Museums, libraries and archives
Black Cultural Archives. Credit: Kois Miah
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.
News
Investing £5million in UK’s natural heritage
These projects will bring together a variety of partners to protect and nurture some of our most precious and vulnerable habitats and species and are part of a wider package of £16m of HLF support, also announced today. Carole Souter, Chief Executive of HLF, said: “The Heritage Lottery Fund is one
News
Sheffield craft that built the world
Ken Hawley Collection Trust gains Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) support to improve knowledge of Sheffield’s unique tool making and cutlery industry.
News
Morley and the Home Front
Awarded through HLF’s First World War: then and now programme, the project will focus on the home front and how the onset of the Great War had significant impact on local life. Rachael Kennedy, Town Events Manager is leading on this project and explained: “This series of events will enable the local
News
Hendrix and Handel: Baroque and roll
Hendrix lived in the top floor flat of 23 Brook Street from 1968 to 1969, and described it as “the only home I ever had”. Ironically, the adjoining No. 25, was occupied by the great baroque composer George Frideric Handel two centuries before. This historic connection between rock and the baroque
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First World War: Stories of the Empire to be revealed
As the Centenary approaches, people of all ages throughout the United Kingdom will be reflecting on the events of the conflict, the experiences of men and women here and overseas, and how the war has shaped the last 100 years. The event is hosted by the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of an
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Lottery boost for Belfast heritage projects
The plans to help young people from North Belfast to learn more about the history and legacy of the First World War received a grant of £10,000. Using artefacts, photos and diaries held by museums and other historical institutions they will explore the local and international contexts within which
News
First World War Home Front volunteers archive to be launched
Among famous names included in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) indexes are author Agatha Christie, novelist and poet Naomi Mitchison and writer and feminist Vera Brittain. This treasure trove, some 244,000 VAD paper index cards held by the British Red Cross, will now be digitised to create a free
Artists impression of the planned redevelopment of Surgeon's Hall in Edinburgh
News
Surgeons’ Hall Museum to be transformed with help of £2.7million Heritage Lottery Fund grant
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd), the UK’s oldest surgical Royal College, today announced that it had been awarded the grant to extend and redevelop its Surgeons’ Hall Museum. Originally developed as a teaching museum for students of medicine, it has been open to the general public