Strategic Plan 2015-2020 Approved by Board of Trustees 130317 RAF Museum Strategic Plan 2015-2020 (updated to 2016-2021) 2 RAF Museum Strategic Plan 2015-2020 (updated to 2016-2021) 1. Executive Summary The Royal Air Force has shaped our nation and our society. It has influenced how we live our lives today through its impact on world events, society and technology. The Royal Air Force (RAF) Museum was established as a legacy of the RAF’s fiftieth anniversary, opening on the London (Hendon) site in 1972. From 1979, the Museum also managed the Cosford Aerospace Museum for the MOD (which had also been in operation since 1972). This was renamed the RAF Museum Cosford in 1998 when it formally became part of the Museum portfolio. It is a National Museum, a Government non departmental public body (NDPB) and a registered charity. The vision of the Royal Air Force Museum is to ensure that the Royal Air Force’s story endures and enriches future generations. The RAF Museum will be a world-leading visitor destination that engages, inspires and connects everyone with the RAF story through exploration of its people and its collections. The purpose of the Museum is to tell the story of the Royal Air Force through its people and collections. § For our nation, we help people to understand the impact of the RAF on the world. § For our visitors, we make our collections and the RAF story relevant and stimulating. § For current and former RAF personnel and their families, we preserve, honour and share the stories of their service. Three strategic priorities will shape its direction and activities in 2015-2020: § Interpret the RAF Story § Focus the Collection § Invest in the RAF Museum. The Museum will focus delivery of all three strategic priorities over the course of this plan principally through its RAF Centenary and Centenary Legacy Programmes. It has a unique opportunity to mark the Royal Air Force’s Centenary in 2018 by improving its story-telling and building up its resilience for the next century. Its vision will be delivered through an ambitious Centenary Programme that will transform its London site for 2018 and a Centenary Legacy Programme which will continue this transformation through developments at Cosford. 3 RAF Museum Strategic Plan 2015-2020 (updated to 2016-2021) The first stage of the RAF Centenary Programme, ‘The First World War in the Air’, opened successfully in December 2014 with generous support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and BAE Systems. The values that guide the RAF Museum’s planning and behaviour are: INtegrity: we are open, transparent and ethical Sharing: we work as a team to ensure our collections and expertise are accessible to all Passion: we care deeply about sharing our collections and their stories Innovation: we tell our stories and develop our business with creativity and imagination Relevance: we ensure our legacy by linking our histories with today and tomorrow Excellence: we are professional and strive to ensure excellence in all that we do While the Museum is growing both its physical and virtual audiences, the world in which it operates is becoming ever more challenging. This plan, therefore, also explores the Museum’s future resilience through income generation, efficiency savings and improved governance. 4 RAF Museum Strategic Plan 2015-2020 (updated to 2016-2021) 2. Context 2.1 Partnerships 2.1.1 International, national and regional partnerships As one of the UK’s National Museums, the RAF Museum’s responsibility and remit is UK-wide. In addition to its own two public sites, its teams take opportunities to share the collections through loans, roadshows and online, as well as through an enquiries service and research programme. The RAF Museum is a member of the UK Museums Association, the National Museums Directors’ Council, the Association of Independent Museums, the group for Education in Museums and the International Council of Museums. It is committed to supporting other museums both across the UK and internationally by involvement in national and international programmes. The Museum is formally committed to: • The Museums Association’s Code of Ethics which was updated in 2016 to ensure its relevance for Museums in the current political, economic and social context • Museums Change Lives – the Museums Association’s vision for the increased social impact of museums. It explores impacts under three headings: Wellbeing; Better places; Ideas and People and is being adopted internationally as well as across the UK. • The Social Justice Alliance for Museums – an international coalition of museums and related bodies and individuals that have signed up to its charter for social justice, and to campaign for and promote best practice in museums. • Kids in Museums – a national organisation that supports museums to welcome and include families, teenagers and children. Their 20 point family friendly manifesto is created entirely from visitor comments. The Museum has developed partnerships with a variety of museums and broader organisations with shared purposes. Internationally it has links with the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington DC; PIMA Air & Space Museum in Tuscon, Arizona; the Canadian War Museum, Bahrain National Museum; the UAE Armed Forces Museum and the Kuwait House of National Works. The Museum also works with academic and teaching institutions including Imperial College, Kings College London, Birmingham, Coventry, Exeter, Middlesex, Nottingham. Leicester and Wolverhampton Universities as well as Barnet & Southgate and Wolverhampton City Colleges. Other organisations which it partners include the Autism Society, the National Citizenship Service and STEMNET. The Museum works closely with the Royal Air Force, its sponsor organisation at the Ministry of Defence, including liaison with the Air Historical Branch, RAF Heritage and RAF Engagement. 2.1.2 Community role and social inclusion As well as being a National Museum which tells globally important stories, the RAF Museum’s two public sites have an important role to play in their local communities. Museums help define a place: they help shape and convey a sense of identity and contribute to local distinctiveness. The Museum is committed to working with its local communities to collect and represent their diverse and collective history and heritage as part of the RAF story. 5 RAF Museum Strategic Plan 2015-2020 (updated to 2016-2021) Exhibitions highlighting some of the untold stories of the RAF have included Brothers in Arms: Airmen of Poland and Czechoslovakia in the Battle of Britain & Beyond in association with the Polish Institute of National Remembrance; and Pilots of the Caribbean: Volunteers of African Heritage in the RAF in association with the Black Cultural Archive. The Museum in London is taking an active role in the work of the Colindale Communities Trust to contribute to the regeneration of the local area and is a partner in the Grahame Park Community & Economic Strategy In Cosford, the Museum works with a broad spectrum of partners with regular events and programmes, including with young offenders from HMP Hewell; with Combat Stress to provide activities for returnees from Afghanistan; and with five dementia groups across the West Midlands. 2.1.3 Stakeholders The RAF Museum has a broad range of stakeholders summarised in Appendix 1. For a more detailed analysis, please refer to the RAF Museum Stakeholder Management Plan. 2.2 Assets 2.2.1 Estate The RAF Museum exists on three sites: in London, on an historic pioneering airfield in Colindale; in Cosford in the West Midlands next to RAF Cosford; and at an MOD site storage facility at Stafford. The RAF Museum owns the London site while Cosford and Stafford are rented from the Defence Infrastructure Organisation. The total estate comprises more than 40 acres with 55,000 sqm of indoor space. The estate has been occupied by the Museum for more than forty years in buildings of a variety of ages and conditions most of which were not purpose-built for exhibitions. The London site has benefited from the move of the historic First World War Watch Office onto its site in partnership with English Heritage and developer St George. Masterplans for both the London and Cosford sites have articulated the development needs for a more coherent visitor journey, an enhanced visitor experience and better facilities in London, and the management of large objects and stores in Cosford. 2.2.2 People The Museum’s public sites are visited by more than 700,000 people each year. These are complemented by a million users of the website and our response to over 6,000 written and telephone enquiries per annum from a wide range of people and organisations. The Museum’s visitors comprise local people, national visitors from across the country, and a growing international base. The Museum has a detailed understanding of its visitor profile and its focus is to put visitors’ needs and expectations at the heart of all its exhibitions, galleries and programmes. The Museum employs around 175 people with a supporting and active trading company of 40 staff. These are assisted by more than 180 regular volunteers across the two museum sites. The Museum is building development opportunities for all staff and volunteers, both to deliver its ambitious plans and to enable our people to fulfil their personal professional development. The Museum’s highly successful apprenticeship programme has trained 14 young technicians and been recognised at the National Apprenticeship Awards with National Apprentice of the Year, 6 RAF Museum Strategic Plan 2015-2020 (updated to 2016-2021) National Employer of the Year and Regional Finalists. One apprentice was also a silver medallist in the national round of the World Skills Team finals in 2013. 2.2.3 Collections The RAF Museum is a National Museum with a Designated collection.