Purchase Grant Fund: About the fund

The Crown Princess Takes Tea, a group of glasswares by Katherine Coleman, 2009, bought by Norfolk Museums Service with a grant from the V&A Purchase Grant Fund

The Purchase Grant Fund is a government fund administered by the V&A as part of its UK work. The budget for 2011/12 is £600,000.

The Fund supports the purchase of a wide range material for the permanent collections of non-nationally funded organisations. Recent grants include a freedom casket presented to James Henry Thomas MP, 1924 (Newport Museum and Art Gallery), an 1881 Charles Worth dress owned by Mary Holden Illingworth of Bradford (Leeds Museums and Galleries), a collection of 20th century drawings and prints by Papua New Guinean artists (Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge) and a letter written to Fanny Brawne by John Keats (London Metropolitan Archives).

Demand is always very strong and funds are allocated to enable as many acquisitions as possible to be made. Each year the Fund considers about 250 applications and enables acquisitions of over £3 million to go ahead.

The Fund, run by the V&A since 1881, retains an interest in the organisations and objects it supports and collections they join and ensures that the terms of grant offer continue to be met.

Download grants given in 2010-11 (PDF file, 74.9 KB)

Download grants given in 2011-12 (PDF file, 52.2 KB)

All enquiries and requests for forms should be directed to the V&A's UK section:
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7942 2536
E-mail: purchasegrantfund@vam.ac.uk

Find out how to apply for a grant

Find out more about the V&A’s UK activities