£4 million for museums to improve access to arts and culture

DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund has awarded £4 million to 24 local museums.

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.

The fund will support local museums by improving displays, enhancing collection care and making exhibitions more accessible to visitors. 

In the last 24 years, the fund has awarded over £50 million, which has supported more than 440 projects across the country.

Norwich Castle has been awarded £228,900 in this latest round Museums Minister Baroness Twycross and Paul Ramsbottom, Chief Executive of the Wolfson Foundation visited the site. They met with local representatives to discuss how the investment will enable Norwich Castle to upgrade the gallery infrastructure, remodel and update display cases and reinterpret collections, improving the visitor experience.

The Black Country Living Museum will receive £272,000 for a project which will revive the Museum’s historic but currently inactive electric trolleybuses and extend the route into the local 1940s-60s High Street.

Museum of Hartlepool has been awarded £218,400 for the creation of a Temporary Exhibitions Gallery and Collections Care Facility. This will support essential upgrades to the Museum’s Exhibition and Collections infrastructure by installing new display cases, lighting, flooring, and environmental controls meeting national security and conservation standards.

Museums Minister, Baroness Twycross said: "We want to ensure that everyone, everywhere can experience arts and culture in the area they call home and this fund plays a key role in making that possible.

"The DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund demonstrates how public funding and private philanthropy can work together to open up access to museums and galleries for those who might otherwise face barriers, and help more people enjoy the UK’s world-class collections."

Paul Ramsbottom, Chief Executive of the Wolfson Foundation, said: "Museums are among the great treasures of British cultural life. They preserve the collections and stories that speak of our shared creativity and community heritage. This latest round of funding from the long-standing DCMS/Wolfson partnership allows museums - and particularly regional museums - to upgrade their facilities and improve access to their collections, so more of us can enjoy the fascinating wonders on our doorstep."