BIRMINGHAM MUSEUMS TRUST Seven-Year Plan 2016 –2023

BIRMINGHAM MUSEUMS TRUST

Seven-Year Plan 2016 –2023

To r eﬂect

BIRMINGHAM

to the world

& the world to Birmingham

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SEVEN-YEAR PLAN

CONTENTS

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“By the gains of Industry we promote Art”

Contents

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BIRMINGHAM MUSEUMS TRUST VISION CORE PURPOSE GUIDING PRINCIPLES STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP ACHIEVING OUR GOALS

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STRATEGIC AIMS

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SIGNATURE PROJECTS

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BIRMINGHAM MUSEUMS TRUST

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BIRMINGHAM MUSEUMS

T r ust

Birmingham Museums Trust was

We have secured several major

grants, and we have forged important new partnerships. set up in 2012 as an independent charity to manage the city’s museum collection and venues on behalf of Birmingham City Council (BCC). Our two main sources of public funding are BCC and Arts Council England (ACE). We earn over 60% of our turnover from a range of sources: admission fees, membership subscriptions, donations, trading income, sponsorship and grants.
However, public funding is declining more rapidly than expected. Over the period of Birmingham Museums Trust’s existence the proportion of income it represents has reduced from around 50% to around 30%. Further reductions are probable in the future. Birmingham Museums Trust is a cultural business and we need to examine the options for a new business model that accomodates reducing public
We are successful on many fronts. Our visitor numbers are growing and are up by 25% since we started operating to 1.2 million visits a year. Our audiences are becoming more diverse. Our trading company’s performance is improving year on year, yielding a return of 25% on turnover of over £2 million. funding. This Seven-Year Plan

reﬂects the results of audience research, staﬀ consultation, and

discussions with Board members and our major stakeholders, BCC, ACE and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

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VISION

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To reﬂect Birmingham to the world

and the world to Birmingham.

Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Museums Trust have a shared understanding of the vision and future strategy of Birmingham Museums for the next hundred years that will:

• Reﬂect Birmingham to the world,

and the world to Birmingham, contributing to place-making and local identity
• Play a leadership role among the city’s and region’s cultural organisations and maximise the potential of a great multidisciplinary collection

VISION

• Care for and develop the collection, balance the demands of public access in the present with the need to preserve the collection for future generations
• Work with international partners • Maintain and present buildings

to provide ﬁrst-class visitor

experiences
• Document and research the collection, to support the creation of engaging and stimulating content
• Foster a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship and create a more diverse income base through fundraising and
• Embed community engagement and participatory practice commercial development
• Develop a diverse and highly

trained workforce

• Deliver learning, inspiration and

enjoyment through varied public programming, including displays, exhibitions, workshops, courses, publications and digital media

• Attract growing and increasingly diverse audiences of residents and visitors and enhance its reputation as a cultural destination

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CORE PRINCIPLES OF BIRMINGHAM MUSEUMS TRUST

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core

To showcase our outstanding collections and venues and to inspire learning, creativity and enjoyment for citizens of Birmingham and visitors to the region.

PURPOSE

of Birmingham Museums T r ust

Education is part of our charitable objective and lies at the heart of our activity. Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery was set up in 1885 with the explicit aim of teaching the artisans of Birmingham to improve their manufactures by showing them the best in art and design. The focus may have changed, but using real objects for learning is still at the heart of what we do.
We make the collection physically and intellectually accessible to all our audiences.

The city has entrusted Birmingham Museums Trust with the responsibility of caring for its collection and the buildings in which it is stored and displayed. The City of Birmingham’s museum holdings represent one of the three great historic regional
Museums enable people to learn from the past to understand the present and foresee the future. They provide spaces where people

can explain their diﬀerences to each

other. We use the city’s collection

to reﬂect what is unique about the

culture and heritage of Birmingham within a global context. We promote Birmingham to local, national and international audiences, and we use our venues to showcase new ideas from the rest of the world. collections of the United Kingdom. The collection consists of over 800,000 objects, from the earliest fossils to Watt’s engines and 21stcentury conceptual art. Most of the collection is Designated as being

of national signiﬁcance. Six of our

nine venues are Listed buildings, and one is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. We are the stewards of this extraordinary range of public assets. We will use them to realise our vision.

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GUIDING PRINCIPLES

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Inclusivity

Birmingham Museums Trust is for everyone.

Excellence

We strive to be leaders and

innovators, oﬀering great

experiences to our customers.

Working Together

We work in partnership and support each other to achieve more for our audiences.

guiding

Trust

Birmingham Museums Trust can be trusted to deliver on our promises and plans.

Sustainable

We are entrepreneurial and put sustainability at the core of our practices.

PRINCIPLES

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STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS

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Collaborating with others is fundamental to the sustainability of Birmingham Museums Trust. We work with numerous organisations across all areas of the business, including arts and culture partners, over 200 community groups and individuals, higher education, funding and media, commercial and trading, international sector and collection partners, and our Friends and volunteers.

strategic

PARTNERSHIPS

Key areas for partnership development are:

• Communities (however deﬁned)

Over the next 7 years we will develop our partnerships further to meet the following criteria for joint working:

• Local businesses, the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, Colmore BID, Local Enterprise Partnership, Argent
• Key funding partners, Birmingham City Council, Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund and

• Contributes to the common good of Birmingham

Millennium Point Trust
• Tourism, media and digital

partners, Visit England, ALVA, Marketing Birmingham, BBC, social media ‘superfans’, Heart of England Attractions

• Sector partners in arts and heritage, Culture Central, National Portfolio Organisations, Historic England, Arts Council Collection, New Art West Midlands, National Trust

• Expands engagement and

diversiﬁes audiences

• Enhances resources and surplus income

• Signiﬁcant individuals

• Trusts and foundations including

Clore Duﬃeld Foundation, Garﬁeld

Weston Foundation, Esmée

• Develops both organisations

• Health sector and disability groups, NHS, RNIB, Autism West Midlands

Fairbairn Foundation, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Wellcome Trust and public funders such as Big Lottery.

• Educational institutions, local schools, Birmingham City University, University of Birmingham, University College London

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ACHIEVING OUR GOALS

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ACHIEVING

our goals

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ACHIEVING OUR GOALS

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AIM 1 Leading in excellence
AIM 4 Building a sustainable business

Strategic aims

We will fulﬁl our purpose and vision by taking forward detailed actions that meet ﬁve key strategic

aims. This will drive forward the strategy and make

a fundamental diﬀerence to the future success of

Birmingham Museums Trust.

• Teaching and supporting the next generation of museum professionals
• An audit to determine the full costs and

beneﬁts of each area of the organisation’s

operations and a plan to build sustainability
• Training, consultancy and publishing best-

practice resources for the sector

• Entrepreneurial culture and innovative

approach at all levels of the business
• Leading and participating in cultural

networks and festivals

• Support services that enable managers to

take the necessary decisions to deliver our charitable aim

• Inﬂuencing the future of the sector

AIM 2
AIM 5
Developing the collection and venues

Investing in people

• Capital projects that deliver our purpose at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and Thinktank Science Museum
• Sound governance structures and

continuous Board, staﬀ and volunteer

development
• A masterplan for each of the heritage sites

• A research framework for the collection
• A diverse and highly trained workforce • A framework of career preparation activities for young people
• Improving digital and physical access to the collection

AIM 1

LEADING
IN EXCELLENCE

AIM 3 Growing and diversifying audiences

• Putting visitors at the centre of our business • New approaches to collecting,

AIM 2

programming, digital engagement and communications to reach the people and communities of the city and region

DEVELOPING THE
COLLECTION AND VENUES

• Positioning Birmingham Museums as a focal point for contemporary art

• Supporting national health, wellbeing and education policies

AIM 3

GROWING AND

• National and international initiatives that contribute to the common good of Birmingham

DIVERSIFYING AUDIENCES

AIM 4

BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS

AIM 5

INVESTING IN PEOPLE

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ACHIEVING OUR GOALS

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AIM 1

AIM 2

Leading in excellence

Developing the collection and venues

Over 130 years of public and private investment in museums in Birmingham have created an outstanding collection, one of the great regional collections

of the United Kingdom that reﬂected

Birmingham’s status as the Second City of the British Empire. This collection is one of the city and region’s greatest assets. Maximising the potential of this asset for community cohesion, education, regeneration and tourism can only be achieved through working in collaboration with others. We will prioritise time and resource to creating new collaborations, to teach and
We deliver excellence through educational programmes, our conservation services, and by initiating specialist networks, including New Art West Midlands – a network of universities, galleries, artists and curators.

The world has changed since Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery was opened in 1885 as a public service for the

ediﬁcation of local artisans. Public

funding is in sharp decline. Demographic changes are shrinking the professional middle classes who traditionally formed the core audience for museums. Museums are competing with many other leisure choices. Today’s audiences

are still interested in the unique oﬀer of

museums – real objects as sources for learning, inspiration and entertainment – but what they want is less hushed reverence, more social experience.

We are developing new relationships with communities that are informing how we collect, what we collect, and how we interpret the collection through co-produced displays, exhibitions and activities. We will be experimental in trying out new approaches to engaging with communities and audiences. We are not afraid to take risks in order to learn, improve and deliver to the highest standards. support the next generation of museum

professionals, to oﬀer expertise through

consultancy and to disseminate what we learn to the sector.

Birmingham Museums Trust needs to

radically redeﬁne how to use the city’s

historic cultural assets in order to engage modern audiences. Birmingham now has one of the most diverse and youngest populations of any city in Europe. We need to know more about our collection and our visitors so that we can improve our services to attract new audiences and increase our capacity for generating income. This includes strengthening the historic partnership with the Higher Education sector, using the collection for teaching and research.

AIM 3 Growing and diversifying audiences

We are founding members of Culture Central, the new cultural development agency for Birmingham. We initiated the English Civic Museums Network to support museum leaders in developing strategies for civic museums to thrive in the current economic climate. Our partnerships with the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City University are bearing fruit in the form of a new collection research framework and a joint Masters with Birmingham City University.

We will use our assets to grow audiences,

oﬀering a consistently excellent

customer experience. There is spare capacity in all our venues. Our audience development plan sets out how we will reach beyond our traditional visitors to attract more families, young people and tourists. We will engage Birmingham’s young and diverse communities in decision-making about the collection and venues, supporting health and well-being, placemaking and the growth of constructive local identities. We will make opportunities for learning and creativity based on these assets – onsite, through outreach and online. We will embed Birmingham Museums in the life

of the city and region. We will reﬂect

the city’s globally important culture and heritage through programming in the UK and internationally, raising the city’s

international proﬁle and becoming a

destination for cultural tourism. We will bring new objects and ideas to venues and audiences in the city, and work with other arts organisations to develop a vibrant contemporary art programme

that reﬂects Birmingham’s young,

Understanding the collection and venues more profoundly, and in particular

recognising the links between diﬀerent

objects and collection areas, are

essential. The Survey of Signiﬁcance

of the collection currently under way will help to realise the potential of the collection, supporting an assessment

of the condition, quality and context

of our heritage assets and identifying areas for collection rationalisation and

future acquisitions. We are working

with the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City University to develop a research framework that will improve our knowledge and understanding of the collection. Finally we will use planned capital projects to make the collection more accessible, both physically and digitally.

digital and diverse community.

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ACHIEVING OUR GOALS

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AIM 4

AIM 5

Building a sustainable business Investing in people

We will run Birmingham Museums Trust

eﬃciently and within its means, setting

and measuring performance against clear targets. This is the fundamental point upon which everything we want to achieve depends. We need to develop to become a cultural business. Caring for a major public collection represents a very substantial overhead. Although

we have reduced our staﬃng costs and

introduced a new operational model for the heritage sites, our heritage assets are inherently expensive to care for and

unproﬁtable to manage. We need to

be able to charge admission fees that

reﬂect operating costs.

We will acknowledge the value we

place on our Board members, staﬀ and volunteers. We will reward staﬀ at a fair

level according to our available resources. We will recognise and celebrate the

contributions of trustees, staﬀ and

volunteers. New ideas, initiative and creativity that advance our strategic objectives will be encouraged and acknowledged.

We will identify the skills we need to deliver this strategy and ensure that we have them through recruitment, training and development, informed by our performance management

processes. We will deliver the Staﬀ

Engagement Action Plan and measure

its impact through future staﬀ surveys.

We will actively work to create a diverse workforce and give due regard to career progression and succession planning.
We will complete the audit of operations,

identifying costs, beneﬁts and reporting requirements. As part of this process, we

will review the balance of operations and their contribution to strategic objectives.

We will continue to review and improve our business processes, particularly in

ﬁnancial, HR and project management.

Our priorities will be worked into a succession of detailed, fully costed annual budget and service plans.

Diﬀerent elements of each will be rolled

out over the seven years of delivery of this strategy.

We will quantify and assess potential

new reliable income streams and we must diversify so that we are no longer dependent on a small number of major sources of income. Fundraising for investment to support growth will be essential, and in the medium- to longterm Birmingham Museums Trust should aim to build an endowment. We do not know of any major urban museum service that survives without public funding, endowment or philanthropic support.

Benchmarking indicates that for most independent museums admissions income is the most important component of earned income, with venue hire the second most important. We need to get better at recognising and exploiting commercial opportunities, identifying which activities generate the highest levels of surplus and distinguishing genuine barriers from imaginary ones. We will capture innovation and entrepreneurialism to realise the potential of our heritage assets and our people.

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ACHIEVING OUR GOALS

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Signature projects

We have identiﬁed a number of projects that contribute to

one or more of the priorities. They have been planned in accordance with Management of Museum Project procedures and together they represent an extremely innovative and exciting programme that will grow visitor numbers, develop the collection and increase trading income and consolidate Birmingham Museums Trust’s national and international reputation.

A Museum for Birmingham – Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery redevelopment

The Museum for Birmingham will be the

ﬁrst museum in the world to reinvent

a major traditional collection as the common, shared heritage of a young, multi-cultural city. The Museum will

explore the city’s artistic, scientiﬁc,

and industrial heritage using objects, social oral histories, images and aspects of intangible cultural heritage that tell stories – sometimes painful and controversial stories – about why and how people came to Birmingham, and their experiences of growing up, living and working in the city. on a transformational and ambitious redevelopment of the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery to create a venue of international stature that delivers improvements across: • visitor experience • public access to collections • collections care • back-of house facilities • operational costs • income generation We plan to submit a Stage 1 Heritage Lottery Fund bid in 2017, aiming at a completed project in 2023.
Birmingham Museums Trust will work with Birmingham City Council

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ACHIEVING OUR GOALS

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