We are delighted to report that The Cartoon
Museum has been awarded a grant of £98,700 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund,
to support the museum in combatting the severe financial threat resulting from the
museum’s closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Cartoon Museum closed on 18 March 2020. As an
independent museum with no regular government funding, 75% of our yearly income
is through the door – admissions, shop purchases, schools and venue bookings. As
a result, the Museum closure has resulted in the loss of nearly 50% of the
museum’s yearly income.
With the support of the National Lottery Heritage
Fund, the museum can now begin to recover from the closure period, and plan to
reopen. This includes ensuring the safety of our staff and visitors through
social distancing and PPE measures, securing our collection, and working on new
digital and socially-distanced activities and exhibitions.
The funding, made possible by National Lottery
players, was awarded through The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Heritage
Emergency Fund. £50million has been made available to provide emergency funding
for those most in need across the heritage sector.
The UK-wide fund will address both immediate
emergency actions and help organisations to start thinking about recovery.
Director Joe Sullivan said:
“We are
incredibly grateful that the National Lottery Heritage Fund is supporting us through
such a difficult time. Their support will safeguard the immediate future of the
museum site and our staff’s jobs, and go a long way to securing our long-term sustainability.
We want to say a huge thank you to all Lottery players for their support.
We are very lucky
that the National Lottery Heritage Fund also supported our Comic Creators
project from 2015 – 2019, enabling us to collect over 400 pieces of key British
comic art. It is humbling to receive additional funding now, and it is a real
vote of confidence for the museum and our unique, nationally-important
collection of British cartoons, comics and caricatures. We look forward to
welcoming back our visitors as soon as is possible.”
Chair of Trustees Oliver Preston said:
“We are hugely
grateful for the £98,700 donation from the NLHF. After what has been a very worrying 3 months,
the museum can now see light at the end of the tunnel. We reopened our doors in
2019 after an £1.1million refurbishment, and this museum of laughter has an
exciting new programme of exhibitions and events and is looking forward to
welcoming new audiences and old friends with a sense of hope and optimism.”
Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of The National
Lottery Heritage Fund, said:
“Heritage has an
essential role to play in making communities better places to live, supporting economic
regeneration and benefiting our personal wellbeing. All of these things are
going to be even more important as we emerge from this current crisis.
Thanks to money
raised by National Lottery players we are pleased to be able to lend our
support to organisations such as The Cartoon Museum during this uncertain
time.”
The National Lottery Heritage Fund is currently
open to applications for its Heritage Emergency Fund. To find out more visit:
https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/responding-coronavirus-covid-19
To find out more about the National Lottery Good
Causes visit: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/coronavirus-pandemic-response
About The Cartoon Museum
The Cartoon Museum champions cartoon and comic
art, highlighting its importance to culture and society. Since 2006 it has
received 420k visitors, and built a nationally important collection of 4,300
cartoons, comics and caricatures, and a library of 18k items. The Cartoon
Museum runs a well-attended school programme and sell-out school holiday
workshops, and over 50k children and adults have attended cartooning, comics
and animation workshops at the museum.
About The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Using money raised by the National Lottery, we
inspire, lead and resource the UK’s heritage to create positive change for
people and communities, now and in the future. www.heritagefund.org.uk
#NationalLotteryHeritageFund
The Heritage Emergency Fund remains open for
applications for grants ranging from £3,000 to £250,000 until 31 July 2020.
Extra advice and support and longer-term skills and capacity building initiatives
has also been made available for the heritage sector. Read more about The
National Lottery Heritage Fund’s response to the Covid-19 emergency.
About the National Lottery
Since The National Lottery’s first draw took
place on 19 November 1994, more than £40 billion has been raised for good
causes in the areas of arts, sport, heritage and community.
National Lottery players contribute around £30
million to good causes every week.
The National Lottery has made more than 5,500
millionaires but its primary purpose is giving to good causes - over 565,000
individual grants have been awarded across the UK, that’s the equivalent of 200
life-changing projects in every UK postcode district.
