€170,000 allocated to the Regional Museum Exhibition Scheme 2024

The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (TAGS&M) has today announced a series of small grants for local and regional museums around the country. Total funding of €171,850 is being made available under the Regional Museum Exhibitions Scheme 2024.

Projects funded under this scheme seek to enhance the cultural offering of museums, to encourage greater access to museums and to promote the use of museums as tourism resources in their locality or region.

Announcing the allocation, Minister Martin said:

“Our local and regional museums are an extremely important resource for accessing culture and heritage in towns and villages across the country, they provide a sense of community and place by celebrating a collective heritage and offer a great way to learn about the history of the local area.

“My Department’s work over the years in funding projects under this scheme has allowed cultural bodies to continue to enhance the presentation of their exhibitions and improve the cultural offering to the communities they serve.

Our local and regional museums collect, preserve and store objects and materials of religious, cultural and historical value while providing a source of entertainment and wonder. These museums help to preserve and promote our cultural heritage and without them, a lot of our history and culture would have been lost over the years.”

Sixteen projects are benefitting this year including Cork Butter Museum CLG, for exhibition case refurbishment suitable for the housing of samples of bog butter; and Galway City Museum, for an upgrade of a 3D model based on the 15th-16th century tower house at Kilclooney, Miltown, Co Galway.

Click here for a full list of projects funded.

As well as administering funding to the National Cultural Institutions, the Department TCAGS&M's Cultural Institutions Unit also administers other grants and funding for smaller cultural institutions under the Cultural Projects Funding subhead and the Mobility of Collections Scheme.

Other annual funding initiatives include the Co-operation with Northern Ireland and the Small Scale Local Festivals and Summer Schools schemes which, for 2024, saw an overall allocation of over €237,000, €20,000 of which was allocated to museums.