More than £600,000 has been awarded to museums and galleries to make changes amid the pandemic – including taking work to a shopping centre and using actor-guides to manage social distancing.
Art Fund has announced 18 projects which will receive grants to “meet immediate needs connected to Covid-19 and re-imagine future ways of working”.
The National Glass Centre in Sunderland gets £40,000, including to adapt its glassmaking demonstrations safely for visitors.
We're excited to announce we'll be awarding over £600,000 funding for the first 18 recipients of our new Respond and Reimagine grants. These grants are designed to meet immediate needs connected to Covid-19 and reimagine future ways of working.#TogetherForMuseums pic.twitter.com/1jOIw6wZNa
— Art Fund (@artfund) August 13, 2020
The National Videogame Museum in Sheffield, which is creating an online gallery, also gets £40,000.
The Florence Nightingale Museum in London receives almost £46,000, including to “work with actor-guides to manage social distancing whilst simultaneously immersing visitors in the nurse’s world and legacy”.
Wycombe Museum – which is planning a pop-up exhibition space and community hub in a High Wycombe shopping centre – receives £35,000.
The Box in Plymouth receives just over £25,000, part of which will be used to supply visitors with a stylus so “they can safely interact with the exhibits”.
Ceredigion Museum in Aberystwyth gets £40,000 and wants to memorialise local experiences of Covid-19 through a digital quilt, inspired by the museum’s collection of Welsh quilts.
Other recipients include the Foundling Museum in London, Void art centre in Londonderry, and Dundee Contemporary Arts.
Art Fund director Jenny Waldman said the organisation was “inundated with applications… evidence of the vast need amongst museums and galleries whose funding models have been shattered by this crisis”.
“But it is hugely encouraging to see ambitious and creative proposals from museums all over the country who are passionate about serving their local communities and engaging audiences, despite very challenging circumstances and devastating loss of income,” she said.
The £630,729 is the first round of Art Fund’s £1.5 million funding programme.