Museums and Grants for the Arts

Museums and Grants for the Arts

Contents

1Grants for the Arts

2Museums and Grants for the Arts

2.1What you can apply for

2.2What you cannot apply for

3Key things to remember

4Further information

4.1Examples of funded projects – £15,000 and under

4.2Examples of funded projects – over £15,000

5Contact us

1Grants for the Arts

Grants for the Arts (GFTA) is our Lottery-funded grant programme for individuals, arts organisations and other people who use the arts in their work. Grants are available for activities carried out over a set period and which engage people in England in arts activities and help artists and arts organisations in England carry out their work.

Activities we support must be clearly related to the arts and must be project-based, up to a maximum of three years in length. Grants normally range from £1,000 to £100,000 and we can fund up to 90 per cent of the cost of an activity.

All applicants must also read the ‘How to apply guidance’. Download it from our website or contact us for a copy.

2Museums and Grants for the Arts

Grants for the Arts welcomes applications from museums for arts-specific projects.

The benefits of museum related Grants for the Arts activity include:

• helping arts and culture reach more people and engage a broader audience

• providing innovative opportunities for artists to create work in new settings and inspired by a range of subject matters

• maximising different sources of funding, resources and assets

Full details of our eligibility criteria are provided in the ‘How to apply guidance’.

2.1What you can apply for

Grants for the Arts supports a range of arts activity associated with museums, such as:

• Artists’ residencies (including international exchanges)

• Youth exchanges (focused on interpreting art collections or interpreting non-art collections through art)

• Exhibitions (including touring)

• Arts workshops

• Themed festivals (often multi-cultural)

• The Big Draw

• Museums at Night

• Museum Maker

• Publications

• Artistic commissions

• Site specific work

• Patron’s Initiatives/Collectors’ Circles

2.2What you cannot apply for

Grants for the Arts cannot support the following Museum related activity:

• projects focussed exclusively on historic art which do not include some element of contemporary artistic activity

• oral history projects

• activity which is already being funded by Arts Council England, e.g. Renaissance programme (MPM, Strategic Support Fund, Designation Development Fund, PRISM)

3Key things to remember

• partnership with art organisations/specialists is strongly encouraged

• project should have a clear artistic rationale, with clear description of artistic aims and how they would be achieved and evaluated

• show how quality of the artistic outcome and process will be ensured

• be clear about the artists you are using, their track record, and what the idea behind the project is

• how can emerging or young artists get involved, as well as established?

• consider all art forms, from literature to theatre, visual arts to dance, combined arts and festivals to creative media and online projects

4Further information

4.1Examples of funded projects – £15,000 and under

Museum of East Asian Art - 4th Annual Lunar Year Extravaganza!, £1,500

Engaging the local community with aspects of East Asian culture through arts and crafts activities.

Jane Fox - Mutter Matter, £9,977

Mixed media art installation exploring memory and feminine presence within John Soane’s Pitzhanger Manor.

Nuneaton and Bedford Borough Council - Eliot Writer in Residence, £7,665

Writer-in-Residence Programme at Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery. Playwright Vanessa Oakes responds to the George Eliot Collection.

Carina Rodney - Play Development Project, £10,000

Playwright research and writing residency at Durham Light Infantry Museum, exploring experiences of war veterans.

4.2Examples of funded projects – over £15,000

Manchester Art Gallery - Collectors’ Circle, £21,000

Pilot to develop a new category of private supporters to support commissioning, exhibiting and acquisition of contemporary art by young, emerging and mid-career artists.

Culture 24 - Museums at Night, £106,988

Cross sector audience development scheme directed towards increasing arts venue participation to 50%, expanding national PR campaign and partnering up to 10 contemporary artists with regional venues.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery - Lost in Lace, £25,000

Exhibition exploring practice between textiles, architecture and design, responding to the architecture of the exhibition space and venue’s historic lace collection.

Natural History Museum - International Artists Residency Programme, £22,500

Three year programme allowing invited artists to research the largely unknown natural history illustration collection, to create a new body of work.

Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology - Poet in Residence, £25,000.

Residency with poet Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi, including commissioning new poems, engaging with collections and Sudanese communities.

5Contact us

Phone:0845 300 6200, 0161 934 4317

Textphone:0161 934 4428

Email:

Website:

Post:Arts Council England - Grants for the Arts,

The Hive, 49 Lever Street, Manchester, M1 1FN