WMMD Small Grants

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Small Grant Scheme 2023

The Small Grants are part of the West Midlands Museum Development Programme (WMMD) funded by Arts Council England (ACE). There are six different grants within the scheme, three of which are match funded by Art Fund in collaboration with MDUK. This continues the successful partnership between Art Fund and MDUK supporting museums throughout 2020-2023.

The grants will support the continued recovery of the sector, embed good practice and explore new ways of working

The grants available are:

  • Audiences Grant* – to support your audience development, marketing and insight
  • Collections Development Grant – to research, interpret and use your collections in new ways
  • Collections Management Grant – to enable high quality collections care and management
  • Green Museums Grant – to support you to be environmentally responsible
  • Resilience Grant* – for activity that supports your financial and organisational resilience
  • Workforce Grant* – to support the wellbeing and development of your museum workforce, including paid staff, volunteers and Trustees

*Grants match funded by Art Fund

Each of the grants directly relates to one of ACE’s four Investment Principles

**APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED**

We will tell you if your application has been successful week commencing 24 July 2023

What you need to know about the grant scheme

  • You can apply for any amount between £500 and £5,000
  • You may only apply for one grant per organisation
  • The grant cannot be used for match funding
  • The Grant will support Accredited museums or those formally Working Towards Accreditation in the West Midlands
  • We will prioritise applications from small to medium sized museums (museums with fewer than 50,000 visitors per annum) that are located in areas of low cultural engagement, where the museum is the main cultural offer in a locality, and/ or where museums that have niche collections outside the larger city institutions
  • National Portfolio Organisations and National museums are not eligible to apply
  • Museums that have previously received a Reset Grant from WMMD are eligible to apply providing their final report has been submitted
  • Please note:
    • There is a total budget of £26,000 WMMD funding for open small grants available, and an additional £14,000 Art Fund funding for eligible schemes*
    • The deadline for applications is 9am, Monday 10 July 2023
    • We encourage applicants to carefully consider the value of their grant requested in order to support as many museums as possible
    • We strongly recommend that you discuss your application with a member of the WMMD team before you submit it

Full terms and conditions are in the guidance notes and application form.

*Eligible schemes are Audiences Grant, Resilience Grant and Workforce Grant. 

Guidance notes and application form

Select the most appropriate grant for your project after reading the Guidance Notes for each grant.

Audiences Grant

Supporting your audience development, marketing and insight. It directly relates to ACE’s Inclusivity and Relevance Investment Principle.

Collections Development Grant

To research, interpret and use collections in new ways. It directly relates to ACE’s Ambition and Quality Investment Principle.

Collections Management Grant

Enabling high quality collections care and management. It directly relates to ACE’s Ambition and Quality Investment Principle.

Green Museums Grant

Supporting you to be to be more environmentally responsible. It directly relates to ACE’s Environmental Responsibility Investment Principle.

Resilience Grant

Supporting your financial and organisational resilience. It directly relates to ACE’s Dynamism Investment Principle.

Workforce Grant

Supporting the wellbeing and development of your museum workforce, including paid staff, volunteers and Trustees. It directly relates to ACE’s Dynamism Investment Principle.

Grant application form


Successful 2021 Recovery Grant applications:

In response to the pandemic, Museum Development UK and Art Fund worked in partnership to distribute recovery funding to museums across the UK.

The priority was to support the recovery phase of small to medium sized museums. These museums are often located in areas of low cultural engagement, are the main cultural offer in a locality, or based in urban areas with niche collections and specific cultural offers outside large city institutions.

Here at West Midlands Museum Development we combined our Small Grant programme with the Art Fund’s contribution to award nine grants, totalling over £35,000.

Claymills Victorian Pumping Station

Redesign and reprint site guidance materials to support socially-distanced, self-guided visits for diverse audiences, including how the old practices were unsustainable and how practices have improved.

Museum of Cannock Chase

Increase access to the museum for D/deaf and hearing impaired visitors through the repair and/ or replacement of hearing loops and through the delivery of BSL interpreted activities. Deaf awareness training for staff will ensure a greater understanding of the needs of deaf visitors.

Museum of Royal Worcester

Outreach and engagement project with under-represented audiences via  Pop-up Museum, Ceramic Studio and remotely, so museum can deliver hands-on heritage with young people and seniors facing barriers to access.

Roman Alcester Museum

New educational resources and fresh craft materials to encourage school curriculum visits and other visitors back.

Royal Birmingham Society of Artists

Identify Board Skills and gaps to assist with the diversification of programmes, artists and communities and broaden the membership profile.

Soldiers of Shropshire

To engage a freelance curator to undertake a collection audit exercise in order to uncover lesser-told Shropshire Soldier stories and also to better prepare the collections to reveal other hidden voices throughout the museum’s interpretation and display.

Staffordshire Yeomanry Museum

Combined professional training and support to help the museum to effectively share stories about their collection and expand their digital audience having identified their existing and new audiences – promoting the right messages to the right audiences whilst fostering volunteer confidence in the use of technology.

The Barber Institute of Fine Arts

Recovery Art – Rebuilding during Covid19 – phase 2. Further facilitated workshops for Recovery Art, a group that supports positive steps in individual and collective journeys of recovery. Activity will develop into a hybrid of online and onsite workshops.

The Hub at St Mary’s

Expand the gallery/ exhibition space allowing hosting of larger more exciting exhibitions with the vision of growing engagement and helping the community post Covid-19

 


Successful 2020 Recovery Grant applications:

In response to the pandemic, Museum Development UK and Art Fund worked in partnership to distribute recovery funding to museums across the UK.

The priority was to support the recovery phase of small to medium sized museums. These museums are often located in areas of low cultural engagement, are the main cultural offer in a locality, or based in urban areas with niche collections and specific cultural offers outside large city institutions. The scope of the awards and grant distribution across the UK can be viewed in this report.

Here at West Midlands Museum Development we repurposed part of our programme and combined it with The Art Fund’s contribution to award 11 grants, totalling over £44,000.

Brampton Museum

Installation of additional wifi to enable online sessions for schools, talks and virtual access to parts of museum not currently available.

Claymills Victorian Pumping Station

Produce professional quality marketing materials aimed at potential donors and sponsors. Donors to provide financial support make Claymills available to the public in the new post-Covid-19 normal.

George Marshall Medical Museum

Remote replacement for Victorian Surgery workshops. 3D scan of artefacts describing the changes in surgery and anaesthesia; webpages to inform context; and create resources for teachers.

Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum

Project to take Haddie’s Family Gallery online through a programme of engaging content designed by families for families.

Ludlow Museum

The Museum remains closed and needs to reach out to a digital audience by sharing the collection online supported by specialist staff-training, and improved marketing.

Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery

To develop new family audiences for the museum who cannot access the museum digitally. Working with an artist and new community partner, produce creative packs and host workshops inspired by the museum’s collections.

Rugby Art Gallery and Museum

Host a range of onsite and offsite workshops inspired by the Brick by Brick Exhibition to boost footfall, re-engage existing audiences and encourage new visitors into the museum spaces.

Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery

Reinterpreting the colonial aspects of the collection and the Clive Statue with the sector, partner organisations and the wider community via digital platforms and interpretation boards.

Staffordshire Museum Service

Staffordshire Poet Laureate and a visual artist will carry out online activities, and create new on-line resources supporting audiences to share their experiences of Covid-19 and to enable the museum to capture these responses for the collections.

The Barber Institute of Fine Arts

Adapting the Recovery Art programme to deliver online workshops. Developing the programme more widely with public events.

The Lace Guild Museum

Preparations to re-open the museum including signage, one way system and PPE. Rebuild and extend awareness of the museum.


Successful 2020 Emergency Grant applications:

Our annual grant scheme was adapted to provide funding for museums who demonstrated an urgent need for support to stabilise the museum to allow future operation and/or protect heritage during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Three Emergency Grants were awarded to support museums in the West Midlands that were ineligible for either ACE’s Emergency Response Fund or National Lottery Heritage Fund’s (NLHF) Heritage Emergency Fund.


Successful 2019 Small Grant applications:

Bewdley Museum
‘Forging Memories’ – becoming a Dementia Friendly venue and outreach visits

Heritage and Culture Warwickshire
Audience development research into the local communities to inform Audience Development Strategy and Equality Action Plan

Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum
‘Wellbeing Workshop’ for those living with Dementia and their carers

Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery
‘Talking Collections’ – improve the use of handling collections to engage with groups of people with dementia and those at risk of social isolation

Potteries Museum and Art Gallery Cultural Exchange
A six month programme of events to stimulate an active Asian collection policy to engage with and reflect changing local community

Royal Birmingham Society of Artists
‘Combating Loneliness in Later Life’ – delivering a range of activities during forthcoming exhibitions

Staffordshire Archives and Heritage
‘On YOUR Doorstep: Creative Conversations Connecting the Shared Stories of Staffordshire’ – improving the reach of the service

Staffordshire Yeomanry Museum
‘Collections and Community Co-creation in the Digital Age’ – improving access by digitising the collection and engagement with new audiences

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