€200,000 fund for local museums

THE Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Jimmy Deenihan has this Wednesday announced details of the 2014 Local and Regional Museums Scheme.

The scheme, administered by his department, is designed to support small and medium sized museums across the country. This year, the scheme will allow for the funding of small capital projects on a matched funding basis (75:25) and funding of up to €200,000 is being made available for suitably qualified museum development projects in small and medium regional museums.

Projects funded under the Scheme should seek to enhance the cultural offering of museums; to encourage greater access to museums and to promote the use of museums as tourism resources in their locality or region.

Minister Deenihan commented, “Our smaller regional museums play a vital role in the life of local communities. They serve not only as tourist attractions, but also as custodians of local history, traditions and customs. They provide all of us with an insight into our past, and ensure that we have an understanding of our political, economic and social history. The assistance provided under my department’s Local & Regional Museums Scheme will ensure that local communities and tourists alike, can continue to reap the benefits of these wonderful repositories.”

Applications for funding under the 2014 Scheme are invited from local and regional museums and/or organisations and institutions that operate as not for profit institutions whose primary role is to collect, safeguard, hold in trust, research, develop and interpret collections of original objects and original objects on loan, for the public benefit.

Full details of the scheme are available on the department’s website and the closing date for receipt of all applications is 31st March 2014.