The Association of Independent Museums’ (AIM) Brighter Day Grant Scheme, funded by the Arts Scholars Charitable Trust, will provide support for museums that are at risk of closing, losing important skills and knowledge, or unable to care for their collections effectively.

Grants of up to £8,000 are available to ensure the future viability of AIM member museums across the UK.

The funding can be used for educational, training, curatorial, and exhibition projects that help museums care for and sustain their historic and decorative arts collections.

This includes:

• work that will improve collections care and reduce energy use and costs
• improvements to gallery or storage areas that enable collections to be displayed or stored appropriately
• purchase of equipment for storage and display of historic and decorative art collections
• business reviews that consider how collections can be used to increase visitors and income
• digitisation of historic and decorative art collections
• upskilling and skill sharing for staff and volunteers
• creating training opportunities for people from backgrounds under-represented in museums, for example non-university or from culturally diverse backgrounds.

Priority will be given to small museums that have had difficulty finding support, including non-accredited and local authority museums.

The closing date for applications is 5pm on 8 December 2023.

For full details, visit the AIM Arts Scholars Brighter Day Grant Scheme webpage.