Join Together for Museums
Museums are places of possibility.
They give us space to think, create, relax and relate. They enrich our lives and bring us together.
But the Covid-19 crisis has been a catastrophe for museums. They need urgent financial aid: to care for their collections, support their staff and keep connecting with people everywhere.
For these vital places across the UK, it’s make or break.
We are so grateful to the thousands of people who have helped us raise £1 million for museums so far. These much-needed funds will help them respond to the Covid-19 crisis with creativity: to rethink how they work, make their venues Covid-secure and take exciting projects out into their communities. Thank you.
As museums will still face enormous financial challenges when reopening, we are keeping the campaign open for a limited time so that as many people as possible can support them on their road to recovery.
Now is a critical time for us to help museums survive the devastating impact of the pandemic – and shape a brighter future.
Join #TogetherForMuseums: Please donate to help us protect the places you love.
Why donate?
Museums’ funding models have been shattered by Covid-19.
Many museums are charities, receive no public funding, or rely on volunteers. For those that have been able to reopen between lockdowns, social distancing measures have severely limited income – visitor figures in October 2020 were just a quarter of what they were in October 2019. Following months of closure and uncertainty, many face the real threat of not being able to re-open at all.
Among museums we surveyed, 92% said they need to ‘adapt and innovate’ to survive.
The good news is that our funding helps them do exactly this.
How you can help
Since summer 2020 Art Fund’s emergency funding has enabled organisations like the Roald Dahl Museum to take their amazing collection to students who can’t visit; Aerospace Bristol to create a digital storytelling experience; Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art to commission emerging artists; the Postal Museum to make their interactive exhibits safe; and much more exciting activity.
But the demand for help is huge. We were only able to support 15% of the 451 museums who applied to our emergency funding before it was exhausted.
Now we are asking everyone to come together for museums during the biggest challenge of our lifetime, and empower the UK’s beloved museums to reimagine a better future.
Making a difference across the UK
Every donation, of any size, will go directly towards vital museum projects all around the country.
Explore the updates to discover how this funding is already making an impact near you: facilitating everything from pop-up museums and outdoor exhibitions to learning resources for home-schooling.
Latest updates (24)
November 2023
Invitation to the launch of Howard Hodgkin Home
Thank you again for supporting our campaign in 2020 to join together for museums, helping them respond to the Covid-19 crisis with creativity.
The estate of Howard Hodgkin, who so generously contributed some of his work to the campaign, have asked us to let you know that they are launching Howard Hodgkin Home – a new initiative to celebrate his work and to help fund the ambitions of the Howard Hodgkin Legacy Trust.
There will be an open day at Howard’s studio in Bloomsbury, from 12 noon to 7pm on Monday 27 November, and there will also be a few of the remaining limited edition prints of 'A Small Thing Enlarged' available to buy, with the proceeds very generously coming to Art Fund to help us support more museum projects in 2024 and beyond.
For more information and to book a place please visit their homepage.
March 2022
Here’s how your support is making a difference for museums and audiences everywhere
Today we wanted to share with you some of the fantastic projects that museums are currently undertaking thanks to your donations to our Together for Museums campaign.
Your support enabled us to create a new funding programme, ‘Reimagine’ – offering museums grants of between £5,000 and £50,000 to help them rethink and rebuild following the pandemic.
This vital funding is now helping museums across the UK to connect with new audiences, reimagine their spaces, forge deeper connections with their communities, and much more; and none of this would have been possible without you. Thank you.
Here are just a few of the exciting and innovative projects that your donations have made possible.
In a major project involving nine museums including the Museum of Liverpool, the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds, arts organisation Screen South/Accentuate is working with groups of D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people to explore museum collections through a disability lens.
Artist Emily Sorrell is investigating the human history of Bristol’s Clifton Suspension Bridge, a popular spot for engagements – inviting people who have shared precious moments there to contribute.
An exhibition at Midlands Art Centre in Birmingham this summer will present work by artist Adeela Suleman alongside activities to engage with communities underrepresented in the visual arts. At Two Temple Place in London, a major exhibition running until 24 April 2022, Body Vessel Clay, showcases work by women ceramicists of West African heritage.
And arts charity Queercircle have organised a free series of talks with LGBTQ+ artists from around the world.
Other projects are focused on inspiring younger generations in and out of school.
In Launceston, Cornwall, the Charles Causley Trust are engaging young people in a creative writing project, taking inspiration from the market town and particularly its historic English Heritage castle. Museums and Heritage Highland are leading an ambitious project to bring together objects from 15 museums across the Highlands of Scotland in a digital learning hub, enabling children, young people and teachers to engage with these collections online. And at Jane Austen’s House in Hampshire, young people will be empowered to explore the role of women at home and in society through Jane Austen’s writing.
For other organisations, it was important to enhance their online activities to reach wider audiences of all ages.
The Vindolanda Trust in Northumberland have been working with a student from Newcastle University’s Game Lab to create a special online exhibition for children. And at the Story Museum in Oxford, students have had a hand in creating a digital version of the Enchanted Library Gallery, gaining skills in narrative gaming and helping to share the museum’s collection.
As many of these projects demonstrate, engaging children, schools and young people is high on the agenda for museums; but as their budgets continue to tighten, opportunities for the young are especially vulnerable to cuts.
That’s why our current fundraising campaign, Energise Young Minds, is all about helping museums to provide more opportunities for young people.
If you’d like to find out more, why not watch our short film and hear from museums and young people why connecting with art and museums early on is so important. Plus, thanks to a generous supporter, every donation made to our Energise Young Minds campaign until 31 March will be matched, making twice the impact.
It’s thanks to the generosity of donors like you that we’re able to help museums thrive. Again, thank you so much for your support for Together for Museums. We look forward to keeping you updated with more of what your donations have made possible.
With thanks to...
A big thank you to all project backers. You made art happen.