Four museums on Teesside and Tyneside are sharing more than £1mn to improve displays, enhance collection care and make exhibitions more accessible to visitors.
The North East’s share is more than in any other region of the country in this 15th and latest distribution from the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Fund.
Hartlepool
The Museum of Hartlepool has been awarded £218,400 for the creation of a temporary exhibitions gallery and collections care facility. The investment will support essential upgrades to the museum’s exhibition and collections infrastructure by installing new display cases, lighting, flooring, and environmental controls meeting national security and conservation standards. This will improve collections facilities to provide secure, climate-controlled conditions for artefacts in storage, ensuring that treasures can continue to inspire and educate visitors for generations.
Kirkleatham
Kirkleatham Museum, near Redcar, will receive £272,000 to help reimagine its permanent galleries around three themes – people and place, industry and innovation, and heritage and discovery. The project will support the redevelopment of the museum’s core gallery spaces, creating modern, accessible and inspiring displays that better reflect the stories, people and heritage of Redcar and Cleveland, said the DCMS (Department of Culture, Media and Sport).
Tyneside
On Tyneside, Segedunum Roman Fort at Wallsend is receiving £213,100 and Seven Stories, the national centre for children’s books in Ouseburn, Newcastle, is getting £316,200.
DCMS/Wolfson Fund
Over the past 24 years, the DCMS/Wolfson Fund has awarded over £50mn to more than 440 projects across the country. It supports the government’s “ongoing commitment to ensure everyone, everywhere has access to arts and culture in the place they call home,” said the DCMS. The current round of grants brings together £2mn match funding from the DCMS with the same amount from the independent, grant making charity, the Wolfson Foundation.
The Fund, said the DCMS, demonstrated how public funding and private philanthropy could work together to open up access to museums and galleries for those who might otherwise face barriers, and help more people enjoy the UK’s world-class collections.
Paul Ramsbottom, chief executive of the Wolfson Foundation, said: “This latest round of funding from the long-standing DCMS/Wolfson partnership allows museums – and particularly regional museums – to upgrade their facilities and improve access to their collections, so more of us can enjoy the fascinating wonders on our doorstep.”
Museums Minister, Baroness Twycross said: “We want to ensure that everyone, everywhere can experience arts and culture in the area they call home and this fund plays a key role in making that possible.
“The…Fund demonstrates how public funding and private philanthropy can work together to open up access to museums and galleries for those who might otherwise face barriers and help more people enjoy the UK’s world-class collections.”
This report is based on a press release from the DCMS
