Arts Council England Q1 Report (April - June 2016)

Royal Pavilion & Museums MPM Programme 2016-17

 The following is a summary update of activity against outcomes, for the MPM Programme for the period April – June 2016  The report is laid out as per the Arts Council England 5 goals and includes data where appropriate

For further information please contact:

Florence Edwards Administrative Support Officer 4-5 Pavilion Buildings Brighton BN1 1EE

01273 292562 [email protected] http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/

Goal 1 Excellence

Excellence is thriving and celebrated in the arts, museums and libraries

Our projects under Goal 1 have two specific aims: - bringing arts and heritage together to engage and inspire new and more diverse audiences; and improving public access to RPM’s outstanding and Designated collections

Agreed Outcomes:

 RPM’s collections are more accessible and relevant to audiences  Audiences have greater depth of engagement with collections, they are inspired by them and have a stronger sense of shared ownership of the stories they tell  Creative partnerships strengthen RPM’s work  Audiences are increased and more diverse

Themed Programming

Fashion Cities Africa The first major UK exhibition dedicated to contemporary African fashion opened at BMAG on 30 April 2016. It explores the global influence and diversity of African fashion in 4 cities; Casablanca, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Lagos, from couture to street style. The exhibition has been developed in consultation with African fashion specialists Hannah Azieb Pool and Helen Jennings and in collaboration with designers, photographers, and bloggers from each of the cities.

Visitor quotes:  ‘It was really great, informative and interactive!’  ‘We had so much fun at the exhibition that we have decided to come up with 10 reasons as to why this is a must attend and why this major UK event needs our support.’ – Island Chronicles, Instagram  ‘Glad to have this cool exhibition in my city! If you’re ever in Brighton go check it out, it will make your day!’  ‘A worthy start to many long awaited conversations regarding Africa and all its art forms.’  ‘So many gorgeous things at Fashion Cities Africa’  ‘Incredible fashion at Fashion Cities Africa. Can I have it all please!!! The pale pink dress was a beautiful print with hand embroidered bugs in it. I always love that play of pretty with unexpected.’

For images of the exhibition and associated events see https://www.instagram.com/brighton_museums/ and also at http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/brighton/what-to-see/fashion-cities-africa/

 Total admissions to exhibition in first 6 weeks: 7,747  Exhibition content and collaborators in numbers: o Number of loans – 61 o Number of lenders – 31 o Working in collaboration with: . 10 collaborators from Casablanca . 5 collaborators from Johannesburg . 5 collaborators from Nairobi . 14 collaborators from Lagos 2

Fashion Cities Africa: Brighton Stories A display of striking life-size portrait images revealing the unique fashion identities created by members of Brighton & Hove’s African diaspora communities is on display at Brighton Museum. 21 participants feature in the accompanying Look Book and 8 participants feature in the final display. The project has been developed in collaboration with photographers Judith Ricketts and Paul Jackson, and community leader Sarah Lee.

Fashion Cities Africa and social media As part of Workforce Development, a front line member of staff has been responsible for developing and producing content for a museum Instagram account and Tumblr blog accompanying Fashion Cities Africa. The Instagram account has gone from 0 to 526 followers in 9 months and had 160 posts dedicated to the development and research; behind the scenes; and opening of the exhibition. (@brighton_museums) Responses to some of the posts include:  ‘Your posts are tantalising. Do we get to see these things you snap?’ (@illustriousbrighton)  ‘Lets’ go!’ (@veabrantuo)  ‘Can’t wait to visit the exhibition! So excited!’ (@sarahmary.gee)  ‘Girls weekend in Brighton on the cards methinks!’ (@Olivermoonphoto)  ‘Look at those textiles!’ (@mixedcompanygame)  ‘This is super cool, would love to see more’ (@Slicklordofficial)

The Tumblr blog features more in-depth interviews with exhibition contributors and curators and behind the scenes insight into the research and development of the exhibition, written by our Workforce Development participant: http://fashion-africa-brightonmuseums.org.uk/. As part of Culture 24’s Let’s Get Real Young Audience project, we have also developed the Digital Ambassador scheme, whereby 10 young volunteers from Brighton Fashion Week and the Museum Collective with their own active social media accounts, were given Instagram training and behind the scenes access to the curators and exhibition installation and invites to the press launch and private view. They then posted individually on their own Twitter/Instagram and Blogs about the exhibition. One of these blogs (by Victoria Rodrigues) can be read here: http://victorydoll.blogspot.co.uk/

Quotes from some of the posts:  @mollyraymer ‘Very excited to see the Fashion Cities Africa exhibition starting to take shape. So many amazing prints and patterns going on display.’  @vikkirodiguesod ‘Utterly in love with Yinka Ilori’s work and this whole set up #fashioncitiesafrica’  @emmanorth_ ‘fashion palz at FCA launch’ 3

 @k_patten ‘Mannequin jungle #fashioncitiesafrica #preparation’

Outputs and performance measures: Interim and full statistical survey information to follow once statistically meaningful data has been collected and reviewed:  % visitors coming to BMAG from BME communities (target of 26% via Digivey): 23% based on initial digivey survey (30 April – 12 May 2016, based on only 148 respondents) - full results to be drawn from final survey at end of exhibition.  % resident visitors coming to BMAG from BME communities (target of 5% increase, via Digivey): insufficient data at this stage.  % visitors coming to BMAG with an interest in fashion (target of 20 %, via Digivey, for Fashion Cities Africa): insufficient data at this stage.

Museum Lab

Collections Documentation - Number of CMS records created: 1,784 against a target of 1,000 There were some staff changes at end of last financial year, with some supporting posts namely Curator (Collections Management) changing due to end of contracts, and maternity leave. This has had an impact on Keeper (MuseumLab) post who has resumed responsibilities for collections management. Q1 has been spent refocusing work around backlog documentation, training and guiding curatorial colleagues on best practice and ways to increase capacity with volunteers to enter focus on entering Accession Register information onto CMS.

Collections Documentation - Number of CMS records improved: 20,115 against a target of 10,000 Collections Assistants have continued to make inroads into the backlog documentation targets required for Accreditation, and their work moved into supporting the development of the Museum Lab events. The target figures show we continue to demonstrate progress against collections documentation resulting in improvement to records and creation of new records.

Collections Care - Number of objects assessed and repacked: 1,289 against a target of 1,750 Collections care figures are being achieved with considered focus on Natural Sciences and Archaeology. As seen in the figures there has been a slight dip in achievement, mainly due to the staff who were focusing on re-storage being diverted to on research and develop a display and event.

No of tailored and/or public programmes/events: 23 against a target of 4  The Museum Lab space is now starting to function, with some regularity, hosting researchers, staff and community groups to engage with and work on the collections. For the public the space is open on an events basis only, with planning in Q1 leading to greater public opening every Wednesday in Q2.  Within Q1 MuseumLab was open to the public for 3 Discovery Days. These Discovery days are currently being piloted and pitched at different audiences but in general they are designed to be accessible family friendly, intergenerational opportunities for visitors to meet museum staff 4

and engage in close contact with collections. They are mostly held in school holidays. We are looking at scheduling and will test out Saturdays in Q3, and regularity of 1 per month, led by curatorial staff with input from volunteers and other partnerships.  The Easter Discovery Day event focused around the natural sciences collection titled Dinosaurs & Dragons and complemented the Heritage learning project. The second in June ½ term focused on African textiles to complement the Fashion Cities Africa Exhibition. The third day was slightly different with a different audience focus, and an opportunity for locals and descendants of local soldiers to commemorating the centenary of the loss of Sussex men at the WW1 Battle of Boars head on 30th June 2016.  The Boars head Discover Day linked directly to the 1st temporary MuseumLab display in the MuseumLab foyer. The display was the realisation of research undertaken by Amanda Scales, VSO as part of a workforce development opportunity working with curator Andy Maxted. 130 people attended the event, including visits from the Mayor, a number of Brighton councillors, the British legion and representatives of all of the families of the four Boar’s Head soldiers whose stories we told.  Several other public events were held in the space during Q1 including; activities for Children’s Art Week, the now regular partnership open day on last Friday of month with Brighton & Hove Archaeological Society, and a Volks Open day- where members of the public were consulted and invited to view the plans for the Volks Railway HLF development.  The MuseumLab also hosted several invited/ticketed events; including Members talk, Jaws & Claws (live animals) and a Fashion Cities Africa discussion. The space has also been used to support exhibition development for Fashion Cities Africa and for processing recent Egyptology loans to Two Temple Place, London, and for progressing partnership opportunities with University of Brighton around 3D scanning of museum objects.  The space has also hosted regular community group sessions such as BME Heritage training sessions and one of introductions to the museum of targeted groups such as the recent successful session with Brighton Housing Trust.

Royal Pavilion Estate

Alexandra Loske-Page has continued to work on two groups of objects: The so-called “Good plans” of the Royal Pavilion estate, dating from the 1820s and 1830s and early printed books on the Royal Pavilion estate (see previous quarters). 40 Good plans have now been inspected and processed in their entirety, although the issue of photographing or scanning them still needs to be resolved, as their size is proving to be problematic. Four of five of the plans will be used in the display of lesser known views of the Royal Pavilion estate in Brighton Museum in early 2017. We will concentrate on now largely demolished servants’ quarters in and around the South Gate and the Royal stables in general.

With the help of local 3D modeller Colin Jones, conservator Gordon Grant, Keeper David Beevers and researcher Tracey Anderson, we have been creating a number of views of the Royal Pavilion estate at various stages, comparing Good plans, early printed books and other sources. A Pavilion Estate timeline has been created that will be used in a number of ways in future interpretation of the Pavilion Estate. Colin Jones has written a blog 5 post on the project, while Alexandra has given several talks on the early printed books. This is an ongoing project into which new information can be fed.

Digital and online output:  The Royal Pavilion estate timeline created by Colin Jones can be viewed here: http://cjbrighton.co.uk/PavilionTimeMachine/  Colin Jones’ blog post: Technology meets history: Computer modelling Brighton’s Royal Pavilion Estate http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discover/2016/05/03/technology-meets-history- computer-modelling-brightons-royal-pavilion-estate/  Alexandra’s blog post on Humphry Repton:

http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discover/2016/05/03/technology-meets-history- Figure 1: Royal Pavilion Estate timeline created by Colin Jones computer-modelling-brightons-royal-pavilion-estate/  Alexandra’s blog on a 20th century design proposal for the Royal Pavilion estate (also covered in Viva Brighton magazine), in which we encouraged the general public to come forward with any information about the proposed scheme: http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discover/2016/05/03/technology-meets-history-computer-modelling- brightons-royal-pavilion-estate/

With the help of a work experience student from Brighton University we have now finished an overview of what comprises the Royal Pavilion Archives. This overview can be developed further over time, if a more detailed account is required. Alexandra is currently collating all the information documented by herself and the work experience student.

Other digital output (work in progress): Following on from the audit of early printed sources concerning the Royal Pavilion Estate we have photographed a copy each of the following books in their entirety, comprising around 200 images in total:

 Humphry Repton’s Designs for the Pavilion at Brighton (1808)  John Nash’s The Royal Pavilion at Brighton (1826)  E.W. Brayley’s Illustrations of her Majesty's Palace at Brighton (1838)

Figure 2: Colin Jones photographing Royal Pavilion Estate plans 6

Alexandra is working with Kevin Bacon, Beverly Green and Krystyna Pickering on new web pages that will make these books available digitally, enhanced by additional media (for example audio clips and curator’s comments). These books have not been digitized in their entirety before and we are collaborating with the Royal Collection/Royal Library on the digitization of Humphry Repton’s Designs.

Spotlight Gallery

‘Experimental Motion: the art of film innovation’ is the next Spotlight Gallery display (Brighton Museum & Art Gallery), opening Sat 22 Oct 2016 and running until Sun 4 June 2017. It will tell the story of experimental film-making in Brighton & Hove, from 1896 to the present day.

Unknown to many, both Brighton and Hove have played a rich and important part in international film history. Early film-making pioneers including George Albert Smith and James Williamson, who became known as the Brighton School and worked here at the turn of the 20th century, while Modern and contemporary filmmakers and moving image artists - like Jeff Keen, Ben Wheatley and Ben Rivers - have cemented the city’s status as a hotbed of experimental film.

Experimental Motion: the art of film innovation will explore Brighton & Hove’s success as a place for experimental film-making, and its significance nationally and internationally, opening up RPM’s film and media collections to new audiences, and showing their significance in the history of moving image. There will also be a call for filmmakers to submit their own short films to be shown at a series of screening events, and presented online during the exhibition. And RPM’s Museum Collective, a group of young people working with filmmaker Lindsey Smith, are developing new creative work that responds to the theme of experimental filmmaking to be shown in the exhibition. It will be part of CineCity film festival in November, with some extra screenings, talks and events throughout the festival around the theme of experimental filmmaking in the city.

The display is part of RPM’s John Ellerman Foundation-funded project ‘Film Pioneers’, which aims to enable staff at RPM to research, display and document the city’s Film & Media collections. This includes the Experimental Motion display and a full review of the collection to further explore its international significance and how the museum might enhance its use, as well as ensuring that the collection is fully accessible to the public online. The project is working in partnership with Screen Archive South East at the University of Brighton, Videoclub, the British Film Institute, Lighthouse and The British Library.

Goal 2

Audiences

Everyone has the opportunity to experience and to be inspired by the arts, museums and libraries

For goal 2, we are focused on our mission to inspire a strong sense of shared ownership of RPM

Agreed Outcomes:

 Audiences are increased, more diverse and have a stronger sense of ownership  Collections better reflect and engage audiences  Visitors have a better quality experience  Broadening access through digital development

Cross Arts & Heritage Events Programme

Highlight: Dr Blighty Dr Blighty was a major new Nutkhut production which took place as part of the Brighton Festival in the Royal Pavilion Garden, Tuesday 24 to Saturday 28 May, inspired by the story of the 2,300 Indian soldiers hospitalised on the Royal Pavilion Estate in the First World War. The production was co- commissioned by 14-18NOW: WW1 Centenary Art Commissions, Brighton Festival and Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton and Hove. The free, drop- in events involved a series of installations, soundscapes, and theatrical and musical interludes in the west of the Garden, allowing an immersive and intimate engagement during daylight, and a spectacular video projection - with a soundtrack or specially-composed music, ambient sound and spoken word- onto the east façade of the Royal Pavilion at nightfall.

The projections proved immensely popular and captured the public’s imagination. They were seen by around 55,000 visitors across the five nights, involving large-scale crowd management as the audience grew night-by-night, and necessitating road closures on the Saturday to accommodate the very large numbers attending. Just under 10,000 visitors engaged with the activities on the Garden’s west-side which involved community contributors and participants as well as professional actors and musicians. Well over a million people have seen stills and videos of the projections on social media, and images made ‘photograph of the day on many on-line media outlets during Dr Blighty’s run. The audience evaluation is currently being compiled. For images of both the daytime and evening events see http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/royalpavilion/history/past-events/dr-blighty/.

Fashion Cities Africa: Event Programme The first part of the FCA event programme has seen the successful delivery of events in partnership with the BME Heritage Network. These have included a tour of the exhibition by Hannah Azieb Pool, and in conversation events with designers and stylists and artist collectives represented in the exhibition including Sunny Dolat and the Nest Collection, Marianne Fassler, and 2manysiblings.

2manysiblings also hosted a Thrift Social at Brighton Museum in collaboration with RPM, AfroRetro and contributors from the BME Heritage Network. Visitors shopped, swapped, up-cycled, drank Kenyan cocktails, listened to live music, styled, posed and photographed. For images see https://www.instagram.com/brighton_museums/

Bitesize Museum April – June 2016 Highlights for our regular Tuesday lunchtime pop-up talks and tours reflected our eclectic collections and exhibitions. Fine Art highlights included a special opportunity to view Turner’s ‘Brighthelmstone (1824)’ up close, and an introduction to the Language of Flowers exhibition. Collaborations with other cultural partners, community groups and creative have made key contributions to the recent programme including Tony Kalume of the FCA collections panel and his exploration of the growing trend of recycled car tyre sandals, and hidden Swahili messages within traditional African garments; the authors of Yangon Echoes (Virginia Henderson & Tim Webster cataloguing once resplendent buildings of Burma; and Caroline Goffin

9 who is involved in in the Salt of the Sarkar project (Hindu, Sikh and Muslim soldiers of WW1) and came to discuss the early 20th century novel ‘Across the Black Water’.

Meeting of the Minds symposium, 25 and 26 May A collaboration between RPM, the Golden Tours Foundation, Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research, Delhi, and the Imperial War Museum to provide an opportunity to meet, share knowledge and plans with people working on various aspects related to the Indian involvement in World War 1. 52 people attended, including participants from across the UK, Belgium, India, USA and a representative from the Indian High Commission. Participants included academics, museums, creatives, programmers, educators and enthusiasts. The symposium involved a day and a half of presentations and discussions, hosted at the Royal Pavilion, a visit to the Chattri Memorial and an evening reception at the House of Parliament. It is part of collaboratively building a legacy about India and the First World War beyond 2018. Quotes from the day:  ‘It’s the very first meeting looking beyond 2018’ Domeniek Dendooven, In Flanders Fields Museum  ‘How do we take this synergy forward? Post 2018. Education has to be the core of what we are doing. Remembrance, engagement, relevance’ Dr Bruce Cherry, historian

The Great Escape @ Brighton Museum The Great Escape showcases upcoming musical talent in a number of venues across Brighton. Continuing the successful collaboration on the evening of 19 May BMAG hosted 7 acoustic acts within the museum. The event included singers, guitarists, a pianist and harpist. Over 550 visitors experienced the Museum in a new way. The Great Escape also held a networking event in the museum prior to the music programme.

New activity in MuseumLab (see MuseumLab report for further details)

Audience Research

Undertaking qualitative research and audience segmentation work in partnership with the Audience Agency, VisitBrighton and BDBF: there was an improvement in Q1 on the final year position of 83% for 2015-16 of 85% across all sites. The main improvement has been in Brighton Museum data however the survey returns relate to data collected in the Fashion Cities Africa exhibition alone as opposed to the Brighton Museum as a whole due to faulty survey equipment. Satisfaction for the Royal Pavilion, Brighton Museum, Preston Manor, Hove Museum & the Booth Museum stands at 85%, 94%, 72%, 95% & 74% respectively.

Advisory Groups

BME Heritage Network: Three BME Heritage Network events have been held this quarter: a coffee morning at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery (2 April 2016) and two special tours of the Fashion Cities Africa exhibition (10 May and 14 May 2016). BME HN members have been highly engaged and enthusiastic participants in exhibition-related events, including at the Fashion Cities Africa: Nairobi event on 7 June which was hosted by the Network. Four BME HN members are undertaking volunteer placements with Royal Pavilion & Museums. Outcomes include a gallery talk for the exhibition and a new ‘Africa’-related learning resource. One BME HN member is currently undertaking programming work for Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. Other BME HN members are leading ‘Bitesize’-style public events at Brighton Museum.

Figure 3: Phati Mnguni at the opening of Fashion Cities Figure 4: Tony Kalume leading a bitesize talk at Brighton Museum Africa © Judith Ricketts

Access Advisory Group (AAG): One member of the group has left due to reducing outside commitments, so we welcomed a new member. The group had a guided tour of the Fashion Cities Africa by the exhibition curator; they were really pleased with the changes that had been made after they were consulted prior to installation, while pointing out areas for learning for future exhibitions. The Digital Development Officer joined the session at the request of a group member to partake in a discussion about copyright, access & images; in reference particularly to partially sighted people and those with learning difficulties using cameras and tablets to support their visits.

Community Engagement

Recovery College http://www.mindcharity.co.uk/advice-and-information/make-mark-art-courses/ An 8 week course at Brighton Museum delivered by Sussex Health Partnership supported by RPM. This course is part of the recovery college programme to support people with mental health issues to move towards self-management and become empowered. Using the Museum & Art Gallery and collections for inspiration each week they created new work, responding to birds from The Booth & MuseumLab, The Pavilion Blues exhibition; the planting in the Royal Pavilion Garden; the collection and records of Tom’s Witches Stones, Doreen Valiente exhibition at Preston Manor, Fashion Cities Africa and the permanent displays. We provided opportunities to access exhibitions, and collections not on display, curator support and lead sessions, gallery and exhibition tours, the use of the art room, & equipment including digital cameras. The work was displayed for an invited audience and Museum staff at the end of the course. Of the courses run this term, this was the most popular, it was oversubscribed and had a high retention of attendees, 12 started, 10 completed the course, very significant given the issues participants are living with.

Museum Mentors In preparation for a planned exhibition with Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival, members have been inspired by the Estate buildings including influences from the Royal Pavilion “Dr Blighty”, light show. Another member is creating an artwork to map all her safe spaces in Brighton, her home and the Museum being included. Her work poses questions of an audience; 'what is a safe space?' 'what does community mean to you?' She wishes to share in her work her own ideas of safety and community. The project has taken on 6 new volunteers. One member has commenced a new mentor partnership; she is being supported to access further education. A social worker stated: 'P is so very animated and smiles when he speaks about Museum Mentors, I have never seen this from him before. He does not show such passion about his other Day Service.'

Work Force Development A 2nd Visitors Services Officer has joined the project via WFD program. One is considering access to Social Work qualifications. Another has expressed that the role has added new unforeseen rewards and fulfilment that enrich his position as an employee within Royal Pavilion & Museums.

Pride & Prejudice Liverpool Museums LGBTQ project. We met with the project leads and researcher to expand our relationship and to gain from their learning to support the delivery of our LGBTQ programme and exhibitions in 2017 marking the 50 yrs anniversary of the sexual offences legislation: http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/collections/research/lgbt/. Matt Exley has been asked to join our project support group.

ACE Diversity day RPM’s Community Engagement Officer presented to South East ACE colleagues the work developed by RPM Youth Engagement Officer with Allsorts LGBTU group on the redevelopment of the local history gallery display.

Without Borders LGBTQ ALMS conference RPM’s Community Engagement Officer and 2 workforce development staff attended the conference to learn from international organisations and projects to support our LGBTQ work and work for the 2017 RPM exhibition. Valuable conversations have been started and contacts made to support this work. http://lgbtqalms.co.uk/about/

2017 LGBTQ Spotlight Gallery Community exhibition Planning and discussions with LGBTQ individuals from the community have started leading into the exhibition.

Sensing Cultures A session with Blind Veterans was held at The Booth Museum to begin the development of resources and changes to displays to make the Museum more attractive ad accessible to blind and partially sighted visitors.

Older People Planning has begun to restart the sessions run at BMAG for people with dementia and their carers after the success of pilot sessions last year.

Make your Mark “Make Your Mark is the newly established arts in health programme for Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, supported by Heads On, the Trust's charity. We know that the arts can be hugely powerful in supporting people with mental health problems in their recovery. We want to expand this work both across the Trust and publicly, raising awareness, generating ideas and inspiring people to view mental health differently.” As a regular partner in Sussex Partnership NHS projects, RPM’s Community Engagement Officer has become a member of the steering group and the first meeting was held this quarter. https://vimeo.com/121224429

Pavilion Blues Disability & Identity As part of the exhibition marking the Royal Pavilion Estate’s hidden disability history we opened an active dialogue with visitors to the exhibition, asking them these questions:  “What can Museums do to encourage positive attitudes to disability?”  “What can we do as individuals to challenge discrimination?  “What disability issues should Brighton Museum & Art Gallery be looking at & discussing through its collections and events?”

This feature is being responded to really well, visitors are taking the opportunity to take part;  “Employ disabled people at the Museum”  “A treat for a historian of medicine not expecting this”  “Good start we need more representations of disabled people in museums and art”  “Educate others not to discriminate”

There have been a number of RPM staff lead tours and talks on Pavilion Blues & RPM’s Disability history; a Bitesize talk; a session for the Recovery College; a session for workplace students; presentations to Strike A Light community History group and U3A and subsequent visits to the exhibition (http://www.brightonandhoveu3a.org.uk/).We have just purchased a replica Pavilion blues uniform to bring to life presentations for groups. We have added the Pavilion Military Hospital, for amputee soldiers to the time line in The Royal Pavilion. A number of glass panels have gone into the Royal Pavilion to highlight this period of the Pavilion Estates history, when it was a hospital from 1916 to soldiers who had lost limbs. The panels include text and photographs to show how the rooms looked at that time, visitors can compare how they are laid out now as they were at the time of George the IV. Figure 3: Pavilion Blues display dialogue

Digital Initiatives

 Web sessions are 31% up on the previous year; users increased by 28%.  A Blogging workshop was conducted on 7 April. Seven new RPM staff were trained to post to RPM’s Wordpress site.  We are still seeing a very big increase in social sharing of web content. Facebook traffic is up 153% on the previous year.  Funding has been secured for the Creative Exchange project with Lancaster University. This will result in prototype digital interactive with a new approach to accessing RPM and University of Lancaster’s postcard collections. The aim is to launch for Brighton Digital Festival 2016.  The Digital Review 2015 has now been approved. The next digital review will be produced in Q4 2017. 14

Goal 3 Resilience

The arts, museums and libraries are resilient and environmentally sustainable

We will intensify our focus on ensuring the long term sustainability of RPM by developing our audiences, building our profile and diversifying our income streams

Agreed Outcomes:

 Achieve greater resilience by developing our audiences and building our profile  Investment in sustainable operating systems  Achieve greater financial resilience by developing business opportunities and growing support  Preston Manor, the Booth and Hove Museum become more sustainable

Marketing

Delivering targeted marketing  As of 23 June, Facebook traffic to the website is up by 159% compared to the previous year. Twitter traffic has increased by 14%.  Targeted paid Facebook advertising for the Thrift Social event in support of Fashion Cities Africa generated 221 website clicks and 265 post engagements.  'By George' promotional offer for Royal Pavilion admission was our top tweet for the quarter.

Audience Figures Our overall audience figure for RPM for Qtr1 is 140,073. The Booth Museum and Hove Museum are on target while Preston Manor is c.2,000 over target. The Royal Pavilion is 4,000 down on target and Brighton Museum is 14,000 down on target. Preston Manor has performed strongly in Q1, boosted by the Folklore, Magic & Mysteries display. Figures at Brighton Museum have been disappointing despite extensive Fashion Cities Africa marketing during the quarter. A new BMAG campaign has just launched focussing on the permanent offer at the Museum aimed at day visitors and tourists.

Developing a 3-year PR strategy Quarter 1 2016-17 has seen widespread coverage of Fashion Cities Africa, by outlets including the Guardian (feature by Hannah Pool), The Times (Saturday Review Critics’ Choice), Guardian Guide weekly exhibition pick, EasyJet magazine (4-page feature), Vogue’s Monthly Culture Guide, i-D (piece by Helen Jennings), Glamour magazine Spain, The Pool, Big Issue and Stylist - plus a series of features and a competition by our media partner Nataal. Curator Helen Mears was the Art Fund website’s Curator of the Month, and the exhibition was covered by myriad African and African- interest/diaspora outlets including leading publication The Voice. A package is still to appear on the BBC World Service, and regional coverage has included ITV Meridian News, the Argus (centre pages), Viva Brighton, BN1 and the B&H Independent - please see the attached report for a full list of coverage.

Our Doreen Valiente display at Preston Manor has featured in The Times, The (national) Independent, BBC Radio 4 The World Tonight (plus syndicated to BBC religious affairs programmes), Talk Radio Penny Smith Show, Art Quarterly, The National Student, a wide range of esoteric media outlets, BBC regional TV and radio news, Big Issue, the Argus (centre pages) and many more – it was even mentioned on the BBC 6Music Cerys Matthews show! Pavilion Blues at BMAG made BBC Sussex Saturday Breakfast, the BBC News website and Sussex Style, while Ocean Blues made a surprise appearance in the BBC Wildlife magazine. Apparently there was also a feature on the Royal Pavilion in The Lady, which we’ll have a copy of soon.

We secured a new monthly column in the Brighton & Hove Independent, with RPM colleagues outlining key areas of activity, and our Workforce Development Programme was featured by Arts Professional (Helen Graham blog) and on the ACE website (as was our Children’s Art Week 16 activity). Another blog, on our Heritage Learning 2016 project by Lindsey Smith, featured on Museums & Heritage Advisor.

Our Preston Park geophysical survey results made BBC Radio Sussex Breakfast and the B&H Independent, and there was a large amount of regional coverage of the proposed Hove Library move into Hove Museum. We were also a partner in Dr Blighty, which achieved huge coverage including the Argus (several features), the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, BBC Asian Network, ITV Meridian News, Brighton & Hove Independent, BBC Sussex, Juice FM and Latest TV. Please see the full Q1 report to review all RPM’s media coverage.

Develop groups & travel trade sales & marketing strategy Activity for Qtr1 has focused on reviewing contracts with all third party resellers and developing new partnerships. Visit Britain, Golden Tours, I360 and Hospitality line have all been contracted to sell Royal Pavilion tickets during the Qtr. Group figures for Q1 were 52,732 as compared to 55,266 for Q1 in 2015-16. The biggest drop was in June with 3,200 fewer group visits than June 2015-16. We are currently analysing data to see where the drop off has been.

Business & Operating Systems

Our new online ticketing system has been through testing and requires some additional development but will go live in Q2. This will be the last part of our web presence to be optimised for mobile devices, and will allow a more seamless integration into our website. With around 50% of our website users currently on tablets and smartphones, we expect to see an increase in online ticket sales from this. A review is currently underway into audio tour provision as part of this we are trialling a new web based audio tour of the Royal Pavilion which launched as a public prototype. Developed entirely in-house, this is currently used as a backup for when our current handsets are in short supply, and uses public wifi. Number of users is small so far, but initial feedback is very positive. There is already a strong indication of a demand for something similar at our other sites.

Commercial Development: Functions

Increasing earned income through improvements to functions business and building organisational commercial acumen: revenue for the period April-June 2016 totalled £87,228; 8.41% over target for this quarter (Q1 target was £79,034) and an increase of 17.35% on the previous year’s takings. April-June is the start of our busy weddings period and includes the Brighton and Fringe Festival month of May. The increase in revenue has in the main come from increased weddings (ceremonies and receptions) and festival bookings. We’ve not hosted any of our own commercial events, it has all been straight hires from clients external clients.

Number of staff trained to build commercial acumen: in early June 30 National Trust Visitor Experience Consultants undertook as part of a two day annual whole team meeting a half day workshop which used the Royal Pavilion as a case study. 6 RPM staff attended whilst consultants worked through the NT consultancy process to develop ideas for future business model, presentation and programming to drive income. This developed new insights for the team which will be disseminated within the organisation in Qtr 2.

Fundraising

Membership For 2016/17 we are restating our targets to use membership rather than member data. This allows more accurate reporting from our database. We have also corrected calculations on income based on a more accurate value per membership figure. New membership targets take attrition into account which mean we have had to increase the number of new memberships we recruit to achieve our goals. Target membership income has been calculated based on average membership value. Targets for 2016-17:  1,115 new memberships: 229 new memberships in Q1 (this is equal to 359 members)  Increase membership by 15%, realising gross unrestricted income of £108,000: Q1 new memberships have an actual value of £7,223  30% of memberships sold onsite: 68% of new memberships in Q1 were sold onsite

Patrons 3 patrons ended or suspended their patronage in Q1. Of 23 Patrons 3 are honorary patrons, 9 Regency Patrons and 11 Patrons. Assuming this split is typical the unrestricted income on an increase of 20% we would achieve £21,000 patrons’ income. The retention rate target has been changed from an unrealistic 100% to 90%. Targets for 2016-17:  Increase Patrons by 20% pa realising gross unrestricted income of 21,000: 23 Patrons current in Q1, value of £14,500.  Maintain 90% retention rate

Trusts & Foundations Targets for 2016-17:  Value of funds raised from Trusts and Foundations – target £250,000 pa (assuming vacant posts filled if not targets will need to be reduced for Qtr2): £4,000 raised in Q1 (Art Fund: Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Grants Scheme). We are also still awaiting the outcome of our bid to Clore for £450,000, and have just submitted a bid for £110,000 to the Arts Council Change Makers Fund.

Legacy Pledges Targets for 2016-17:  Target of 3 legacy pledges. We are not able to actively run a legacy programme until staff are in place to run this. However, legacies do not always come from known pledgers.

Major Gifts Targets for 2016-17:  Value of major gifts including corporate support – target 10k (assuming vacant posts filled if not targets will need to be reduced Qtr2).

Social Enterprise Targets for 2016-17:  Value of unrestricted income raised: 20,000 net profit for the year. The contract with Volk’s Electric Railway is ongoing, realising an income of £60,000 over 2 years. The invoice for the next instalment is due in July 2016.

Business Planning: Booth, Preston Manor & Hove

Hove Museum & Art Gallery

The focus for the last three months has been on the proposed plan to move Hove Library to the site of Hove Museum. Although the proposal was agreed at council, the plans were then halted and returned for a final decision where the proposal was turned down. Whilst the potential was there for the library move, it was difficult to make firm plans (particularly long term plans) against the business plan.

Without the ability to plan in the longer term, the museum focussed on the period up to March of 2017 (the point at which work would properly begin on the library plan). Two temporary exhibitions have been confirmed. Silver Portraits will open in Gallery 2 in September until mid-November: the exhibition has been chosen on the basis that it fits with the Film and Media collection, is easy and low cost and fits a programme of changing displays to draw more interest. The second exhibition will cover Gallery 2, Gallery 5 and Gallery 6. This exhibition is the mixed media storytelling work of a local artist collective. It is co-created with the collective and is also a selling opportunity.

A new exhibition went up in Gallery 6: ‘Animals in the Frame’. This exhibition uses items from the Natural Sciences collection and is a collaboration between staff on different sites. The installation of this exhibition offered the opportunity for training in some conservation methods, which was taken up by workforce development participants, Collections Assistants and the site lead for Hove Museum. The Figure 4: Poster for Arty Crafty Club for 8-12 yr olds at exhibition is small but well-presented and contains many resources for children and their families. Hove Museum

A craft making class for adults has been running from the beginning of May. The class is once a week and covers a variety of techniques. Whilst the class is not full it does have a loyal following and is providing a good opportunity for piloting and looking at demand. Likewise, an art club for 8 – 12 year olds has been running on Saturdays since May. This is not very well subscribed but is serving as a useful pilot to assess demand. Hove Museum has also started blogging every week as part of a project around marketing and promotion.

The VSO staff at Hove Museum are involved in developing new roles within the museum: a drop in art class on Tuesday afternoons; installation of the Birds of a Feather display; and painting a mural to support the Birds exhibition. One VSO is involved in Workforce Development, working on the forthcoming artist collective exhibition.

Preston Manor

Significant increases in admissions and retail income have been achieved at Preston Manor following the opening of the season-long ‘Folklore, Magic and Mysteries’ display on 2nd April, featuring collections from the Doreen Valiente Foundation on witchcraft, magic and folklore. For Apr-May 2016, admissions income was £11,716 compared with £6,016 achieved during the same period in FY2015-16. This is approx. a third of the annual target. A series of linked events and ceremonies organised by the DVF have proved very popular & have helped reinforce visitor numbers and income.

Retail income growth has been especially encouraging, with retail stock being completely refreshed to tie-in with the temporary display. For the period of this report, retail income for April and May 2016 was £2,567 and £2,417 respectively, compared to £162 and £171, in the same period last year. This already exceeds the target of £3,000 for the year by £1,984.

Visitor figures have also been strong for April & May – 5,192 vs. 3,279. However, it is important to note that income and footfall linked directly to the display is for the 2016 season only. Unfortunately, Preston Manor’s traditionally strong core income source, schools role-play sessions, has declined further in this quarter, the Manor hosting fewer sessions in Q1 FY16-16 than in Q1 FY2015-16, with a consequent reductions in admissions income and footfall. The Strategic Plan recognises this trend, and alternative offers are being developed – new schools sessions focusing on literacy, and a ghost experience for younger foreign English Language students. In addition, the Doreen Valiente display has generated unprecedented media coverage for Preston Manor, with stories appearing in the New York Times, and interviews broadcast on national radio.

Preston Manor was also the focus of a community heritage open day on 28th May, running as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival and working for the first time with the wider Preston Community. The Figure 5: Brighton & Hove Archaeological Society demonstration in the Kitchen Garden at Preston event had a strong archaeology theme following the geophysical Manor Community Heritage Open Day survey made of parts of Preston Park last autumn. We welcomed 920 visitors to the house during the day, and generated over £500 in retail sales. 21

The Booth Museum of Natural History

A significant change at the Booth at the start of this period was the retirement of John Cooper from the post of Keeper of Natural Sciences after 35 years on 31st March. Because John also managed the premises, the Development and Operations Manager has had to devote more time in this quarter to picking up those day-to-day operational responsibilities, which has slowed down the implementation of the strategic plan.

Similarly, the commitment of the Curator of Natural Sciences and the two Curatorial Assistants employed through Museum Lab to deliver Museum Lab activity at BMAG has reduced the capacity of these staff members to support business development and programming activity on-site at the Booth.

To help overcome this situation, a smaller but more realistic set of priority actions have been identified for the Booth for 2016-17. These balance much more effectively the curatorial, programming, operational and developmental activity at the Booth with that of the Museum Lab and with other wider aspects of RPM’s operation that involve the natural science collections and expertise. These refined priorities will determine where MPM and other funds are invested in the next year to 18 months, but one consequence of this focus is likely to be fewer public events programmed in-house over the next 12-18 months.

Of these priorities, the most pressing is to resolve the safety issues presented by the glazing on some of the display cases, especially some Booth bird dioramas and the glazing in the geology and osteology galleries.

Another of the identified priorities is improving the accessibility of the museum’s displays. As part of the RNIB-managed and HLF-funded Sensing Cultures project, the Booth hosted the first focus group of blind and partially sighted people. This was a superb opportunity to engage in a constructive dialogue with this client group about the barriers they experience when visiting the Booth, and how we can over-come them and improve their enjoyment of the museum. The precise focus of this project has yet to be agreed, but one immediate outcome was the feedback provided on the case background colour trials noted in the previous report. Interestingly, the preferred background colour was not the colour we expected would be chosen, although the lighting conditions also had an effect. We therefore need to conduct further trails in order to identify the optimum solution.

In terms of developing footfall and income, the team at the Booth hosted three after-hours events in this period, all linked to the Brighton Fringe Festival: a presentation from our ex-Writer-in-Residence, Mick Jackson, in which he discussed man’s often ambivalent relationship with the natural world, and in particular our tendency to anthropomorphise. The second were two nights of promenade performances for the one-man play, “The Tale of Tommy O’Quire”, subsequently described in the local press as ‘A masterclass in solo performance”. The Mick Jackson event was 90% sold out, while performances of Tommy on Saturday, 28th May were fully sold out, with the pay bar at each event generating additional income. Additionally, staff have been experimenting by creating a new retail offer based on appropriate art and crafts from local makers. Sales so far have been relatively modest, but there is enough interest to carry the experiment forward. 22

Goal 4 Leadership

Leadership and workforce in the arts, museums and libraries are diverse and appropriately skilled

Activity under Goal 4 focuses on the support we provide the museums sector, drawing on our key strengths, and on the step change we will make in skills development for staff and volunteers

Agreed Outcomes:

 Cultural organisations work together to deliver sustainable Heritage Learning  Efficient and effective delivery of RPM’s MPM and SEMDP  Organisational learning, experience and skills shared within the SE and nationally  RPM has a more diverse and skilled workforce and volunteer base

Heritage Learning Partnership

Number of school visits across the Partnership: this is gathered at year end. We are currently working on gathering the data form 2015-16 and will report this in Q2.

One collaborative project delivered: the planning meeting for this year’s Heritage Learning Flagship project is taking place in July 2016, and will be focussed around Stage, Screen & Trench, exploring the entertainment scene a century or more ago and the way that local film makers and stars helped cheer up the troops at the front and the nation at home. Brighton and the surrounding area played an enormous part in this with its own local stars and celebrities, its venues hosting international stars and its legacy of innovation in film making.

Sector Leadership

Annual Conference This year’s conference is Workforce Development: Developing a skilled and diverse workforce in the cultural sector, to be held at the Royal Pavilion & Museums’ (RPM) Old Court Room in Brighton on 30 November 2016. The Workforce Development Programme (WDF) at RPM aims to develop a skilled, engaged and entrepreneurial workforce by offering frontline staff the opportunity to work in different departments and get involved in projects across the organisation. Using WFD as a springboard for discussion, the conference aims to review and evaluate existing programmes, to consider and question challenges, and to discuss and devise future ways forward.

A call out for papers has been issued, seeking to explore, across the museums, galleries and cultural sector, participation in or leadership of initiatives that: 1. Support professional and personal development amongst staff 2. Deliver staff training 3. Address skills gaps 4. Ensure equality and diversity in the workforce

The conference is being organised by a project team made up of four Workforce Development Placements, all young RPM frontline staff, supported by a freelance Conference Coordinator, and RPM’s Learning, Engagement & Volunteers Manager and Partnerships & Special Projects Officer. Initial project team meetings were held in June to decide on target audiences, conference format and provisional programme, and the call out for papers has been made across the museum and galleries sector.

Seminars/workshops: planning to be started in next quarter. 24

Staff participation in regional and national conferences, publications, awards:  David Beevers, Keeper of the Royal Pavilion, is providing ongoing consultancy to Historic Royal Palaces in an advisory capacity on the restoration of Chinoiserie dragon sculptures on the exterior of the Chinese Pagoda at Kew Gardens.  Jody East, Curator, Creative Programme, gave a presentation at the Museums & Heritage show (London, 18 May) to an audience of c50 people on ‘Young audiences & digital: experimental approaches’.  Alexandra Loske-Page, Curator (Collections Projects) co-organised, in her role as Associate Art History Tutor at the University of Sussex, a 2-day international conference on historic Chinese wallpaper in April 2016, with the National Trust, the Royal College of Art and the V&A. The optional day 3 brought delegates to the Royal Pavilion. Alexandra Loske and Amy Junker-Heslip, RPM Paper Conservator, gave delegates a tour of the Royal Pavilion and showed them wallpapers and archives.  Kevin Bacon, Digital Development Officer, gave the following presentations: o Talk at Meeting of Minds symposium on Indian hospital 25 May (Brighton, organised by Golden Tours Foundation, and included other speakers from IWM, In Flanders Fields Museum, NAM, National Archives) o Talk at Challenging Histories conference 30 June, on ‘Circulation not Curation’ (a museological reflection on the Indian hospital story), in Cardiff, at the University of Wales and National Museum Wales https://challenginghistorynetwork.wordpress.com/2016-conference/ Kevin published the following blog post and newspaper article: o Guest post for Collections Trust blog on DAM metadata, 13 April http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk/blog/item/13933-the-long-read- some-saucy-thoughts-on-metadata-and-value o Article for Brighton & Hove Independent on Dr Blighty and Indian hospital, 27 May http://brightonandhoveindependent.co.uk/little- piece-india-royal-pavilion/  Helen Graham, Learning, Engagement & Volunteers Manager, wrote a blog on RPM’s Workforce Development Programme for Arts Professional, www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/article/developing-workforce  Helen Mears, Keeper of World Art, was interviewed as ‘Curator of the Month’ on the Art Fund Website in May, and spoke about Brighton Museum’s Fashion Cities Africa exhibition and collecting African fashion for the museum’s World Art collection http://www.artfund.org/news/2016/05/03/curator-of-the-month-helen-mears-keeper-of-world-art  Nicola Coleby, Partnerships & Special Projects Officer, wrote the article ‘On My Bookshelf’ for the June issue of the Museums Association Journal.

Working with Norfolk on delivery of MPM action plan for diversity report: RPM is liaising with Norfolk on delivery of the areas of responsibility in the recommendations from Arts Council’s Diversity Action Plan. RPM has identified key actions to take forward as an organisation which will be formulated into a short action plan in Q2, and will be monitored by Leadership team through the reporting period. 25

Implementation of actions in diversity report through the Equalities Plan RPM updated its Equalities Action Plan and produced a short report against achievement in February 2016, which was submitted to Arts Council as the new updated Plan for 2016-18. The Equalities Plan will be updated with the Diversity actions during Q2.

Volunteering & Workforce Development

Volunteers: 3 new volunteer roles were recruited to this quarter; one with World Art through the community engagement side of Fashion Cities Africa, one with Museum Mentors supporting adults with critical social care need, and one to co-ordinate the new Garden Greeters project. 9 new volunteers started in these 3 new roles. RPM now has 121 volunteers that have contributed 3,868 hours to the service during this reporting period.

Workforce Development: 2 new workforce development opportunities created this quarter, one with Museum Mentors and one around the planning and delivery of the national Workforce Development conference that RPM are hosting in November 2016. 10 front-of-house are currently benefiting from Workforce Development opportunities. RPM is hosting a national conference on Workforce Development in November 2016 as part of its Sector Leadership responsibilities: http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discover/events/event/conference-developing-a-skilled-and-diverse-workforce-in-the-cultural- sector/

Goal 5 Children & Young People

Every child & young person has the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts, museums and libraries

The activities under Goal 5 are geared to make a real difference to children and young people’s skills, learning and quality of life

Agreed Outcomes:

 Families and children have engaging and enjoyable experiences  RPM supports and provides inspiring learning experiences  A diverse range of young people are actively engaged with RPM

Children & Families Programming

This quarter saw the usual family activities, with workshops for children in each school holiday. The exhibition ‘Animals in the Frame’ was also supported by activities for children. April saw an increase of almost 1000 visitors compared to the same month last year. This may have been due to the fact that the museum ran more activities in the Easter break of this year, and that they were more heavily publicised with fliers and posters (produced at the museum). The overall visitor figure for the quarter is down on this time last year: April to June 2016 was 8,032, whereas April to June 2015 was 8,529. This could be due to the fact that the highlight popular Rowland Emett exhibition opened in May 2015, however this year the Star Wars display (which ran from February) was also very popular.

Schools Digital Learning

Figure 6: Half-term activities at Hove Museum (photo credit Martina The Schools Digital Learning targets have been amended as previous targets were based Bellotto) on Year 1 of the programme being a scoping exercise. Now that the programme is further along, the objectives are to provide inspiring learning experiences by: 1. Work in partnership across the city 2. Work with teachers 3. Improve schools whole museum journey, onsite and web based 4. Use digital technologies to give children and teachers more agency with their learning and connection to our collections

1. Partnership meetings: 4 meetings in Q1 against a target of 20 for the year As a lead partner in the Education Partnership Our Future City we have taken part in two external partnership meetings in the city this quarter (2). We also met Hove Park School to further develop the digital film making project around a Year 9 research documentary on Brighton Suffragettes (1). We met the Head of Rare Books at Hove library to discuss our Senior Learning Officer's Understanding British Portraits Fellowship, and researching and building a digital resource to support the Frances Wolseley story (1).

2. Working with teachers: 1 teacher in Q1 against a target of 6 for the year

We met a key teacher that we have worked with for many years from the West Blatchington Autism Unit to begin work on a larger scale SEND consultation with all teachers in the city. Timing will be crucial as SEND schools in the city are currently re-forming from 6 to 3.

3. Digital Interventions to improve whole museum experience: 1 for Q1 against a target of 6 for this year We have trained up another member of staff to be able to edit the Heritage Learning website, this is to ensure that any changes or additions to the schools programme across the city can be immediately auctioned and teachers have access to the most up to date information.

4. Digital enhancements to sessions - 0 for Q1 against a target of 2 for this year

5. Online resources for schools  page views of school resources on website: 2409 in Q1 this year  views of resources from the TES website: 192 in Q1 this year  downloads of resources from the TES website: 102 for Q1 this year  the most popular resource remains the Royal Pavilion, followed by the Archaeology Teacher Pack, and then the Turner Resource

Early Years

 Moulsecoomb primary school’s nursery’s regular monthly visits have been a success with children now adopting a ‘Museum Workers Uniform’ as part of their dressing up corner. Bevendean School has taken up the offer of half termly visits.  We have delivered a range of outreach activities with groups using centres including MOSAIC and EAL Family groups in Children’s Centres in the most deprived boroughs of the city.  Play & Learn and EAL groups (parents and under 5’s) and ‘Out to Lunch’ groups continue to visit the museum with support workers from East and West Brighton Children’s Centres.  We continue to provide the city’s central library with monthly story and object handling sessions and we are engaging with the libraries weekend and seasonal activities.  15 Reception classes from 10 local schools took part in a two day ‘Enrichment Day’ at Brighton Museum and in partnership with Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival in June. Children were able to have a tour of the buildings and collections and take part in bespoke workshops using the museum’s collections.  Work with the city’s Family Learning Team has been delivered as outreach and at on site workshops. Despite being much reduced in size, the team still delivers sessions with the support of museum handling sessions.  Ticketed pre-school events continue at the Booth Museum every Friday in term time. 29

 Working with curators in Brighton Museum’s Museum Lab, we were able to open collections up to our youngest visitors as part of this year’s Children’s Art Week over two Saturdays in June.  Our partnership with CHOMP (delivering collections-led activities during school holidays for children on free school meals) has continued with workshops in April and May and more scheduled throughout the school holidays.  I attended ‘Picture the Poet’ conference at the National Portrait Gallery in April, looking at how we might engage visitors through poetry writing workshops linked to collections.  A one off Lewes Prison Family day visit has been planned for July while the prison seeks additional funding to reinstate them as a regular event.  We continue to seek out and engage with new partners in order to give under 5’s their first experience of using the museum service. We have been using our puppet collection to develop shows for under 5’s introducing them to some of the characters from our collections history. Outreach sessions are followed up with invitations to museum events.  1385 children accessed the Early Years Programme this quarter with 34 sessions delivered.

Youth Engagement

The Museum Collective has been meeting regularly to take part in some practical film making workshops and they have been creating their own short experimental films using animation, optical illusion, montage and projection, inspired by Brighton based film makers including Ben Rivers and Jeff Keen. The resulting showcase called ‘Experimental Curiosities’ by the Museum Collective Studio will be shown as part of the Film pioneers exhibition in the Spotlight gallery at BMAG, opening in the Autumn 2016.

Dv8 fashion students have continued to work with RPM on a brief to create a garment or collection based on the Fashion Cities Africa exhibition, as part of their BTEC accreditation. The students worked with the artists Afroretro to create printed textile accessories to complement their final pieces and showcased their designs at a local fashion show. They attended the private view of Fashion Cities Africa, and were able to see the short film made about their project on display in the exhibition.

Students taking part in the Saturday fashion club as part of the University of Brighton’s Widening Participation scheme visited the Fashion Cities Africa exhibition. Having taken part in a joint workshop with Dv8 students, they too made garments inspired by African fashion and using African wax print fabric. These garments were showcased as part of their big end of year fashion show.

Allsorts youth group have continued to work with RPM on their co-curated LGBTQ display in the Brighton Gallery at Brighton Museum. This has involved several outreach sessions at their regular drop-in sessions, for discussion and exploration around significant events in local and national

LGBTQ history, and interpretation of the objects they have chosen for the display. The group have made a film for the display which includes ‘talking labels’ for each object and a piece of film capturing their thoughts on events in history.

One off creative sessions have been run for targeted groups such as young carers and siblings of fostered/adopted young people. An open access Easter holiday session was delivered, in which young people had the chance to look at the fashion and costume gallery and design their own t-shirts. The majority of participants were referred by the targeted organisations, such as Young Carers, and the Council’s Integrated Family Support team.

Figure 7: Museum Collective session

Q1 Appendix: Data, Income and Targets

General Audience Data Visitor Figures Act Q1 Total Annual 2015-16 Q1 Q1 Target % of visitors from 2016/17 Target 2016/17 2015/16 2016/17 Brighton & Hove Visits to RPM 140,073 140,073 533,515 533,515 RP 101,462 106,903 324,515 3% Visit rated as good or 84% 84% 83% 83% BMAG 16,601 46,449 21% 125,000 excellent as % cumulative Total child visits 64,247 64,247 N/A 218,778 HMAG 8,134 8,260 56% 36,000 (including schools) School visits 6,008 6,008 25,550 24,806 Booth 6,360 5,682 28,000 48% Young people accessing 122 122 N/A 415 PM 7,377 5,472 17% 20,000 RPM through youth prog. Children accessing Early 1,385 1,385 2,874 3,221 Total 140,073 172,766 11% (all sites) 533,515 Years prog. Adults participating in 6,071 6,071 18,000 11,640 Comm Engmt* Web sessions 146,460 146,460 550,000 603,101 *This figure includes all adult activities not just community engagement. Outreach not included.

Income and Targets Income area Actual Q1 Target Q1 Target 2016-17 Retail £193,305 £203,416 £705,840 Catering £11,003 £15,013 £60,050 Functions £84,719 £79,024 £262,666 Admissions £854,681 £891,517 £2,876,200 Learning £35,956 £37,738 £143,345 Filming £475 £2,825 £11,300 Donations £5,084 £8,215 £29,550 Totals £1,185,223 £1,237,748 £4,088,951