New Reimagine Grants Announced
As the museum and gallery sector navigates the next phase of recovery from the pandemic, Art Fund is launching a new £2 million project grants scheme to help institutions move forward, as well as announcing the opening of applications for the third round of Headley Fellowships.
Aiming to increase creativity and stability in the sector, Art Fund is opening applications for its new £2million project grants scheme. Reimagine grants will help UK organisations transform their activities and build expertise, capacity and connections within and beyond the sector.
Open to museums, galleries, historic houses, arts-focussed archives, libraries, festivals, biennials and a range of professional networks, the Reimagine programme will offer small grants of between £5,000 and £15,000 and large grants of between £15,000 and £50,000. These grants will support large and small projects and professional networks.
The first deadline for applications to the Reimagine programme is 5 July 2021, and two further rounds will be held in August and October.
Art Fund has also announced further support to small and medium-sized museums across the UK by providing an additional £175,000 that will be distributed by Museum Development UK (MDUK) and their partners – Museums and Galleries Scotland, the Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Museums Council. Building on the successful partnership with MDUK and the collaborative response to the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, this funding, which will be matched by MDUK, will ensure support can reach as many museums and galleries as possible.
West Midlands Museum Development will announce details of its grant scheme in the next few weeks.
Art Fund has also opened applications for the third round of Headley Fellowships, a £600,000 funding programme supported by The Headley Trust, to help curators, expand specialist skills and develop expertise. Eleven fellowships, each with a value of £27,500, will be available to help back-fill museum professionals’ posts for up to six months to facilitate new research into collections. More information.
Itinerant Imaginaries – British Art Network Seminars
How can archival experimentation help us contend with, question and interrogate the narrative the nation tells us about itself through the work of Black artists and artists of colour in Britain?
Creating Interference and CREAM, University of Westminster invite you to three events constituting the first of a two-part series that will continue in October 2021.
These online gatherings aim to address the impasse we are currently facing by applying non-linear, collective and fragmentary methodologies to the work of Black artists and artists of colour situated in Britain and the diaspora. They will address critical questions relating to intertwined histories of empire, memory, forgetting, radical collecting practices and the process of unsettling national archives.
- Monday 7 June (6pm-8pm) Keynote speaker Françoise Vergès will talk to us about activist approaches to knowledge work, a decolonial feminism and archives and anti-racist strategies urgent needed for our future.
- Tuesday 8 June (2pm-4pm) In conversation session with Sepake Angiama and Rose Nordin who will critically engage with artistic practices that challenge national institutional frames and introduce DIY cultures.
- Tuesday 8 June (6pm-8pm) Roshini Kempadoo will chair a conversation with Annie Jael Kwan (Asia Art Activism), Bisan Abu Eisheh amongst others to discuss how artists/ activists with relationships to the global South speak back to and/ or evade national formations?
Recruitment of new AIL and Designation Panel members
Arts Council England has launched a new round of recruitment to both the Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) and Designation Scheme panels.
Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) panel
Arts Council England is looking to replace four members of the AIL panel, who are coming to the end of their term.
The Acceptance in Lieu Panel, which has a UK wide remit, advises the Secretary of State for DCMS, and the Ministers in the devolved governments, on items offered under the Acceptance in Lieu and Cultural Gifts Schemes. It also advises HM Revenue & Customs on cultural objects for which a claim for Conditional Exemption is made.
As a member of the AIL Panel you will play an important role in enhancing public collections around the country; you will be part of a process that brings fantastic objects into public ownership so that they can be enjoyed now and by future generations.
For more information and to apply to join the AIL Panel click here.
Closing date for applications is 5pm, 20 June.
Designation Scheme panel
Arts Council England is recruiting 5 new Members of the Designation Scheme Panel. Panel members support the decision-making process for Designation scheme applications, providing expert knowledge and advice and enabling a clear and coherent approach to decisions on application outcomes.
Candidates should be experienced and collaborative people who have a breadth of perspective and a deep understanding of the public benefit of museum, library and archive collections.
For more information and to apply click here.
Closing date for applications is 12noon, 20 June.
Cultural Investment Fund is Live
The Cultural Investment Fund (CIF) has gone live today. The CIF is made up of three funding streams, the Cultural Development Fund, the Libraries Improvement Fund and the Museum Estate and Development (MEND) fund.
MEND is an open-access capital fund targeted at non-national Accredited museums and local authorities based in England to apply for funding to undertake vital infrastructure and urgent maintenance backlogs which are beyond the scope of day-to-day maintenance budgets.
The guidance can be find here. There is £18.8m available for England in 2021/22 with grants from £50k to £5m.
Online Expressions of Interest form opens on 1 June, closing 5 July
ACE is holding a webinar on 7 June are for any organisations who want more information before applying to the fund. Read more about the webinar.
Commissioning and Working with Freelancers
Museum Freelance has worked in partnership with South West Museum Development to produce a set of principles and guides for commissioning and working with freelancers in a fair, inclusive and transparent. Guides include work plans, commissioning and how to write an effective freelance brief.
Reimagining Relevance
Arts Council England has a new set of tools available to download from its website around Inclusivity and Relevance. Developed by OF/BY/FOR ALL, these resources are designed to be used with your colleagues and trustees to help embed inclusivity and relevance across your organisation. Find out more.
Digital Takeover Day
Looking to engage young people? Thinking about starting a TikTok account? Want to understand what interests young people at your venue?
Take part in the Kids in Museums Digital Takeover Day on Friday 25 June.
Now in its eighth year, Digital Takeover Day is when heritage organisations hand over their social media channels to under 25s. The aim of the initiative is to give young people a voice and help them learn about the heritage sector.
For heritage organisations, it’s a great opportunity to get a fresh perspective on your venue, shake up your content and even boost your profile.
Propose a session for the MA Conference
The Museums Association (MA) is excited to announce that the theme for its forthcoming Conference 2021 at the ACC Liverpool and online is Brave New World.
In the past year museums proved that they can be responsive, creative and resourceful. We look at how we can build on what we have learned to emerge stronger and more relevant.
Proposals for sessions at Conference 2021 are now open for submission. The MA is actively seeking ideas for panel discussions, workshops and provocations to unpack how we can work effectively with communities hit hard during the pandemic, and to examine the role we can play in tackling the urgent issues of our day, including the climate crisis, racism and discrimination.
The deadline to submit a proposal is midnight on Thursday 8 April.
Zero Carbon Britain: Live online – Free places
The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) is offering free places on its Zero Carbon Britain: Live online courses, taking place 29-30 April, 23-24 June and 17-18 November. The free places are to help support those that would be otherwise unable to attend.
The online course offers an in-depth look at CAT’s research project Zero Carbon Britain, exploring how we can create a modern, zero-emissions society possible using technology that is available today.
For more information about the course click here.
To apply for a free place click here.
Opportunity to Join Acceptance in Lieu and Designation Panels
Arts Council England supports collections, and opportunities to engage with them, in several ways.
Some of the most important are through the Acceptance in Lieu, Cultural Gifts, Designation and Accreditation Schemes – which ensure cultural objects and public collections are enhanced, cared for and celebrated so that they can be enjoyed by as many people as possible.
ACE is in the process of recruiting for a few voluntary positions on two of the Panels that support these schemes, with more opportunities coming up later in the year.
At the moment, it’s looking for two people to join the Acceptance in Lieu Panel, enhancing the broad range of skills and experience already represented amongst its members, and for a new Chair of the Designation Scheme Panel.
You can find more information by clicking on the roles below. Application deadline is Monday 5 April.
