Nine projects given green light for £98m HLF investment - Museums Association

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Nine projects given green light for £98m HLF investment

Derby Museums, the Burrell Collection and the Geffrye Museum among the winners
Museums are major beneficiaries of the £98m investment that the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) announced today.

The nine projects sharing the HLF money have all been awarded first-round passes, which will allow them to develop a second-round application to secure the funding.

The Burrell Collection in Glasgow has received HLF support for £15m towards its planned £66m refurbishment and redisplay. Glasgow City Council previously agreed to fund 50% of the costs, subject to HLF approval.

Three heritage projects in the East Midlands also received first-round passes. Derby Museums has been earmarked funding of £9.38m for the Derby Silk Mill – Museum of Making project and Lincoln Cathedral has support for its £12.3m application to repair the site.

Nearly £10m could also go to the Great Central Railway to create a new heritage railway museum in Leicester.  As well as displaying locomotives and artefacts such as the Newton Photographic Collection, the new museum will feature an operational heritage railway.
 
In London, the Science Museum is set to receive £8m from the HLF towards its new medicine galleries and the Geffrye Museum has support for its £11m application, which will fund its £15m redevelopment.

The British Library's £9.5m bid to digitise and publish up to 500,000 sounds from collections across the UK has also been given initial HLF support. And £12m has been earmarked for the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory, home of the Lovell Telescope, for the restoration of the site.

Finally, Dorset County Museum in Dorchester has received a stage-one funding approval for its £10.3m bid to develop a new collections discovery centre.

“I hope National Lottery players will be delighted to see their money being used to tell the spell-binding story of the UK’s scientific and industrial excellence,” said Peter Luff, the chairman of the HLF.

“Many of the projects we are supporting today celebrate this tradition. I am particularly pleased that the lottery can help inspire young people to take a greater interest in science and technology.”

The HLF rejected a £9.6m application from Colwyn Victoria Pier Trust for the restoration of Victoria Pier in Colwyn Bay. The funder said the application was deemed high risk due to a lack of support from Conwy County Borough Council and no other confirmed financial backing.


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