About this grant scheme

With Art Fund support, the New Interpretations funding scheme offers grants of up to £5000 to help enable museums to look creatively at their collections and interpret them in new and innovative ways.

This is a time-limited opportunity, and the grant would suit museums who ideally already have a project idea and new partner relationships brokered and ready to go. Applicants must be able to complete expenditure and report on the project by the end of March 2025. You can also apply for research and development funding towards future projects that meet the aims of this grant. 

The funds can support a range of activity, including: 

• Co-curation with an artist, specialist or new audience.
• Partnering with a community group to help devise or run a new project or exhibition.
• Research hidden stories in your collections or undertaking contemporary collecting. 
• Upgrade and refresh displays by finding new ways to interpret objects.
• Highlight new and underrepresented voices.
• Improve interpretation and display methods through collaboration.
• Funding for research and development towards future projects that meet the aims of this grant.
   

The maximum grant award for this scheme is £5000. The grant deadline for submissions will be 5pm on Monday 23 September 2024. Please note we cannot accept applications after the final deadline.

Before completing this form, please read the accompanying guidance document which is available on the Museum Development South East website.

You can preview all the questions by downloading a copy of the application form, but please do not use it to apply - complete the form below. If you are unable to use this form for technical reasons please email us at admin@mdse.org.uk.

Eligible museums

The grant is available to any eligible museum within Arts Council England's South East region. Eligible museums are Arts Council Accredited museums or those formally Working Towards Accreditation, excluding National museums and Arts Council National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs). 

We do not fund:

• activity that has already been delivered, commissioned or ordered
• permanent staff salaries (although we will consider requests to 'backfill' roles if it is integral to the delivery of the project)
• general operating costs
• contingency
• internal admin and management fees to support the delivery of the project
• hospitality costs over 10% of the grant total

For more information about our funding criteria, deadlines, assessment procedures and advice on how to complete the application, please read our general Grant Guidance document, which is available to download from the Grants page on our website.

Talk to us

It is a requirement that you talk to your Museum Development Officer before submitting your grant application. This is to help improve the quality of your application, and improve your chances of success. They will sit on the assessment panel to provide more context to your application.

Terms and Conditions

As part of our funding Terms and Conditions, we ask our grant recipients to:

• acknowledge Museum Development South East, Arts Council England and Art Fund in publicity material associated with the funded activity, using approved branding and logos.
• complete the proposed activity within 6 months of receiving funds.
• submit a Grant Report to MDSE within 6 months of receiving funds.
• participate in the upcoming Annual Museum Survey commissioned by Museum Development England.

Failure to uphold the T&Cs may affect your museum's chance of securing further grants from MDSE for up to 12 months.

These grants are funded by Arts Council England and Art Fund.