Art Fund awards £1m to boost inclusion in curatorial staff

Art Fund has awarded £1m in grants for museums and galleries to improve inclusion in the workforce.

The funding comprises £800,000, split between 21 museums and galleries, in the latest round of its Reimagine Grants programme.

The charity says it was particularly interested in applications that responded to the findings and recommendations of its 2022 report on diversity in the curatorial workplace and that are aiming to make their organisations more inclusive.

Contemporary Visual Arts Network has been awarded the maximum £50,000 for a project in partnership with the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art that will offer a two-year professional development programme supporting artists and arts professionals from marginalised communities.

Other funded projects include volunteering opportunities and employment pathways for disabled and neurodivergent people at Buckinghamshire’s National Paralympic Heritage Centre and an action learning project developing new ways of working with underrepresented communities at Oriel Myrddin Gallery in Carmarthenshire.

A total of £7.3m has been awarded in Reimagine Grants since the first round in August 2020.

Art Fund’s £1m grant package also includes a ringfenced £200,000 to be awarded through Museum Development UK (MDUK) to support smaller museums retain and train staff.

MDUK will distribute the funds through a combination of grants and programmes, while investing £100,000 of their own through match funding.

The award giving will have an emphasis on curatorial posts and members of the workforce who work directly with collections including learning, engagement and conservation.