National Museum Wales

8 March 2007 Follow-up report on collections management at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales Submitted by the Auditor General for Wales to the Audit Committee of the National Assembly for Wales Contents Summary 3 The Museum has adopted a 'vision' which has led to specific targets in key 5 areas of collections management Acquisitions, curation and verification 6 The size of the Museum’s collection continues to grow by about one per cent 6 a year which places additional pressures on revenue budgets The Museum has increased the computerisation of the records of its 7 collections and plans to computerise all of them The Museum has verified the physical location and condition of more than 8 half of its collection since 1999 Storage and conservation 10 The Collections, Care and Access Project will improve storage conditions 10 considerably from the summer of 2007 The Museum’s policy of preventative conservation is intended to limit future 11 deterioration Improving access 12 Visitor numbers are broadly static but the new National Waterfront Museum 12 is establishing itself as a major tourist attraction The Marketing Department is co-ordinating the implementation of an 13 Audience Development Action Plan The Museum is improving access to its collections through its loans and 13 outreach programmes Income generation 15 The Museum is adopting professional approaches to raising more income 15 The Museum’s Enterprises arm is taking forward a five-year expansion 15 strategy which should increase income The Museum is actively pursuing new funding sources 16 Page 2 of 18 Follow-up report on collections management at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales Follow-up report on collections management at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales Summary 1. In May 2004, the Audit Committee considered my predecessor’s report on Collections Management at the National Museums and Galleries of Wales1. The Audit Committee recognised the progress made in improving collections management but remained concerned at the backlogs in the documentation, curation and conservation of the collections and in verifying items in the collections. The Audit Committee published its own report in August 2004 with thirteen recommendations to help the National Museums and Galleries of Wales2 (the Museum) improve the management of their collections (see Figure 1). 2. The response of the Welsh Assembly Government (the Assembly Government) to those recommendations emphasised the development of a new strategic corporate vision, which would allow management to decide priorities and determine how best to address the Audit Committee’s recommendations. The Audit Committee requested a progress report from the Assembly Government by the end of 2005, by which time the Museum had planned to adopt and implement its vision. 3. In March 2006, the Audit Committee considered an update from the Minister for Culture, Welsh Language and Sport, which reported some progress in work towards implementing the Audit Committee’s recommendations. However, the Museum had not then adopted its new vision and so progress in implementing a number of the Committee’s recommendation was still ongoing. I agreed to provide the Audit Committee with a follow-up report once the Museum’s vision was in place. 1 Auditor General for Wales report, Collections Management at the National Museums and Galleries of Wales, published 22 April 2004. 2 The Museum has recently rebranded itself as Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. Page 3 of 18 Follow-up report on collections management at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales Figure 1: The Audit Committee’s recommendations In its August 2004 report on Collections Management at the National Museums and Galleries of Wales, the Committee recommended that the Museum: i approaches the development of a ‘vision’ with urgency so that its future context and general direction are defined and made clear without further delay. It should set time-related, measurable targets for the implementation of the ‘vision’ which should pay regard to all the recommendations in this report and be explicit in how the respective improvements will be achieved; ii sets realistic, achievable, time-related and measurable targets for improving the documentation of its collections and closely monitor their achievement; iii immediately extends its spot checks, which are designed to test the condition and location of items within its collection, to include those objects held only on manual records. It should also review the level of resources allocated to verification with a view to introducing systematic verification procedures; iv formulates an action plan with timescales and costings of how it will seek to address storage problems beyond the 15-20 years that the planned improved storage facilities might cater for; v completes, as a matter of urgency, its assessment of how best to use the funding committed by the Assembly, to lever in additional external funding, so as to improve the storage of its collections; vi takes all necessary steps to ensure that standards of storage are satisfactory and that the health and safety of staff and visitors are never put at risk; vii develops contingency plans to tackle the conservation backlog should the Nantgarw project not proceed and be fully successful. And it should press ahead, as a matter of urgency, with its survey of the condition of objects within its collections to ensure that its remedial conservation efforts are targeted to best effect; viii undertakes an especially rigorous impact assessment at the point of acquisition and monitor collection growth to inform its planning for future storage and conservation needs; ix seeks the views of visitors in a systematic way concerning the best ways of displaying items so as to improve visitor experience; x continues to explore ways to extend the loans programme, including extending the Partnership Programme in the interests of improving access to the collections throughout Wales; xi evaluates the use of its marketing budget to assure itself that best value for money is being achieved; xii develops and implements a clear plan for income generation which includes areas for growth and the action needed to maximise those opportunities; and xiii monitors visitor numbers at the Museum of Welsh Life to assure itself that the introduction of car parking charges is not detrimental to the success of free visitor entry. Source: Collections Management at the National Museums and Galleries of Wales, Audit Committee report (2) 06-04, August 2004 4. This report examines whether the Museum has made progress in implementing the Audit Committee’s recommendations to improve collections management at the Museum. We found that the Museum has made progress in addressing a number of the Audit Committee’s recommendations but that there are still some areas in which the Museum needs to improve performance. 5. The actions taken by the Museum include adopting a corporate vision, in April 2006, which provides the Museum with a strategic framework for all its activities with clear links to a long-term 10-year development plan and the current operational plan which contains explicit and clearly measurable targets in some of the areas covered by the Audit Committee’s recommendations. The Museum is Page 4 of 18 Follow-up report on collections management at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales implementing its Collections Care and Access Project which substantially increases the amount and quality of storage space across the Museum’s estate. As such, it is central to the improvement of the Museum’s collections management. The Museum has made notable progress in improving the computerisation of the records of its collections. It has also made a new high-level appointment specifically to address the issues raised by the Audit Committee. 6. There are a number of areas where the Museum recognises that further work is needed, in particular: • rolling out the assessment of whether items should be disposed of; • establishing a more systematic, risk-based verification system; and • completing the process of computerisation of records. 7. This report sets out my main findings in respect of : • the Museum’s strategic vision; • acquisitions, curation and verification; • storage and conservation; • improving access; and • income generation. The Museum has adopted a ‛vision’ which has led to specific targets in key areas of collections management 8. The Audit Committee recommended that the Museum develop its corporate vision with urgency; to place its actions to improve collections management in a clear, strategic context. The Museum adopted its vision statement for the 10 years to 2016, in April 2006, after extensive internal and external consultation. It goes a long way towards providing the strategic framework necessary to tackle the key issues raised in my predecessor’s report and in the Audit Committee’s recommendations. The vision is to create a world-class museum of learning with seven priorities: • creating living museums; • developing flourishing collections; • finding paths to make sense of the world; • learning through sharing; • communicating; • growing through learning; and • building the Museum’s resources. 9. The seven priorities form the framework of the 10-year Development Plan to 2015-16 and of the Operational Plan for 2006-07 which contains core objectives, projected outcomes, measures of success and explicit and measurable targets which relate to several of the key areas in which the Audit Committee made recommendations in 2004. Page 5 of 18 Follow-up report on collections management at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales Acquisitions, curation and verification The size of the Museum’s collection continues to grow by about one per cent a year which places pressure on revenue budgets 10. The size of the collection increases through bequests and gifts to the Museum and through opportunities to purchase items on the open market that would enhance existing collections. The Museum has traditionally been reluctant to dispose of items within its collections, as a consequence of its mission to conserve and retain items which it has acquired for the Welsh public.

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