The British Motor Museum has been awarded Full Accreditation by Arts Council England following its major refurbishment and re-branding two years ago.
The Arts Council England scheme has 1700 participants, and provides a national benchmark for museums. The accreditation process measures the way a museum looks after its collections, its organisational health and all of its public provisions from exhibitions to visitor services.
The British Motor Museum first became an accredited museum 28 years ago when it opened in London. Following a later move to Gaydon, plus the 2016 refurbishment and a change of name to include the word ‘British’ in its title, the museum is now seen as a ‘nationally styled’ organisation. This means it has to meet even higher standards to achieve Full Accreditation status, which include holding substantial collections of national importance and international interest and even better standards for the care of its collections, exhibitions, public access and learning programmes.
Recent projects like the Collections Centre, the ‘Automobilia’ open object store and digitising the Lucas Collection, plus the comprehensive facilities for researching and exploring its archive, all help the museum to fulfil this remit.
The museum will receive £880,000 from Arts Council England over four years to support activities and development work, including funding for family and schools learning programmes, support for the Transport Fund run for community groups and schools and improvements to disabled access. The investment will also support a new exhibition exploring the latest in automotive technology next year, and a further exhibition in 2021.
Stephen Laing, Curator at the British Motor Museum said: “We are delighted to be awarded Full Accreditation status from Arts Council England which is recognition of the fantastic work undertaken by the team and the quality of our collections and services.We are now seen as a leading authority in our field and can assist others with our specialist knowledge and engage fully with the public”.
The British Motor Museum’s Curatorial Assistant Catherine Griffin with Stephen Laing, Curator.
