Heritage Lottery Fund Success

Thursday 13 October 2016

The Royal College of Music is delighted to announce that the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded a grant of £3,634,418 to fund the redevelopment of the RCM Museum.

Gabriele Rossi Rognoni, Curator of the RCM Museum, said: ‘I am thrilled that the Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded the RCM Museum the largest grant awarded to a music museum in the past decade. The College’s extraordinary collections showcase our musical culture over the past five centuries and the generosity of National Lottery players will allow us to provide interactive new spaces, more access and an unforgettable experience to our visitors.’

This significant investment will provide state-of-the-art gallery spaces to house the RCM’s extensive collection of rare historical instruments, iconography and library materials. These include the world’s earliest surviving guitar and the oldest known stringed keyboard instrument, a clavicytherium.

The HLF grant will also provide an intimate performance venue in which talented RCM students, staff and visitors can bring the College’s collection to life, creating a truly engaging experience for the anticipated 40,000 annual visitors.

A substantial programme of conservation and digitisation will also take place. This will maintain, preserve and record the special collections for future generations and the widest possible audience. Outreach and engagement will also expand, utilising the College’s prized treasures to stimulate new audiences.

The redevelopment of the RCM Museum forms part of More Music: Reimaging the Royal College of Music, a £40 million philanthropic investment in the future of music education. In addition to a new Museum, the project will provide new performance and rehearsal spaces, improved access, more scholarships and an expanded infrastructure for teaching and digital innovation.