From October 2025 we are delighted to join the Paul Hamlyn Foundation portfolio as part of the Arts Fund. The grant has been awarded to support core costs over the next 36 months. Through the Arts Fund, the Foundation aims to give organisations stability, continuity, and flexibility of funding, to give time and resources to develop; reflect on whether this is working; capture learning about this experience; and decide what we do next.
The grant also enables us to connect with a cohort of like minded organisations who share a commitment to their communities. Through the work we do and together, with others in the portfolio, we hope to be able to influence more organisations to work in this way.
For the first year of the funding we will be concentrating on the task at hand of running the museum while trying things out and learning as we go. From the outset we will embed process of learning and reflection. The three areas underpinning all our work are 1) Training and Vocation 2) Research and 3) Cultural Collaborations.
The award will allow us to expand our work with 1) Young people in need of training and vocation 2) Older people experiencing immobility and ill health and 3) People who are educationally and economically disadvantaged directly related to rural isolation.
The funding from Paul Hamlyn Foundation Arts Fund will secure our ongoing ability to use heritage, art, craft and culture to work “slower and deeper”.
