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

The boat dock at the Black Country Living Museum

News

Black Country Living Museum to build historic new town

Thanks to £9.4million from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Black Country Living Museum will undergo a huge transformation to share stories of life in the 1940-60s.

29/05/2019

News

Seven days to celebrate #MuseumWeek 2019

We're getting involved with Museum Week's seven themes over seven days using seven hashtags. To celebrate, we're sharing one fantastic National Lottery Heritage Fund-supported museum every day.

13/05/2019

Stories

Changing lives: St Fagan's course helps Tom beat anxiety

Tilly the dog helps Tom Jenkin tackle his anxiety. But it was a National Lottery-funded lambing course which gave him the confidence to aim for a career as a vet.

News

Museum of the Year 2019 finalists announced

The finalists battling it out to be named Art Fund's Museum of the Year have been revealed. Four of the five shortlisted Museums are National Lottery-funded.

26/04/2019

The new Linlithgow Museum opens its doors this weekend

News

Life by the loch: discover Linlithgow’s links to Scottish royalty

The new Linlithgow Museum opens to the public on 19 April 2019.

17/04/2019

Stories

Changing lives: volunteering helps Ben turn away from trouble

The youth club at the Galley Centre offered the young people of Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, a reason to keep off the streets and out of trouble. But when bored teenagers, including some of 17-year-old Ben's friends, vandalised the centre, the youth club was closed down. It left them with nothing to do

News

Celebrities and surprises spotted in Painted Hall, Greenwich

The Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich reopens on 23 March, thanks to £3.1million from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

21/03/2019

News

National Football Museum acquires prize-winning Toynbee artwork thanks to National Lottery grant

The National Football Museum has acquired an exciting new painting to add to its collection of 20th century art, thanks to National Lottery players.

14/03/2019

Black and white photograph of man sitting down

News

Leeds Eulogy project to celebrate Jamaican lives

An “uplifting” tribute is to be made to the many first-generation Jamaicans who travelled 5,000 miles to make a new life in the city of Leeds.

01/03/2019

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Secrets of Essex's Sculpture Town revealed in new archive

This week sees the launch of Art UK’s Sculpture Project: a free-to-access online treasure trove of all of the UK’s publicly owned sculptures.

22/02/2019

Assistant conservator Lydia Messerschmidt views the mummy mask and wreath of Montsuef at the National Museum of Scotland Neil Hanna/NMS

News

Scotland’s National Museum unveils final phase of dramatic transformation

Three new galleries at the National Museum of Scotland opened to the public this week. It marks the completion of a 15-year, £80million redevelopment, creating one of the world’s finest museums.

08/02/2019