Esmée Fairbairn Communities and Collections Fund

Esmée Fairbairn Communities and Collections Fund

Esmée Fairbairn Communities and Collections Fund Reopens for UK Applications

The Museums Association, which runs the Esmée Fairbairn Communities and Collections Fund, has announced the fund is now open for applications from across the UK.

Twice a year, the fund offers:

• Partnership project grants to museums and community organisations that work equitably together and share aims for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Proposals should have ambitious and compelling ideas for inclusive project work with collections, with a focus on how the work contributes to local community agendas and needs.
• Core grants to museums that have established strategic aims for DEI, and that are ready to use their collections and the funding to support social and climate justice in ways that are relevant to local contexts and relationships. The work needs to address organisational or systemic change with potential for strong legacy and future community partnership. Applicants should move away from a project output approach and focus more on the organisational or systemic change that they wish to influence through their work.

Grants of £50,000 to £110,000 are available over a period of up to three years. It is expected that around 12 grants will be awarded per year. The grant can make up any proportion of the overall budget for the work, including the full cost of a project without match or partnership funding.

Applications are open to all Museums Association institutional member museums and galleries in the UK. Applicants should initially contact a member of Communities and Collections Fund staff before submitting an EOI to ensure that the fund is a good fit and to help draw out the strengths in their application.

The 2027 deadlines for Expressions of Interest are 20 January 2027 and 14 July 2027.