The Museums Association has awarded its first round of grants from the Health and Wellbeing in Museums Fund, a programme of grant-making, networking and learning dissemination for health and wellbeing programmes in museums, funded by the Julia Rausing Trust.

Nine museums have been awarded grants to develop and continue their groundbreaking health and wellbeing programmes. These are:

  • The Beaney, Canterbury City Council Museums and Galleries Service: £65,000 for “Beaney Gen Z”, a programme to support mental health outcomes for young people by engaging in creative and cultural interventions at the museum.
  • Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service: £75,000 to evolve and expand “Joy at the Jobcentre” into a structured programme to build skills, confidence and wellbeing in young people, those at risk of rural isolation and SEND audiences.
  • Hampshire Cultural Trust: £73,145 to expand and embed “Stepping Stones”, a programme to use creativity to help clinically vulnerable young people overcome mental health challenges and build confidence.
  • Holburne Museum: £75,000 to extend the reach and diversity of “Pathways to Wellbeing”, supporting adults and young people (16-25) with lived experience of mental health issues and social isolation.
  • Horniman Museum and Gardens: £73,080 to build on piloted object-based art psychotherapy with social prescribing link workers, recovery colleges and mental health inpatient wards.
  • Museum of Homelessness: £72,516 to expand its “Trauma, Community and Compassion” programme for staff in order to foster trauma competence and capacity.
  • The Amelia Scott: £72,332 for “The Art of Wellbeing”, a programme supporting men with housing challenges and offering bereavement support for older people, helping to reduce demand on council services.
  • The Whitworth: £72,890 for “Commoning Ground” to embed a programme tackling local health inequalities through creativity, connection and care.
  • Your Trust: £74,685 to expand their pilot project “Blissful Bumps”, supporting maternal mental health through artist-led activity and wrap-around support.

“The successful projects are full of social purpose and rich with strong partnerships. Every grantee showed impact and commitment in their work to date and ambition and clarity in their plans going forwards. The quality of applications was extremely high, testament to the breadth and quality of health and wellbeing work being undertaken across the sector.”

Georgina Young, MA Board Member and Chair of Health and Wellbeing in Museums Fund Panel

Process and panel

In total 42 applications were invited following conversations with 102 museums. The grantees were decided by a panel made up of:

  • Georgina Young, chairperson and MA board member
  • Anne Dodwell, representing the Julia Rausing Trust
  • Sally Colvin, representing the Museums Association
  • Lynn Podmore, an independent museum health and wellbeing representative
  • Amisha Karia, an independent museum health and wellbeing representative

2026 applications

Applications for the 2026 round of the Health and Wellbeing in Museums Fund have now closed.

Throughout the application process, we have been working to provide support particularly to museums in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, recognising that although applications from all four UK nations were shortlisted in 2025, the final list of nine awards are all in England.

Over the lifetime of this fund, we aim to support a balanced cohort of museums in terms of national representation, size and type of museum and a range of audiences participating in programmes. The MA will provide opportunities to learn more about the fund in all of the UK nations and is offering support to all applicants to help them shape and develop their application.

We expect to announce the 2026 grantees in October.

Image by Euan Baker courtesy of the Amelia Scott