AIM Pilgrim Trust grants awarded

AIM is pleased to announce the successful projects in the Autumn round of AIM Pilgrim Trust collections care and conservation grants. 27 applications were received to the autumn round of the grant scheme and 20 have been awarded funding. 

The Collections Care, Audit and Conservation grant schemes are funded by Pilgrim Trust and support small to medium sized museums to care for their collections more effectively and efficiently and to meet the standards required for Accreditation.

In this latest round, which closed at the end of September 2022, £71,696 has been awarded to the 20 successful projects, allowing these AIM members to undertake necessary collections care improvements and object conservation. This represents a 74% success rate across the three grant schemes.    

Pilgrim Trust Audit Grants

The collections care audit grants had a 100% success rate.  The four applications to the scheme were awarded funding.

• Quaker Tapestry Museum £1,100
• Army Flying Museum £1,100
• Gordon Russell Design Museum £1,100
• Saffron Walden Museum £1,100

Pilgrim Trust Collection Care Scheme

The collections care grants received 14 applications, bidding for £80,499.77, against an available funding pot of £28,500.  Following the grant panel meeting, 11 organisations were offered funding, a 79% success rate.

• Museum of East Dorset, Improved Environmental Monitoring System, £3,920
• MoDA Middlesex, Designing a Resource Efficient Environment for the Museum Store (DREEMS), £1,100
• Suffolk Regimental Museum, Environmental Monitoring and Object Storage Improvement, £2,950
• Bentley Priory Museum, Protecting ‘The Few’ Improving Light Levels, £5,915
• The Scottish Crannog Centre, A Collections Management Plan for Early/Iron Age wet finds, £8,050
• The Peace Museum, Protecting the Peace Museum’s Collection for the Future, £4,240
• British Deaf History Society Museum, Collections Care Upgrades – Funding for an audit offered, £1,100
• Ravenglass Railway Museum, Increasing capacity and raising collections care standards, £3,000
• Museum of Water and Steam, Steam Clean: Addressing the Pandemic Backlog, £6,875
• The Living Memory Association, Updating the Collection Store in line with Accreditation Standards – Funding for an audit offered, £1,100
• Biggar Museum Trust, Hanwell Monitoring Equipment Upgrade, £2,080

Pilgrim Trust Remedial Conservation Scheme    

The remedial conservation grant received 9 applications, seeking £50,101 of funding, against an available pot of £25,000 to award.  5 applications received funding, a success rate of 56%.

• Spalding Gentleman’s Society (SGS), Conservation of a painting of Fairfax House, Spalding’s Lost Gem, £6,488
• Dalkeith Museum, Conservation and restoration of two Longcase Clocks, £900
• Chiddingstone Castle, Conservation of Charles I Leather Bottle, £2,778
• Barnsley (Cannon Hall Museum), Conservation of the 17th Century Mortlake Tapestry, The Judgement of Paris, £10,000
• Claymills Pumping Engine Trust, Conservation and restoration of Pipe Drug, £6,800

In 2022 project bids for Pilgrim Trust funding totalled £267,314.85 against a grant pot of £125,000. AIM has awarded £136,895.30 to members through the Pilgrim Trust grant scheme in two rounds in Spring and Autumn 2022 for collections care and remedial conservation projects.

For those members that were unsuccessful in this round or have a project in mind in the near future, help and advice is always available from the AIM team.  We will be sharing news in December on the grant streams available to members in 2023. Click here to sign up to eNews to be kept up to date with new funding opportunities>>