Museum’s “Permanently Magical” appeal receives £2 million Catalyst boost

Sir John Soane's Museum is pleased to announce that its endowment fundraising appeal, "Permanently Magical", has received a £2 million pound boost from the DCMS/HLF backed Catalyst programme.  The award, announced by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, is a challenge grant which must be matched by funds of £4 million to be raised by the Museum by 2016, with the aspiration to raise £25 million by 2025.

Tim Knox, Director of Sir John Soane's Museum, is delighted with the award “The Catalyst grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund is very good news. It will be the Foundation Stone of the ‘Heritage Lottery Fund/Department for Culture, Media and Sport Catalyst: Endowments fund’ to help continue preserving this unique museum for future generations and make Sir John Soane’s wonderful collections more and more accessible to the public. The HLF award demonstrates to everyone that the Museum needs an endowment and we hope that it will encourage some major donors, trusts and foundations to support it.  We shall be launching our endowment programme ‘Permanently Magical’ in September 2012 with a grand ‘Regency Rout’ at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea where Soane designed many new buildings over almost 30 years. We hope that support for the programme will be just as exuberant.”

For more information on the award, please see the Press Release>>.