Collections Development Policy 2019-2022
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Regeneration Services Committee – 5th February 2020 0.0 APPENDIX 1 Accreditation Scheme for Museums and Galleries in the United Kingdom Collections Development Policy Hartlepool Borough Council Cultural Services 2019-2022 0205 RND Museum Of Hartlepool Collections Development Policy 2019-22 1 HARTLEPOOL BOROUGH COUNCIL Regeneration Services Committee – 5th February 2020 0.0 APPENDIX 1 Name of Museums: The Museum of Hartlepool, Hartlepool Art Gallery, and all collections stored at Sir William Gray House. Name of governing body: Hartlepool Borough Council. Date on which this policy was approved by governing body: July 2019 Policy review procedure: The collections development policy will be published and reviewed from time to time, at least once every five years. Date at which this policy is due for review: June 2022. Arts Council England will be notified of any changes to the collections development policy, and the implications of any such changes for the future of collections. 0205 RND Museum Of Hartlepool Collections Development Policy 2019-22 2 HARTLEPOOL BOROUGH COUNCIL Regeneration Services Committee – 5th February 2020 0.0 APPENDIX 1 Relationship to other relevant policies/ plans of the organisation: 1.1 The museum’s statement of purpose is: Hartlepool Borough Council’s museum collection exists to conserve, document, interpret and make publically accessible the shared material heritage of the Borough. This purpose meets the strategic objectives of the Council, and supports Cultural Services mission, “To enhance the quality of life by providing cultural opportunities through a series of accessible exhibitions, performances and events, which challenge, educate and entertain”. 1.2 The Council will ensure that both acquisition and disposal are carried out openly and with transparency. 1.3 By definition, the museum has a long-term purpose and holds collections in trust for the benefit of the public in relation to its stated objectives. The Council therefore accepts the principle that sound curatorial reasons must be established before consideration is given to any acquisition to the collection, or the disposal of any items in the museum’s collection. 1.4 Acquisitions outside the current stated policy will only be made in exceptional circumstances. 1.5 The Council recognises its responsibility, when acquiring additions to its collections, to ensure that care of collections, documentation arrangements and use of collections will meet the requirements of the Museum Accreditation Standard. This includes using Spectrum primary procedures for collections management. It will take into account limitations on collecting imposed by such factors as staffing, storage and care of collection arrangements. 1.6 The Council will undertake due diligence and make every effort not to acquire, whether by purchase, gift, bequest or exchange, any object or specimen unless the governing body or responsible officer is satisfied that the museum can acquire a valid title to the item in question. 1.7 The Council will not undertake disposal motivated principally by financial reasons. 0205 RND Museum Of Hartlepool Collections Development Policy 2019-22 3 HARTLEPOOL BOROUGH COUNCIL Regeneration Services Committee – 5th February 2020 0.0 APPENDIX 1 History of the Collections 2.1 The museum collection originated in 1919 through the actions of the shipbuilding magnate and philanthropist Sir William Cresswell Gray, who gifted his deceased sister-in-law’s house “The Willows” to the town of West Hartlepool on 7th January 1919 to become a museum and art gallery. After a year of conversion and development work the building opened on 4th November 1920 as the “Gray Museum and Art Gallery”. 2.2 From the beginning the museum collection included founding donations of artworks, including 50 items from William Cresswell Gray’s own private collection, works gifted from various civic leaders and dignitaries, and from the owners of various local companies and businesses. During late 1919 onwards the first curator, Major J. A. Louis Downey, gathered industrial, natural science, and social history specimens for display with a focus on those which were deemed instructional and educational for the public. 2.3 This early focus on artworks, natural science, and instructional exhibits continued throughout the 1920s, supported by an active partnership with the V&A who regularly loaned works for both temporary and long term exhibition. Collecting widened during the 1930s to include collecting ceramics, fine art, and World Culture items due to the direct patronage of Col. William Tomlinson. 2.4 Collecting was moribund after the Second World War. This continued until 1967 when the Amalgamation of the Hartlepools led to an expansion of staffing and resources, which in turn allowed better documenting of the collection and a proactive plan to acquire items then not represented in the collection, especially maritime and social history items. A new Maritime Museum was opened on the Headland to complement the Gray in 1972, and further stimulated the acquisition of these themes. 2.5 In 1972 the Gray Art Gallery held the first exhibition of Freud’s works outside of London, enabled by museum staff member John McCracken (1936-1982), a practicing artist and friend of Lucian Freud. This greatly influenced the collection, and initiated our policy of collecting major works by contemporary artists which had been shown in the gallery, including the acquisition of Lucian Freud’s “Head of a Woman” and Frank Auerbach’s “Shell Building Site no. 1”. 2.5 The acquisition of the Robert Wood Collection of printed ephemera in 1977 further enhanced the collection by preserving a unique collection of social history items. 2.6 In 1986 the collection acquired its largest object, the 1934 Paddle Steamer “Wingfield Castle”, which was restored with the help of the expertise previously gained during the restoration of HMS Warrior between 1979 and 1987. 0205 RND Museum Of Hartlepool Collections Development Policy 2019-22 4 HARTLEPOOL BOROUGH COUNCIL Regeneration Services Committee – 5th February 2020 0.0 APPENDIX 1 2.7 In 1994 the Teesside Development Corporation and Hartlepool Borough Council opened the Hartlepool Historic Quay, a reconstruction of an early 19th century seaport around the independent museum ship HMS Trincomalee. That same year both the Gray Museum and Art Gallery and the Maritime Museum were closed as public venues, in preparation for the service expanding into a new Museum of Hartlepool next to the Historic Quay, and a new Hartlepool Art Gallery in Church Square within the original Christ Church of 1854. Both these new venues opened in 1996, with the Gray remaining as the headquarters, back office, and collections storage facility for the museum collection. 2.8 Recent major acquisitions include the Hartlepool Mail Photographic Collection (2015), comprising of over 30,000 images, and the Reg Smythe Collection (2016), encompassing a full range of items relating to his creation “Andy Capp”, including over 1400 original cartoons, personalia, and awards. 0205 RND Museum Of Hartlepool Collections Development Policy 2019-22 5 HARTLEPOOL BOROUGH COUNCIL Regeneration Services Committee – 5th February 2020 0.0 APPENDIX 1 An overview of current collections 3.1 Maritime Collections The collection at present comprises of: A small number of Hartlepool/traditional North East built and used vessels including the PSS Wingfield Castle (launched 1934, on the National Register of Historic Ships), and fishing cobles including The Three Brothers Grant. Objects relating to maritime activity including ship, sail and engine parts, shipbuilding tools, and fishing. Ship models, either directly produced by Hartlepool shipbuilders as aids to construction or for marketing/legacy purposes, or by enthusiasts as examples of ships made or working in the Borough. Ship plans, including a major collection of plans from Gray and Company (1863-1963) mainly dating from the Edwardian period through to the 1950s. Photographs, and a small number of cine film, relating to maritime activity. Ephemera, including but not limited to seamen’s papers, yard books, pay books, company magazines, and publicity material and sales brochures. 3.2 Fine Art 3.2.1 Oil Paintings The collection is mainly Victorian and Edwardian in period, largely as a result of the founding collection donated by Sir William Cresswell Gray. His donation of a large number of pictures was supplemented by gifts from other local people; among them were Cllr William Edgar, Capt. A.B.Horsley, Mr A.B.Guthe, Cllr J.W.Wilson and Major A.G.Rickinson who all gave one or more pictures. With few exceptions, most subsequent collecting has been works of artists living or working at least part of their lives in the area. A most notable example of this is J.W. Carmichael who painted a number of town and sea-scapes which relate to Hartlepool and are currently in the collection. 3.2.2 Watercolour Paintings The collection is comprehensive and contains some early works. Artists represented include T.M. Richardson Senior, T.M. Richardson Junior, J.W. Beavis, David Cox, John Varley, Myles Birkett Foster, F.H. Mason and James Clark. 0205 RND Museum Of Hartlepool Collections Development Policy 2019-22 6 HARTLEPOOL BOROUGH COUNCIL Regeneration Services Committee – 5th February 2020 0.0 APPENDIX 1 3.2.3 Drawing, Pastels and Prints The collection includes few drawings, but there is a Stanley Spencer and an L.S. Lowry of Hartlepool. The majority of pastel works are by R.L. Howey of Seaton Carew. The print collection contains a wide variety of work. As well as artists’ limited editions there are many topographical prints of the town. 3.3 Decorative Art There is a good collection of decorative art, which includes material acquired from the ex-Cleveland County collection. This shows a broad range of decorative art material from a broad range of techniques, materials and periods. This mainly comprises; 3.3.1 Ceramics The collection includes ceramics dating from the late 17th century through to the 20th century.