Non-state museums; application for funding

The Free State of Bavaria awards grants for projects in the field of non-state museums via the State Office for Non-State Museums.

Antrag auf Gewährung einer Zuwendung

This form can be submitted electronically (e.g. via a secure contact form using your user account with login via the electronic ID function or the ELSTER certificate) or handwritten and signed in paper form to the responsible authority.
Auszahlungsantrag

This form can be submitted electronically (e.g. via a secure contact form using your user account with login via the electronic ID function or the ELSTER certificate) or handwritten and signed in paper form to the responsible authority.

For contact details of the responsible authoritiy and local valid information select under "Select location" a location.

Purpose

The funding provided by the State Agency serves to preserve the diversity and further develop the quality of the Bavarian museum landscape. It is intended to support the non-state museums and their sponsors in the professionalization of museum work and the preservation and contemporary presentation of the rich cultural heritage.

Object

Funding is provided for a variety of measures for the further development, modernization and professionalization of museums. These include the creation of concepts for new exhibitions or digital strategies, the redesign or revision of permanent exhibitions, the furnishing of exhibition and storage rooms as well as the protection and professional storage of collection items.

Restoration and conservation measures, the inventory and digitization of collections as well as research projects - for example on the origin (provenance) of objects - are also eligible for funding. In addition, projects that strengthen the educational mission of museums are supported, for example through didactic offers, museum education rooms or outreach programs.

Measures for accessibility, sustainable visitor retention and addressing new target groups, for example through marketing concepts or a uniform corporate design, are also eligible for funding, as is the scientifically supervised transfer of architectural objects to open-air museums. In justified individual cases, the purchase of objects to complement existing collections can also be supported.

Funding recipients

Funding recipients / eligible applicants are sponsors of museums that exist on a permanent basis, are open to the public, operate on a non-profit basis and serve society. Funding is only available to institutions that collect, preserve, research, exhibit and communicate on the basis of museum standards - with the aim of education, science and cultural enjoyment. So-called museum-like institutions, such as information centers, visitor mines or exhibition houses without their own collection and scientifically managed collections, are not eligible to apply.

Eligible costs

Material, personnel and investment expenditure directly related to projects in accordance with No. 2.1 of these guidelines are eligible for funding. Personnel expenses for staff employed on a temporary basis or for the project-related increase in the number of hours worked by permanent museum staff are eligible for funding. Within the scope of eligible expenditure, unpaid voluntary work can also be taken into account; the maximum rates eligible for funding in rural development (ZHLE) apply; see: ZHLE: Eligible maximum rates in rural development - citizen service(gesetze-bayern.de). As a rule, local government work is not subsidized.

Type and amount

The funding is granted as a subsidy.

The type of grant is project funding.
The funding period covers the entire duration of the project.

The grant is awarded as project funding by way of shortfall financing for a maximum period of three years. The amount of the grant is determined by the state office at its discretion. A funding rate of more than 50% of the eligible expenditure may not be exceeded. When calculating the amount of the grant, the recipient of the grant is required to make an appropriate contribution to the total expenditure (at least 10% of the eligible expenditure), depending on its ability to pay. Only funds that the applicant can freely dispose of (e.g. no earmarked donations) can be considered as own funds.

Funding requires that

the museum is demonstrably intended to operate on a permanent basis;
secured project funding is available;
a secure operating sponsorship can be demonstrated;
there is a secure and sufficiently qualified management of the facility and staffing for the successful implementation of the project;
there is a sufficiently concrete planning status, i.e. in particular a project outline, a preliminary concept as well as a time, expenditure and financing plan, which can be proven by meaningful documents;
a meaningful and exhibitable collection is permanently available; if the applicant museum organization does not own the collection, a right to ownership of the collection for museum use secured by long-term contracts (as a rule: remaining term of the contracts that does not allow ordinary termination before at least ten years from the date of application) must be proven upon request;
there are premises permanently suitable for the museum's purpose at a suitable location; if the applicant museum institution does not own the premises, a right to possession of the premises for the purpose of museum use secured by long-term contracts (as a rule: remaining term of the contracts that does not allow ordinary termination before the expiry of at least ten years from the date of application) must be proven on request;
the possibility of using the museum as a public educational institution and/or extracurricular place of learning exists;
there are regular, appropriate fixed exhibition opening hours (taking into account the organization of the sponsorship in individual cases);
the planned measures are approved by the regional authority from a professional point of view.

Letters a, c, d and g do not apply to feasibility studies or other plans preparing the decision to establish a museum; sentence 1 letters h and i apply in these cases with the proviso that they relate to the planned institution.

Exclusion criteria:

The following are not eligible for funding

Expenditure for ongoing operations;
Expenditure for special or temporary exhibitions;
Expenditure incurred in the context of day-to-day press and public relations work;
Construction measures (incl. installation of building services and building-related security equipment);
Expenditure for permanent exhibitions that are neither shown in museums nor in rooms that meet basic museum requirements (such as climate, light, security, accessibility, mediation, etc.).

Institutions that do not meet the above definition are excluded from submitting an application. In particular, institutions that are classified as museum-like institutions by the Conference of Museum Advisors in the Federal States (KMBL) are not eligible for funding. Museum-like institutions include, in particular, archaeological, cultural and natural history information centers, historical documentation in monuments or visitor mines, historical buildings without a collection that is scientifically and conservationally managed and communicated according to museum principles, as well as exhibition houses without their own collection.

Required Documents
- Eine aussagekräftige Projektbeschreibung
- Ein detaillierter und ausgeglichener Ausgaben- und Finanzierungsplan
- Eine Terminplanung
- ggf. weitere im Einzelfall ergänzend angeforderte museumsfachliche Unterlagen

Applications for funding should be submitted to the State Agency by the museum operator by June 30 of the respective funding year at the latest in writing or electronically(Landesstelle@blfd.bayern.de) using the appropriate application form. The application documents are available on the website of the regional office at www.museen-in-bayern.de. Applications must be signed by a person authorized to represent the applicant museum institution; electronic applications must show the name of the person authorized to represent the applicant museum institution.

(The project must not yet have begun. The start of the project is deemed to be the submission of a binding declaration of intent to conclude a supply or service contract attributable to the execution of the project, unless the contract contains a clear right of withdrawal without financial consequences in the event that the grant applied for is not granted or the contract is concluded subject to a clear condition precedent or condition subsequent in the event that the grant applied for is not granted. Approval for the early start of the project can be requested in writing from the regional office).