Bristol Museums Galleries and Archives have been announced as a Major partner for Arts Council England.  This means that they are one of 16 museums nationally who will receive funding as part of the Arts Council’s Renaissance programme for regional museums.

Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery are also amongst the 16 who will together receive approximately £20 million a year in funding for the next three years (April 2012 – March 2015)

Background:

The Arts Council formally takes over full responsibility for Museums & Art Galleries from MLA (Museums, Libraries and Archives Council) on 1 April 2012, and in September 2011 they invited applications for the next Renaissance programme.

For the first time this was an open application process, but only Accredited museums with Designated Collections (Bristol has three) were eligible to apply. The closing date for applications was 2 November 2011 – 29 were received and 16 were successful. The exact amounts of each major partner’s award will be finalised as part of the negotiations of their funding agreements and published in April.

Update: The amounts awarded have now been announced: Bristol City Council (the Museum Service) has been awarded £5,045,000 over the three year period ie £1.682,000 per year. This was the fourth highest amount after Manchester Museums & Whitworth Art Gallery (£5,055,000), Birmingham Museums Trust (£5,091,000) and Leeds Musuems and Galleries (£5,055,000).   RAMM and Plymouth City Museum were awarded £3,463,595 each.

For more details, including the full list of the successful partners, see the Arts Council website at www.artscouncil.org.uk

(Updated 8 April 2012)