The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has changed its criteria for urgent acquisitions, simplifying the process to allow purchasers to meet tight deadlines such as auctions.
The HLF has removed the requirement for bidders to provide specific learning activity plans for items prior to their acquisition.
“We currently require them to supply an activity programme that shows how the item will be used,” said an HLF spokeswoman.
“The feedback we have had is that the time involved in putting that activity plan in place has held them back in terms of meeting the auction deadline.”
The new system means museums will need to show only how a purchase would be used in their learning and participation programme. “This will reduce the time and resources needed to prepare an application,” the spokeswoman added.
The change follows a general consultation on how the HLF allocates funds.
Among the major awards under the existing system was a £225,900 grant towards the £316,000 acquisition by Ipswich Museum of the Wickham Market Hoard of 840 Iron Age coins, and £100,000 to the National Portrait Gallery for the earliest known British oil painting of a freed slave.
The HLF has removed the requirement for bidders to provide specific learning activity plans for items prior to their acquisition.
“We currently require them to supply an activity programme that shows how the item will be used,” said an HLF spokeswoman.
“The feedback we have had is that the time involved in putting that activity plan in place has held them back in terms of meeting the auction deadline.”
The new system means museums will need to show only how a purchase would be used in their learning and participation programme. “This will reduce the time and resources needed to prepare an application,” the spokeswoman added.
The change follows a general consultation on how the HLF allocates funds.
Among the major awards under the existing system was a £225,900 grant towards the £316,000 acquisition by Ipswich Museum of the Wickham Market Hoard of 840 Iron Age coins, and £100,000 to the National Portrait Gallery for the earliest known British oil painting of a freed slave.
