Delight as Ironbridge museums to receive £736,000 funding a year
Museums in Ironbridge will be given £736,000 per year after being selected for annual financial support.
The Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust has been selected as an Arts Council England (ACE) National Portfolio Organisation (NPO), meaning that it will continue to receive the annual grant until 2022.
The money will support work like its Lifelong Learning programme, which welcomes over 70,000 students every year, and the museum’s collections and academic work, helping to care for the trust’s collections.
The funding will also try and help increase its average of 500,000 visitors a year.
A further grant of £307,000 per year was awarded to the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust to continue to run the Museum Development Programme across the West Midlands.
Anna Brennand, chief executive of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust said: “We are all delighted that, despite ever growing competition, ACE have once again decided to support our innovative and award-winning education and heritage conservation work within the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site.
“Following a very detailed and rigorous application process, the new funding will further develop our existing programmes across volunteering, especially with business.
"It will also support new initiatives particularly around our Coalbrookdale Masterplan, to ensure that we utilise our collections and heritage assets to grow the number of people who can share the timeless significance of everything Ironbridge has to offer.
"We will also be working with a wide range of partners to ensure that all future development plans are fully inclusive and that our sites are welcoming to all.
“We have received funds from ACE for over 5 years which helps to support staff costs as well as specific projects. Alongside this grant the trust will continue to trade profitably and source additional funding from a wide range of organisations including individuals, trusts and foundations as well as business, in order to continue our successful operations and fund our exciting capital development programme.”
The trust also successfully applied for funds to run the West Midlands Museum Development programme which sees museums support other in the region, sharing knowledge to help keep the museums sector vibrant.
As part of the ACE funding, a total of 831 organisations will receive a share of £1.6 billion over four years, helping with 844 projects.
Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust sits alongside 72 museums and 7 libraries to receive funding including The National Holocaust Centre and Museum, the Bowes Museum in Teesdale and Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset.
Anna added: “We look forward to working with ACE to agree the finer details of our programme over the coming months and to continuing our excellent programme of activity both within our own museums as well as across the wider West Midlands.”
