Arts Council England has opened applications for its new Museum Transformation Programme.

Announced by the culture secretary Lisa Nandy in January this year, the fund builds on insights gleaned from the one-off 2025-26 Museum Renewal Fund (MRF), which provided rapid, short-term grants to help local authority-supported museums in England stabilise their finances amid a funding crisis in the sector.

Rather than targeting immediate critical need, the new transformation fund aims to help civic museums address the longer-term challenges they face. Grants of between £50,000 and £1m are available to support institutions to undertake a “fundamental shift in their operational models”.

According to the arts council, the fund is “focused on supporting regional museums to develop work which will enable their increased long-term financial resilience and operational sustainability”.

ACE adds: “The programme responds to the ongoing challenges local authority-supported museums face and the opportunities which local government reorganisation and devolution present to museums.” 

The funding period will cover 1 January 2027 through to 31 March 2030.

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Grants are available to Accredited, non-national museums in England that can show they have an established relationship with a local authority.

According to the arts council, applicants must submit clear, holistic plans for a programme of transformation that “go beyond simply expanding fundraising capacity”.

In a blog about the programme earlier this year, Aysha Afridi, the interim director of museums at the arts council, said: “Hearing more about the impact of MRF on museums, it was clear there was appetite and demand in the sector for something longer-term and more transformative, allowing local museums to fundamentally and comprehensively rethink their operating models.”

She added: “I have seen first-hand the innovation and ambition that local museums approach change and development with when they are supported. The Museum Transformation Programme is an exciting opportunity for us to back these ambitions in the long-term, and see communities across the country enjoying its impact well into the future.”

The deadline for applications is 30 September. Museums do not need to have applied for or received grants from the MRF previously in order to be eligible.

The launch of the fund comes as work gets underway on a long-term strategic framework for England’s museum sector – a key recommendation of the recent Hodge review of ACE. Museums Journal understands that the museum and cultural property team at ACE held initial talks with sector leaders over the summer about the development of the strategy.

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The arts council also published a broader interim framework for arts and culture funding in May this year after scrapping its previous 10-year strategy, Let’s Create. The framework, which has a renewed focus on excellence, will inform funding decisions in the next round of National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) investment, which spans 2028-33.

Full application guidance for prospective NPOs is due to be released this month.  

Activity supported by the Museum Transformation Programme

  • Digital transformation: Improving data analytics, digitising collections for even more people to enjoy, or development / improvement of CRM.
  • Organisational change: Development of cross-functional teams, setting up more dynamic ways of working,
  • Organisational restructuring: Consolidating priorities, exploring shared spaces, and in some cases, workforce restructuring
  • Income generation and resilience: Diversifying how money is made for the museum, exploring digital income generation, and development of philanthropic giving
  • Community and inclusion: Co-curation activities with the local community, development of accessibility-first approaches, and equity-focused interpretation
  • Sustainability: Development of sustainable exhibition design, energy efficient systems.