Museums and Grants for the arts
This information sheet is for prospective applicants to the Grants for the arts programme,
who will be applying from 1 July 2013. Please also read our ‘How to apply guidance’ before
you submit your application. Download it from our website or contact us for a copy
(enquiries@artscouncil.org.uk, 0845 300 6200). This information sheet complements this
other guidance, but does not replace it.
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Grants for the arts – an introduction
Grants for the arts and museums
Types of activities you can apply for
Key things to consider
What Grants for the arts is not able to fund
Historic art
Examples of funded projects – under £15,000
Examples of funded projects – over £15,000
Contact us
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Grants for the arts – an introduction
Grants for the arts is the Arts Council's open access funding programme, and is designed to
allow us to support a wide variety of arts-related activities.
Activities we support must be clearly related to the arts and must be project-based, up to a
maximum of three years in length. This means that an activity must happen for a defined
period of time, with a start and end date and its own objectives to be achieved in that time.
This is to distinguish project funding from regular or ongoing funding, which we do not
provide through Grants for the arts.
Grants normally range from £1,000 to £100,000 and we can fund up to 90 per cent of the
cost of an activity.
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Grants for the arts and museums
Grants for the arts welcomes applications from museums for arts-specific projects. The
benefits of museum related Grants for the arts activity include:
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helping arts and culture reach more people and engage a broader audience
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providing innovative opportunities for artists to create work in new settings and
inspired by a range of subject matters
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maximising different sources of funding, resources and assets
Types of activities you can apply for
Grants for the arts supports a range of arts activity associated with museums, such as:
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Artists’ residencies (including international exchanges)
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Youth exchanges (focused on interpreting art collections or interpreting non-art
collections through art)
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Exhibitions (including touring)
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Arts workshops
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Themed festivals (often multi-cultural)
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The Big Draw
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Museums at Night
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Museum Maker
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Publications
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Artistic commissions
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Site specific work
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Patron’s Initiatives/Collectors’ Circles
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Key things to consider
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partnership with art organisations/specialists is strongly encouraged
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project should have a clear artistic rationale, with clear description of artistic aims
and how they would be achieved and evaluated
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show how quality of the artistic outcome and process will be ensured
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be clear about the artists you are using, their track record, and what the idea behind
the project is
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how can emerging or young artists get involved, as well as established?
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consider all art forms, from literature to theatre, visual arts to dance, combined arts
and festivals to creative media and online projects
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What Grants for the arts is not able to fund
Grants for the arts cannot support the following Museum related activity:
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projects focussed exclusively on historic art which do not include some element of
contemporary artistic activity
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oral history projects
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activity which is already being funded by Arts Council England, e.g. Renaissance
programme (MPM, Strategic Support Fund, Designation Development Fund, PRISM)
Full details of our eligibility criteria are provided in the how to apply guidance.
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Historic art
Arts Council England prioritises contemporary art and developing/promoting the work of
living artists. During the period 2012-15, we expect the main source of funding for museums
activity and historic art collections to be our Renaissance programme and the Heritage
Lottery Fund. However, we encourage links between contemporary art and museum
collections, for example:
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exhibitions showing contemporary art alongside historic work

new artistic commissions, residencies and contemporary art exhibitions responding
to historical collections
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acquiring new contemporary work which has a strong dialogue with historic
collections
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Examples of funded projects – under £15,000
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.
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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.
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Examples 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 Archeology - Poet in Residence, £25,000.
Residency with poet Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi, including commissioning new poems, engaging
with collections and Sudanese communities.
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Contact us
Phone: 0845 300 6200
Email: enquiries@artscouncil.org.uk
Textphone: 020 7973 6564
Website: www.artscouncil.org.uk
Post: Arts Council England
Grants for the arts
PO Box 4353
Manchester
M61 0DQ.
© Arts Council England September 2013
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