Boost for Scotland’s historic environment as organisations awarded funding.
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has announced the first recipients of its new Partnership Fund grant scheme, awarding more than £3.5million to 11 organisations.
Designed to support a relatively small number of third sector organisations, the new fund is available to organisations with established activities closely aligned with HES strategic priorities.
This includes projects which have a positive national impact for Scotland’s historic environment or the historic environment sector.
Recipients of this year’s fund include National Trust for Scotland (NTS), which has been awarded over £1m as part of a three-year scheme to support their annual maintenance programme, as well as delivering conservation repairs to assets across the NTS estate.
The funding will also support the delivery of a training programme to upskill and engage staff and volunteers to improve knowledge of conservation repairs and practice.
Culture Minister Christina McKelvie said: “I’m pleased to see such a diverse range of projects receiving funding from Historic Environment Scotland’s new grant scheme for the third sector. The awards will help to widen access to culture and heritage as well as provide skills development at a local level.
“This new Partnership Fund also aligns with Scottish Government ambitions to build a well-being economy to create more resilient and sustainable communities in response to climate change.”
The Scottish Civic Trust (SCT) has been awarded £304,263 for their Doors Open Days and My Place Photography Competition.
As part of Doors Open Day, members of the public can explore over 3,000 buildings in Scotland which are normally closed. The funding will also allow the Trust to invest further in digital platforms to increase virtual engagement and reach new audiences.
The My Place Photography Competition is set to be relaunched and will aim to help refugees and asylum seekers understand their local built environment and communicate their place within it, using photography as a means of investigation and creative expression.
Keep Scotland Beautiful has also been awarded £594,495 for their project: ‘Our Heritage Our Future: Community, Climate and Heritage Action’.
The project will support communities to identify the historic assets that they value, which will then form the basis of a programme of community heritage and climate action, with Keep Scotland Beautiful providing skills development to enable care, recording and conservation for future generations.
Susan O’Connor, head of grants at HES, said: “I am delighted to announce the recipients of our new Partnership Fund which we launched just last year.
“We are supporting a diverse range of organisations as part of the scheme, from archaeology and traditional skills development to community engagement and climate action, and I look forward to seeing these projects in action over the coming years.”
