Is your museum planning to submit a grant application for Unlocking Collections – a time limited priority with the Arts Council’s National Lottery Project Grants?

This grant writing workshop is designed to help you prepare a strong case for funding. Museum consultant, Sonia Rasbery, will deliver this intensive workshop which aims takes you through the grant application and criteria step-by-step.

After the workshop, attendees will be offered the chance to book a follow-up (virtual) surgery with Sonia to provide you with bespoke feedback and advice about our grant application.

This workshop supports the Dynamism investment principle within Arts Council England’s Let’s Create strategy.

Who should attend?

Senior museum team members (paid or volunteer), curators, development officers, finance officers and trustees who are actively involved in preparing grant applications for your organisation.

About Unlocking Collections

As part of Arts Council England’s commitment to funding museums and their collections, they have introduced the Unlocking Collections campaign as a time limited priority within National Lottery Project Grants.

Unlocking Collections aims to enable museums to develop their collections-based work and increase public engagement with, and use of, their collections.

ACE are keen to see applications which highlight the use of collections; whether that is for community-based engagement, the development of interpretation, or providing opportunities for museums to develop their digital skills and knowledge.

The types of activity they might fund include:

• documentation programmes which engage local communities in research

• collections development programmes to enhance the interpretation of the collections

• workshop activity which places collections at its heart

• support programmes to develop digital skills and knowledge linked to effective collections management and documentation

• collections review projects which enable museums to better understand their holdings, and improve engagement with them

Applications for under £30,000 take 8 weeks for a decision.

Applications over £30,000 take 12 weeks for a decision.

The deadline for the Unlocking Collections strand of the National Lottery Project Grants is 31 March 2023.

More information:

• Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants

• Unlocking Collections Information Sheet, Arts Council England, 2021

The session will be delivered online, and you will need an internet connection to attend. We will be conducting longitudinal evaluation for this session. If you have any access requirements, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate you.

Please note: this event is being run by South East Museum Development. Therefore places are only available to organisations in the South East region. By signing up to the training you agree to adhere to our terms and conditions, including completing the post session evaluation.

By booking a place on to a South East Museum Development training event, you are agreeing to the following :

• To ensure fair distribution, only one representative from each museum can book a place on this training course. Additional bookings from the same museum will go on to a reserve list. Places on this training course will be confirmed by email.
• That you are either a paid staff, a volunteer or a trustee who works within or with a South East museum or heritage organisation which is in Arts Council England’s Accreditation Scheme (either fully accredited or working towards accreditation). Where this is not applicable (i.e. you are a non-accredited museum), you acknowledge that in the event that training is oversubscribed, priority will be given to museums or heritage organisations in the Arts Council England Accreditation Scheme.
• It is a condition of receiving the training provided without charge that the evaluation form is completed by the specified deadline in the email notification, unless a paper evaluation is specifically provided on the day of the training session for completion before the end of the session.

Book your place here