We are delighted to be continuing our long-term partnership with the Association of Independent Museums (AIM). We have awarded a three-year grant (2023-25) of £414,000 to support their collections care and conservation grant programmes. Below we share some insights into our partnership with AIM and speak to Grants Administrator, Fiona Woolley, to learn more about AIM’s impact.
Founded in 1977, AIM represents, connects, and strengthens the UK’s independent museums and heritage organisations. They support 1,200+ members and run various grant programmes, as well as providing networking, advice and training opportunities. AIM is one of a range of specialist, expert organisations we work with within the heritage sector to improve the reach and impact of our preservation and conservation work. These strategic partners distribute our funds through their grant programmes and they also provide helpful advice and support to grantees. Out of AIM’s grants, we fund the Collections and Conservation grant schemes.
We’ve been working with AIM and offering conservation grants since 2007. Back then, AIM recognised that there was a need for conservation grants that were accessible to small and medium sized museums, which may not have the expertise in-house to develop funding bids. These first grants covered the costs of a conservator to work on specific objects within a collection. The objects conserved were diverse and drawn from local history collections, fine art collections, transport collections and industrial history collections.
Today, the programme has expanded to provide three types of grants – Collection Care Audits, the Collections Care Scheme and the Remedial Conservation Scheme. All three grants provide museums with access to accredited conservation expertise and can help with auditing a collection, caring for specific items, or developing a more sustainable approach to the conservation and management of collections. There is a growing desire to upskill staff and volunteers with collections care practice, so the Collections Care grants scheme also offers museums grants to train staff and volunteers to deliver projects that meet the benchmarks for collections care and accreditation.
Don Eades Collection at Petersfield Museum. L: Archive box of photographic edits. R: Welcome walk of final exhibition. (Credit: AIM)
An insider’s view of the AIM & Pilgrim Trust grants
Now we turn to Fiona Woolley, the Grants Administrator at AIM. As someone who works closely with grantees day to day, she’s kindly shared some insights into the impact of these grants and some examples of her favourite projects.
Q: What has the impact of the AIM and Pilgrim Trust Collection and Conservation grants been?
Fiona: “Over the past 15 years over 500 AIM Pilgrim Trust Collection and Conservation grants have been awarded. The impact that this has had on improving collections care across the independent museum sector cannot be underestimated. The access to a conservator who can help a museum to understand how to best manage the collections in their care is invaluable. The best practice advice provided is cascaded through small museums from staff to volunteers to Trustees, ensuring that the advice provided is understood and acted upon by all.
The grant scheme is unique in offering a set of complementary grants for conservation. They fill a gap in the sector and provide small to medium museums with access to funding with wraparound support throughout their funding journey. The grants have always been popular with members and the bid amounts at each round outstrip the available funds by 50-100%.
In our 2022 grantee survey, 59% of recipients said that access to their collection had improved as a result of receiving the grant, 75% said that the care of their collection had improved, and 90% said they would not have been able to do this work without AIM & Pilgrim Trust funding. In 2023 details of the organisations funded through the Pilgrim Trust collections and conservation grants will be added to the open grant data platform 360Giving.
Interior of Silk Museum. (Photo Credit: camera_obscura, CC BY-NC 2.0)
Q: Thank you so much for sharing the huge impact these grants are having! What are some of your favourite grants from the AIM & Pilgrim Trust Collections and Conservation grant schemes?
Fiona: “It is really hard to pick projects from the 500 plus projects funded to date! But I am pleased to share a couple of projects that show the impact of these grants.
The Silk Museum in Macclesfield was awarded an Audit grant in Autumn 2017. The museum works to champion the history of Macclesfield and the surrounding areas. They wanted help to audit their collection of 900+ pattern books dating from the late 18th century to 1980s, as well as three other collections. The audit was a great success and it provided staff, volunteers, and students with the training they needed to look after this archive. This Audit grant was one of the first of its kind and really shows how a small injection of funding can provide a step change in collections care which is cascaded through the staff and volunteers.
Petersfield Museum in Surrey was awarded a Collections Care grant in Autumn 2020. This local history museum works to showcase over 10,000 years of history. The museum was fortunate enough to acquire the life’s work of the local freelance photographer Don Eades and they needed help to catalogue, digitise and organise the 106,000 negatives in the collection. During the project twenty volunteers were trained on how to handle and pack the negatives and they worked incredibly hard to organise the collection.
I picked this project as it demonstrates how a hidden archive, of which there are many in museums, has been brought back to life through the dedication of the volunteers and small staff team. I had the pleasure of visiting the museum and it was great to see in person the impact of the grant in upgrading the management of the archive.”
We’d like to thank Fiona for giving us this wonderful insight into AIM’s work and the impact of our partnership to date. If you are a small to medium museum and inspired by what you’ve read, then head over to AIM’s website to learn more about these grants and all of AIM’s work.
“We’re thrilled to continue to offer the AIM Pilgrim Trust conservation grants to our members. The ongoing popularity of the scheme demonstrates the need in the sector for specialist conservation support and we’re grateful to Pilgrim Trust for recognising the valuable nature of this scheme.” Lisa Ollerhead, Director of AIM
Explore our other strategic partners. Over the next few months, we’ll be introducing more of our strategic partners and exploring the impact of our joint work.
Lead image: Silk Museum, Macclesfield, (Credit: camera_obscura, CC BY-NC 2.0)