Museums, libraries and archives

Museums, libraries and archives

Museums, libraries and archives
Museums, libraries and archives tell the stories of our cultural heritage.

Through preservation, exhibition and community engagement, they can bring collections, places and ideas to life. They help us to understand culture, science and history, and give us a sense of place, identity and community.

Thanks to National Lottery players, since 1994 we have awarded £2.5billion to 6,000 museum, library, archive and collection-based projects across the UK. See stories from projects we've funded below.

What do we support?

We provide grants for heritage projects from £10,000–£10million for projects led by or featuring museums, libraries and archives.

Our funding supports institutions large and small, including:

  • national, local authority and independent museums, libraries and archives
  • historic libraries
  • community archives and oral history collections
  • institutions with heritage collections

Project ideas

Our funding could help people:

  • create exciting new exhibition and learning spaces
  • attract new and more diverse audiences
  • acquire new items and develop collections
  • improve organisational resilience

For more inspiration, see the stories below, browse projects we've funded, or explore our recent Dynamic Collections campaign.

How to get funding

Our National Lottery Heritage Grants programme is open for applications.

A group of people who took part of the project stand together

Projects

Iranian Heritage Project

Northern Cultural Projects CIC spent a year investigating and documenting the Iranian Heritage of the North East.

An illustration of a bleeding eye on a page loaded into a typewriter

Projects

Unlocking the Anthony Burgess archive

The International Anthony Burgess Foundation (IABF) celebrated the life and work of Anthony Burgess, the novelist, poet, playwright, critic and composer born in Manchester in 1917.

The room for Ancoats developed as part of the A Different Spirit project
The room for Ancoats developed as part of the A Different Spirit project

Projects

A Different Spirit

Young people worked with creative practitioners, historians, curators and local residents to uncover the history of Ancoats Art Museum.

Books in Armagh Library

Projects

Armagh Public Library Conservation Project

Armagh Public Library is a Grade A listed building and one of the city’s key tourist attractions. It houses regionally and nationally important collections of books, manuscripts, prints and coins.

Outside view of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Projects

Ashmolean Museum Early 20th Century Gallery

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is one of the world’s leading museums. In 2009, it benefitted from a multi-million pound redevelopment project, which saw its display space completely transformed.

April Ashley exhibition
April Ashley exhibition in situ at Liverpool Museum

Projects

April Ashley exhibition and heritage education project

‘April Ashley: Portrait of a Lady’ shared the hidden history of the trans community – those whose gender identity and/or expression differs from the sex they were assigned at birth – with 1.2million visitors.

Children dressed in Tudor costume playing skittles in Barley Hall
Children dressed in Tudor costume playing skittles in Barley Hall

Projects

Barley Hall - Learning & Leisure

Give children a history book and they might struggle to understand the full picture, give them a mop cap to wear or a stick and hoop to play with and they will immerse themselves in their own medieval world.

If you query is regarding our application portal, please contact our support team.