Welcome to your April Newsletter

Firstly, we want to say a big thank you to all of the museums and heritage organisations who joined us for our Growing Together project celebration event in March. You can read up on the event in our latest blog. 

Don't forget, there's just over a week left to get in your applications for this year's Small Open Grants programme. Later this month we're opening round one of our Capacity Builder grants.

We also have important information in our April newsletter regarding registering for the Annual Museum Survey. 

You can also find in this newsletter advice on how to protect your museum from extreme weather from Conservation Development Officer Helena Jaeschke, as well as your usual round up of sector news and grants.

This month is an important month for grants, so make sure your diaries are marked!

You only have until noon on Wednesday 15 April to submit your Small Open Grant applications. If you haven't already, we highly recommend running your application past your local, place-based Museum Development Officer. Successful applicants will be announced in May. 

On Wednesday 29 April we will be opening the first round of our Capacity Builder grants for applications. This funding scheme offers grants to help develop professional skills and build confidence amongst those working and volunteering in museums. Individuals can apply for up to £500, teams from the same museum can apply for up to £1,000 and collaborations between museums can apply for up to £1,500. These grants close for applications on Wednesday 27 May. 

If you'd like to apply for funding to support training activity later in the year, then the second round of Capacity Builder grants will be opening on Wednesday 5 August.

If you're looking for inspiration or examples of how a Capacity Builder grant could benefit you, take a look at our highlights blog of last year's grants.

On Thursday 19 March, museums from across the South West gathered at M Shed, Bristol, to celebrate the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England funded project Growing Together: Embedding Inclusion and Collaboration in our Museums. The project is built on the progress already made by the Travelling Together project, bringing confidence in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and enabling museums to create data-driven achievable action plans for welcoming everybody to their museums.  

As the Growing Together project draws to a close, the event served as a powerful reminder of what collective commitment to inclusion can achieve. The conversations, reflections and creative collaboration showcased a sector ready to continue this work with empathy, curiosity and purpose. While the project may be ending, its impact is clearly ongoing. Most importantly, it has fostered a shared determination to make museums in the South West places where everyone feels they belong.

You can read a full write up on the event on our website.

This year’s Annual Museum Survey will open on Tuesday 28 April and will remain open for nine weeks. 

The Annual Museum Survey gathers key data from museums across England every year. The data collected helps to demonstrate the social and economic value of museums both locally and nationally and helps make the case for continued public and private investment and supports vital advocacy for the sector. We strongly encourage eligible museums to participate and are here to support you to do so. 

If you are an Independent, Local Authority, or University museum within the Arts Council England Accreditation scheme and did not submit a response to AMS 2025, your local Museum Development Officer (MDO) should have already contacted you to register. If you haven’t heard from them or have any queries, please get in touch with your MDO directly. 

To help you prepare your data from last year, the full questionnaire and supporting documents are available on our website. You may find it useful to speak with relevant colleagues, review your 2025 submission, check any quarterly or end of year reports, or begin collating data you already have to hand. 

If you have questions at any point – whether about the process, accessing your organisation’s previous submission, or resolving technical issues – please contact us at museum.data@bristol.gov.uk. We’re here to help throughout the survey period.

The very wet weather we’ve had recently reminds us that our climate is changing and we need to plan for different effects, including more severe storm events, strong winds, heavy bursts of rain and possible extreme summer heat.  

Any insecure building elements (weak chimneys, faulty window frames, loose roof tiles) need to be fixed as a priority and rainwater goods may need to be enlarged to cope with increased volume and force.

The Museum of North Craven Life life doubled the size of its gutters and put stainless steel open sluices to carry rainwater over connected roofs (image above). Even just cleaning out gutters and drains can reduce flooding damage!

Watch our training pages for news of further Carbon Literacy courses for museums, or contact the Carbon Literacy Project direct if you would like to run training in your museum. The 7.5 hour course includes ideas for using your collection and museum to encourage discussion about sustainability topics. You can also read local case studies and tips on our website.

There are some useful and inspiring resources signposted at:

• Climate Change
• Future Preparedness
• Climate Action
• Sustainable culture guides

Documentation in Practice Symposium – Banish the Backlog

Collections Trust and the Museum Development England Network are working in partnership to deliver our second online documentation in practice symposium. It will take place on Thursday 16 April 2026 online, 10am to 4pm. This year’s event will focus on banishing the backlog, exploring different elements of implementing the Spectrum Inventory and Documentation Planning procedures.

This free symposium will be for anyone working or volunteering in a museum in the UK and is suitable for beginners or those in need of a refresher.

Five questions with the Government Indemnity Team: A Year in Review 

As we approach a year of running the ‘Five Questions with the Government Indemnity Team’ sessions, the Government Indemnity team will take a look back at the last twelve months, roll out some of the ‘greatest hits’, and discuss highlights from our users’ experiences. The event will take place online on Thursday 23 April, 11am-12pm.

The team will also be on hand to answer your questions in this webinar - so bring your experiences, questions and ideas ready for discussion! Please note, the team can't discuss individual cases but can give general advice and best practice.

Submit your questions in advance - the team will be answering the most popular. Ask your questions using an online form. Sign up to attend the event on Eventbrite.

The Exhibiting Fashion Toolkit

The Exhibiting Fashion Toolkit is a set of resources designed to support people at any stage of exhibition-making.

The Bureau for the Contemporary and Historic has been commissioned to investigate the impact of the toolkit on curators and exhibition-makers. From initial interviews and surveys, feedback has been very positive – from volunteers and new staff starting their journey to experienced curators.

The toolkit is the outcome of the AHRC-funded Exhibiting Fashion project (PI, Jeffrey Horsley, University of the Arts London (UAL); Co-I, Angela Piccini, University of Plymouth, and three partners: Bankfield Museum, Beecroft Art Gallery and Manchester Art Gallery).

The toolkit and accompanying videos are free to view and the toolkit itself can be downloaded from the UAL website

Arts Council England / V&A Purchase Grant Fund

Every year, the Arts Council England / V&A Purchase Grant Fund enables regional museums and cultural organisations to strengthen the quality, relevance, and standard of their permanent collections, improving audience experience and inspiring students, creative designers and makers, and the public to engage with the best of material culture across the country.

The fund supports the purchase of a wide range of material for the permanent collections of organisations in England and Wales. Accredited museums may apply, as may record repositories accredited under the Archive Service Accreditation Scheme (or working towards it).

This fund is managed by the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). The grants budget is National Lottery funds provided by Arts Council England.

The Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF)

Grants are available to support early-stage feasibility work on historic building projects in England that help revive high streets and place a strong focus on environmental sustainability and energy efficiency. 

The AHF is offering grants through its Project Viability Grants Programme to support charities, not-for-profit organisations and social enterprises for work on restoration and conservation of historic buildings in England.

Project proposals should be for buildings located in the 30% most deprived areas in England and involve the new use of a vacant historic building.

Grants of up to £15,000 over a 12-month period are available across England for project costs and overheads. Match funding is welcomed but is not essential.

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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• Collections Trust

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