Getting involved at St Fagan's Museum

Museums, libraries and archives

Museums, libraries and archives tell the stories of our cultural heritage. Through the objects, collections, film, documents and oral histories they hold they help to give us a sense of place and identity.

Thanks to National Lottery players, since 1994 we have awarded over £2.2bn to more than 5,000 museum, library, archive and collection-based projects across the UK.

We have awarded over £500,000 to more than 1,700 projects in UK archives and libraries.

What do we support?

Our funding supports institutions large and small, including:

national and local authority museums, libraries and archives
historic libraries
community archives
institutions with heritage collections

Project ideas

Our funding could help people:

revitalise buildings and provide new purpose-built facilities
create exciting new exhibition and learning spaces
refurbish specialist libraries, archives and galleries
attract more diverse audiences
interpret and open up acquisitions
develop collections

How to get funding

Find out whether your project is eligible for funding.

News article

UK's oldest children’s charity to tell the story of care

Coram has received a £1.26million National Lottery grant to digitise part of its archive, which dates back for nearly three centuries.

News article

The first six months: our Strategic Funding Framework

It is six months since we launched our new name, grants structure and Strategic Funding Framework. Here’s what’s happened.

Blog

Young people celebrate important figures of Wales' LGBT+ history

Holly Morgan-Davies from National Museum Wales' Hands on Heritage project writes about the fascinating stories she's discovered from Wales' LGBT+ past.

Blog

Teen Digital Takeover: getting young people into museums

Today is the Kids in Museums Teen Digital Takeover: when young people take over the social media accounts of museums, galleries and heritage sites across the UK. The 2018 Audience Agency Museums Audience Report identifies 16-24 year-olds as one of four key museum audiences. However, it also

Story

Why working with communities can be 'transformational' for museums

Through including LGBT+ people in conversations about their heritage, one National Lottery-funded project has helped improve representation in Glasgow's museums.

News article

Opening up collections: LGBT+ heritage at the V&A

Stuart Hobley, our Director of England, London & South, met with: Joseph Galliano, co-founder of charity Queer Britain, which is working to establish the UK's first national LGBT+ museum Dan Vo, LGBT+ tour co-ordinator at the V&A In the film below, Joseph explains how understanding our past helps us

News article

National Lottery Awards shortlist announced

Nominations have been drawn from the past quarter of a century to celebrate The National Lottery’s 25th Birthday.

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'Astronaut wanted': the story of Helen Sharman's unique spacesuit

Helen Sharman was the first Briton in space. But before she could even start her training, she had to have a spacesuit made just for her.

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Four artists on how heritage has inspired them

As the Luminary installation opens at the National Lottery-funded Crossness Pumping Station, we spoke to four artists who combine old and new in their work.

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Why communities are essential to sharing the stories of Pride

These significant and inclusive events raise the profile of all sorts of LGBT+ lived experiences, celebrate activism and build stronger alliances. They increasingly involve people of all ages, cultures and faiths in publicly sharing differing identities. Alongside Stonewall’s 50th anniversary this

News article

Million insects saved as part of £8million of National Lottery funding

A million bugs Oxford University Museum of Natural History’s British Insect Collection has over a million specimens from the 18th century to today, including some that are now extinct. Spanning nearly the entire history of British entomology, the collection is vital in understating the extent and