The charity which awarded grants for conservation and display in the name of these two curators is now closed. The funds of the charity have been passed to two other charities: The Costume Society and the South West Federation of Museums & Galleries.
The Chairman, Hilary McGowan, said that the charity was becoming unsustainable: there had always been family members actively involved – Kathy’s sister and niece, and Daphne’s son and grandson – but the younger members of the two families did not have the capacity to continue running the charity. So reluctantly, the Board made the decision to close, but being reassured that their funds would continue to benefit museums in the UK.
For Daphne Bullard funds and conservation of dress and textiles, see costumesociety.org.uk/awards/the-daphne-bullard-grant
The SW Federation will make an announcement in due course about grants from the Kathy Callow fund. Museums in the South West of England should await this.
Daphne Bullard, a costume curator, died young in a car accident in 1970. In 1972, her family set up a trust in her memory which operated with the support of the Museums Association (MA). In 2015, this merged with the Kathy Callow Trust which had also been administered by the MA, and it later became an independently governed charity, run entirely by a volunteer Hon Sec. Kathy Callow, also a curator who died young, is commemorated by the bequest she left to support social history conservation and interpretation.
Grants were made against the following charitable objects: the advancement of public education, for Daphne Bullard, the conservation of dress and textiles of all periods and their display; and for Kathy Callow, social history through the conservation of collections and items relating to social history.
Daphne Bullard, Kathy Callow & Elizabeth Hammond Association: The Elizabeth Hammond fund is a bequest left to The Costume Society by a collector and founder of the Society. The Daphne Bullard//Kathy Callow Trust administered the grant assessments on their behalf for a short time. Last year, The Costume Society took back the grant assessments.