FUNDING of almost £150,000 will help put more people in the picture at the British Motor Museum.
The Gaydon-based museum is one of 24 museums to receive a share of £4 million through the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund 2025-27.
The fund brings together £2 million in match funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and independent, grant making charity, the Wolfson Foundation.
A total of £147,700 has been allocated to the British Motor Museum which will be used to develop and deliver Grasping the Image: digital accessibility to heritage images – a project that will enhance accessibility to heritage photographs held in the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust Archive.
The project, running from spring 2026 to early 2027, will provide unprecedented access for visually impaired visitors to a historically significant collection of 20th century photographic negatives.
This digital accessibility project will produce digital twins of a currently inaccessible collection using advanced digital imaging and create innovative tactile/audio models.
Cat Stuart-Yapp, head of fundraising at the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust, said, “We’re delighted that we have been successful in our application to receive this funding. Using advanced digital capture solutions, the project will use our extensive collection of photographic negatives to generate 3D images, which can in turn be used to create tactile models with sensors to generate audio. This means that more people will be able to encounter, experience and enjoy our collections, in more ways.”
