Wisbech and Fenland Museum given £16k grant to help them through coronavirus crisis

Arts Council England has awarded Wisbech and Fenland Museum a crisis grant of more than £16,000 through its Covid-19 Emergency Response Fund.

The one-off funding pot is designed to offer financial support to museums and other cultural organisations significantly affected by lockdown.

The funding, to be spent over six months, will enable the museum to deliver much of its planned summer programme in new ways online and continue its work with community partners including Wisbech Reads while its doors remain closed.

The museum team have been working throughout lockdown both maintaining the building and its collection and developing online activities to keep the public and especially schoolchildren who are stuck at home informed, engaged and entertained through the summer.

Upcoming summer activities will include a free digital arts award offer exploring the Peckover collection of Ancient Egyptian artefacts with artists funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and a programme of free online events for children and young people throughout the summer holidays.

Curator Robert Bell said: “This funding is helping us to keep the museum going during lockdown. We thank Arts Council England for their timely support. The digital infrastructure it has enabled us to invest in will support the roll-out of online activities and new content to keep us connected to our community.”

Earlier, we revealed how Arts Council England had given £995k emergency funding to more than 111 individuals and organisations across Cambridgeshire