Behind the scenes at the museum 

At Art Fund, we aim to help museums and galleries to share collections that are inclusive, engaging and relevant to the next generation. For over 10 years we’ve been supporting curators to research, travel and expand their knowledge as part of their professional development.

And now, alongside our wider grant giving, we’re developing programmes that will expand career pathways for emerging and mid-career curators, increasing the diversity of the UK’s curatorial workforce. 

Our existing funding programmes for curators – the Vivmar Curatorial Traineeships, the Jonathan Ruffer curatorial grants and the National Gallery’s bicentenary Assistant Curators Programme – have already played a role in developing opportunities for curatorial professional development. But we want to do more. 

Our programmes offer curators at different career stages the chance to engage in mentorship, develop their expertise and expand their professional networks. As an independent funder with over 900 museum partners across the UK, Art Fund is uniquely positioned to develop this work across the sector to benefit the workforce.

 Pathways for emerging curators

But the potential impact extends beyond individual career growth and will help museums and galleries to better reflect the diverse and dynamic communities they serve. This includes supporting curators from regional museums to expand their professional networks and explore new ideas – for example, through our London Gallery Weekend Travel Bursaries to help cover costs for curators to attend and join talks and networking events.

The impact is also evidenced in individual cases, such as in our support for the National Gallery to appoint four assistant curators to contribute to a commission by artist Jeremy Deller for the gallery’s bicentenary year (NG200). Coming from across the UK, they are gaining valuable experience while working alongside cultural partners.  

The Triumph of Art, a UK-wide performance work, will mark the finale of NG200 culminating in a performance in April from each of the partners – The Playhouse in Derry/Londonderry, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee, Mostyn in Llandudno and The Box in Plymouth – before a final performance in July in Trafalgar Square.

By investing in such curatorial development projects, Art Fund is ensuring curators from across the UK are equipped with new skills and experience with which they will shape the future of the sector. 

Development for experienced curators

Another example: back in 2021, Jack Ashby received a Headley Fellowship, as part of a programme, launched in 2018 in partnership with The Headley Trust, to give experienced curators time and resource to research their collections, develop expertise and share knowledge.

Ashby’s research, which focused on the colonial origins of the University Museum of Zoology’s Australian mammal collection, led to a publicly available web resource sharing untold stories of women and Indigenous collectors. 

Art Fund also supports the New Museum School Advanced Programme, developed by Culture&, an independent arts and education charity that promotes diversity in the workforce and with audiences, and delivered in partnership with the University of Leicester School of Museum Studies.

It offers fully funded studentships in PGDip and MA pathways in Socially Engaged Practice and Museum Studies and pairings with cultural partners, which have included Bethlem Museum of Mind, Beckenham, Manchester Museum, Royal Museums Greenwich and Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.

The course allows professionals to continue full-time employment while attending distance learning, opening up new career and learning opportunities for museum professionals.  

Expanding horizons

In 2025 we’re investing more in the curators and dedicated professionals working behind the scenes in museums. Our Expanding Horizons fundraising campaign will enable us to commit at least £700,000 towards this investment, which will include a major new fellowship programme for curators from diverse backgrounds.  

In 2021 it was reported that, of all organisations and artforms supported through Arts Council England’s National Portfolio, museums had the lowest rate of ethnic diversity, with only around 6% of workers identifying as Black, Asian or Ethnically Diverse.  

Our 2022 report, It’s about handing over power – from Black-led organisations Museum X and Culture& – looked at the lack of ethnic diversity in the curatorial workforce and past initiatives that have sought to address this, with an aim to understand what is needed to tackle this effectively. 

The research noted that, even according to the most optimistic estimates, only a tiny proportion of curators are Black or from minoritised communities. It found a lack of data relating to the curatorial workforce and laid out 10 recommendations for change. Since then, we have used these recommendations to develop new programmes to encourage a sustainable increase in diversity and equity in the museum sector. 

Empowering curators from underrepresented backgrounds

With the majority of ethnic diversity workforce initiatives in the UK arts and heritage sector aimed at entry level roles, we’re looking to develop opportunities for mid-career curators from underrepresented backgrounds. Our aim is to equip them with the skills and experience needed to become exceptional candidates for future leadership positions at both curatorial and executive level.  

To achieve this, we’re launching Empowering Curators, a five-year curatorial leadership programme and the largest investment of its kind in the UK. Launching later this year, it will provide 20 curators from underrepresented backgrounds with professional development, support and allyship through multi-year curatorial fellowships hosted by museums and galleries across the UK. 

By embedding these programmes in museums, galleries and heritage sites, we will ensure organisations also benefit from this broader range of perspectives. With a focus on mentorship, institutional support and sector-wide collaboration, our plans for future programmes aim to mobilise sector-wide systemic change, creating a more equitable curatorial workforce while strengthening audience engagement and cultural representation.  

By investing in today’s curators, we hope to nurture the storytellers of tomorrow. 

To learn more about how to participate in these programmes or support curatorial development, visit our website.