ICOM UK, with support from the now defunct Heritage Without Borders (HWB), is offering a number of travel grants to support staff from regional and local UK museums (non-national museums) to travel to Europe and greater Europe to develop mutually beneficial projects and partnerships.

The ICOM UK – HWB Travel Grant Scheme will enable recipients to undertake an international visit to museums to meet with international colleagues and mutually share skills, expertise and experience.  The Travel Grant Scheme aims to support museums who are starting to develop mutually beneficial international projects and partnerships in Europe and greater Europe and priority is given to museums whose staff have not previously undertaken international work.

These include Ana Teresa Flynn, Painting Conservation Officer at Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums (TWAM), who will be making a trip to the Museo Del Prado to consult staff and records on Tintoretto’s painting Christ washing the disciple’s feet. Both the Prado and Shipley Art Gallery, part of TWAM, have versions of the painting in their collections and Flynn will compare technical research data collected by each institution, forge partnerships and also raise the profile of Shipley Art Gallery’s collection.

Jacopo Tintoretto's painting Christ washing the disciple’s feet. Originally painted for the church of San Marcuolo in Venice, then given to St Nicholas’ Cathedral in Newcastle and purchased by Tyne & Wear Museums in 1986. Photograph courtesy of Shipley Art Gallery

The total budget available for the Travel Grant Scheme in 2017-18 is £7,200 with grants of up to £700 per organisation or consortium considered.

The Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid. Photograph courtesy of Museo Del Prado

Each grant recipient will be required to write a report about the visit that will be published as case studies in the Resources section of the ICOM UK website.

ICOM UK – BC Global Travel Grant Scheme:

ICOM UK, with support from the British Council, is also offering a number of travel grants to support staff from regional and local UK museums (non-national museums) to undertake international visits beyond the EU and greater Europe.

The ICOM UK – BC Global Travel Grant Scheme will enable recipients to undertake an international visit to museums to meet with international colleagues and mutually share skills, expertise and experience.  The Global Travel Grant Scheme aims to support museums who are starting to develop mutually beneficial international projects and partnerships.  Just like the ICOM UK – HWB Travel Grant Scheme, priority will be given to museums whose staff have not previously undertaken international work.

The total budget available for the Global Travel Grant Scheme in 2017-18 is £7,200.  Applications will be considered for grants of up to £1,500 per organisation or consortium.

The deadline for the first round of applications is October 13, 2017 for travel taking place by June 30, 2018.

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The Six Recipients

Pontypridd Museum – £661

Pontypridd Museum Assistant, Alex Thomas, will visit Nederlands Mijnmuseum in Limburg, Netherlands to explore comparisons between two historically similar mining regions, Limburg and South Wales, and how each museum presents and preserves this vital history for future generations.

Whitworth Art Gallery – £700

Holly Grange, curator of the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection at the Whitworth Art Gallery, will travel to France, Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria to visit collections of Outsider Art and organisations that work with marginalised artists in order to grow a network of specialist organisations working in this field.  In addition to growing a network, the aim of the visit is to forge partnerships that will lead to a large-scale touring exhibition in 2019.  The ICOM UK – HWB Travel Grant will be match funded by the University of Manchester.

Freud Museum – £489

Dawn Ades, curator of the Freud Museum’s 2018 exhibition Freud & Dali will travel to Figueres in Spain to visit the Teatro-Museo Dalí.  The visit will enable Dawn to research the archive for object loans and engage staff in the exhibition planning process.  It will also enable further exploration of the synergies and potential for collaboration between the Freud Museum and the Teatro-Museo Dalí.

Horescross Arts – Threshold artspace – £700

Iliyana Nedkova, Creative Director of Contemporary Art at Horsecross Arts – Threshold artspace, will visit the Museum of Art in Tartu, Estonia with the aim of establishing an international curatorial partnership between the cities of Perth (Scotland), Tartu (Estonia) and Tartu’s twin city in Russia, Pskov.  Through the visit the partners will explore the possibility of co-commissioning a new contemporary art project to connect and tour to the three partner cities.

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) – £630

Both the Shipley Art Gallery and the Museo Nacional del Prado have in their collection a painting by Tintoretto titled Christ washing the disciple’s feet.  Ana Teresa Flynn, Painting Conservation Officer at TWAM will travel to the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid to view the Prado’s version of the painting, consult staff and records, and compare technical research data collected by each institution.  This will be the first technical comparison of both paintings.

Bury Art Museum – £380

Bury Art Museum curator, Susan Lord, will travel to Eindhoven in the Netherlands to meet colleagues at the Van Abbemuseum.  The visit will enable the development of ideas for a collaborative international touring exhibition and the Van Abbemuseum’s participation in the Radical Museum Festival taking place in Bury in May 2018.