(4 minute read)
Published: 4 October 2024
Written by: Alice Thornton, Head of Research and Impact and Kate Hitchcock, Senior Grants Manager
This year marks 10 years since we awarded our first grants through the Museums and Galleries Fund. The Fund aims to help strengthen museums and galleries in the UK, celebrating the unique assets that our regions possess and their benefit to us nationally. To celebrate this milestone, we have published a 10 Year Anniversary Review of the Fund, looking at how it has evolved, whether it is meeting its intended purpose, the impact of the work funded, and the successes and challenges it has supported. The majority of the research for the 10 Year Review was carried out late last year, but it has been finalised and updated in recent weeks prior to publication on our website.
About the Museums and Galleries Fund
Between 2014-2023, the Fund has awarded 62 grants worth £5,393,403 to fifty organisations. Independent charities and trusts are by far the dominant grant-holder type, with the rest a mixture of local authority museums, national museums and university museums. Grants provide multi-year support for core curatorial work and are directed towards helping organisations enhance and sustain their curatorial development to attract a broader and more diverse public.
Benefits of the Museums and Galleries Fund
The 10 Year Review highlights many benefits of this funding, including breathing new life into collections; being able to test and embed new ways of curating and collections management (including through more participatory, community-focused and inclusive approaches); and providing invaluable early career experience and training for the individuals in these posts. Wider institutional benefits have included, in some cases, programmes of work which were pioneering for the institution, experimenting with completely new approaches, and/or creating change which has been embedded and carried forward. In many cases, the funding has also contributed to positive environmental benefits and opportunities for public and community engagement, although this has been harder to evidence consistently.
Challenges faced by the museums and galleries sector
The 10 Year Review also notes many of the challenges that have been faced by the museums and galleries sector over the past 10 years, and which the Museums and Galleries Fund has not always been able to respond to. These include a prolonged period of under-investment, the recruitment and retention of teams, effective partnership working, and the challenges involved in navigating the Covid-19 pandemic. We have not been able to follow up consistently with every organisation to understand better the long-term effects of our funding, particularly in a context where staff turnover is high and organisations face ongoing funding challenges.
Opportunities for museums and galleries
Despite these challenges, museums and galleries continue to offer exciting programming, and actively consider the role they play in society. Examples of this include exploring the impact of the nature and climate crises, through climate-focused curation, and by working in more environmentally friendly ways. Participants in the 10 Year Review also shared a sense of momentum around topics such as decolonisation, repatriation and inclusive histories, with some of our funding going towards this work. Another key theme that emerged was around the role of museums and galleries within their local communities. Organisations within our portfolio have embarked on ambitious community engagement and co-curation projects designed to overcome barriers to accessing and participating in the arts.
Key findings of the 10 Year Anniversary Review
The Review concludes that:
- Funding need has not decreased over ten years; indeed, the sector’s need for financial support is very much still apparent. However, the level of funding that our Fund is able to provide is a tiny drop in the ocean compared to the level of financial need that has been cited in the Review.
- The Fund is one small funding source in a complex patchwork of funding for the museums and galleries sector, which organisations can understandably find difficult to navigate. Analysis of other funding available has shown that our Fund is a comparatively minor source of funding for the sector overall compared to other, much bigger independent and government funders.
- Despite this, the Fund has attracted largely positive feedback from grant-holders, notably the fact that it offers core, multi-year and flexible funding for curatorial work, and is not overly prescriptive; and that the application and grants management process are clear and supportive. In other words, the Fund is well designed and well delivered in line with our values and ethos as a responsive grantmaker.
- However, it is concerning that the Fund has an overall success rate of only 11%, meaning that nearly 90% of applicants are left disappointed. This compares poorly to the Foundation’s success rate for its main grants programme (28% in 2022/23).
What happens next?
John Ellerman Foundation will enter a new strategic period when our current strategy comes to an end in 2025. The 10 Year Review will be used to inform our new strategic direction, including the future of the Museums and Galleries Fund.
In the meantime, the next round of the Museums and Galleries Fund will be open for applications from Monday 7th October 2024, until Monday 6th January 2025. As in previous years, we are offering prospective applicants the chance to come along and learn more about the application process at our weekly webinars. You can find out more, including how to sign up for a webinar, on our Museums and Galleries page.