The Grampian Transport Museum has been awarded a £221,000 grant to help it through the winter and reopen for 2021.
The Alford visitor attraction, which has had a challenging 2020 due to the pandemic, received the grant from the Recovery and Resilience Fund, run by Museums and Galleries Scotland (MGS).
Management at the museum will use the extra cash to help it prepare for next year’s season, and also help to address the challenges of caring for the environment.
Curator Mike Ward said: “Despite all the challenges of this year the museum opened in July with Covid safeguards in place.
“The support from our friends, followers and members during the foreshortened 2020 season was excellent but without this grant winter was looking very bleak.
“The museum is a fully self-funding charity and although well managed, our carefully accrued reserves would have been used up by the start of the 2021 season.
“However, the Scottish Government/MGS museum sector assistance was launched, applications assessed and grants awarded in a very tight time frame and thanks are due to all concerned.
“The MGS grant has enabled us to recover now by covering our winter running costs whilst also planning for a lower cost and more environmentally friendly future, more resilient to meet future challenges facing the tourism sector.”
Lucy Cascot, DEO of MGS, added: “We are pleased that this fund will support the much-loved Grampian Transport Museum on their journey to becoming a sustainable and resilient museum, which continues to be an important asset for their community and local economy.”