Arts Council England announces National Lottery Project Grants open to non-accredited museums

Arts Council England has published its three-year Delivery Plan today, which sets out how it will implement the strategy for its Let’s Create vision introduced just before the pandemic.

The Let’s Create vision states that by 2030 England will be a country in which the creativity of each individual is valued and given the chance to flourish, and where everyone has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences.

To help make this vision a reality the Delivery Plan has named 54 priority towns and cities across England that it will work closely with these locations to develop new opportunities for investment, both from the Arts Council and other partners.

As well as this, the Delivery Plan highlights where there are opportunities for investment, collaboration, and progress including opening up National Lottery Project Grants to non-accredited museums.

“We know that we need to do more to support museums, especially those beyond our current National Portfolio,” the report said.

Some of the key points about museums:

• As well as seeking to grow the number of museum National Portfolio Organisations from 2023, the Arts Council will also review its current investment programmes so that it can help a wider range of museums contribute to the delivery of Let’s Create.
• This will include opening up National Lottery Project Grants (NLPG) to non-Accredited museums so that it invests in more collections and development activity by more museums.
• Its new leadership development programmes will help museums grow a better-skilled and more representative workforce.
• It will continue to invest in the Museum Development Programme to ensure there is strategic business-to-business support, especially for museums outside its National Portfolio, to support museums across England to use its four Investment Principles and develop stronger applications to National Lottery Project Grants and other Arts Council funds.
• It will work with DCMS on the Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND) programme to support the refurbishment of its non-national museums.
• It will continue to support the fair application of business rates across museums and other parts of the cultural estate.
• It will provide additional support to help more museums take advantage of the Museums and Galleries Exhibitions Tax Relief and will make the case to Government for its continuation.

Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. Between 2018 and 2022 it will have invested £1.45bn of public money from government and an estimated £860m from the National Lottery.

During the pandemic the Arts Council was one of the bodies that administered the Culture Recovery Plan, which saw £1.96bn of public money invested into museums and other cultural organisations across the UK.