Creative Minds Fund

The Creative Minds Fund will support museums and organisations working with people experiencing mental health issues to create engagement opportunities. Projects can last up to 18 months and will involve participants in creative activities related to the museum and its collection.

This fund aims to develop programming that includes and benefits people experiencing mental health issues. It also aims to strengthen relationships between Scottish museums and mental health organisations and increase the museum sector’s confidence and capacity to become more inclusive places.

We intend to provide further rounds of this fund after the award of the first round in March 2025. Additional rounds will be open to first time applicants to the Creative Minds Funds and to applicants who delivered a first round Creative Minds Fund project and who are looking to further develop and embed their museum’s engagement for people experiencing mental health issues. 

This fund is open to both accredited and non-accredited museums in Scotland.

Non-accredited museums that wish to apply must be formally constituted organisations that are charities or not-for-profit organisations and will need to meet the following criteria:

• Meet the Museum Association’s definition of a museum (1998): “Museums enable people to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment. They are institutions that collect, safeguard and make accessible artefacts and specimens, which they hold in trust for society.”
• The Museum must be a physical site, building or space open to the public for a minimum of 20 days a year
• The organisation must have its own bank account.
• The organisation that manages the museum must be the legal owner of a part of the collections that the museum manages and displays.

All museums must apply in partnership with an organisation which provides support or services to those experiencing mental health issues. The organisation must be a registered charity, Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO), public body or local authority. This partnership does not have to be new. Museums and mental health organisations that have existing partnerships are encouraged to apply. A partnership agreement between the museum and mental health organisation will be required as part of the application to the fund.

This fund will support the engagement of vulnerable people and at application museums must be able to demonstrate that they have appropriate safeguarding policies and procedures, and appropriate plans to manage the end of the project.

• Museums can apply for up to £25,000 for projects lasting up to 18 months.
• You can apply for 100% of the total project cost, but match funding and financial contributions to the project from applicants are also welcome.
• The amount requested from MGS should not equate to less than 20% of the total project costs.

This fund can support a wide range of costs for engagement programmes including costs for:

• Materials for activities
• Events
• Exhibitions
• Mental health training and support for participants and project team
• Museum and Heritage skills training for participants
• Marketing, communication and design costs
• Salary cost for new staff, additional staff time, and fees for freelancers
• Expenses and travel costs for project team and participants

• As this fund is designed to engage those experiencing mental health problems, we cannot fund preventative, or wellbeing work aimed at the general population. We also cannot fund projects focused on Alzheimer’s or Dementia which are progressive conditions that affect the brain rather than mental health issues
• Projects must engage participants in creative activities. We will not be able to fund projects that do not include creative engagement activities
• Core operating costs including salary costs for existing staff time
• Work that has already started or will start before the project start date
• Acquisitions, maintenance, and capital work

Strength of partnership between the museum and mental health organisation

A key purpose of this fund is to strengthen relationships between Scottish museums and mental health organisations. We will be looking to fund applicants who have established a strong relationship with a mental health partner which has clearly defined roles and expectations for both the museum and the mental health organisation. These partnerships can be new or long standing. We will also be looking to fund organisations who have considered how both partners will learn from this project.

Impact for project participants

A key purpose of this fund is to provide programming that benefits people experiencing mental health issues. We need to know how the project will benefit projects participants. We need to know how you will measure the benefits to participants. We are not assessing based on the number of participants engaged and will favour significant benefits for a small number of participants over minor benefits for a large number of participants.

 Learning for your museum

A key purpose of this fund is to increase museum’s confidence and capacity to carry out mental health focused engagement. Whether your museum is fairly new to delivering this kind of activity or already has a lot of experience in it, in your application we will want to see what learning you anticipate for your museum and how you will embed this learning.

Safeguarding and care for all involved

We need to know that during the project, your organisation will able to keep everyone involved safe. This includes project participants, staff, volunteers, and museum visitors. We will be looking for appropriate safeguarding policies and procedures. We will also assessing whether projects have been developed with consideration of care including factors such as the skills, training, and support that might be needed by people involved in the project, how to make the project environment safe and supportive, and what will happen at the end of the project.

Need and opportunities

We recognise that there is widespread need for work which develops museum’s ability to engage with people experiencing mental health challenges. However, we need to know that your organisation understands and has identified the specific need for this work in your particular community and how your museum can meet this need.

Deliverability

We need to be confident that you can deliver your project and that you have a strong chance of delivering the outputs and outcomes that you have identified. We will therefore be looking to see that your activity is fully planned out and carefully budgeted. We will also be looking to see that you have considered the likely challenges that may arise during the project and have thought of appropriate ways to mitigate risk or deal with these challenges.

In addition to the grant, MGS will provide funding for Mental Health First Aid training for up to two members of museum staff involved in the delivery of the project. Members of staff taking part in Mental Health First Aid training, or demonstrating that staff delivering the project have already received this training, is a requirement for this fund.

MGS will arrange online cohort meet ups to enable museum’s delivering Creative Mind Fund projects to provide each other with peer to support and to share learning.

Application forms will be available from early November. All applications must be submitted online via our application portal MGS Online.

If you are considering applying to the Creative Minds Fund, please get in touch with the grants team at grants@museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk by the Expression of Interest (EOI) deadline below. The grants team are happy to advise on all potential applications. We know from experience that applicants who talk to us before application are more likely to be successful.

As Museum Galleries Scotland are distributors of Scottish Government funding, all applicants will need to be compliant with Fair Work First requirements in order to receive a grant. See our guidance for grant applicants on the Scottish Government’s Fair Work First policy.