The Booth Museum of Natural History in Brighton and Coventry Transport Museum are among a dozen successful applicants for Museums Association (MA) funding for collection loans and transfers.
The MA is giving up to £10,000 per project under its Effective Collections programme to accredited museums or partnerships wanting to loan or transfer part of their collections.
Projects deemed especially innovative can attract awards of up to £25,000, which can be added to other funding sources. The association is finalising between nine and 12 projects in the first round of applications.
The Booth Museum has been awarded £10,000 and hopes to contact up to 15 museums in the south-east that have transferred items to its collection in the past 20 years.
Bexhill Museum, Worthing Museum and Art Gallery and Horsham Museum have already requested temporary loans from the Booth’s collection. The artefacts will form the focus of exhibitions on taxidermy, the coastal environment and an exploration of why specimen collection was so popular during the Victorian era.
The Booth Museum said the award would help establish it as a major resource in the south-east for the loan of natural science specimens, with more museums in East and West Sussex and Surrey likely to receive items in the first year of the project.
Coventry Motor Museum will use its £10,000 to fund a three-month cataloguing of its store of 100 vehicles and spares. Vehicles curator Chris van Schaardenburgh said: “Once we have a list, we will offer it to accredited museums. There may be disposals via auctions or enthusiast groups.”
He added that digital access to the collection and store was also being considered.
The second deadline for Effective Collections falls on 5 March. The aim is to fund between nine and 12 projects, with one or two receiving a special award. A further two tranches of funding will follow at six-month intervals.
