Grants available
The Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund, run by the Museums Association (MA), focuses on time-limited collections work outside the scope of an organisation’s core resources.
Through this fund the MA will award approximately £800,000 per year to museums, galleries and heritage organisations with two grant rounds per year.
This fund has been developed from the Esmée Fairbairn Museum and Heritage Collections strand and the MA’s Effective Collections programme.
So far 13 projects have been funded, with grants from £25,000 to £85,000 being awarded to a range of types and sizes of museums from across the UK.
Past recipients of funding include:
- The Horniman Museum and Gardens received £50,450 to review the museum’s natural history collections with subject specialists and enthusiast groups getting together to identify and find significant specimens.
- Perth & Kinross Council Heritage Service – £58,357 Towards the costs to catalogue and research the Buchanan White Hemiptera (insect) collection.
Click here for more projects that have already received funding (pdf)
How to apply
Like the Museum and Heritage Collections strand we are keen to fund projects at an early stage of development where it may be difficult to guarantee tangible outcomes, but like Effective Collections we want organisations that are funded to become part of a network to develop ideas, share knowledge and build a legacy.
Projects that are eligible to apply to the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund include research into collections, conservation, collections review and initiatives to develop the use of collections. Our intention is that successful projects will include work that:
- is developmental
- builds a legacy that has an impact after the duration of the project, even if this is hard to define at the start of the project
- is in some cases innovative
- is in some cases sector-changing in scale.
Our aim is that projects result in:
- better understanding of collections
- better appreciation of the potential of collections
- better use of collections.
The first deadline for initial applications in 2012 will be 5 April 2012.
Detailed guidance and an application form can be found on the website