Renaissance North West announces a small grants scheme for collections care development in museums

Deadline for application is 5pm on the 29th February 2008

A Collection Care Development Fund grant scheme is available through Renaissance North West for museums in the region. Museums can bid for grants starting from £500 up to £5,000 to undertake work that will improve collections care.  Project proposals must demonstrate the immediate and long-term benefits to museum collections and users and can include the purchase of equipment and staff training.

Projects involving collections surveys and remedial work will not be eligible for funding.  Please read the guidelines which accompany the application for more detail. The forms for the ‘Collections Care Development Fund 2008’ are attached.

If you would like to discuss project proposals before you submit an application do not hesitate to contact me.  Please send completed forms back to me via email by the deadline stated above.

Please contact:

Kaye Tetlow
Collections Liaison Officer (Renaissance)
Lancashire
Conservation Studios
Stanley Street
Preston
PR1 4YP

Tel: 01772 530 223

www.mlanorthwest.org.uk/museumslibrariesarchives/museums/renaissancenw/

To download application form click here

AIM Sustainability Scheme Renewed

Thanks to the generosity of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation the AIM Sustainability scheme will continue for another three years with the first round of grants for the new scheme being made in June 2008. Although the exact details of the new scheme have yet to be finalised it is expected that the eligibility criteria will remain much the same as the present scheme with the important addition that will now be eligible for grants. AIM is also planning to organise  another round of workshops which will probably start in June 2008. Details of the new scheme and the workshops will be announced in the AIM Bulletin as soon as they have been finalised.

Local Authorities and Independent Museums

Adrian Babbidge was commissioned by AIM to make a study of the current relationships between Independents and their Local Authorities. This resulted in a keynote speech at Aim Conference in June. For a summary of his findings and a link to the full report please click here

GIFT AID Consultation

Gift Aid is once more under review by HMRC. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, and members are urged to participate in the consultation process by completing HMRC's on-line survey.  Click here for a link.

Your views are important and we are assured that they will be properly considered.

£300,000 AIM/Pilgrim Trust Conservation Grant Scheme

The Pilgrim Trust has created a grant scheme for Independent Museum conservation projects to be administered by AIM.

The AIM/Pilgrim Trust Conservation Grant Scheme is intended to help small museums with the conservation of objects in their collections. Accessioned objects in any media are eligible. Whilst we expect museums to have a conservation plan, the object does not have to be the most at risk in the collection. However, the reason for your choice must be made clear in your application, for example, the object might be planned for use in a temporary exhibition. Conservation work should be carried out by a conservator chosen from the ICON register (www.conservationregister.com), unless there are exceptional circumstances where this is not possible.

Local Authorities: a Change in the Cultural Climate?

This is the title of an important 'Provocation' discussion paper by John Holden, Head of Culture at the think-tank DEMOS. He outlines the decline in cultural provision by local authorities.  He offer a novel definition of culture in relation to local authorities as "places to go and things to do".  One of his conclusions is that "elected members, local authority officers and central government must be made aware of the fact that they could do immense damage to the cultural life of this country by default.  We urge you to download this paper, and do your best to make sure that it is read by as many elected members and local government officers as possible.

Click here to download

If you would like to know more about DEMOS, click here