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Welcome to your November Newsletter!
In this month's newsletter, we're proud to be celebrating a bumper year of grants! Read our latest blog to find out who have been awarded our brand new Talking Nature grants and when we'll be releasing information about next year's grant programme. 

You can also hear from our Dorset MDO about how she's been working with local museums to develop a digital marketing campaign this autumn, thanks to central government funding. You can expect in this newsletter your usual round up of upcoming sector awards, training opportunities and grants, as well as updates from our team.
SW Museum Skills programme update
Two women talking and leaning over a desk
We're now halfway through our Autumn SW Skills Programme and have added an extra Focus On date for Accreditation Mentors on Tuesday 26 November.

This informal session on Zoom is an opportunity to get up to date with the latest Arts Council England developments. There will also be time to network, ask questions and provide feedback on the mentor role. No booking is required, take a look at our website for further information.
Focus on: Accreditation Mentoring
Grants update
We've now completed our grants programme for the year, so it's time to celebrate and congratulate the amazing museums who have been successful in securing funding from us. 

This year has seen our biggest ever grants offer, with four streams available to apply for. Over the summer, we awarded 17 grants across our On Display! and the first round of our brand new Capacity Builder grant schemes.  

This autumn, we have awarded grants for the second round of our Capacity Builder to 10 museums and seven museums have received Talking Nature grants.
Two children, a boy and a girl, looking around. The walls behind them are covered in preserved butterflies.
Shapes
As Talking Nature is a new grant scheme, we wanted to highlight some of the inspiring projects we’ll now be funding until spring 2026 in our latest blog.  

If you are considering applying for funding from us in the future, then you can join us for Focus on: Grant Applications on Thursday 7 November, a relaxed and informal discussion session about applying for our grants.
Read the blog here
Focus on... Dorset
A museum display showing stained glass and other artifacts.
Over the past six months our Dorset Museum Development Officer (MDO), the Dorset Museums Association and Visit Dorset (the Council’s tourism team), have been collaboratively developing and delivering a digital marketing campaign to encourage local residents and visitors to explore Dorset’s museums over October. 

The project has been funded through a Shared Prosperity grant from central government and this enabled Visit Dorset to contract an independent specialist marketing agency to develop creative content for a far reaching digital campaign.  

The campaign was pivoted on an “Inspired by Dorset” theme, which saw twelve museums select and celebrate an artist with a historic link to their town and collections. Our MDO supported museums to develop new graphics, plan and organise grant supported half term events. These ranged from following in the footsteps of Dame Elisabeth Frink and making a ‘Wire Warrior’, creating a miniature masterpiece at Corfe Castle Museum, to an origami lion at Blandford to stone carving on Portland!

Evaluation will be undertaken in November using data and visitor feedback collected by museums during October.
Team update
At the end of October, we said congratulations and goodbye to Programme Officer Roz Bonnet, who after 10 dedicated years at Museum Development South West is moving on to pastures new. 
A group of people sitting around a table at a restaurant
Anyone who has interacted with Museum Development South West will have likely encountered Roz at some point, as her time here has taken her across many if not all strands of our work. Roz's greatest contributions have been to our SW Museum Skills programme, which she has shaped with her keen experience and expertise in learning and development. She will continue to hone these skills in her new role at Bath Spa University, and we hope you'll join us in wishing her the very best.
Other news
A group of excited children
The Sandford Award 2025

Entries for the Sandford Awards 2025 open Monday 2 December. The Sandford Award is non-competitive and valid for five years. 
 
This award is a mark of quality for heritage learning and open to British heritage organisations that offer a formal learning programme which supports the curriculum. Recognition is also given to informal learning such as family programmes and self-guided provision. 
 
Find out more and how to enter on their website.
Touring Exhibitions Group Training Opportunities

The Touring Exhibitions Group are running two training courses this autumn which you won't want to miss!

Introduction to UK Touring Exhibitions is a two part online session on Wednesday 6 and 13 November, 09:30 – 12:30. If you’re new to receiving or producing UK touring exhibitions, this is the training for you! The session provides basic level skills and knowledge for receiving, creating and managing UK touring exhibitions.

Their brand new online course, Artistic Commissioning, is running on Thursday 5 and 12 December, 09:30 – 12:30. Through discussion, knowledge sharing and presentations of case studies and examples of good practice; different creative approaches to artistic commissioning will be explored.
2024 Collections Trust Award – applications now open 

The theme of this year's Collections Trust Award is putting collections data to work, mirroring the 2024 conference theme. 

Has your museum undertaken a project that put collections data to work in the context of rethinking cataloguing? Or perhaps you have improved workflows and procedures so that formerly ‘single use’ content can be safeguarded and retrieved for a variety of users and uses. 

If so, Collections Trust want to hear from you! Your museum could win £1000 to spend on an agreed collections management activity. The deadline to submit is Monday 13 January 2025.
Grants
Phase 4 Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme

This is a grant scheme for museums who want to decarbonise their buildings by changing from a fossil fuel heating system. Capital funding is available from 2025/26 to 2027/28. Guidance and informative videos are available on their website. 

Phase 4 of the public sector grants scheme is now open for applications until Sunday 25 November.
Cultural Facilities Fund from Biffa

Grants of between £10,000 and £75,000 are available for projects which aim to improve recreation, interest and education. The project could be based within a museum, arts or heritage centre. Local communities should be able to enjoy, benefit and engage with collections, exhibits or performances taking place within such institutions as often as possible.
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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Photo credits (in order as they appear):
  • MDSW
  • MDSW
  • MDSW
  • Victoria de Wit 
  • MDSW
  • The Sandford Award
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