Heritage Lottery Fund - Evaluation of the HLF Collecting Cultures Programme (Phase 2)

Heritage Lottery Fund have published the final reports of the Impact Evaluation of the Collecting Cultures Initiative delivered by DC Research. The Evaluation investigates how well the programme met its aims, and its overall impact, and includes case studies of all 22 projects.

The reports show whether, and how, the museums demonstrated a step change in their collections development, how strategic collecting impacted on overall collections development and the degree to which the museum’s project improved professional knowledge and skills.

The Collecting Cultures programme was established partly in response to a number of developments around collections development in the museums sector. It provided funding to enable institutions to build collections strategically through acquisitions over a period of time. The programme awarded grants to 22 projects totalling £3.14 million, supporting the aims of (i) the development and use of all types of collection; (ii) a broad geographic distribution of projects across the UK; and (iii) projects in a broad range of types and sizes of museum.

A successor programme was announced in 2014, with another 23 museums, libraries and archives benefitting from a £5million HLF investment.