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What’s changing?

Two old school trams drive through a quaint street.

What’s changing?

We want museums across the country to be thriving, and valued for their contribution to local places and communities.

The 2024-26 programme will continue to support museums, and the people who work for, and volunteer in them.

What's changing

What will the programme look like?

From April 2024, the new programme will have five delivery partners across England, aligning with the Arts Council’s Area structure. This will ensure the delivery of Let’s Create, which focuses on the cultural potential of local communities.

The new Area programmes will be known as:

  • Museum Development London
  • Museum Development Midlands
  • Museum Development North
  • Museum Development South East
  • Museum Development South West

Bringing the partners together to share insights and learning will be a national programme, known as Museum Development England.

To support the delivery of the Museum Development programme, we will create new central job roles in the Arts Council around coordination and communication, data insights, national training and programme development.

Two young boys stand with their back to us, looking at a wall full of abstract paintings.
Photo by Victoria Smith
1
Exhibition at Bolton Museum

Report

How the changes were informed

To inform the reframed programme, we commissioned D C Research to evaluate the current Museum Development programme (2015-2022) so that we could understand the difference that our investment of just over £22 million has made to museums across the country.

Emmie's blog

A man stands with his hands behind his back, looking firmly at a painting on a wall.

Our renewed commitment to the Museum Development programme

Emmie Kell, Director, Museums & Cultural Property, has reflected on the journey museums have been on in recent years and how best we can continue to support their successful development.