Welcome to your August Newsletter

As summer continues, we're looking ahead to a busy autumn packed with opportunities to build skills through training and grants. In this edition, you'll get an early preview of three upcoming SW Museum Skills sessions opening for booking in September, alongside details of our next round of Capacity Builder grants to help develop professional skills and confidence.

We're also delighted to share news of a major new partnership project that will help digitise natural science collections across the region, as well as highlights from the successful Museum Skills Bootcamp. You'll also find sector updates, important news and funding deadlines to help you make the most of the month ahead.

This summer we are putting the finishing touches to our autumn SW Museum Skills programme, which will kick off in September and feature a range of useful and insightful training opportunities. To allow more booking time for some of our earlier skills sessions, we are previewing three in this month's newsletter. These include two in-person workshops - one taking place in Hampshire and one is a collaboration with the SW Federation of Museums and Galleries. All these sessions are open to all eligible museums across the South West but places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment.

On Wednesday 5 August we will be opening the second round of our Capacity Builder grants for applications. These grants close for applications on Wednesday 9 September.

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. 

We highly recommend running your application past your local, place-based Museum Development Officer, as this is a competitive grant scheme. 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.

Congratulations to the following museums who received a Capacity Builder grant in round one earlier this year; Royal West of England Academy, Gilbert White’s House & Garden, Lyme Regis Museum, Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, Wight Aviation, Museum Museum of Army Music, Museum of Gloucester ,The King's Royal Hussars Museum.

Along with Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, we are delighted to announce that we have been awarded £400,000 to work as key partners in a project to digitise globally significant natural sciences collections.

The funding for this project comes through DiSSCo UK | West (Distributed System of Scientific Collections West), a national partnership that has received £1.6 million from UK Research and Innovation to coordinate large-scale digitisation work across Wales, the South West of England and Northern Ireland, bringing together Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Museum Development South West, Amgueddfa Cymru, National Museums Northern Ireland and the National Botanic Garden of Wales. 

DiSSCo UK | West builds on more than a decade of collaboration through the South West Area Natural Sciences partnership. Through DiSSCo UK | West, regional museums in South West England will work together to share expertise, build skills and accelerate the digitisation of natural science collections. In this first phase key partner museums include The Box Plymouth, Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Portsmouth Museums and South West Heritage Trust. 

By making biodiversity information from thousands of physical specimens available online for the first time ever, the project will create valuable resources for researchers worldwide working to address today’s biodiversity and climate challenges.

In July we wrapped up our Group for Education in Museums (GEM) Inclusive Pathways project, the Museum Skills Bootcamp, with a study trip to museums on the Isle of Wight.

The Museum Skills Bootcamp project is a focused training programme, directly informed by the experiences of Early Career Professionals (ECP) who felt uncertain about their future careers and the skills they need to develop.

This project began in September last year with group coaching and Action Learning sessions with Liz Fraser- Betts, whilst the second stage focussed on strengthening practical museum skills. Online ‘Power Hours’ offered bitesize training sessions with professionals from the museum field. Participants also enjoyed a practical and dynamic Collection Care Day hosted at King Johns House.

The project concluded with a jam-packed day out to museums on the Isle of Wight including Dinosaur Isle and Brading Roman Villa where participants had further opportunities to network and discover the benefits and challenges of museums working in partnership.

Read the full story and hear about the experience from one of the project participants in our latest blog.

Volunteer Leader of the Year Award

Entries are now open for Heritage Volunteering Group’s Volunteer Leader of the Year Award. There is a nomination form available on their website and the deadline for submissions is Monday 31 August. 

This annual award is an opportunity to celebrate someone who has made a difference to their volunteers, organisation, and community. Open to paid and unpaid Volunteer Coordinators, Supervisors and Managers, the award recognises outstanding leadership and innovative practice in volunteer engagement across the heritage sector.

This year’s winner will receive a £100 gift card and a one-hour consultation with heritage consultant Rob Jackson, while the runner-up will receive a £25 gift card.

The winner of the Volunteer Leader of the Year Award will be announced at Heritage Volunteering ‘26, HVG’s annual online conference taking place on 24–25 November.

Heatwave Impact - Survey and Advice

Arts Council England's Environmental Responsibility team is keen to understand the impact of the UK's recent heatwaves (May-July) on organisations in the cultural sector. They have put together a five minute survey to gather insights which will inform support for the sector. The survey will close at 5pm on Friday 7 August 2026.

In addition, Historic England have released updated advice regarding minimising, mitigating and managing overheating in historic buildings. 

Arts Fundraising & Philanthropy Training

Arts Fundraising & Philanthropy have launched their autumn training programme, with some exciting brand new additions, including 'Building your Donor Community, 'AI for Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy' and 'Essentials in Capital Fundraising', as well as the return of the ever popular 'Essentials in Application Writing', 'Essentials in Corporate Fundraising' and 'Essentials in Legacy Fundraising' - plus more. 

These courses are a brilliant way for the sector to gain more knowledge, skills and confidence in different areas of fundraising, philanthropy and leadership, and are available for anyone to join. Book on the Arts Fundraising & Philanthropy website. 

The Arts Award Access Fund

The Access Fund provides grants of between £100-£1500 to Arts Award centres working on Arts Award projects with young people who face barriers to access and inclusion.

The Arts Award welcomes applications from all registered Arts Award centres in the UK, but priority will be given to centres that will use the grant to support them to pilot, embed or develop their Arts Award work with this group. 

Applications open on Monday 7 September and close on Friday 9 October. 

Museum Transformation Programme

The Museum Transformation Programme is focused on supporting regional museums to develop work which will enable their increased long-term financial resilience and operational sustainability.

Location in a DCMS Culture Priority Place will be considered as a key part of the assessment process for applications to this programme, with the aim of proactively supporting eligible museums in areas with lower levels of cultural investment.

The minimum amount you can apply for is £50,000, the maximum amount you can apply for is £1million. The application portal will open on Tuesday 1 September. The deadline for applications is 12pm (midday) on Wednesday 30 September.

The best ways to get in touch are via the form on our website or by emailing museum.development@bristol.gov.uk

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Image credits: 

• Museum Development South West (MDSW)
• MDSW/ Amanda Harman
• Bristol Museums
• MDSW/ Amanda Harman
• Bristol Museums
• MDSW
• Heritage Volunteering Group

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