In this issue

MDN welcome

Arts Council England update

Updates from Sector Support Organisations

Newcastle University survey

 

MDN welcome

by Claire Browne, MDN Chair

Welcome to the last MDN newsletter of 2020 – and what a year it has been for MDN and the sector as a whole! As we wind down for the holiday season, I want to thank every member of the network for your hard work and unwavering commitment to help and empower museums to access advice, recovery funding and training through a very challenging year.

As a network, we have many achievements to be proud of in 2020. A swift mobilisation to remote working, delivery of engaging digital training, creation of webinars and ongoing communication to assess and report on museums at risk – to name just a few. As a network, we’ve also developed a new partnership with The Art Fund to deliver recovery grants to museums across the four nations. To date, over 200 small to medium sized museums have benefited from about £540,000 through this initiative.

In the new year, we’ll have a new logos for both MDN and Museum Development in England to strengthen our brand and raise our profile. Evaluation reports assessing the revised Organisational Health Check Tool and Recovery Grant programme also be available nearer the end of the financial year. These will help inform ongoing business planning and work more effectively and collaboratively to benefit museums in the years to come.

With best wishes for a relaxing and festive holiday season.

Arts Council England update

by Isabel Wilson, Senior Manager, Museum Development, Arts Council England

Accreditation: We’re meeting with our UK colleagues in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on 30 November – ahead of the annual Accreditation Committee meeting on 10 December. We’ll be in contact with each MD programme Accreditation lead in the New Year to get your input into planning ahead of reopening. We’re currently recruiting to a part time Accreditation assessment post in the South West and a full-time one in the South East. If any of you or anyone you know might be interested in applying – please check out the Arts Council website.

Designation: At a recent Panel meeting, two museum collections in England gained Designated status. This news hasn’t been shared yet but keep an eye on our website.

Project Grants: Many of you will have seen Sam Bowen from South East MD talking about her commitment and work in support of Special Educational Needs and Museums at the recent MA conference. In her freelance capacity, Sam has secured a Project Grant from us to develop the work further as a stand-alone project. The Twitter handle for the project will be @SENDinMuseums and the project goes ‘live’ in December. Congratulations Sam!

We’re still not seeing many museum applications for Project Grants coming in. Please continue to promote this opportunity when you can to museums that could make good use of a grant. As you know – our definition of a project is broad – as long as it’s time-limited with a public outcome at some stage, it could be eligible for support.

Updates from Sector Support Organisation

Social Enterprises Academy

National Lottery Heritage Fund project ‘Steps to Sustainability – Building a Sustainable Heritage Sector’ – is now open for applications (deadline Monday 21 December)

This opportunity will provide a pathway for 60 heritage organisations across the UK to be ambitious, forward thinking and deliver exciting new projects. Participants will bring a business idea to the programme which they will develop throughout the duration of the programme AND unlock funding of up to £10,000.

What participants can expect:

  • 5 month programme of activities, including masterclass, webinar, good practice site visits
  • 9 month development period including access to coaching / business mentoring
  • Funding of up to £10,000 to help shape the success of the business idea
  • Resources and toolkits
  • A supported journey of development with the opportunity to mix with other heritage organisations from across the UK at connect sessions, webinars and masterclasses.
  • Participation fee of £50 per person (up to 2 people can attend from one organisation)

Full details including how to apply and FAQ’s via the website or email [email protected] with any further questions.

Culture 24

Since January 2020 we’ve been thrown into the digital deep end: our organisations have been forced to shift to digital working at a speed of change that would have been unthinkable before. The challenge now is to go from reaction to strategy, to interrogate what success means online in a post-Covid world and to ensure we still have an impact on and continue to be relevant to our audiences.

Let’s Get Real is a collaborative action research programme that will bring together 60 organisations to explore the challenges of evaluating online success in the current climate. Using Culture24’s established methodology, it will support participants to understand the issues more deeply and experiment with solutions, as well finding ways to effect and embed positive organisational change.

Our programme partner this year is expert digital analyst Chris Unitt, who has worked with many cultural organisations helping them understand their users’ online expectations and how to meet them.

This is a seven month project which runs from February 22nd to w/c 12th September 2021. We’ve reshaped the program to deliver it online, with flexible timings and chances to catch up at times that suit you. We’ve reduced the cost to only £350 for small organisations and a maximum of £750 for larger ones. We will also accept shared applications from 2 small organisations who are already working together and can cover the fee of £350 between them. Finally, there are five subsidised places available at £150 and discounts across all categories for our very first and most recent LGR alumni organisations.

Let’s Get Real 10 Years On is for any cultural organisation – museum, gallery, heritage, performance or arts organisation – needing to better understand the impact of your digital activity and change the way you work to build on that new understanding.

As we all have to improve our digital impact urgently and use it to help us make the case for our survival, Let’s Get Real offers an opportunity to collaboratively explore these issues with peers and develop our own strategy and practice.

Find out more and sign up (or express your interest), here.

The National Portrait Gallery

The NPG would like to invite eight new partners to join a Skills & Knowledge Exchange Programme.

Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and with support from The Art Fund, the Programme has been co-designed between the Gallery and four initiating partners – The Ulster Museum, Nottingham Castle Museum, Gainsborough’s House Sudbury and the Box, Plymouth.

A bespoke programme will be drawn up for each partner to learn from colleagues. Partner programmes could include work with the national collection or the Gallery’s new interpretation and learning approaches developed for its Inspiring People project. Alternatively, partners may wish to focus on other areas of the Gallery’s operation e.g. commercial or building activities. Further information and how to become involved in the project is available from 4 December 2020.  Please contact [email protected] for further details.

Newcastle University survey – heritage sector toolkits

Helen Mears, researcher at Newcastle University is working on a project which considers the relationship between public space and belonging called en/counter/points.  As part of the en/counter/points project, funded by HERA, they are developing a toolkit to support museum practitioners wishing to explore issues of belonging.

Before developing the new resource, they would like to ascertain the extent to which museum and heritage practitioners use existing online toolkits and similar resources on any topic and have designed a short survey for this purpose.

For more information regarding our interest in toolkits, museums and belonging, please see the report on existing provision. If you have any questions about the survey please contact [email protected], or about the project please contact Project Leader: [email protected].