Museums, libraries and archives
Black Cultural Archives. Credit: Kois Miah
Museums, libraries and archives tell the stories of our cultural heritage.
Through objects, collections, film, documents and oral histories they help to give us a sense of place and identity.
Thanks to National Lottery players, since 1994 we have awarded £2.4billion to 5,900 museum, library, archive and collection-based projects across the UK.
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:
- create exciting new exhibition and learning spaces
- attract more diverse audiences
- interpret and open up acquisitions
- develop collections
For more inspiration, see the stories below or browse projects we've funded.
How to get funding
Our National Lottery Heritage Grants programme is open for applications.
News
Lottery boost for Belfast heritage projects
The plans to help young people from North Belfast to learn more about the history and legacy of the First World War received a grant of £10,000. Using artefacts, photos and diaries held by museums and other historical institutions they will explore the local and international contexts within which
News
First World War Home Front volunteers archive to be launched
Among famous names included in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) indexes are author Agatha Christie, novelist and poet Naomi Mitchison and writer and feminist Vera Brittain. This treasure trove, some 244,000 VAD paper index cards held by the British Red Cross, will now be digitised to create a free
Artists impression of the planned redevelopment of Surgeon's Hall in Edinburgh
News
Surgeons’ Hall Museum to be transformed with help of £2.7million Heritage Lottery Fund grant
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd), the UK’s oldest surgical Royal College, today announced that it had been awarded the grant to extend and redevelop its Surgeons’ Hall Museum. Originally developed as a teaching museum for students of medicine, it has been open to the general public