Arts Council cash helps Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens tell the city's story

Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens has secured £102,000 grant funding from The Arts Council to help tell the stories behind its collections and make them more accessible to the public.

The funding from the Arts Council Museum Renewal Fund is designed to support local authority museums to support community engagement and public access.

Councillor Beth Jones, Cabinet Member for Communities, Culture and Tourism at Sunderland City Council, said "We're delighted to have secured this funding from the Arts Council to help open up and tell the stories behind some of the wonderful items in our collections. 

"It's especially good news, coming so soon after we secured £5.2m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for the Museum and Winter Gardens redevelopment.

"We're planning to use the funding to offer public store tours and handling sessions, which I think will be enormously popular, as well as telling the collections' stories through the Sunderland Heritage Partnership."

The funding will also be used to help catalogue the museum's collections and improving its stores with the help of community volunteers.

News of this latest funding comes as a £600,000 12-month programme of urgent repairs to the roof and stonework of the Grade II listed building has just reached completion.  These were made possible with the help of a £349,000 grant from the Arts Council England Cultural Investment Fund - MEND - Museum Estates and Investment Fund.

The museum also secured a £488,000 grant from the same Arts Council MEND fund in February to address issues with corrosion, glazing failure and mechanical systems in the much-loved Winter Gardens which houses more than 2,000 species of plants below its glazed dome, as well as a treetop walkway, pond with Koi Carp and an impressive water sculpture.

Nick Malyan, Chief Executive of Sunderland Culture, the charity which delivers the creative programme in the museum said "Sunderland Museum's Collection is vitally important to interpreting the rich history of our city, so securing this funding from Arts Council England and so soon after the major National Lottery Heritage Fund investment announcement is wonderful.  We look forward to working with the museum team on this project over the coming months"

This £102,000 grant funding announced today will help the museum to continue to care for and conserve the city's collection as we move forward with our plans in preparation for redevelopment.