The Keep Military Museum in Dorchester awarded grant by The National Lottery
Heritage Fund to build resilience and engage with audiences during museum
closure
The Keep Military Museum in Dorchester has received a £107,150 grant from The
National Lottery Heritage Fund for its Resilience Project it was announced today. Made
possible thanks to National Lottery players, the project aims to take the museum to new
and existing audiences whilst temporarily closed for building works, continuing to share
the collection, stories and heritage. The project has also been funded by £10,000 from
The Keep Friends and £20,000 match funding from a VE/VJ Day grant awarded by the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
The project aims to safely secure the collection during future building works and provide
continued access to heritage, via collaboration with venues throughout Devon and
Dorset, touring exhibitions, a pop-up museum and a variety of outreach activities over
the next 18 months. This has become necessary after the Keep building has been
temporarily closed due to structural concerns from the charity’s landlord.
The Keep Military Museum holds the military collections for the counties of Devon and
Dorset, including the regimental collections of The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment
and Queen’s Own Dorset Yeomanry. Without this funding from the Heritage Fund it
would remain inaccessible and at risk.
Volunteers, local groups and schools will be able to take part in the project through
events, collections care and training opportunities, allowing even more people to enjoy
and play a part in Devon and Dorsets military heritage.
In the long-term, the project will build the skills of the Keep Military Museum’s
volunteers, strengthen the network of groups and organisations working together and
protect the collection for future generations.
The Keep Military Museum will be running events throughout the project, visit the
website to find one near you.
Elliot Metcalfe from The Keep Military Museum said: “We are thrilled to have received
this support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery
players we can now start our vital resilience work and community outreach to ensure
the collections are protected and available for generations to come.”
About The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Our vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in
the future. That’s why as the largest funder for the UK’s heritage we are dedicated to
supporting projects that connect people and communities to heritage, as set out in our
strategic plan, Heritage 2033. Heritage can be anything from the past that people value
and want to pass on to future generations. We believe in the power of heritage to ignite
the imagination, offer joy and inspiration, and to build pride in place and connection to
the past.
Over the next 10 years, we aim to invest £3.6billion raised for good causes by National
Lottery players to make a decisive difference for people, places and communities.
heritagefund.org.uk
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