Region’s cultural centres scoop share of £60m

A clutch of museums and galleries in Liverpool and Manchester have been awarded around £15m from the Government to help welcome visitors back after pandemic-enforced closures.

The funding is part of a £60m investment by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to protect the nation’s national heritage, including important museum collections.

A total of 20 national organisations received grants, and while the department did not break down the amount awarded per region, the Science Museum Group – which includes Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum – picked up £6.17m, and the Tate – including the Tate Liverpool art gallery – received £5.04m.

Meanwhile, National Museums Liverpool was awarded £3.8m. Museums set to benefit include the International Slavery Museum; Lady Lever Art Gallery; Merseyside Maritime Museum; the Museum of Liverpool; Sudley House; Walker Art Gallery, and the World Museum.

Manchester’s Mosi is in line to receive a share of £6.1m

The £60m investment in many of the nation’s institutions builds on around £2bn invested in the arts, heritage and cultural sectors through the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund, which has supported more than 5,000 organisations throughout the pandemic.

The latest funding is intended to help projects stalled because of Covid-19, including to increase accessibility, better preserve collections, improve facilities, and conduct other maintenance and upgrading works at museums and galleries.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “We’ve given £60m to safeguard the priceless collections and heritage at many of our beloved cultural institutions so they can be enjoyed by future generations.

“This builds on our Culture Recovery Fund, ensuring that we continue to protect our heritage and culture throughout this pandemic and are able to open up our historic institutions for everyone to enjoy this summer.”

The funding was awarded via a competitive tender process.

Full list of recipients:

The British Museum – £9,800,000

Natural History Museum – £7,605,000

Science Museum Group – £6,171,000

V&A – £5,788,000

Tate – £5,042,000

Imperial War Museums – £3,850,000

National Museums Liverpool – £3,800,000

Historic Royal Palaces – £3,560,000

National Portrait Gallery – £2,968,810

The Royal Parks – £2,255,000

Royal Museums Greenwich – £1,775,000

British Library – £1,301,249

Royal Armouries – £1,138,000

British Film Institute – £1,075,000

National Coal Mining Museum (part of the Science Museum Group) – £1,000,000

Wallace Collection – £575,000

Horniman Museum – £510,000

National Gallery – £437,000

Sir John Soane Museum – £242,000

Museum of the Home – £175,000