In brief | Latest news on acquisitions, moves, funding and capital projects

Art Fund opens new round of Reimagine grants

The Art Fund is seeking applications to the latest round of grants from its Reimagine programme, which offers grants of between £10,000 and £50,000 to help organisations develop or refresh their work in response to their current situation. A key aim of this year’s programme is to help organisations reimagine their support for the workforce, including colleagues, volunteers and/or professional networks.

The programme will support a broad range of activities that enable organisations to develop, diversify and sustain the sector in the face of pressing challenges. The fund’s priority areas are collections, exhibitions and learning. Its priority outcomes are: strengthening equity, diversity and inclusion within the sector; creating and improving opportunities for people to work in the sector; and increasing and enhancing partnerships. The fund closes for applications on 26 May.

Vagina Museum launches crowdfunder

London’s Vagina Museum has launched a crowdfunder to raise £30,000 to cover additional expenses while it tries to find a new space. The museum became homeless last year after being asked to vacate its premises at short notice. Since then it has incurred moving and renting costs as it searches for a suitable location. The funds raised will cover necessary renovations and fit-out costs; moving expenses; consulting experts to help the museum find the best fit; making the new space accessible; and outreach activities while closed.

The first £1,000 of donations will be doubled by contributions from the museum’s Cliterati membership scheme. The museum was established in 2017 to raise awareness and tackle stigma around gynaecological health.

Historic Environment Scotland launches £2m grants programme

A new funding stream launched by Historic Environment Scotland will make £2m available to communities across Scotland for project-based work to support the country’s historic building stock. Ranging from £1,000 to £500,000, Historic Environment Grants will be open to not-for-profit organisations such as charities, local authorities, religious bodies and community groups. The scheme replaces a number of previous funding programmes.

As well as supporting repair and consolidation works, management plans and resilience planning and training, applications can also be focused on other aspects of Scotland’s historic environment including archaeological excavations, and research, outreach and learning activities. Expressions of interest can be submitted throughout the year.

Staff changes at the SS Great Britain Trust

The SS Great Britain Trust, which runs the SS Great Britain visitor attraction in Bristol, has made a number of appointments to work towards its aim of delivering more immersive experiences, innovative interpretation and living history. With extensive experience in heritage interpretation, Iona Keen will join the trust as head of interpretation to help develop its “trademark multi-sensory visitor experiences and programming”.

Simon Strain takes on the newly created post of head of living history. Strain has worked at the trust for twelve years and the promotion will see him lead the expansion of costumed interpretation, developing the first maritime “living” museum in the UK.

Meanwhile Kate Rambridge will become the head of Albion Dockyard interpretation, a new role that will help to shape and plan the conservation and development of the trust’s ambitious project to save the dockyard located next door to the SS Great Britain. The capital project will see the Albion Dockyard reopened as a working shipyard, along with a full-scale reconstruction of Brunel’s first paddle steamer, the PS Great Western.

New director for Foundling Museum

The Foundling Museum has named Emma Ridgway as its new director, replacing Caro Howell, who will become the director-general of Imperial War Musuems. Ridgway will take up the role on 5 June 2023. Ridgway joins the museum from the contemporary art gallery Modern Art Oxford, where she was the chief curator and head of exhibitions and learning. She was previously a curator at London’s Barbican Centre, the Royal Society of Arts, Serpentine Gallery and the Khoj International Artists' Association in New Delhi.

Ridgway said: “The museum plays a unique and vital role, celebrating centuries of artistic and social activism for early years and care-experienced young people. It is an honour to be able to contribute to the dynamic future of this cherished place.”

Museum of London launches Smithfield cultural programme

The Museum of London has unveiled a cultural programme that will take place around its future home in Smithfield Market, central London. Funded by a £650,000 grant from the City of London Corporation, the three-year initiative will deliver a free programme of neighbourhood activities aimed at “activating, animating and enriching” the area. This will include school workshops, family programming, community-led projects and public events, all be held in the streets around Smithfield Market.

A new temporary community space will house creative and social activities, while a training, work experience and mentoring scheme will be offered to over 500 young people in the City and Islington. The new Museum of London is due to open in 2026, rebranded as the London Museum.

New sculpture installed at International Slavery Museum

The sculptor LR Vandy has installed a new work in collaboration with the International Slavery Museum, Liverpool. The sculpture, Dancing in Time: The Ties That Bind Us, is made by sewing sections of manila rope together by hand before binding the ends with twine. The pop-up installation is part of the International Slavery Museum’s series of activations and is located beside the dry dock in the public space of the Liverpool Waterfront.

The placement of the sculpture, on the Canning Dock quayside, is intended to echo Vandy’s recent studio relocation to the Historic Dockyard Chatham, where she works with the Ropery, which still makes rope in the traditional way. The sculpture was created with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund Heritage Horizon Awards.

National Portrait Gallery acquires key workers tapestry

The National Portrait Gallery has acquired John Barry, O Kelly, Sonny and Richard Moore (2022), a tapestry by the artist Michael Armitage depicting four refuse collectors at work during the UK’s first national lockdown in 2020. The tapestry was made after Armitage’s painting of the same name, created as part of a public commission in 2020 by the Southbank Centre to recognise the efforts of key workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. The work will be displayed in its tapestry form for the first time when the gallery reopens on 22 June, hanging in the newly created The National Lottery Heritage Fund Gallery, which is dedicated to "history makers".