Purpose

The Museum Transformation Programme is a one-off funding pot from DCMS being distributed by Arts Council England. It is specifically for local authority led / associated museums designed to build on the funding need identified during the 2025-26 Museum Renewal Fund programme by enabling museums to address the longer-term challenges they face - supporting them to undertake the fundamental shift in their operational models that is required to increase their long-term financial resilience and operational sustainability, keep sites open and collections accessible to all, and continue to deliver for their audiences and communities.
We propose applying for up to £450,000 to support digital transformation across the city’s museums. The funding would enable the development of revenue streams utilising museum collections, the implementation of a unified CRM across museum departments, collections management software to increase free public access to collections online,
and the creation of temporary posts to support project delivery and implementation.
The maximum award available is up to £1m, however, the overall funding pot is £16m and the fund is open to all civic museums. It would be unlikely that we would be awarded the maximum value and have put together a programme of works that is achievable and sustainable, benefiting the grant criteria and ultimately the long term financial resilience of BCC’s Museum Service.

Decision

Approval to apply for, accept, and spend Museum Transformation Programme funding from DCMS via Arts Council England.

Alternative options considered

The only other option in this case is not to apply for the funding. This is a key opportunity to increase the museums long-term financial resilience and operational sustainability and therefore was not taken forward as the preferred option.