Over £6m in new funding granted to Yorkshire museums and libraries - here's where

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport has announced that £48m is to be distributed to 63 organisations across England, nine of which are in Yorkshire and Humber.

It is being allocated through three streams: £24m through the Cultural Development Fund, £18.8m through the Museums Estate and Development Fund, and £5m through the Libraries Improvement Fund.

The biggest grant locally is for Barnsley Museums, which will receive £3.9m for the Elsecar Forging Ahead project.

The money has been granted following proposals to make Elsecar a hub for cultural connectivity across Barnsley and the fund will create workspaces, galleries and events spaces, as well as connecting Elsecar with local creative hubs across the region.

Leeds Industrial Museum is to receive £653,000, with the Museum of North Craven Life getting £270,000.

Almost £150,000 will support Barnsley Council to redevelop Dodworth Library to allow more flexible use of the space and improve access for users.

Kathryn Green, head of libraries at Barnsley Council, said: “Libraries sit at the heart of our communities, providing spaces for reading, development of digital skills, a peaceful oasis and a cultural space for many.

“We are therefore pleased that Dodworth Library on Dodworth High Street and its many visitors will benefit from the Libraries Improvement Fund to get a much-needed facelift to make it a more welcoming environment.”

Sheffield will also receive £340,000 to pay for library upgrade work, with Leeds receiving £267,000 and Bradford and Scarborough £200,000 each.

Scarborough Museums Trust has been awarded over £250,000 to repair the roof of the Grade-II listed Rotunda Museum.

Other recipients of the new funding across the country include Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes, which was once the secret home of Second World War codebreakers.

Arts Minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay said: “This funding was one of the commitments we made in our manifesto but the pandemic has put extra pressure on cultural organisations across the country.

“We obviously stood by them with the Cultural Recovery Fund which was worth nearly £2bn. But as we are emerging from the pandemic it is really important we get back to looking at the long-term future.

“This funding is about making sure we are preserving the museums, the galleries, the other institutions that are such important parts of their community to make sure they can be enjoyed by more people in the immediate term but also so they are safe for generations to come. It has been really exciting to see how people are planning to spend the money.”

Lord Parkinson said the Government has been keen to ensure that there was a wide array of successful bids across all areas of the country.

“We’ve made sure there is a really good spread of places across Yorkshire and right across England because we want to make sure that the funding that is coming from taxpayers everywhere is being enjoyed by people wherever they live. That’s a really important part of our levelling up work. We want everybody to have the life-changing opportunity of engaging with culture and arts on their doorstep.”

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