Designated Museums Challenge Fund Awards

Cambridge University's five Designated Museums were recently delighted to receive news that they will receive grants totalling £556,965 as part of the government's Designation Challenge Fund.

Cambridge University's five Designated Museums (clockwise from top left): The Fitzwilliam Museum; The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; The Whipple Museum of the History of Science; The University Museum of Zoology; The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences.

The scheme, an initiative of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, was launched to help fund museums throughout the UK that have outstanding national and international collections - but receive no central government funding. This is the second year of the three-year programme.

Each of the country's 51 Designated Museums was invited to submit proposals for specific projects, ranging from important restoration and conservation work, to improved facilities for archiving, documenting and displaying the collections to the public.

Cambridge University's five successful bids were:

1. The Fitzwilliam Museum - which has outstanding collections of antiquities, applied arts, coins, manuscripts and paintings - for an ongoing computer documentation project. An educational database is being developed that will provide public access to the museum's collections over the Internet.

2. The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology - which houses renowned archaeological and anthropological collections from around the world for public display, research and teaching - to fund important archiving, documentation and display work.

3. The Whipple Museum of the History of Science - home to a range of historical scientific equipment, some of the pieces now deemed works of art - to refurbish the teaching and study galleries and to develop new interpretative displays.

4. The University Museum of Zoology - which houses several scientifically important research reference collections - for documentation work and the development of visitor facilities.

5. The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences - which serves as a repository of fossils, minerals, soft sediments and rocks, including building and decorative stones - for a major new public display project.

Dr Yvonne Garrod, Secretary of Cambridge University's Joint Museums Committee, commented:

Further information:
Dr Yvonne Garrod, Secretary of the Joint Museums Committee. Tel: 01223 332306; E-mail: ybg1000@cam.ac.uk
The Fitzwilliam Museum
The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
The Whipple Museum of the History of Science
The University Museum of Zoology
The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences