The Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove, have been awarded over £2 million and prestigious Major Partner Museum status by Arts Council England. This significant award recognises 21 museums across the country that demonstrate excellence and ambition.
Over the next three years the Arts Council’s investment of over £2 million will enable the Royal Pavilion & Museums to provide a great cultural experience for more people than ever.
Highlights include exciting new exhibitions and arts programmes. There will also be extensive new volunteering and skills development opportunities; more collections online; and bold and imaginative use of the museum’s treasures to inspire learning and creativity among local community groups, children and young people.
The successful bid had to meet strict Arts Council criteria encouraging excellence; audiences; resilience; leadership and children and young people. The Royal Pavilion & Museums bid was praised for its ‘exemplary programming for diverse audiences’ and ‘outstanding proposals to achieve economic resilience’.
Janita Bagshawe, Head of the Royal Pavilion & Museums announced, “We are delighted with the news that the Royal Pavilion & Museums have demonstrated the levels of excellence and ambition needed to qualify for this award. We will now be able to build the resilience of the Royal Pavilion & Museums for future generations to enjoy, and enable many more members of our communities to get involved in the innovative and inspiring projects that are planned for the future”.
Councillor Christopher Hawtree said: ‘I am delighted that this award recognises all that the Royal Pavilion & Museums do in providing excellent cultural events and activities. They are places of endless discovery. This funding will help us to go from strength to strength in offering a museum service that exceeds the expectations of visitors from all walks of life, and in creating opportunities for skills development, learning and creativity for many local residents. The Royal Pavilion has been a symbol, and more, of Brighton - and even Hove - for a long time, and I am glad that it is both perennial and a continuing reflection of changing times.’
Professor Julian Crampton, Chair of the Royal Pavilion & Museums Foundation said:
“It is a great achievement for the Royal Pavilion & Museums to secure this funding. The Arts Council award makes a vital contribution to our shared ambition to build a secure future for the Royal Pavilion & Museums, to which the Foundation and its Trustees are fully committed. Arts Council support will help increase our fundraising efforts, encouraging more people to become supporters of these wonderful buildings, the collections and all they have to offer”.
Hedley Swain, Area Director, South East, Arts Council England, said: ‘We are pleased to continue to support Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton & Hove. It proposes to build on its extensive programme of collections stewardship and to work in partnership with Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival, to deliver an integrated arts and heritage presentation of its collections. The Museum will continue to develop audiences, particularly children and young people, with a strong emphasis on use of digital platforms to increase access and engagement. Its work is underpinned by a strong commitment to skills and talent development throughout the organisation, combined with fundraising, to ensure long-term sustainability and resilience.’
Notes for Editors
These awards are one strand of Arts Council England’s total investment in arts and culture during 2015/18, which also includes the National Lottery funded Grants for the arts scheme and strategic funds used to support targeted programmes of work that deliver the ambitions set out in Great art and culture for everyone, Arts Council England’s 10-year strategic framework for the arts and culture.
The Royal Pavilion & Museums
The Royal Pavilion & Museums is amongst Britain’s leading museums services set in the Cultural Quarter at the heart of Brighton & Hove.
The Royal Pavilion & Museums encompasses Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, Hove Museum & Art Gallery, The Booth Museum of Natural History and a number of stunning historic properties including the world famous Royal Pavilion and Brighton’s ‘upstairs-downstairs’ Edwardian home, Preston Manor.
Collections include: Decorative Art, Fashion, Fine Art, Local History, Film, Toys, Craft, Natural History and Community History and a forthcoming state-of-the-art World Stories gallery.
To support the ongoing work of the Royal Pavilion & Museums join the The Royal Pavilion & Museums Foundation
Find out more about our work at www.brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk