Kendal Museum has secured £100,000 for a two-year project examining the connected histories and shared heritage behind its World Wildlife Gallery and Kenya’s Nandi community.
The award is one of six made in June through the Esmée Fairbairn Communities and Collections Fund, administered by the Museums Association. Kendal’s grant is jointly the largest in the funding round.
The project will be delivered with Cumbria Development Education Centre and the Nandi-Kendal Association. It is intended to move the museum’s work beyond explaining the history of the collection and towards working directly with Nandi-Kendal partners.
Grant recorded in council report
The funding has so far appeared in a Westmorland and Furness Council corporate performance report rather than in a separate announcement from the museum or its partners. The report is due to go before the council’s Cabinet on Tuesday 8 September, with the museum grant recorded at paragraph 3.121.
The report identifies the purpose of the funding as a two-year partnership project exploring connected histories and shared heritage. The grant is national foundation funding awarded through the Museums Association, rather than money being taken from the council’s own budget.
The other successful projects in the June round included a £100,000 award to The People’s Palace and the West of Scotland Regional Equality Council. The Wallich and Amgueddfa Cymru received £99,536 for a first Welsh collection on homelessness; Pitt Rivers Museum and partners received £99,315 for “Curate Your Future”; Ulster Folk Museum and Nerve Centre received £98,463 for “We are Here”; and Bradford District Museums & Galleries and Summat Creative received £89,121 for “Re:View”.
The fund supports projects that use museum collections to improve inclusion and work more equitably with community partners.
Why the World Wildlife Gallery is central
The project is linked to Kendal Museum’s World Wildlife Gallery, which was built in 1939 and funded by E.G. Harrison to house his collection. Much of that collection consists of animal skins and heads taken from eastern Africa between 1895 and 1905.
Research published in a peer-reviewed 2025 article about the museum’s earlier “Reimagining the World Wildlife Gallery” project described Harrison’s role in operations against the Nandi people. The Nandi had opposed the construction of the Kenya-Uganda railway and British settlement on their land.
The research also recorded contemporary calls from members of the Nandi community, including descendants of people directly affected, for reparations and an apology from the British government.
The earlier museum project added the history of Nandi resistance to the gallery’s interpretation panel. It also included a memorial work by Haslam acknowledging Koitalel arap Samoei, described in the source material as a Nandi political and spiritual leader.
The new grant will support two years of work with the Nandi-Kendal Association itself. The source material says the Museums Association identifies the group as a full partner in the award, although no website for the organisation was found and it does not appear on the Charity Commission’s register for England and Wales.
Gallery remains closed to visitors
Visitors hoping to see the collection should check before travelling. Kendal Museum’s World Wildlife Gallery is closed for ongoing conservation work, and no reopening date has been announced.
The rest of the museum remains open, but currently operates on temporary hours: Fridays and Saturdays from 9am to 5pm. Admission is £5 for adults, £2 for visitors aged five to 18, and free for under-fives. Kendal College runs the museum.
There is currently no published call for participants in the new project, so people interested in taking part do not have a sign-up route yet. The museum, Cumbria Development Education Centre and the Nandi-Kendal Association are the partners to watch for future participation information.
The council’s full corporate performance report is a public document and is due to be considered by Cabinet on 8 September. The relevant entry is at paragraph 3.121.