The coronavirus emergency has plunged the museum, gallery and heritage sectors into huge financial uncertainty. The high fixed costs of caring for collections, historic buildings and monuments mean it is difficult for museums to scale back budgets, while visitor revenue and other key sources of earned income have been entirely wiped out during the busiest seasons of the year.
The finances of museums and galleries were already precarious after a decade of austerity.
A survey conducted last week by the National Lottery Heritage Fund found that 82% of respondents said the crisis will pose a high or moderate risk to their organisation’s long-term viability; almost half of respondents said they could survive no longer than six months under the current circumstances, with 35% saying their financial reserves would be depleted within four months.
Since the crisis began, a number of government funders and agencies across the UK have announced emergency aid for cultural organisations and workers during the Covid-19 shutdown; many of these new funding streams have a much shorter turnaround period than usual. Here’s some of the financial aid and other forms of support that have been announced so far:
Heritage Fund: £50m Heritage Emergency Fund
The Heritage Fund is diverting £50m from its existing grant programmes into a Heritage Emergency Fund for the UK heritage sector.
The funding will address immediate pressures over the next three to six months for those most in need. It will also provide increased investment in essential digital skills in critical areas such as digital fundraising, use of social media and communications, and running online events and activities.
Grants of between £3,000 and £50,000 will be available to organisations that have received funding in the past and are either a current grantee or still under contract following a previous grant. Priority will be given where there is limited or no access to other sources of support, or where heritage is most at risk.
The funding will be diverted from planned new grants, and all new applications will be halted with immediate effect. However, round two delivery awards for projects that have already received development funding will continue to be made throughout the crisis.
The lottery funder has also introduced several other measures to support the heritage sector, including allowing for relaxing grant conditions for projects where funding is already committed, investing an additional £1.2m in the Digital Skills for Heritage initiative, and providing advice and, in some cases, specialist mentor support via its local teams.
Arts Council England: £160m Emergency Response Package
The arts council is making £160m funding available to the culture sector in England during the crisis.
Individuals
A total of £20m will be for creative practitioners and freelancers - including curators and other museum roles - who will be eligible to receive cash grants of up to £2,500; from this fund, the arts council is also planning to distribute grants of up to £4m to existing benevolent funds for cultural workers. The arts council says it is working to ensure that anyone with access requirements, including anyone ill due to Covid-19, has an equal chance of benefitting from the fund.
The funding will be distributed in two short rounds: round one opens on 9 April - applicants must register on the arts council’s application portal, Grantium, by 13 April and submit their application by 16 April.
Round two opens on 16 April – applicants must register on Grantium by 27 April and submit their application by 30 April.
Organisations outside the national portfolio
Cultural organisations outside the arts council’s national portfolio will share £50m, with grants of up to £35,000 available. This fund is to support organisations to get back on their feet, or to continue making work in the future that will mean they can contribute to delivering the arts council’s new strategy, Let’s Create.
The funding will be distributed in two short rounds: round one opens on 9 April - applicants must register on Grantium by 13 April and submit their application by 16 April.
Round two opens on 16 April – applicants must register on Grantium by 27 April and submit their application by 30 April.
However, if your application is turned down in round one you will not be able to apply again in round two.
National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs)
There will be £90m available to NPOs from the emergency response fund. The stream will be open to eligible organisations between 12 and 19 May.
There is no upper limit for applications, but organisations should only apply for the minimum they need to survive until 30 September 2020.
There is no upper limit for applications, but organisations should only apply for the minimum they need to survive until 30 September 2020.
The arts council has also relaxed funding conditions for NPOs for at least the next six months, and is in some circumstances advancing grant payments by up to six months to assist with cashflow. The next round of national portfolio investment has been postponed, so the current national portfolio will roll over for one year until 31 March 2023.
Tech support
In addition to the emergency package, the arts council's nine Tech Champions from its Digital Culture Network are currently on hand to provide one-to-one support in areas like remote working, audience engagement, and digital fundraising. Contact digitalnetwork@artscouncil.org.uk with enquiries.
Museums, Archives and Libraries Division, Welsh Government: £18m for culture, creative and sport sectors
The Welsh government has announced £18m in support for the culture, creative and sport sectors in Wales. The package of measures includes a £1m Cultural Resilience Fund for museums, collections, conservation services, archives and community and public libraries to respond to short-term pressures and recovery actions on a grant application basis. Further details of this funding are yet to be announced.
There is a £325,000 Emergency Relief Fund to support small independent museum and heritage organisations with cashflow and other critical issues. Recognised small independent heritage attractions and Accredited or Working Towards Accreditation museums are eligible to apply for a maximum of £10,000. The fund is distributed by the Welsh Museums Federation - applications are open now.
Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS)
The funder says it is working to make its funding more responsive to the sector’s needs during the coronavirus emergency. Details of its plans will be announced soon, but in the meantime, it has provided a list of other forms of emergency support that museums and galleries in Scotland can access:
Third Sector Resilience Fund
A £20m emergency fund to support charities, community groups, social enterprises and voluntary organisations. The fund is intended to help these organisations stabilise and manage cash flows in this period.
Free advice surgeries for independent museums
Independent museums are in a particularly difficult position as a result of the crisis. MGS is funding free one-hour advice surgeries by phone, email or video conferencing from the Association of Independent Museums (AIM) for AIM members who are Accredited or museums working towards Accreditation in Scotland.
The surgeries can offer support with the issues resulting from the Coronavirus situation and look at how organisations might need to adapt and change. Issues might include finance, leadership, HR, business continuity, or maintaining volunteer engagement. Call MGS on 0131 5504100 or email inform@museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk to find out more.
Northern Ireland Executive
The government in Northern Ireland has not yet announced financial aid specifically for the culture and heritage sectors. However, it is offering grants to assist small businesses with cashflow pressures brought about by the Covid-19 outbreak.
The rescue package includes immediate grants of £25,000 for about 4,000 firms involved in retail, tourism and hospitality with a Net Asset Value between £15,000 and £51,000. Grants of £10,000 are available to all small businesses eligible for the small business rate relief scheme with a Net Asset Value of up to £15,000.
For charities that wish to help out during the crisis, a £400,000 Coronavirus Community Fund is offering grants of £1,000 to community organisations working with older people (aged 50 and over) to deliver support during the outbreak.
Art Fund
The national art charity says it is adapting its programmes and being flexible around timing and eligibility to help museums and galleries access its funding more easily than ever before. It says: "We are open to funding all types of activity, even those that would ordinarily be ineligible, and can make decisions very swiftly if required."
Two of the Art Fund's funding streams may be useful at present:
Small Project Grants
Small project grants provide funding to help museums, galleries and visual arts organisations test new ways of working that will benefit their audiences. This might be useful for museums thinking about how to engage audiences in new ways while a museum or gallery is temporarily closed.
Small project grants provide funding to help museums, galleries and visual arts organisations test new ways of working that will benefit their audiences. This might be useful for museums thinking about how to engage audiences in new ways while a museum or gallery is temporarily closed.
Professional Network Grants
Network grants provide funding to support professional networks, including subject specialist networks, in sharing expertise and knowledge. The grants are designed to be "light-touch" and responsive to need. The Art Fund says it encourages projects that are realised digitally or utilise new technologies.
Network grants provide funding to support professional networks, including subject specialist networks, in sharing expertise and knowledge. The grants are designed to be "light-touch" and responsive to need. The Art Fund says it encourages projects that are realised digitally or utilise new technologies.
Future funding
The Art Fund says: "We want to offer all possible practical and material help and are in close contact with museums and galleries, other trusts and funders, and sector organisations, with a view to working together to support the sector. Please get in touch if you have any feedback or intelligence you would like to share which could help shape our thinking."
The Art Fund says: "We want to offer all possible practical and material help and are in close contact with museums and galleries, other trusts and funders, and sector organisations, with a view to working together to support the sector. Please get in touch if you have any feedback or intelligence you would like to share which could help shape our thinking."
Charities Aid Foundation: Coronavirus Emergency Fund
This UK-wide fund offers smaller charities, not for profit organisations, social enterprises and unregistered community groups grants of up to £10,000 to help them continue to deliver support to within their communities.
The funding is available to help with core costs, staffing, volunteer costs, supplies and equipment, communications or other critical charitable areas.
Priority will be given to:- Charities, and other organisations, whose established charitable activities are at risk of being severely reduced to the detriment of vulnerable groups
- Organisations that are having to deliver core services in fundamentally different or unusual ways in order to respond to the crisis and still reach their beneficiaries
- Organisations that are deeply embedded with communities and have established networks to deliver their charitable activities
- Organisations experiencing current cashflow problems, rather than concerns that future income will be reduced.
Museum Freelancers Coronavirus Fund
Laura Crossley of the Museum Freelance Network is fundraising to establish a hardship fund that will provide grants of £200 to museum freelancers. The first 10 grants will go to those who started freelancing in 2019/20 and are therefore not eligible for the government's Self Employed Income Support Scheme. Find out more about the fundraiser here.
