Museums, libraries and archives

Museums, libraries and archives

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

Through preservation, exhibition and community engagement, they can bring collections, places and ideas to life. They help us to understand culture, science and history, and give us a sense of place, identity and community.

Thanks to National Lottery players, since 1994 we have awarded £2.5billion to 6,000 museum, library, archive and collection-based projects across the UK. See stories from projects we've funded below.

What do we support?

We provide grants for heritage projects from £10,000–£10million for projects led by or featuring museums, libraries and archives.

Our funding supports institutions large and small, including:

  • national, local authority and independent museums, libraries and archives
  • historic libraries
  • community archives and oral history collections
  • institutions with heritage collections

Project ideas

Our funding could help people:

  • create exciting new exhibition and learning spaces
  • attract new and more diverse audiences
  • acquire new items and develop collections
  • improve organisational resilience

For more inspiration, see the stories below, browse projects we've funded, or explore our recent Dynamic Collections campaign.

How to get funding

Our National Lottery Heritage Grants programme is open for applications.

Cardiff Remembers Mural
Cardiff Remembers Mural created at Cardiff Story Museum

Projects

Cardiff Remembers/Caerdydd yn Cofio

The Firing Line Museum, located in Cardiff Castle are running a project focusing on collections connected to the First World War held by project partners, Cardiff Story Museum, Glamorgan Archives, Western Front Association and Cardiff University.

Volunteers from the Hadleigh and Thundersley Community Archive Group examine a walking map
The Hadleigh and Thundersley Community Archive Group celebrate the printing of a walking history map

Projects

Creating a pictorial historical record of South East Essex

Volunteers explored and shared nine decades of history through Hadleigh and Thundersley Community Archive’s All Our Stories project.

Grantees at Aberystwyth's Ceredigion Museum celebrate their HLF grant
Grantees at Aberystwyth's Ceredigion Museum celebrate their HLF grant

Projects

Ceredigion Museum - New Approaches

Ceredigion Museum has reopened, following a project to transform its operations, resilience and sustainability.

A comic Creator giving a talk in front of a crowd at The Cartoon Museum
Comic Creator Jamie Smart giving a talk at The Cartoon Museum. Credit: The Cartoon Museum

Projects

Comic Creators

The Comic Creators project helped the London-based charity to diversify its audience by expanding its collections and events programme.

Young woman in a gallery

Projects

Creative Wiltshire and Swindon

A partnership of heritage organisations used a Collecting Cultures grant to collect the work of local people.

A community archaeology project display
Community archaeology project display co-created by communities working with Tenby and Narberth Museums

Projects

Saving Treasures, Telling Stories

This project, supported by our Collecting Cultures fund, brought together museums across Wales with local treasure-hunters, improving long-term relationships and collections.

People in science fiction costumes

Projects

Exploring Childhoods

This project allowed the museum to be more adventurous, deepen relationships with community partners and seek out new audiences for more contemporary collections.

Collecting the Troubles and Beyond

Projects

Collecting the Troubles and Beyond

This three-year project aimed to strategically develop the collection of material related to the Troubles in National Museums of Northern Ireland (NMNI).

Volunteers learning new skills at the Washburn Heritage centre
Volunteers learning new skills at the Washburn Heritage centre

Projects

Life and death in the Washburn Valley

The history of Fewston Churchyard will be researched to reveal the roots of the local community.

If you query is regarding our application portal, please contact our support team.