Each year Cambridgeshire County Council awards small grants to Cambridgeshire’s Accredited museums. The funding is from Cambridgeshire County Council, the ACE (Arts Council England) Museum Development Programme for the East of England through SHARE Museums East. 

In 2023-24 grants were up to £750 and were allocated in one round and projects were completed by March 2024. Cambridgeshire County Council, ACE and SHARE East were keen to continue to support reopening and resilience, which were still key to recovering from the pandemic. A total of 13 awards were made, with total value of over £8,000. The projects varied from creating children’s activity booklet, volunteer away day, equipment enabling improved collection care to replacement audio guides. 

Here is a snapshot of some of the successful projects from 2023-24 

Farmland Museum – Children’s activity pack  

Summertime fun: Engaging local children with their heritage. 

Farmland Museum secured a small grant to produce an information booklet with fact-finding trail around the museum. Running every day of opening from the end of July to September, children follow clues which lead them to an artefact, exhibit, or historic building. They then read information and draw out key facts to complete the trail, and earn a small prize, all while learning about our unique Fenland history. This activity booklet was free of charge to the visitor.

The Farmland Museum have said – Cambridgeshire County Council, the MiC, the Arts Council and SHARE Museum East have supported the Farmland Museum with production of a summer booklet for children in 2023. The booklet took the form of a trail around the site, which included questions and objects to look out for. Children were encouraged to read about the different artefacts or time periods on display and collect a stamp at each one. Having a professionally produced booklet such as this hugely enhanced our visitor offer, with positive feedback from many families. Ensuring the children were able to visit every part of our museum in the pursuit of information and stamps, meant they all left with a deeper understanding of our museum. We are incredibly grateful to Cambridgeshire County Council, ACE and SHARE for the funding and support.  

Ramsey Rural – Volunteer recruitment drive 

Ramsay Rural Museum secured a grant to support them with a volunteer and trustee recruitment drive. 

Ramsey Rural Museum had a need for additional volunteers in general and some with specific skills such as research, marketing, visitor handling i.e. front of house. Since Covid their numbers had reduced significantly, or hours reduced, in favour of other commitments. 

In addition, in order to take the museum forward they needed their governance to become more robust. With support from a consultant and a successful recruitment drive, Ramsey Rural Museum were joined by additional volunteers and new trustees. 

Cromwell Museum – Volunteer away day  

The Cromwell Museum secured grant funding towards supporting their volunteers by: 

1. Rewarding the volunteers for their hard work, loyalty, and support over the Covid Pandemic and since by taking them on a summer outing to Norwich. This has not only be a reward and a team-building day but was an opportunity to see an existing Museum undergoing a major refurbishment project at the Castle Museum, to prepare the volunteers for what will be involved with the Cromwell Museums own expansion project that they are planning.

2. Supporting two of their younger volunteers to develop a TikTok channel for the Cromwell Museum. They worked over the summer to set up the channel and developed engaging content for it. The idea is that they will continue to help develop content longer term and manage this stream, engaging younger audiences with their co-curation of this channel. The funding has supported them with expenses and some equipment that was required. 

Octavia Hill – Security camera 

Octavia Hill Birthplace secured funding to replace their existing CCTV security system, which was some 8 years old with some 50% camera not working.  

As Octavia Hill had recently been experiencing antisocial behaviour in their enclosed grass area. Having an efficient and visible CCTV system acts as a deterrent to would be offenders. 

This new CCTV ensured the security and safeguarding of visitors and artifacts is key to providing a safe environment for their volunteers to work in.