Stoke-on-Trent City’s Council’s £5 million bid to improve one of our flagship museums, the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, has been granted by the government!
This follows successful lobbying from Jonathan Gullis MP, Jack Brereton MP and Jo Gideon MP directly to the government.
This initiative, funded by Arts Council England, will allow Stoke-on-Trent City Council to deliver a series of plans, outlined in The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery Development Prospectus, which was announced in December 2022.
The proposal will look to extend existing gallery space, allowing more room to display the city’s nationally designated collections in a contemporary architectural space.
This funding will complement the project to relocate the City’s Archives from City Central Library to the Museum later this year.
Jonathan said: “This landmark funding will help build a wrap-around extension to improve facilities and accessibility and support local education, health and wellbeing projects. Fantastic to see lobbying by myself, Jack Brereton MP, Jo Gideon MP and your hardworking Conservative Stoke-on-Trent City Councillors has paid off!”
Another positive funding announcement for Stoke-on-Trent is the £300k for Stoke-on-Trent libraries.
A successful application to the Arts Council England Libraries Improvement Fund, will be used to improve digital infrastructure and physical spaces across all six Stoke-on-Trent libraries.
The first project that will benefit from this funding, includes the installation of self-release printing on four library sites plus WiFi printing in all six libraries.
A second project is also planned, which will modernise Stoke and Longton libraries, making them flexible community spaces for various groups and customers.
This comes hand-in-hand with the £5 million for the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery as part of the manifesto commitment to invest in galleries, museums, libraries and other cultural venues.
