AIM Hallmarks Awards were launched to help AIM member museums and heritage use the principles in the AIM Hallmarks based on the understanding that successful museums share certain characteristics: a culture of resourcefulness, passion and willingness to try new things.
Work funded by an AIM Hallmarks Awards needs to be central to a museum’s organisational development and closely linked to the museum’s strategic plan. AIM says where possible projects should innovate and develop fresh ways of working, which are either new to the museum sector, or new to museums of a particular kind or size.
Previous award winners include Seven Stories and the Mary Rose Trust both awarded funding for in house programmes of leadership development for staff (£8,720 for Mary Rose Trust and £11,660 for Seven Stories), Cardiff Story Museum was awarded £8,000 for a marketing review, to enable it to improve its financial resilience and Royal West of England Academy, as awarded £9,000 for a project to develop packages of executive development training, using the museum’s collections, as a means of income generation.
“We’re really open to a wide range of proposals – either for doing some serious thinking about the future of your museum, or testing out an idea you already have,” said Helen Wilkinson, AIM Assistant Director. “We’re looking for fresh thinking and energy above all else – could you use a Hallmark Award to lay the foundations for a new way of working?”
How to Apply
AIM Hallmarks Awards in England
Guidance notes to support your application are available here AIM Hallmarks Awards. The deadline for applications to the third round of the AIM Hallmarks Awards is May 15 2017.
For further enquiries email Helen Wilkinson: [email protected].
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The Lightbox Museum and Art Gallery in Woking used their grant to work more effectively with millennials. Photograph courtesy of The Lightbox
