Charity hands out funds to improve regional exhibitions
The lack of exciting exhibitions outside of London has prompted a charitable foundation to give funding to regional museums and galleries.
The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation launched its Regional Museums Initiative, which has an £80,000 budget, in October. The initiative focuses on art exhibitions (including decorative arts), collaborative projects and touring exhibits.
Shreela Ghosh, the director of arts and heritage at the foundation, said: 'We hope to galvanise museums by allowing them to do interesting exhibitions.' She added that they wanted glamorous exhibitions but didn't want to see guest curators flown in from outside.
'We want to allow the curator or director to research their own collections,' she said.
Giles Waterfield, an independent adviser to the foundation, said that regional museums managed to achieve a huge amount with little resources. 'This initiative aims to provide funding for temporary exhibitions, which bring in new visitors and encourage them to return.'
Ghosh said there were three elements to the scheme: to extend the life of exhibitions by encouraging them to tour; to get museums to collaborate; and to encourage scholarship by allowing time for research into collections.
Eleven proposals were shortlisted from 24 applications and the final six have already been awarded grants, ranging from £72,000 to £100,000. Additional 'encouragement' funding has been given to three of the other museums on the shortlist, to facilitate further research into their collections.
The foundation is also funding a series of seminars for the museums in the scheme, which will cover design and interpretation, marketing, publishing and advocacy. Ghosh said that for understandable reasons the standard of presentation from some applicants was quite low.
'We had to do a lot of work with the applicants, especially on their budgets,' she said. The seminars aim to address these weaknesses by providing an informal networking atmosphere to share experience.
The recipients included the York Museums Trust, which was given £96,550 for Celebrating Ceramics, an exhibition to be shown concurrently at the Wakefield Art Gallery, the Scarborough Art Gallery and York, drawing on all three collections.
The Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery received £100,000 for a joint project with the Millennium Galleries, Sheffield. A sum of £81,500 went to The Whitworth Gallery in Manchester for its Walter Sickert Drawing is the Thing exhibition.
Other grants for additional research were given to: the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, £20,000; the Millennium Galleries, Sheffield, £10,000; and the Holburne Museum, Bath, £45,000.
www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk
Sharon Heal
Shreela Ghosh, the director of arts and heritage at the foundation, said: 'We hope to galvanise museums by allowing them to do interesting exhibitions.' She added that they wanted glamorous exhibitions but didn't want to see guest curators flown in from outside.
'We want to allow the curator or director to research their own collections,' she said.
Giles Waterfield, an independent adviser to the foundation, said that regional museums managed to achieve a huge amount with little resources. 'This initiative aims to provide funding for temporary exhibitions, which bring in new visitors and encourage them to return.'
Ghosh said there were three elements to the scheme: to extend the life of exhibitions by encouraging them to tour; to get museums to collaborate; and to encourage scholarship by allowing time for research into collections.
Eleven proposals were shortlisted from 24 applications and the final six have already been awarded grants, ranging from £72,000 to £100,000. Additional 'encouragement' funding has been given to three of the other museums on the shortlist, to facilitate further research into their collections.
The foundation is also funding a series of seminars for the museums in the scheme, which will cover design and interpretation, marketing, publishing and advocacy. Ghosh said that for understandable reasons the standard of presentation from some applicants was quite low.
'We had to do a lot of work with the applicants, especially on their budgets,' she said. The seminars aim to address these weaknesses by providing an informal networking atmosphere to share experience.
The recipients included the York Museums Trust, which was given £96,550 for Celebrating Ceramics, an exhibition to be shown concurrently at the Wakefield Art Gallery, the Scarborough Art Gallery and York, drawing on all three collections.
The Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery received £100,000 for a joint project with the Millennium Galleries, Sheffield. A sum of £81,500 went to The Whitworth Gallery in Manchester for its Walter Sickert Drawing is the Thing exhibition.
Other grants for additional research were given to: the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, £20,000; the Millennium Galleries, Sheffield, £10,000; and the Holburne Museum, Bath, £45,000.
www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk
Sharon Heal