The collections care and conservation grants, funded by the Pilgrim Trust, continue to be popular amongst our smaller AIM members with 33 applications received for funding in the Autumn round.
It was a competitive round, and the panel sought to fund the most urgent and impactful projects. Following the two panel meetings, 20 organisations were offered grant funding totalling £63,750.50.
If the projects below inspire you to look at funding for a project in 2025, then do feel free to get in touch with us at [email protected]. In 2025 we will be offering a new grant called ‘Museum Fundamentals’, combining the familiar conservator support offered by the Pilgrim Trust funded grants with new funding to support back of house activity and mentoring for larger projects. Look out for news on Museum Fundamentals later this month.
Audit Grants
Seven organisations out of the eight applications, were offered funding for a conservator led collections care audit to provide a report on the display and store environment and offer recommendations on how to improve collections care.
- Working Class Movement Library
- Tenbury Wells Museum,
- The Pankhurst Trust
- Yorkshire Air Museum
- Peak District Mining Museum
- Blandford Fashion Museum
- Museum of Dartmoor Life
Collections Care Grants
Saddleworth Museum £4,900.50 – Saddleworth Rising – The Pilgrim Trust Collections Care Audit undertaken in July, highlighted where improvements can best be made. This project focuses on the stored collection and combines training of volunteers and equipment purchases to deliver collection care improvements.
Gainsborough’s House £10,000.00 – Store racking increasing accessibility to collections – installation of roller racking to the stores.
Portland Museum £2,700.00 – Fit for the future- lofty goals and safe displays – A project to train volunteers, purchase equipment, refurbish displays and pack the collection.
Staithes Museum £1,200 – Conservator led audit
Bodmin Keep £7,610.00 – Collections decant and storage due to temporary closure of museum for urgent structural works – equipment to support the packing and treatment of the collection.
Remedial Conservation Grants
Leominster Museum £3,400.00 – Conservation of a self-portrait, by John Scarlett Davis
Stromness Museum £1,765.00 – Conservation and rehousing of the George Ellison Seaweed Collection
Museum of Rail Travel/ Vintage Carriages Trust £3,000.00 – Conserving and making publicly accessible the Bradshaw map
Epworth Old Priory £900.00 – Restoring the 19th century patchwork coverlet
The Lustleigh Society £1,790.00 – Conservation of two paintings, Kelly Farm and View of Lustleigh Cleave by Frederick Foot (1830-1908)
Port Sunlight Village Trust £7,325.00 – Conservation of the Gladstone Theatre Plaque.
Farmland Museum £5,630.00 – Restoring the Martin Family’s Potato Wagon
Museum of Wigan Life £6,330.00 – Conservation of archives relating to silk manufacturers Charles Hilton and Son.
Other news
Preserving heritage and powering communities
AIM Associate Supplier Volta Compliance on the sustainable energy solutions they found for Bamburgh Castle and Tadcaster Community Trust.
Museum Renewal Fund opens
Arts Council England opens new £20 million fund to support local authority museums. Timetable for MEND Round five also published.
Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum and Markfield Beam Engine announce merger
AIM members Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum and Markfield Beam Engine and Museum are pleased to announce their merger under a new umbrella organisation, the Heritage and Communities Trust.