The National Lottery provides support to help Torquay Museum reopen - Torquay Museum

By: Barry Chandler
Added: 03 June 2020

The National Lottery provides £40,000 support to help Torquay Museum reopen.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown began the Museum has been closed and almost all the staff have been furloughed. We now have the major task of trying to reopen the Museum in a way that is safe for visitors and staff. “Thanks to the National Lottery and its players we can support the staff’s wages when we reopen,  Said Basil Greenwood, the Museum’s director We’re grateful that The National Lottery Heritage Fund is supporting us at this crucial time – it’s a lifeline to us and others who are passionate about sustaining heritage for the benefit of all.” 

The funding, made possible by National Lottery players, was awarded through The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Heritage Emergency Fund. £50million has been made available to provide emergency funding for those most in need across the heritage sector. The UK-wide fund will address both immediate emergency actions and help organisations to start thinking about recovery. Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Heritage has an essential role to play in making communities better places to live, supporting economic regeneration and benefiting our personal wellbeing. All of these things are going to be even more important as we emerge from this current crisis. Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players we are pleased to be able to lend our support to organisations such as Torquay Museum during this uncertain time.” 

The Museum has had an overwhelming response on social media following the good news. “We have received many positive comments and good wishes from as far as New Zealand!”. Said Mr Greenwood. Andrew Ian Lovett, Chair of the Association of Independent Museums said “Good luck with planning the Museum’s route out and recovery.” “Fantastic news!” came from Prof. Stephen Rippon, Exeter University, and “Great news in these difficult times.” Was tweeted from Richard Wakeman of the The British Museum. 

Thanks to National Lottery players, £30 million is raised every week for good causes, including heritage of local and national importance. By playing The National Lottery, people up and down the country are making an amazing contribution to the nationwide-response to combatting the impact of COVID-19 on local communities across the UK. 

The Museum are very grateful for this help from the National Lottery, but even with this grant we still have utility bills, insurance and maintenance contracts to pay so we will be launching a fundraising campaign soon.