG) has announced that ten Access Grants have been awarded as part of its pilot grant scheme to improve accessibility to exhibitions across the UK for disabled people. Amongst the recipients are Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust and Wakefield Museum and Castles.

The pilot scheme awarded grants of £1,500–£4,000 to support practical, meaningful work that advances access to exhibitions. The funded projects reflect the social model of disability, and support a wide range of access-focused activity, including co-creation with disabled people, accessible interpretation, physical adjustments, accessible programming, and staff and volunteer training.

The Exhibitions Group helps everyone involved in exhibition making to connect and create relevant, sustainable, diverse and accessible exhibitions with our training, resources, and networking opportunities. 

More details here: https://theexhibitionsgroup.org.uk/news/the-exhibitions-group-awards-10-access-grants-to-improve-exhibition-accessibility/

Shipley Glen Tramway Launches Fundraising Appeal

Shipley Glen Tramway Launches Fundraising Appeal

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The Shipley Glen Tramway, near Saltaire in West Yorkshire, is launching a fundraising appeal for £89,000, to pay for vital repairs to the trackway after prolonged damage by the weather. It opened in 1895 linking Baildon with Saltaire and is Britain’s oldest working cable tramway. The tramway has two tracks and a pair of tram cars and runs every Sunday between midday and 16:00.

The site has been run by a charitable trust since 2002. Trustee John Pitcher, speaking to the BBC, said that the electrically-powered funicular had been assessed as safe to continue to operate. However, for the works to be carried out it would have to be temporarily closed. “What has happened, over the years, is that the damp has washed away underneath the tracks actually into the track bed, so the track bed is now a little bit unstable. Over the years we’ve maintained it, and you can stick patches on for so long, but there comes a time when you need a little bit more than an Elastoplast.”

More details on how to donate here: https://www.shipleyglentramway.co.uk/

Kempton Steam Museum Awarded NLHF Grant to Connect New Audiences With the Story of London’s Clean Water

Kempton Steam Museum Awarded NLHF Grant to Connect New Audiences With the Story of London’s Clean Water

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Kempton Steam Museum has been awarded a £90,000 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) to connect people of all ages with the role of clean water in London’s past and present. The project will enable an Audience Development Consultant to develop a strategy to increase visitor numbers and attract new audiences from the local community and beyond. It will also enable a Learning Consultant to develop digital learning materials targeted at Key Stage 1 and 2 that are accessible to all.

Kempton Steam Museum, located at the Kempton Park Pumping Station in southwest London, showcases the world’s largest operational triple-expansion steam engine and a rich collection of historical artifacts and technical drawings. Without this funding from the Heritage Fund, its stories would remain undiscovered by many.

Three new part-time members of staff will build capacity across the museum in a variety of ways. Firstly, to achieve Museum Accreditation by summer 2026, secondly, to implement strategies to increase visitor numbers and attract new audiences, and thirdly to manage volunteers. This initiative will expand our visitor demographic and foster stronger connections with underrepresented groups, local organisations, schools and families. In the long-term, the project will build a resilient and sustainable museum, strengthen the network of groups and organisations working together for the benefit of the local community in Hounslow and raise public awareness of the importance of clean water. Valerie Mills from Kempton Steam Museum said: “We are thrilled to have received this support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to build a museum fit for the future!”

Kempton Steam Museum is an independent museum in London governed by the Kempton Great Engines Trust. The Trust, a registered Charity, was formed in 1995 with the aim to preserve the historic steam pumping engines at Kempton Park Pumping Station and make them accessible to the public. All restoration work and the running of the museum is undertaken entirely by a team of volunteers.

Kempton Steam Museum will be running Steam Weekends throughout the project. The museum is open from March to December offering special events throughout the year. You can follow @Kempton Steam Museum on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok and or visit their website at https://kemptonsteam.org/

AIA Grant & Award Deadlines for 2026

AIA Grant & Award Deadlines for 2026

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The Association for Industrial Archaeology have a variety of grants and awards for industrial archaeology and heritage available for 2026. These are to encourage improved standards of recording, research, conservation, and publication within the sector. 

The grants support industrial heritage and archaeology conservation projects in the UK, and research projects on industrial archaeology. They are open to non-members as well as members of the Association.

The awards are presented to an individual or groups who have made a significant contribution to industrial archaeology, for example in research, publication, recording or conservation. The awards attract local and national publicity, and the recipients are encouraged to publish their projects. Most awards have cash prizes and are usually presented annually at the AIA Conference, at which winners will be encouraged to talk about their work and present posters or displays on it if appropriate.

The deadline for the following categories is 31st January 2026 (more details in the links):

The AIA also offer Restoration Grants of up to £20,000. The deadline for these is the 31st March. More details in the link below:

Foxton Canal Museum Launches Crowding Funding Campaign to Secure the Future of the Site

Foxton Canal Museum Launches Crowding Funding Campaign to Secure the Future of the Site

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The Trustees of the Foxton Inclined Plane Trust have launched an urgent crowdfunding appeal to raise £20,000 by February so that the museum and site can open in 2026. A combination of rising costs, the long-term impact of COVID-19, and recent operational challenges—including lock closures that reduced visitor numbers this year—has left the Foxton Canal Museum, the beating heart of Foxton Locks and a vital guardian of Britain’s canal heritage, under threat. As a consequence, income has not kept pace with escalating expenses, making sustainability increasingly difficult.

The Museum tells the story of the Foxton Inclined Plane – a Victorian engineering marvel and a scheduled monument – and the people who shaped our waterways. Since its founding by the Foxton Inclined Plane Trust in 1982, the Museum has grown from a volunteer-led dream into a nationally recognized institution. It has hosted award-winning exhibitions, educational programs, and community events, becoming a hub for history, creativity, and learning.

From its humble beginnings – volunteers clearing overgrown inclines and rebuilding the boiler house – to achieving official museum status and welcoming thousands of visitors annually, Foxton Canal Museum has always been powered by passion and perseverance. Recent projects include Foxton Creates, a co-curated exhibition with local schools, and Ingenuity & Vision, exploring the 1950 Market Harborough Festival & Rally of Boats. The Museum also runs STEM workshops, artist residencies, and oral history projects, ensuring canal heritage remains relevant for future generations.

However, the Museum faces mounting financial pressure and without urgent support the Museum cannot guarantee opening in 2026.

To contribute to the Crowdfunding Appeal, and for more information about the site and the campaign to secure its future, follow this Link: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-foxton-canal-museum