Collections Care and Conservation Grants

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AIM is grateful to the Pilgrim Trust for funding the Audit, Collections Care and Remedial Conservation grant schemes.

  • Eligibility: AIM members with fewer than 50,000 visitors a year – small and medium museums.
  • Grant award: £1,200 for an audit, up to £10,000 for a collections care or remedial conservation grant
  • Closing date: 5pm Friday 29 March 2024

AIM members care for a significant range of historic objects and collections. These grants support small to medium sized museums to care for those collections effectively and efficiently, and to meet the standards required for Accreditation.

Larger museums are encouraged to apply for funding to the Pilgrim Trust directly.

The grants enable museums to bring in conservation expertise to ensure that collections care and conservation meets professional standards, and has the most impact on the organisation, its collections, and their visitors.

Eligibility criteria:

  • AIM membership
  • UK registered charity or,
  • an organisation with exempt charitable status or,
  • a recognised public body i.e. Local Authority Museum
  • small or medium sized museum (fewer than 50,000 visitors p.a.)

Application deadlines

For all three schemes the application deadline will be 5pm on the last Friday in March for the Spring round and 5pm on the last Friday in September for the Autumn round.

  • Spring Round – 5pm Friday 29 March 2024
  • Autumn Round – 5pm Friday 27 September 2024

Collections Care Audits

These grants, run in partnership with ICON, enable our smaller museum members to undertake a basic professional collections care audit. Audits are undertaken by an accredited conservator (ACR) to help museums identify key collection care issues and priorities.

Grants of £1,200 plus travel and VAT (if applicable) are available to cover the cost of a fully accredited conservator undertaking a three-day audit. The grants are paid retrospectively.

These grants are a good starting point before making an application to the Collections Care or Remedial Conservation schemes if your museum has not previously received professional conservation advice.

Click here for the collections care audit applicant guidance notes>>

Click here for the collections care audit application form>>

Collections Care Scheme

These grants help small to medium AIM member museums develop a more sustainable approach to the conservation and management of collections through improvements to collections care.  Grants of up to £10,000 are available to enable museums to receive tailored, specialist advice, purchase equipment, implement advice and train staff and volunteers.

We are looking for projects that enable a step-change in the quality of collections care that a museum can provide.

Click here for the collections care guidance notes>>

Click here for the collections care application form>>

Remedial Conservation Scheme

Grants of up to £10,000 are available to conserve objects that are part of a museum’s permanent collection. Conservation work should be carried out by an accredited conservator unless in exceptional circumstances.

We expect museums to have a conservation plan for selected objects but they need not be those at most risk in your collection.

Click here for the remedial conservation guidance notes>>

Click here for the remedial conservation application form>>

How to make an application

Download and complete the relevant application form and submit as a PDF to the AIM Grants Administrator Fiona Woolley on programmes@aim-museums.co.uk.

Help with your application.

The AIM programmes team are happy to advise on applications and we encourage applicants to discuss projects with us before applying for grants, either via email or a 1-2-1 session.

Contact the AIM Grants Administrator Fiona Woolley on programmes@aim-museums.co.uk if you would like to discuss an application or access additional support.

It may be useful for you to refer to the AIM Success Guides in Collections Care and Basic Interventive Conservation when preparing an application to the scheme.

Click here for Successful Collections Care>>

Click here for Successful Basic Interventive Conservation>>

You might also find it helpful to talk to your local Museum Development Officer (MDO) before making an application. They have considerable experience with grant applications and may be able to help with finding a suitable conservator or suggest how you might strengthen your application. We can advise on who best to contact for your area.

Grant assessment – have your say!

We love to hear from our members, and we know from speaking to you how passionate you are about your museums. We realise that a written grant application form doesn’t always allow you to convey your enthusiasm, so this year we are giving invited applicants to the Pilgrim Trust Collections Care and Remedial Conservation grant scheme, the opportunity to advocate for their projects at a second stage panel meeting.

This second stage will allow the top scoring applicants to present to the panel for a maximum of five minutes with a further five minutes of question time. Using the assessment questions that you have already answered in the application form as a guide, you will have the opportunity to show/discuss with the panel the problems you have at your museum or the object/s you wish to have conserved. The panel will be able to ask questions for clarity and it is envisaged that the two-way conversation will be a positive opportunity to demonstrate why you need the funding.

Timetable for applications Spring 2024 

Closing date 5pm Friday 29 March 2024

First scoring panel Wednesday 24 April 2024

Second interview panel Wednesday 1 May 2024

Can I apply multiple times?

Applicants may apply to the scheme more than once for different projects.  We ask that previous projects are completed before applying for further funding from a future Pilgrim Trust grant round. If the grant scheme is oversubscribed, then priority is given to applicants that have not previously received funding.

360 Giving

AIM is committed to transparency and is proud to be working with 360 Giving to share information about our grant making so that funders and organisations across the UK can use data to improve grant-making practice. AIM works with 360 Giving to share open data about Pilgrim Trust grant recipients and their projects. Click here to find out more about 360 Giving>>

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Resources
21/07/2020 in Collections AIM collections care audit conservator list

List of ICON accredited conservators able to help with AIM Pilgrim Trust collections care audits

17/02/2023 in Collections AIM Pilgrim Trust collection care audit guidance notes

AIM Pilgrim Trust collection care audit applicant guidance notes (2023 - 2025)

07/03/2023 in Collections AIM Pilgrim Trust remedial conservation guidance notes

AIM Pilgrim Trust remedial conservation guidance notes

08/03/2023 in Collections AIM Pilgrim Trust collections care grant guidance notes

AIM Pilgrim Trust collections care grant guidance notes

08/03/2023 in Collections AIM Pilgrim Trust collections audit application form

AIM Pilgrim Trust collections care audit application form

10/03/2023 in Collections AIM Pilgrim Trust collections care application form

AIM Pilgrim Trust collections care application form

10/03/2023 in Collections AIM Pilgrim Trust remedial conservation application form

AIM Pilgrim Trust remedial conservation application form