We’re pleased to announce the latest recipients of the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund, joining the 170 projects we’ve funded since 2011.

Grants offer up to £90k over around two years for outstanding ideas that that demonstrate the significance, distinctiveness and power of collections to people.

Here are July 2022’s successful grantees:

Brunel Museum, £62,046 for “Sophia’s Story: supporting young women in engineering”, a project to develop engagement with young women and girls both within and outside of school settings using a collection of engineering drawings.

Food Museum, £77,500 for “Re-thinking the Rural Life Museum”, a programme of creative collections engagement for young people and community groups using remote methods to democratise its collection of large objects.

Foundling Museum, £90,000 for “Curated with Care: a two-year programme of co-curation with care-experienced young people”. The project will work with graduates from their young care-leavers training programme in partnership with the National Gallery.

Manchester Museum, £80,000 for “Elder and Wiser: reimagining botanical exchange” an intergeneration project with young people in Manchester, older people in Manchester and Indigenous Noongar people in Australia using the museum’s botany collection.

National Holocaust Centre, £80,360 for “Sharing Their Testimonies” a project to test and evaluate ways to use Holocaust survivor recorded testimonies and associated artefacts to support primary and secondary schools to address racism.

New Forest Heritage, £80,000 for “Embroidered tales: hidden histories and silent voices of the New Forest”, a project working with members of local LGBTQ+ and Romani Communities to develop a haptic tactile version of the New Forest Embroidery incorporating new stories.

Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums, £90,000 for “Exchange; continue”, a programme of community consultation on social history collections of the Discovery Museum and South Shields Museum & Art Gallery to help devise a decolonisation strategy.

Whithorn Trust, £89,580 for “Whithorn ReBuild: re-envisaging the artisans behind the artefacts from Whithorn’s early architecture” a project to reveal the medieval artisans who created today’s archaeology collections and linking them with careers in heritage construction.

Image credit to the Food Museum