In this issue

MDUK update

England update

Updates from Sector Support Organisations

 

MDUK update

by Claire Browne, MDUK chair

Building on the success of our partnership and collaborative response to the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Museum Development UK (MDUK) has been awarded £175,000 from the Art Fund in 2021. The funding will benefit small to medium-sized museums as the UK emerges from the crisis and museums plan for a new future.

The grant from the Art Fund will be distributed as a combination of recovery & reset grants and resilience programmes developed in response to needs Museum Development providers have identified over the last 14 months as a direct result of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Grants and programmes will be administrated by the UK-wide Museum Development providers comprising: The Museum Development (MD) Programme across England (9 English regional MD programmes); Museums Galleries Scotland; Welsh Government; and Northern Ireland Museums Council. The Art Fund grant will be match funded by MDUK partners in the region of £257,000.

The grants and programme will support organisational resilience and help museums to meet new audience needs and expectations, develop a sustainable offer for the future, increase digital capabilities, support volunteers including training and development; create and adapt programmes and services post-Covid.

There are other exciting joint initiatives that are being developed across MDUK. MD providers in England and Wales are running the Volunteer Development Programme and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion pilot programme. The latter is being developed together with AIM and will help museums improve their understanding of EDI and embed it within different aspects of their organisations.

Arts Council England update

by Isabel Wilson, ACE

Investment:

The Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND) is available to non-national Accredited museums in England and has a budget of £18.8 million for this financial year. Grants from this fund will help fund building maintenance and vital infrastructure. The capital funding comes from DCMS.

The Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND) has now launched. It’s an open capital fund targeted at non-national Accredited museums in England and local authorities who are responsible for maintenance of non-national Accredited museum buildings based in England. Grants are available to support vital infrastructure and urgent maintenance backlogs which are beyond the scope of day-to-day maintenance budgets. While supporting repairs, the fund can also be used towards improving accessibility and environmental sustainability of buildings. MEND has a budget of £18.8 million in 2021/22.

The criteria for the Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND) have been set by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Arts Council England (ACE), Historic England (HE) and The National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF). The grants are administered, awarded and monitored by Arts Council England. Funding has been provided by DCMS.

For more details and the guidance have a look at the Arts Council England website.

Accreditation

Following the Accreditation restructure within Arts Council , we’re really pleased to introduce the full set of Accreditation Relationship Managers in England who will be working closely with the Accreditation Advisers in the MD teams.

Laura Sears

Hi, I’m Laura.  I work Monday to Wednesday as Relationship Manager, Accreditation for the South East & London.

I worked in museums for over 15 years including corporate sponsorship roles for the Science Museum and the V&A.  More recently, I oversaw the portfolio of Arts & Culture clients at a specialist recruitment agency.

I live in Hertfordshire with good links across the region so hugely looking forward to starting to get out and visit museums again! In addition to the site visits which will be part of my role, top of my personal list to visit will the Museum of the Home which has gone through a major redevelopment, North Hertfordshire Museum which has a family-oriented Tiger Who Came to Tea exhibition opening, as well as the Royal Academy’s Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch show.

Ruth Burwood

Hello! Together with Laura, I am a Museum Accreditation Relationship Manager, for the South East and London. Attached to the Cambridge office, I am based in Norfolk and will be working Wednesday – Friday each week.

Before working with ACE, I was a Museum Development Project Officer (Collections) and Regional Accreditation Advisor with SHARE Museums East for 5 years. Prior to this, I worked in a range of roles in museums across the East of England – from curating rural history collections to being a project curator for a museum redevelopment, and learning and access officer roles, to mentoring small independent museums.

I am very much looking forward to getting to know museums in London and the South East, and to applying my experience in museum development to supporting museums within the Accreditation scheme.

Shabeena Anait

Hello, I’m Shabeena, the Museum Accreditation Relationship Manager for the North, covering Yorkshire, the North West and the North East.

I work out of ACE’s Newcastle office and am part of the North area team, but work closely with colleagues across the organisation. I’ve been with the Scheme for a number of years now, seeing it through the most recent review and changes to the Standard and Guidance.

Prior to ACE I’ve held learning and curatorial roles at a range of museums in the Midlands and the North, including a local authority service, a national museum, a small independent museum and a large conservation charity.

I can’t wait to get out and about, visiting museums and getting to know the North better. I hope the coming weeks and months go smoothly for museums as they prepare to recover and reopen.

Sophie Johnson

Hello, I’m Sophie and I’m the new Museum Accreditation Relationship Manager for the South West, based in the Arts Council’s Bristol office.

Before starting my new role, I was an Assistant Curator of Sculpture at the V&A, and I’ll be making the move from the big smoke to Bristol very soon. Previously, I’ve worked for a mix of larger and smaller cultural organisations, I was in Visitor Experience at the National Trust for Ham House and the Vyne, and I was a Heritage Officer for the Anaesthesia Museum.

I will be working part-time for ACE; you can contact me Monday to Wednesday. The rest of the week I’ll be working away on my PhD about historic women sculptors. I look forward to introducing myself to the museums in the South West and getting to know my new area. Now museums have re-opened I can’t wait to finally step aboard the SS Great Britain!

Emma Griffiths

Hi! I’ve recently joined the Arts Council’s Midlands team as the Relationship Manager for Accreditation – I’ll be based out of the Birmingham office but working with museums right across the East and West Midlands.

I was previously an assessor in the Accreditation team so I’m very familiar with Accreditation, and have worked at the Arts Council since 2016. Prior to that I worked as Archivist in various project roles at museums and managing collections for private organisations.

Now that I’m Midlands based, I’m looking forward to getting to know the museums in the region a bit better and hopefully getting out and about to visit more of these museums soon!

Updates from Sector Support Organisations

British Art Network
There is a new British Art Network seminar series coming up on 23 June and 14 July.  For further details visit the Tate website here