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NMDC welcomes £270m Arts Everywhere Fund

Today Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport Lisa Nandy announced over £270m of funding for the cultural sector, which will benefit museums, libraries, arts venues and the heritage sector through the Arts Everywhere Fund. 

The funding includes:

  • A new £85 million Creative Foundations Fund to support urgent capital works to keep venues across the country up and running; 
  • A fifth round of the popular Museum Estate and Development Fund worth £25 million, which will support museums to undertake vital infrastructure projects, and tackle urgent maintenance backlogs; 
  • A new £20 million Museum Renewal Fund to help keep cherished civic museums open and engaging, protect opening hours and jobs, continue serving communities, and tell our national story at a local level;
  • An additional £15 million for Heritage at Risk will provide grants for repairs and conservation to heritage buildings at risk, focusing on those sites with most need. This will restore local heritage, such as shops, pubs, parks, and town halls;
  • A fourth round of the Libraries Improvement Fund worth £5.5 million, which will enable public library services across England to upgrade buildings and technology to better respond to changing user needs;
  • A new £4.85 million Heritage Revival Fund to empower local people to take control of and look after their local heritage. It will support community organisations to own neglected heritage buildings bringing them back into good use;
  • An additional £120 million to continue the Public Bodies Infrastructure Fund, which will ensure national cultural public institutions are able to address essential works to their estate;
  • A 5% increase to the budgets of all national museums and galleries to support their financial resilience and help them provide access to the national collection; 
  • Confirmation that DCMS will be providing £3.2 million in funding for four cultural education programmes for the next financial year to preserve increased access to arts for children and young people through the Museums and Schools Programme, the Heritage Schools Programme, the Art & Design National Saturday Club and the BFI Film Academy.

Full details are available online here.

NMDC chair and Tate Director Maria Balshaw welcomed the news:

"Today’s funding announcements are fantastic news for the whole museum sector. We are incredibly grateful to see the Government’s recognition of the importance of our world-class museums.

The increase in budgets for national museums and galleries like my own organisation Tate will be vital in supporting our financial resilience, enabling us to continue caring for and providing access to the national collection and the incredible public benefit we deliver. We also warmly welcome the announcement of additional capital investment for national and regional museums through the Public Bodies Infrastructure Fund and the Museum Estate and Development Fund. This investment is urgently needed right across the museum sector for maintenance and repairs.

In particular, we are delighted to see the announcement of new funding for civic museums, who are facing an unprecedented set of economic pressures. They are some of the finest creative and cultural spaces in the world – caring for internationally significant collections, driving regional tourism and providing vital community services. The new Museum Renewal Fund will help bring civic museums back to a more sustainable position, and we are heartened that Government has listened to calls to protect this key part of our cultural and civic infrastructure."