International Slavery Museum celebrates £9.9m Heritage Lottery Fund boost

The International Slavery Museum has been awarded almost £10m of Heritage Lottery funding to help realise its ambitions to extend and transform its galleries.

The £9,930,000, given as a lottery Heritage Horizon Award, will also enable the Royal Albert Dock venue to fulfil plans to create a new bespoke museum entrance in the old dock office – now known as the Dr Martin Luther King Jr building.

An expanded International Slavery Museum is key to National Museums Liverpool’s (NML) Waterfront Transformation Project which will also allow visitors to explore and experience the nearby Canning Dock, where ships - including slave ships - were repaired.

And visitors to the Canning Dock this weekend will be able to see 3D installations from the six competition teams who have been shortlisted as part of the project.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s director England North, David Renwick, says: “Empowering a wider range of people to engage with heritage is a key priority for The National Lottery Heritage Fund, which is why we’re proud to support the International Slavery Museum in this transformational project.

“Our funding will help create a flagship museum, a community-centric, inclusive and internationally relevant space for academic rigour, debate and sharing.

“As part of a wider regeneration project in the Liverpool Docks, the museum will also contribute to a positive social and economic legacy for the area and the heritage sector.”

Above: Waterfront Transformation Project shortlisted entries.

And NML director Laura Pye adds: “This grant gives us the opportunity to unlock the huge potential to co-create welcoming and thought-provoking spaces for education, exhibitions, discussion, and research.

“We also have the chance to realise our aspirations to create a dramatic and prominent entrance for the museum via the Dr Martin Luther King Jr building.

“It will also be crucial in enabling us to enhance the Maritime Museum with both museums being just steps away from where slave ships were once fitted out and repaired.”

The International Slavery Museum opened in August 2007 is the only museum in the world to cover the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies as well as contemporary forms of slavery.

The Canning Dock competition 3D installations will be on show outside the Museum of Liverpool from tomorrow until Sunday. More details HERE