Museums in the East Midlands have told the Museums Association (MA) that they are coming to terms with the fact they received no major grant funding from Arts Council England – but are determined to keep a place at the table and prepare for the next funding round in 2015. The current landscape in the East Midlands and the funding opportunities in the region were among the main topics of discussion at the MA’s members’ meeting in Leicester’s New Walk Museum and Art Gallery earlier this week.

Arts Council England (ACE) has announced its funding allocations for Renaissance national programmes in 2012-13, including an increase for the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the PRISM fund. Renaissance national programmes amount to about £2.5m per year, with budgets set each financial year. In 2012-13, ACE will increase funding for the V&A Purchase Grant Fund from £600,000 to £750,000.  The PRISM fund will receive £250,000 in the next financial year, up from £150,000 in 2011-12. 

Rebecca Atkinson, Issue 112/03, p13, 01.03.2012

National Portrait Gallery, National Gallery and Tate chiefs sensitive to public sector pay freeze

Research by a Conservative MP show that the heads of some publicly funded museums have waived their bonuses in light of the public sector pay freeze.

Priti Patel, MP for Witham, Essex, asked museums funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to reveal how much they had distributed in bonuses, allowances and other payments such as overtime in the past two years.