In this issue

England Update

Northern Ireland Update

Wales Update

Accreditation Update

Updates from Sector Support Organisations

#mylocalmuseum

 

England update

By Isabel Wilson, Arts Council England

Applicants for the government’s Cultural Recovery Fund have been informed of the outcome of their applications. In total 2194 awards were made amounting to £218.7m. Within this, 178 museums were awarded £30.5m with a high success rate. There will be another round but no more detail to share on this yet.

Delivery Plan 2021-2024:

ACE are publishing this in phases but the first documents are now on the website. It’s worth reading Darren Henley’s blog:

There’s a useful context document outlining themes and ambitions and a short animation too.

More information will be published in the summer with a detailed set of Actions and five Area Delivery plans.

Among the information, you’ll see that non-Accredited museums are now eligible to apply for National Lottery Project Grants. The idea is to support more museums to help deliver the vision, outcomes and investment principles within Let’s Create.

You’ll also see reference to a new ring-fenced Place Partnership Fund to support place-making.

Northern Ireland update

By Siobhan Stevenson, Interim Director, NIMC

Northern Ireland Museums Council has appointed Siobhan Stevenson as the new interim director.

Siobhan has worked in the cultural sector more than 30 years, many of them in Northern Ireland, as Head of Collections Care at National Museums NI and, prior to that, as Culture and Arts Manager in Belfast City Council where Siobhan gained experience of grants and cultural strategy. Siobhan’s love of heritage and collections is deeply embedded, having trained originally in archaeological conservation and taught for many years in Conservation and Collections Care at Cardiff University. Siobhan is also a former Chair of Icon (Institute for Conservation), so has an insight into the running of a membership organisation which has professionalism at its heart.

The unprecedent situation as a result of Covid 19 has threated our cultural institutions, but has also shown how important they are to nourishing and inspiring us. It has been wonderful to see the resilience and creativity that local museums have shown in adapting to the challenges and responding to their audiences. Siobhan is looking forward to working with local museums as they move towards welcoming visitors through their doors once again. Siobhan also wants to build on that creativity, to foster innovative ways of engaging audiences and to capitalise on new way of working.

Northern Ireland Museums Council has a key role to play in supporting museums, promoting learning from innovative practice and building a strong museum sector. As the Northern Ireland Assembly implements the New Decade New Approach, we will be developing a new strategy for Arts, Culture and Heritage.  Siobhan is keen to take every opportunity to advocate for museums and the impact they can have on improving people’s lives.

Wales update

Victoria Rogers has taken up post as Head of Museums and Collections for the Welsh Government. Victoria was previously the Museum Manager at Museum of Cardiff and president of the Welsh Museums Federation.

Accreditation update

By Annette French, Manager, Accreditation and Designation, ACE

Thanks for your feedback and support with messaging around our phased relaunch. The Scheme is now open again in England for new applications and for any museums expecting to respond to required actions for a provisional review. Our next updates to the FAQ are nearly there now and we’re also working on adapting site visits virtually and clarifying disposals by sale too so it feels like things are coming together well. The FAQ will go live on the website by end of week beginning 12 April.

Accreditation guidance supplementary note: We’ve developed a prompt sheet which will go up on our website to help museums identify where they might need to make updates to their Accreditation submissions post Covid-19. We’ll link to this in our next ACE museums newsletter (expected mid-April) and share so it’s available for you to signpost/circulate. We’ll signpost as part of our communications to affected museums too.

It’s suggested prompts for museums, mainly because we’ve heard at sessions and from Museum Development that applicants will need a little more help to think through any updates for resubmission. It’s not designed to replace the existing guidance, more to help navigate it post-Covid. Any help with messaging at your end will be appreciated, it’s meant to be helpful not an extra hoop to jump through!

We aren’t setting out more guidance around forward/business planning. Please signpost museums to the main Accreditation guidance and the supplementary note. We’re saying that Year 2 can be indicative (ie the subsequent planning year) and that’s the most pragmatic and flexible approach given the requirement itself is fixed (forward plans have to cover a minimum of the current and subsequent planning year). We use that approach already for local authorities and universities who often have that one year operational plan and then the umbrella strategic plan document.

Working Towards Accreditation: We’ve heard from Museum Development and museums in England that further flexibility would be welcome around Working Towards Accreditation. In the last FAQ in January 2021 we confirmed that we’d add on an extra 12 months for any museums confirmed as eligible in 2020 and 2021. That’s based on the date of their original eligibility confirmation. We’re going to extend this approach to all museums in England confirmed as eligible in 2017 and onwards so they will have the standard 3 years period plus an additional 12 months to support their Covid response and recovery. We are planning to update the website with a WTA ‘expiry date’ so it’s easier for you and museums to check when applications are due. Museums which don’t submit an application within this timeframe will be automatically lapsed, unless a new eligibility questionnaire is completed.

For museums in England confirmed as eligible in 2016 or earlier, we’ll write directly to advise them that their WTA will lapse with 3 months’ notice. That excludes anyone who’s already applied and is awaiting assessment/award decision. Museums will have the option to resubmit a new eligibility questionnaire and we’ll ask you to help check in over that 3 month period.

Each Accreditation assessing organisation will have their own local approach to working with museums preparing to make an application and we’ll be working with UK Partners to update our lists centrally so we have a clear and more streamlined approach to sharing information about deadlines.

Site visits: We aren’t able to undertake physical site visits at the moment so we’ll be setting out an interim approach until end March 2022. In England we’re going to trial a virtual site visit, which will be more of an informal conversation (around 1-2 hours) and targeted towards any specific assessment queries. Certain elements of the standard visit, such as the documentation in practice checks, and review of sensitive information such as emergency plans and security reviews won’t be possible to replicate. We’ll prioritise virtual visits for new applicants and may wish to follow up with a physical visit within 12 months of the award. We’ll publish and share a revised checklist and briefing sheet on our website and in advance of visits. Museum development colleagues and Accreditation Mentors are still welcome to observe and attend the new virtual visits and we’d welcome your feedback as we trial and develop this approach.

SSO updates

Association of Independent Museums (AIM)

AIM has appointed Lisa Ollerhead as its new Director (Chief Executive) following a comprehensive recruitment process.

Lisa joins AIM from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). As Head of Museums Policy since 2016, she played a leading role in the response for museums during COVID-19 and was closely involved in the design and delivery of the Culture Recovery Fund, supporting the independent Culture Recovery Board, and developing the £100m Museum Estates and Development Fund. Previously she led implementation of the Mendoza Review of museums and the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund.

Lisa will join the AIM team on 31 May 2021.

British Museum

Designed for people working in museums and cultural heritage, these free online events are taking place once a week via Zoom until Tuesday 18 May. Each session is different but the linking thread is the theme of change, as we look ahead to the changes we might want to see in the sector, and reflect on a year of profound and tumultuous change for everyone. Full details of each event are being released in the coming weeks via the website.

Ticket booking is now live for the following events:

Colonial Countryside: Heritage Research and ‘Cancel Culture’ – a live webinar with Q&A on Tuesday 30 March 2021 16:00. For further info and event registration, please click here.

Keeping Change Moving: Continuing lessons from the MA’s Transformers programme – a live webinar with Q&A on Tuesday 6 April 2021 16:00 GMT.  For further info and event registration, please click here. 

Museum careers unlocked: Getting your foot in the door – a live ‘in conversation’ event led by the British Museum Youth Collective on Tuesday 13 April 2021 16:00 GMT. For further info and event registration, please click here.

University of Nottingham

During the first quarter of 2021 the University of Nottingham has worked with a number of museums and heritage organisations to explore and understand their experiences of working with volunteers during the COVID pandemic. They have also gathered their thoughts and insights into expected volunteer availability and deployment during the scheduled early summer re-openings, and in the longer term.

The resulting Museum Volunteers report (produced by the University of Nottingham) is now available.

If you have any questions about this project, we’d be happy to answer them. In the first instance please contact Dr Sara Slinn [email protected]

Tate Gallery National Partnerships

On behalf of the teams of the subject specialist networks British Art Network, Understanding British Portraits and European Paintings pre-1900, Tate Gallery announces Museum Collections on Prescription Webinar Series. The events are free to attend and open to those beyond the networks’ membership.

For more information and booking click here.

#MyLocalMuseum Campaign

Museums in Cumbria started a ‘My Local Museum’ social media campaign with weekly themes running from 2 February to 30 March 2021. Museums across the country have been joining in each week and the numbers of people engaging is consistently growing.

There is an ambition to extend this campaign to coincide with when museums can once again reopen their doors on the 17 May. The campaign will now run until Tuesday 18 May.

The aims of the campaign are to:

  • Keep existing visitors engaged with their local museum
  • Promotion to engage new audiences
  • Help museums and local communities to keep connected
  • An opportunity to promote digital content museums may have developed

It would be great to get as many museums involved as possible. Do send this to your contacts to spread the word.

There will be weekly themes that can be interpreted in many ways to make it relevant for every museum. Content could include images of collections but is not restricted to this as some will have limited access to collections. It could be anything from the locality of the museum relating to the theme or a promotion of events, digital content, exhibitions or shop products.

e.g., a theme around the Animal Kingdom could evoke content relating to local wildlife/farm animals/pets/natural science collection/photos or paintings of animals etc.

Museums can also use it as an opportunity to encourage people to post their own content in response through asking questions.

e.g., a post about a bird from a museum collection could come with the question, ‘What is your favourite bird?’ or a post about a local walk could come with the questions, ‘Tell us about your favourite walk?’

Participating museums should also take the time to cross promote the content from other museums involved by liking/reposting/responding to each other’s content. They should use specific hashtags for the campaign (see below) but can also include any other local hashtags as appropriate, e.g. #CumbrianMuseums

Campaign Hashtags: #MyLocalMuseum 

The content created by museums can be posted on various social media platforms (e.g., Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/TikTok etc) as well as blogs.

Content for the campaign should be posted by participating museums every Tuesday, until the 18 May 2021 on a set weekly theme:

6 April – Dance and Music

e.g. local music and dance/ contemporary or historical music and dance/musical instruments/dancing shoes/Concert posters etc.

13 April – Hats and Hairdos

e.g. Haircuts through time/ lockdown hair/new styles/statement hats (to hide a bad hair day?).

20 April – Friendship

e.g. Reconnecting with friends, relatives and your communities/images of friendships/famous friendships/signs of friendship (letters, cards, gifts etc.)/museum friends (maybe that you made through this campaign).

27 April – Special Occasions

e.g. Weddings, events, dances, concerts, birthdays, anniversaries (past, present or future).

4 May – Every Day’s a School Day!

e.g. interesting facts, things you have recently learnt, images or memorabilia from local schools, old school days, life at school, schools programme.

11 May – What’s New?

e.g. new exhibition/objects/events/online content, new shop merchandise, new staff or volunteers.

18 May – Open Doors

e.g. Museum reopening/welcome back/open doors to storerooms to reveal collections/ open cupboard doors to reveal craft packs or shop stock/door designs/doll house doors/opening doors to new opportunities (e.g. volunteer recruitment).

If you want to be involved, just simply use this schedule as a basis to start generating content and use the hashtags above.