National Lottery Grants for Heritage

#DYC, Dynamic Collections – Your Voice, Heard

Applicant: Bethlem Gallery Projects Limited

Project description: To enable Bethlem Gallery to create a Collection Advisory Board with whom they will co-produce an inclusive and representative art collection. It aims to collect and preserve heritage that reflects experiences of mental health and mental health services. The established collection will be displayed in Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust sites, including Bethlem Royal Hospital and Maudsley Hospital. 

Decision: Award grant of £9,844

Sweatshop Revisited

Applicant: Avant-Gardening CIC

Project description: To document the people and stories behind the LGBTQ+ fringe theatre companies of the 1970s and 80s, with a particular focus on Gay Sweatshop. This will be delivered through four workshops; an event, the creation of a mobile archive and interviews from members of the company. This will be the basis of a new podcast exploring LGBTQ+ history of that period through the plays of the fringe theatre at the time.

Decision: Award grant of £9,930

Connecting local communities with their own dramatic history; Henry I in Reading

Applicant: Rabble Theatre

Project description: To stage a production, Henry I, at Reading Abbey and to deliver an educational programme working with secondary school pupils in Reading. After-school drama activities will focus on the curation of a new production focused on William the Conqueror. Participation in Heritage Days workshops will include visits to Reading Museum and local guided tours to engage the target audience with the area’s heritage. 

Decision: Award grant of £10,000

Gardens of Eden

Applicant: Hidden Histories Community Interest Company

Project description: A one-year project to preserve Brent’s Iraqi communities’ stories of migration and integration into UK culture during the 1980s and 90s. It aims to present the untold stories through oral history recordings, written memoirs, art sessions and a website. 

Decision: Award grant of £53,485

#DYC, Build Your Own Museum

Applicant: London Borough of Islington

Project description: To engage target audiences in co-producing essential learning, access and engagement tools designed to deliver richer, more meaningful engagement with the museum’s redisplayed collections. It will focus on designing tools to increase equitable access to gallery content. In partnership with The Peel Institute, a community charity based in Clerkenwell, the proposed activities will target underserved communities in the borough.

Decision: Award grant of £141,528

BASE

Applicant: Cotswold Lakes Trust

Project description: Over the next three years, the Trust will work with new and existing partners to increase its capacity to develop, co-ordinate and implement biodiversity enhancement projects at the Trust’s sites across Cotswold Water Park. It will develop relationships with educators, community groups and the general public to facilitate learning opportunities.

Decision: Award grant of £237,872

Dad La Soul – History, Ain't No Mystery To Me

Applicant: Totrockinbeats CIC

Project description: To enable families to gain a wider understanding of the heritage of Lewes and Shoreham by running playdate sessions for dads and their children, particularly those living in social housing. Partnering with Sussex Past, the project will deliver six monthly sessions at Anne of Cleves House and Marlipins Museum. The sessions will include heritage-themed activities, such as stone rubbing, historical dressing up and the use of VR headsets. 

Decision: Award grant of £8,919

GAWP Text Trial

Applicant: Gloucestershire Arts & Social Projects CIC

Project description: To enable marginalised young people aged 16-30 to develop a public text-art trail from Podsmead to the centre of Gloucester. Participants will take part in creative workshops and archive research sessions to explore Gloucester’s history and the work of historical and contemporary text-based artists. The trail will display their thoughts about the local area and the history of the sites.  

Decision: Award grant of £9,000

Foam flyers and fancy divers: the daredevils of the West Pier

Applicant: The Fedora Group

Project description: To celebrate the daredevil heritage of the Edwardian men and women entertainer/athletes for whom Brighton‘s West Pier was their public arena and whose contemporary counterparts have found new ways of continuing this legacy a century later.  This will be delivered through an exhibition, various interactive presentations and training volunteers in archive research and running activities. 

Decision: Award grant of £9,750

New Directions College 65th Year Anniversary Events and Heritage Exhibition

Applicant: Reading Borough Council

Project description: To commemorate the College’s 65th anniversary, this project aims to celebrate its local history, culture and heritage. The Council will connect with the local community’s diverse talent and further with the impoverished areas of Reading, to attract people who wouldn’t normally engage with heritage. This will be delivered through a training programme, a range of activities and an exhibition at Reading Museum.

Decision: Award grant of £9,954

Community Garden 23

Applicant: Sunshine of Hounslow

Project description: To build a garden for community use by improving a piece of heritage land which has not been operated since World War II. The project aims to develop this land into a greener and cleaner area not only for birds and insects, but to benefit at least 50 families who can come and grow food together while going through this crisis period. It also aims to reach out to people with disabilities, the elderly and retired to come together to improve their mental and physical health and build mindful relationships with other community members.

Decision: Reject

Singing Cultures: Children Narrate the Legacy of African Composer Fela Sowande and His Message for a 'Common Humanity'

Applicant: Transculturalvisions

Project description: To share the heritage of African Classical Music and the work of the composer Fela Sowande through workshops for Year 6 pupils at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Deptford. The production of three videos with content from workshops and outputs will be shared with the school and on social media. 

Decision: Award grant of £10,000

Deptford X 25th Anniversary

Applicant: Deptford X Ltd

Project description: To commemorate the organisation’s 25th anniversary, the project aims to explore the rich and complex heritage of Deptford’s grassroots communities, as told by local people who have seen the landscape and architecture of the city radically change. This will be delivered through an exhibition and a publication of archival material to include shared personal memories and forgotten stories, unseen photographs and films, documents and ephemera from the local community.

Decision: Award grant of £10,000

#DYC Salcombe Maritime Museum Dynamic Collections Project

Applicant: Salcombe Museum Society

Project description: To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the museum, which holds historical collections relating to the 19th century shellfish fishing and shipbuilding industries. It aims to improve its collections and engage the local community as well as other visitors. The project will be delivered through workshops and a volunteer digital training programme, which will provide opportunities for both community engagement and upskilling in collections management including digital skills.

Decision: Award grant of £34,580

Chard Museum 50 Years and Beyond – Building Resilience Through Stories and Spaces

Applicant: Chard and District Museum

Project description: To deliver a range of information-gathering activities which inform strategic planning for the redevelopment of Chard and District Museum. This will include collecting demographic data from paying visitors, event visitors and community groups. The information gathered will determine how the community interacts with the museum’s collections, improving access and widening its audiences.  

Decision: Award grant of £39,108

Lifting the Gate: Sharing stories of living in St Marks Gate

Applicant: MG Relief Project CIC

Project description: To engage those who are new to heritage participation from Bengali and other South Asian communities who live within Marks Gate. The aim is for participants to perceive local heritage in a different way through activities and outputs, including recording oral history interviews. Training sessions in website development and content writing will be provided for young people. 

Decision: Reject

Teffont Archaeology Project 2023: Engaging and Training New Audiences in Archaeology, Building Resilience and Sustainability in Community Archaeology

Applicant: THE SALISBURY AND SOUTH WILTSHIRE MUSEUM TRUST

Project description: To enable community volunteers and carers to learn about archaeology through shared learning and skills development opportunities between partners of Cardiff University, Salisbury Museum and Carer Support Wilshire. Engagement activities will focus on an excavation in a Roman shrine landscape.

Decision: Award grant of £45,075

All that Flows Comes to Rest

Applicant: IC-Visual Lab C.I.C.

Project description: To create new archive resources and implement a programme of activities which explores the intergenerational and multicultural port community of Avonmouth in Bristol. This will be delivered through a creative heritage project in collaboration with Avonmouth Community Centre, oral history walks and archive visits. 

Decision: Award grant of £45,403

The Road To Freedom: Ending Slavery in Britain

Applicant: Learning Through The Arts CIC

Project description: To provide six touring exhibitions which showcase the legacy of the 1883 Abolition Act alongside key Abolitionists, to educate and provide insight into the nature of the triangular slave trade. This will be delivered through workshops, volunteer training and a stage performance inspired by the exhibitions. 

Decision: Award grant of £71,536

My Youth, My Community

Applicant: MYLIFE PRODUCTIONS 2013 CIC

Project description: To enable young people to create a documentary film exploring youth and community work in Lewisham and Southwark, using oral histories from ‘local heroes’. The project aims to engage young people who are at risk from poor mental health, anti-social behaviour and crime. Training will be provided to develop skills in interviewing, technical filmmaking and collecting oral histories. 

Decision: Award grant of £77,753 

#DYC Access to Poets of India

Applicant: The Poetry Archive

Project description: To engage 40 volunteer curators to identify audio and visual collections of poetry and literature relating to Indian/sub-continent heritage. The collections will be made publicly accessible through a new, online, searchable catalogue. 

Decision: Award grant of £85,900

Hestercombe Stories

Applicant: Hestercombe Gardens Trust

Project description: To improve the way that Hestercombe House and its collections are perceived by visiting and online audiences and to improve the visibility and understanding of the collections it holds. The project aims to build skills and capacity in their collections and archive team and undertake crucial audience development work.

Decision: Reject

Restoring the Bubwith Chapel 2023

Applicant: City of Wells Almshouses

Project description: To carry out conservation and improvement works to the Grade II listed Bubwith Chapel in Wells, Somerset. Through the installation of new display boards, updates to the website, and social media, the project aims to develop a programme of increased public engagement with the building. Volunteering opportunities will also be provided through research and gardening groups. 

Decision: Award grant of £158,490

Survive and Thrive

Applicant: Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft (DMAC)

Project description: The key focus of this project is to strengthen DMAC’s commercial trading, complementing work that it is being undertaken through the Heritage Compass training programme to strengthen income, as well as address the lack of fundraising expertise (Trusts and Foundations) and strengthening audience development and communications.

Decision: Award grant of £186,000

#DYC Craft for the People

Applicant: Crafts Council

Project description: A 30-month cross-territory project with activities taking place in Islington and Newham, Blackburn and Kirklees. It aims to upgrade the Transit store to make it publicly accessible and enhance the development of an audience engagement strategy, as well as audits and loan insurances for objects in the Primary and Handling Collections.

Decision: Award grant of £235,446

Celebrating Our Stories: The Kilburn High Road Project

Applicant: Kiln Theatre

Project description: To celebrate the intangible cultural heritage of the Kilburn High Road in the Brent area of focus. The project aims to engage hard to reach audiences and tackle social isolation and mental health by showcasing the voices of migrant communities in and around the area, disseminating the traditions, religions, music, dance, cinema and food of these groups. 

Decision: Award grant of £250,000

The People's Gallery: community photography and film in East London

Applicant: Four Corners Limited

Project description: To establish an account of the early years of three organisations which eventually became Four Corners. The documentation of community-engaged film and photography of the 1970s and 80s in East London aims to engage local young people with heritage that has strong resonance with today’s contemporary issues. 

Decision: Reject

Ragdres Gwedhynder (Cornish for "Resilience Project")

Applicant: The Cornwall Heritage Trust Limited

Project description: A two-year project to strengthen Cornwall Heritage Trust (CHT) resilience to help the Trust become the most prominent heritage organisation in Cornwall, acting as leader in the sector while protecting historic sites more efficiently. This will be delivered through various resilience programmes and a new interpretation of the website, using augmented reality, drone footage and 3D tours.  

Decision: Award grant of £250,000

Broadmead Pond Restoration

Applicant: Friends of Broadmead Pond

Project description: To improve the condition of Broadmead Pond, Wiltshire, and to enhance visitor experience and access through the installation of a viewing platform with disabled access, a noticeboard and the pollarding of large willows. A small group of volunteers will be required to maintain the health of the pond and its surrounding trees. 

Decision: Reject

#DYC Rethinking Chinese

Applicant: Ming-Ai Association

Project description: A digital collection project to engage both the museums, galleries and the community by reinterpreting Chinese objects or cultures (stories) nationally. It aims to encourage participants to research the origins of a heritage item, tangible and intangible, and produce their own ‘re-interpretation’ to share with others, so that it becomes part of a ‘thinking collection’. This will form part of the organisation’s digital collection for free public access. 

Decision: Reject

Porraimos – Romani Holocaust 2023

Applicant: Romani Slovak Czech Community CIC

Project description: To raise awareness of Roma victims of the Holocaust and educate people on how words of hate can lead to violence and injustice. This will be delivered through a cultural event to include an exhibition and accompanied by unique Roma music, which will be livestreamed and recorded on social media sites and their website.  

Decision: Reject

Church of the Holy Cross, Sherston, Emergency Ceiling Repairs

Applicant: PCC of Sherston Magna

Project description: To carry out repair and conservation work on the collapsed ceiling panels in the North Transept of the Grade I Listed Church of the Holy Cross in Sherston. Following the restoration, it aims to provide a warm space and coffee shop services for the community and create a young people’s choir. 

Decision: Reject

KTA Get-Together and cultural dance practises

Applicant: The Kiribati Tungaru Association (KTA)

Project description: A four-day camping weekend to commemorate the establishment and independence of the Republic of Kiribati. Participants from mixed heritages and younger generations will learn more about their Pacific Island heritage including dance, song, crafts and traditional foods.

Decision: Reject

Rewind and Remix Windrush Heritage Project

Applicant: National Windrush Museum Limited

Project description: To link into a wider range of youth-hosted activities including panels, workshops and events. The aim is also to facilitate a platform of engagement that includes debating, storytelling, film and still photography of Windrush past, where intergenerational (elders and youth) interact. The outcomes are specifically designed to broaden the horizon of the youth council and address historical inequality, the Windrush legacy and the future.

Decision: Reject

Temple Roof Project

Applicant: Temple Methodist Church

Project description: To carry out repairs to the roof of a Grade II listed, historic Methodist Church in Taunton which is used by the church and a wide range of community groups throughout the week. It aims to develop the heritage building as an inclusive community space fit for the 21st century. 

Decision: Reject

Windrush Caribbean Film Festival ‘75 Years and Beyond’

Applicant: Windrush Caribbean Film Festival CIC

Project description: To seek partnership funding towards the 4th annual film festival, 75 Years and Beyond, and a range of post-festival virtual events, to include screenings taking place across the UK at venues in Bristol, Birmingham, Southampton, Newport, Westminster, and East London.

Decision: Reject

Newhaven – Our Town

Applicant: Latest Group CIC

Project description: Working with volunteers from Tideways School and community ambassadors to collect oral histories about the evolution of Newhaven as told by locals, and to stage a physical and digital exhibition based on their testimonies. East Sussex College will work in partnership offering digital training to students.

Decision: Reject

#DYC, 'Voices from The Mixed Museum': off the page and into the world

Applicant: The Mixed Museum

Project description: This one-year project will add to the museum’s existing collection relating to the history of racial mixing in Britain. Working with voice actors, 20 narrative excerpts will be recorded from speeches, diaries, letters and other material. Each extract will illustrate a specific social aspect of Britain’s mixed-race history in the collection, which will allow the museum to engage more people with the heritage of Britain's mixed-race communities.

Decision: Reject

The refugee journey from the Horn of Africa to London: movement, displacement, and settlement.

Applicant: Reconnection

Project description: To record and preserve the oral histories of refugees residing in Brent from the Horn of Africa. These accounts will be stored on a website and shared through events to highlight them to the local community.

Decision: Reject

Connecting Charleston: a pilot project to inform the development of an urban collection and learning centre.

Applicant: The Charleston Trust (Bloomsbury in Sussex)

Project description: Described as a pilot to test the feasibility of converting Southover House, this work will allow the organisation to test the market and gain the evidence to support them in negotiating a longer lease. It aims to transform a former district surveyor's office, owned by the Council, into a new cultural centre for the town and community, which will enable them to host larger exhibitions and provide improved access to their collections and offer much easier access for visitors. This will be done in partnership with the V&A, The National Portrait Gallery and The Tate. 

Decision: Reject

#DYC The Africa Centre Sankofa Archive Project

Applicant: The Africa Centre Limited

Project description: To widen access to the centre’s archive through a new exhibition and augmented reality displays, embedding it across their new building through a permanent exhibition and flexible co-curated displays. In widening its access, it will explore and respond to moments in history that reflect African heritage, culture, diaspora relations, community celebrations and societal challenges over the past 60 years.

Decision: Reject

Battalion Annual Cultural Day

Applicant: 1 Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment

Project description: A cultural one-day event to include a museum display of Caribbean artifacts. To celebrate the community’s diversity, this event will be delivered through various heritage performances of song and dance representing the islands of Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent’s and the Grenadines. It will also include food, dress and historical displays from other ethnic groups.

Decision: Reject

Grant increase requests

Wild Brownsea – Exploring Britain's favourite nature reserve

Applicant: Dorset Wildlife Trust 

Project description: Wild Brownsea will enable more people, of all backgrounds and abilities, to learn about, enjoy and benefit from Brownsea's unique natural heritage and establish the infrastructure and community support that is vital for the future sustainability of this iconic nature reserve.

Decision: Award grant increase of £128,369 to make a total grant of £690,769

St John the Baptist Church, Hatherleigh

Applicant: Hatherleigh Parochial Church Council

Project description: To carry out urgent and essential repairs to the fabric of the tower, listed as at risk, on this Grade l listed church. Work will also include installing disabled toilets and more access adaptions. The project will be delivered through a programme of activities to enable local people and schools to engage and learn more about their local heritage. A permanent exhibition displaying the heritage of the building will be created as a legacy.

Decision: Award grant increase of £117,844 to make a total grant of £245,063