The Museums Association (MA) has awarded grants to ten candidates in the second round of Effective Collections funding.
Yorkshire Museum and Northumberland's Berwick Museum and Art Gallery are among nine applicants in line for main fund grants of up to £10,000. Supported by the Esmée Fairbairne Foundation, the grants will enable successful candidates to develop and utilise their stored collections.
Yorkshire Museum is to receive funding for a scheme offering local employees greater insight into the objects they work with. The Pocket Money project will offer people such as charity collectors a chance to learn more about the museum's coin collection.
Berwick Museum and Art Gallery has proposed a review of its entire collection. According to curator Anne Moore, the grant will enable the museum to "do a certain amount of disentangling" on a collection that has been building up for over 25 years.
The museum's collection includes 19th century French paintings donated by William Burrell and an extensive store of social history objects, some of which Moore hopes to dispose of.
A further special project grant of £25,000 has been awarded to Oxfordshire Museums Service for The History Cube, a scheme offering local community groups access, training and support so that they can curate collections relevant to their interests.
Other successful applicants include Orleans House Gallery, which is to undertake a review of its art collection, and a project by Renaissance North West coordinating the natural science resources of five museums in the region.
In a further development designed to help small museums acquire pre-19th century artworks, the MA is encouraging such sites to apply to the Beecroft Bequest for funding.
Mark Taylor, the Museums Association's director, said: "There are fewer and fewer funds available for purchase. The Beecroft is deliberately aimed at small museums, it is a small fund for small museums."
He quoted the example of Tredegar House in Wales, which made a successful application last year for an 18th century cabinet. This was originally part of the Tredegar House collection, but was sold - along with most of the contents of the house - by the Morgan family in 1957.
Tredegar House was awarded £5,000 by the Beecroft Bequest towards the auction price of £69,000. Other funding came from the Art Fund (£34,140), the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund (£24,360), and the Friends of Tredegar House (£6,100).
To be eligible for the Beecroft Bequest, museums must be institutional members of the MA, based in the UK, and accredited or registered under the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council scheme or have applied for accreditation.
Pic: Yorkshire Museum in line for a main fund grant
