Grants to Support Curatorial and Subject Specialist Networks

Subject Specialist Networks (SSNs) and other curatorial networks can apply for grants of up to £15,000 to help share expertise across the museum sector.

The Art Fund’s Curatorial Network Grants provide funding to support Subject Specialist Networks (SSNs) and other curatorial networks in sharing expertise across the museum sector, for the benefit of collections and audiences.

The grants are designed to be ‘light-touch’ and responsive to need.

The Art Fund wants to help networks:

capitalise on opportunities to develop and expand their activities
develop and share knowledge and skills relating to subject-specialisms, professional skills and public engagement
collaborate with each other and with museum audiences
innovate, test new ideas and share their findings
create tangible public outcomes.

‘Curatorial networks’ are defined as professional communities which share interests in curatorial specialisms, collections and/or exhibition based practices. Networks can be established or emerging, but must have a mission statement and/or clear long term objectives.

Networks must be not-for-profit and be formally constituted, or identify a formally constituted organisation that is willing to act as the recipient of funds.

There are two categories of grant:

Small grants for requests of up to £5,000.
Large grants for requests of between £5,000 and £15,000.

There are no fixed deadlines for small grant applications and therefore can be submitted at any time.

Applications for large grants are considered twice a year. The current deadline for applications is 11 October 2019.

Full details…