A man and woman stand in a gallery looking at a painting. There is modern art on the walls.

Welcome to your October Newsletter!

In this newsletter, we can reveal that we have secured funding for Growing Together, the continuation and next stage of Travelling Together! Read on to find out how you can get involved with Growing Together, and sign up to our brand new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) eLearning course.

We are also collecting data on collections hazards through a survey, which will inform future training and resources. In addition, you can also find out about our area's Accreditation successes, museum news and upcoming sector grants in this month's newsletter.
Project update
We are excited to announce that we have been successful in our application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for Growing Together: Embedding Inclusion and Collaboration in our Museums
Growing Together will build on the work from Travelling Together. Travelling Together participant museums will return to the project, providing opportunities for these museums to continue to learn from each other and take their next steps. Importantly, it will also fund a whole new cohort of up to eight museums.
Thanks to this funding, we are able to support a new network of Champions too – individuals working or volunteering in museums who want to harness their interests or draw on lived experience. These Champions will use their insights to facilitate new peer networks which will explore what good EDI practice looks like.

The project will run from October 2024 to April 2026 and will be led with the support of an experienced steering group, who will collectively provide challenge and steer to this work. To find out more read the latest blog on our website.
Want to find out more about Growing Together? Email us adding ‘Museum participation’, ‘Champion role’, ‘Peer Networks, or ‘Introductory EDI training’ to the subject line and copying in your local Museum Development Officer.
Collections update
We are hoping to run a project next year to help museums deal with hazardous objects in their collections. The project will provide training, support, resources and specialist equipment. 

To start off, we need some evidence about the number of museums with hazardous objects, and the level of confidence to deal with this topic, so we have prepared a very simple survey.
It asks simple questions like “Do you have any objects that contain asbestos?” and allows the answers “Yes, No, and Not Sure”, so no detailed or specialist knowledge is required.

Complete the survey by Sunday 13 October. Replies will be kept confidential and will only be used to assemble the data about the scale of the problem and to register your interest if you wish to be kept informed about the project.
Focus on...
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
As part of Travelling Together, and by extension Growing Together, we have launched a free eLearning course for museums who want to develop their understanding of EDI. 
 
The EDI Roadmap has been developed with expert consultants, a project steering group who bring lived experience and EDI expertise, while working alongside a group of museum user testers. Through six modules, learners will discover how good EDI practice can be implemented in all aspects of their museum, from leadership and recruitment through to front of house and collections.  
 
You don’t have to have previously engaged with Travelling Together to take the eLearning course. This course is for learners who already understand the equality act and protected characteristics. To find out how the training could benefit you, book on to our introduction session on Thursday 17 October. You can book onto The EDI Roadmap through the button below. 
Accreditation update

This month there is a new Accreditation achievement in our area to celebrate! Congratulations to Bruton Museum on gaining Accreditation in September.
Other news
The 2025 Digital Culture Awards

Arts Council England and the Digital Culture Network have announced that the third Digital Culture Awards are now open for entries. The awards celebrate digital excellence and innovation in the creative and cultural sector

Entry categories include digital marketing, digital content, using data, digital inclusion and digital ambassador. Whether you’ve reached new engagement heights from a social media or email marketing campaign, taken your creative offer online or made use of your data to drive organisational change – they want to hear about it! 

Submissions will close on Wednesday 23 October.
Museum Data Service Launches

Funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Museum Data Service (MDS) officially launched this September. It will bring together over 100 million object records from 1,750 accredited museums and other collections across the UK, unlocking an invaluable resource for researchers, educators, curators, and content developers. 

The MDS is a collaboration between Art UK, Collections Trust, and the University of Leicester. At the time of launch there were of 3,129,798 records from 21 museums, with another 1,951,719 records in the pipeline. The MDS enables museums to easily upload and securely manage their object records, whilst making it easy for users to search and retrieve records across multiple collections and diverse databases. 
Research Project on Participatory Practices in Museums

The University of York are running a small new research project on participatory practices in museums together with Mahidol University in Thailand. They have just launched a survey that draws on the Museum Association's "Power to the People" self assessment framework.

The survey invites museum staff to reflect on embedded participatory practices in their museum and their own experiences of participatory practices. The survey closes on Friday 18 October and will take approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Grants
British Science Week 2025 Grants

Community groups can apply for Community Grants of £500 and £1000 to fund, organise and run their own events and activities during British Science Week, 7 to 16 March 2025.

These grants, supported by UK Research and Innovation, cater for audiences who do not often get the chance for hands-on engagement with science. The funding allows people to participate and enjoy this annual celebration of all things science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM)!

Applications close at 4.59pm on Tuesday 5 November 2024.
National Portfolio Creative People and Places funding 2026-29

This grant focuses on parts of the country where involvement in creativity and culture is below the national average. It funds partners in local areas to empower residents to decide what kind of creative activity they want to experience on their doorstep. 

Applicants can apply for between £750,000 and £1,000,000 for a three-year period. Eligible locations in the South West include Gloucester, Swindon, Sedgemoor, Rushmoor, Isle of Wight, Isles of Scilly, New Forest, North Devon, North Somerset, South Somerset, Plymouth, Portsmouth and Torbay. 

Activities must start on 1 April 2026 and end on 31 March 2029. The deadline for submissions is midday on 16 January 2025.
The best ways to get in touch are via the form on our website or emailing museum.development@bristol.gov.uk

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