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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.

Find out more and apply
A view of the Discovering Preston gallery at the refurbished Harris, displaying items from the museum's collection.
The museum's collections can be explored via new displays. Photo: The Harris.

Projects

Revitalising The Harris for the audiences of today

Our support has enabled Preston’s leading museum to deliver essential repairs, transform its visitor facilities and plan for a bright future.

A young woman looks at a sculpture by Barbara Hepworth.
The sculpture has been secured for the public to enjoy. Photo: Betty Saunders.

Projects

Rare Barbara Hepworth sculpture saved for the UK

Thanks to our support and a successful public appeal, The Hepworth Wakefield has acquired a rare work by the artist, secured for the public to enjoy in her hometown.

A space in the open store, containing a vintage motorcycle and pram.
The rationalised collection will be housed in a new Open Store. Photo: Preston Park Museum / Stockton Borough Council.

Projects

Creating space: rationalising Preston Park Museum

Our support has helped Stockton’s local museum declutter its collection and involve the community in decision making about its future.

Two people bending down to look at a museum display about Duleep Singh
Visitors viewing the museum's new displays on Duleep Singh and his family. Credit: Norfolk Museums Service (Ancient House).

Stories

Celebrating a Norfolk museum’s Punjabi roots

Through community consultation and academic partnerships Thetford’s Ancient House is digging deeper into the history of its founding family.
A group of young boys sneak a view through gaps in a Belfast peace wall.
Peacelines I. Photo: Frankie Quinn. Shared with permission of Belfast Archive Project.

Projects

How collaboration helped Belfast Archive Project reach new audiences

Through working with national partners, a team of dedicated volunteers has unearthed remarkable photographic treasures documenting the history of Northern Ireland.

A telephone cable cabinet decorated in blue and yellow, with the slogan 'We All Love Leeds'.
The most ordinary street furniture can be an opportunity to celebrate your city's sporting triumphs. Credit: Reece Leung / Leeds Museums and Galleries

Projects

How oral histories can capture sporting heritage and bring communities together

Talking to the people of Leeds about their shared love of everything from football to table tennis has made a vital contribution to the city’s collections.

Children in a museum
Children enjoying an exhibition at Seven Stories, Newcastle upon Tyne

Hub

Dynamic Collections

Our campaign supported collecting organisations across the UK to become more inclusive and resilient with a focus on engagement, re-interpretation and collections management.
A group of young people standing on deck of a tall ship in dock.
Blyth Tall Ship has created inspiring volunteer opportunities in the north east. Photo: Colin McLean Photography.

Stories

Grantee Q&A: the importance of collaborating, learning and adapting

We asked grantees from the Highlands to the Midlands to share their reflections and advice on the different stages of their journey with us – from application, through delivery, to evaluation.
Visitors walk along the pathway to see the Mary Rose ship.
The Mary Rose was built in 1510-11 at the start of Henry VIII’s reign and was one of his favourite ships until it sank in 1545. Credit: Hufton and Crow.

Stories

How our grant ‘turbocharged’ the Mary Rose Museum’s resilience

A heritage project focused on organisational sustainability strengthened the museum’s future, created new opportunities and deepened relationships with its community and peers.
A remote, contemporary bird-watching tower in the middle of vast wetlands. Across a wooden causeway, two birdwatchers depart the tower.
Forsinard Flows Nature Reserve, in the Flow Country UNESCO World Heritage Site, Scotland. Photo: Euan Myles / RSPB.

News

80 years of UNESCO: how our funding protects globally important heritage sites

Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, we’ve invested more than £1billion in heritage projects of all shapes and sizes throughout the UK’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Biospheres and Geoparks.
A person installing a exhibit at Poole Museum
The museum's collection is reinstalled after the refurbishment project. Credit: BCP Council / Poole Museum.

Projects

Poole Museum reopens as a landmark cultural destination

The transformative £10million redevelopment project marks a new chapter for the museum, with inclusivity at its heart.

A volunteer crouches to attend to the mechanics of enormous overlapping cog wheels, part of a standing engine.
A volunteer technician prepares the Durn Mill Steam Engine to run. Photo: Lee McLean, PA Media Assignments.

Projects

Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum reopens Power Hall

For the first time since 2019, visitors can explore a unique heritage space that captures the sights and sounds of the technologies that drove the Industrial Revolution.

A pond with a bridge over it and footpath next to it on a sunny day
An old iron railway bridge has been repurposed as a footbridge over a pond, one of the many habitats created in this inner-city green space. Credit: Railworld Wildlife Haven.

News

Enter the Sustainable Project of the Year award 2026

We’re proud to sponsor the sustainability prize at the Museums + Heritage awards, celebrating outstanding projects and exhibitions that are addressing the climate crisis.
two shinty players one in blue and white the other in red and blue tustle over a ball
Newtonmore's Steven Macdonald (left) competing with Kingussie's Dylan Borthwick (right) during the Tulloch Homes Camanachd Cup Final, played at the Bught, Inverness. Photo: Neil G. Paterson.

Projects

A living tradition: opening the world's first Shinty museum

Shinty’s Story – Sgeul na Camanachd is a new permanent exhibition in Inverness, celebrating the heritage, community and future of Scotland’s ancient sport.

Two people are in a costume room and are looking down at a pattern on a cutting table. In the background are images of costumes, costumes on mannequins and rolls of fabric stacked on shelves
Costumes will undergo condition surveys, be catalogued and preserved and feature in a costume exhibition. Credit: Carrie Davenport / Lyric Theatre.

Projects

Lyric Theatre celebrates 75 years of culture, community and creativity

The Lyric Theatre in Belfast is embarking on a three-year heritage project to share its 75-year history and make it more accessible to audiences, researchers and the wider community.

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