Museums, libraries and archives

Museums, libraries and archives tell the stories of our cultural heritage.

Through objects, collections, film, documents and oral histories they help to give us a sense of place and identity.

Thanks to National Lottery players, since 1994 we have awarded £2.4billion to 5,900 museum, library, archive and collection-based projects across the UK. See stories from projects we've funded below.

We provide grants for heritage projects from £10,000–£10million to ensure that heritage is valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future.

What do we support?

Our funding supports institutions large and small, including:

national and local authority museums, libraries and archives
historic libraries
community archives
institutions with heritage collections

Project ideas

Our funding could help people:

create exciting new exhibition and learning spaces
attract more diverse audiences
interpret and open up acquisitions
develop collections

For more inspiration, see the stories below or browse projects we've funded.

How to get funding

Our National Lottery Heritage Grants programme is open for applications.

Find out more and apply

A person at an archaeological dig site holds up a piece of stone which has been excavated

DigVentures will engage 4,000 participants to help map archaeological sites and ecological habits in the third phase of its Heritage Innovation Fund project.

News

Heritage organisations to share innovative solutions to workforce challenges

The third phase of our Heritage Innovation Fund is supporting projects across the UK to roll out creative new ways of working.

05/12/2024

A National Lottery scratchcard held in front of a large building with classical architecture and lawn

News

Sign up your project for National Lottery Open Week 2025

It’s a great way to acknowledge your Heritage Fund grant, reach new audiences and benefit from a UK-wide PR campaign.

26/11/2024

Supporting diversity, equity and inclusion in the great outdoors. Photo: Wayfinding project.

Stories

Inclusion, access and participation: eight ways to improve your project’s reach and impact

Find out how projects we’ve funded are finding creative ways to open up heritage, involve audiences and create better opportunities to take part.

A woman in a purple jacket holding a Scotland international football cap with the name Janie Houghton embroidered on the peak

Janie Houghton with the Scotland cap she waited 50 years for.

Projects

Football For All! Celebrating 600 years of football in Scotland

24/10/2024

The three-year-long project is sharing more of the Scottish Football Museum's collection and creating new resources and displays on Scotland's football history.

26/07/2022

A group of people outside a heritage building featuring a clock tower at Hopetown Darlington.

Staff from Darlington Borough Council and Hopetown.Darlington at the new visitor attraction. Photo: Ellen Hunter.

Projects

Hopetown: celebrating the North East’s railway heritage

A state-of-the-art visitor attraction and community engagement scheme celebrates the historic Stockton and Darlington railway line.

02/12/2021

An artist's impression of a building with glass walls and a low wooden roof, with the words 'staffordshire history centre' on the side of the building

The extension will provide space for exhibitions and activities with storage space for 55 years of future collections. Image: Staffordshire County Council.

Projects

A new hub for sharing Staffordshire’s history

Thanks to £4.8million in National Lottery funding, Staffordshire History Centre will provide state of the art archive facilities for communities.

03/09/2019

Three black people take part in a workshop on black history. All three people have dark skin of various shades, the focus of the image is a woman holding a magazine with black people on the cover

A Rebel Curators workshop at M Shed in October 2024. Andreann Asibey (left), Jazz Thompson (middle) and Bandele Iyapo (right). Photo: Julz Davis.

Blogs

Rebel Curators: reclaiming narratives of slavery at Bristol’s M-Shed

Co-creation with the African-Caribbean community, made possible with £70,000 in National Lottery funding, is another step towards including their perspectives in telling Bristol’s history.

28/10/2024

A large pile of silver coins on a black background

The Chew Valley Hoard. Credit: © British Museum.

News

Major Norman Conquest coin hoard secured for the UK

The Chew Valley Hoard, which at £4.3million is the highest valued treasure find on record, has been acquired by the South West Heritage Trust thanks to National Lottery funding.

22/10/2024

A cap embroidered with a Welsh dragon and the date 1910

Billy Meredith's cap from the Scotland vs Wales match in 1910. Credit: Wrexham Museum.

Projects

A Museum of Two Halves: Wrexham celebrates football and community heritage

Wrexham’s museum is bringing football heritage back to its historic home in Wales thanks to a £2.7million award.

09/06/2022

Banners and historic photographs inside the Shipbuilders Gallery.

Inside the new shipbuilding gallery which is showcasing the area's rich heritage. Credit: The Dock Museum.

Projects

Sharing Barrow's past, present and future

27/09/2024

The Dock Museum in Barrow-in-Furness has undergone a major refurbishment to celebrate the area’s rich shipbuilding and engineering heritage.

21/06/2018

Two people of Chinese heritage play a drum in a procession, while people in the background hold placards with photos of Chinese relatives

Ancestral Futures by Eelyn Lee and collaborators, commissioned by Dig Where You Stand. Photo: Anh Do.

Stories

How artists can uncover hidden histories and fill gaps in the archives

South Yorkshire project Dig Where You Stand invited creatives to explore the often overlooked and poorly documented evidence of people from diverse ethnic communities across the area's history.