Museums and heritage

The Art Fund has announced recipients of the second and third wave of its Reimagine grants programme.

More than £1.1m will be split across 40 museums, galleries, historic houses and trusts, after 23 organisations were supported in the first wave of the £2m fund. 

Fifteen grants between £5,000 and £15,000 were handed out alongside 25 grants of £15,000 to £50,000.

The largest grants went to Lancaster's Judges' Lodgings to decolonise and re-interpret its collections, Glasgow's Tramway for public artwork exploring environmentalism, social justice and health, and the Hampshire Cultural Trust for a new interactive insight into Anglo-Saxon Winchester opening in autumn.

Art Fund says it received 185 applications requesting a total of £6.2m, demonstrating the level of need in the sector.

Director Jenny Waldman thanked the generosity of Art Fund’s members and donors.

“The grants will allow even more cultural organisations to deepen their resilience for the future, turning some of the challenges but also learnings of the last two years into even greater resources for their communities."

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council must reconsider plans to abolish all grant funding for local arts from April, an online petition says.

Funding for local organisations, including The Old Court and Norden Farm, were cut by 45% last year, making the area one of the lowest for investments in culture despite being England's second-most affluent local authority.

Public Campaign for the Arts is calling instead for increased investment in Windsor and Maidenhead’s arts and culture.

Council Leader Andrew Johnson said the decision is an attempt to make the organisations “self-financing”.

Nordern Farm Chief Executive and Artistic Director Jane Corry said the hit would be “extremely hard”.

“From the dream residents first had of having their own arts centre to the thriving venue it has become took 40 years of hard work.

"To lose that would be too tragic to imagine.”

Four curators have been awarded a share of £150,000 through Art Fund's New Collecting Awards.

Louis Platman (Museum of the Home), Keri Adams (The Pier Arts Centre), Zorian Clayton (V&A) and Daniel Lowe (British Library) are this year's recipients, each receiving a budget for acquisitions alongside funding for research, travel, training and mentoring support.

The New Collecting Awards scheme has awarded 39 curators more than £1.8m over the past seven years.

Director Jenny Waldman said the award is a key part of Art Fund's commitment to developing curatorial talent.

"We are delighted to support these brilliant projects that will allow the UK's world class museums to tell more inclusive and diverse stories and help make their collections more relevant to their audiences and communities."

Museum curators and librarians rank among the top five most trusted professions in the UK, according to a survey by Ipsos Mori.

93% of Britons said they trust librarians to tell the truth, second only to nurses at 94%.

It's the first time librarians have made it into the top of the index, which confirms growing distrust in the police and slightly more trust in politicians, journalists and professional footballers.

86% of people trust museum curators, up four percentage points since last year, the survey found.

A restructure of The Royal Pavilion and Museums Trust (RPMT) will save £300,000 and affect more than a quarter of jobs, it is anticipated.

The trust, which manages Brighton’s Royal Pavilion and four other museums in the city, says the changes will result in "a more efficient and successful service”.

The restructure will establish new "income raising teams". CEO Hedley Swain says the charity will do "everything" it can to avoid compulsory redundancies.

"We’re hoping to become a stronger organisation for the future... Our five venues will benefit from a more unified vision as we all work together to create a stronger family of venues."

The consultation will be completed in January 2022, with changes announced thereafter.

Leading scientists have boycotted the Science Museum until it announces a moratorium on fossil fuel funding.

An open letter signed by over 60 professionals, including former Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Chair Robert Watson, says they “can no longer be complicit" in the policies adopted by the museum.

“This means publicly committing not to renew any existing contracts when they expire, or to form any new ones until, at the very least, the company demonstrates a credible plan for phasing out fossil fuels in line with the Paris 1.5°C target,” it continues.

The letter follows criticism of the Science Museum’s sponsorship agreements with oil giants Shell and Adani, which led to the resignation of its former director and two trustees, and comes amid new claims the institution signed a similar 'gagging clause' with Adani as it it did Shell.

The contract prohibits the museum from making "any statement or issue any publicity or otherwise be involved in any conduct or matter that may reasonably be forsseen as discrediting or damaging the goodwill or reputation" of Adani Green Energy.

The Science Museum did not apply its own standards for ethical sponsorship to the Adani's parent group because the deal is with Adani Green Energy.

However, newly released documents suggest Adani Group negotiated the partnership.

"In the wake of COP26, there is no justification for providing positive PR to companies heavily involved in fossil fuel extraction," said Culture Unstained Co-Director Jess Worth.

"It’s time [the Science Museum] admitted their mistake and engaged with those who care so deeply about the museum’s future that they are willing to pass up paid work and prestigious opportunities to make their concerns heard."