VISION 2025: THE WORLD’S RAILWAY MUSEUM BECOMING THE WORLD’S RAILWAY MUSEUM INTERPRETIVE STRATEGY 2019-2025 NATIONAL RAILWAY MUSEUM LOCOMOTION FINAL TO BE DESIGNED ‘The National Railway Museum is best placed to showcase both the historical and contemporary advances in railways.’ Sir Peter Hendy, Chairman, Network Rail ‘There is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments and railways and iron bridges and engineering devices to oblige them to be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection.’ H G Wells ‘Engineering plays a vital role in the UK’s economic and societal wellbeing, providing quality employment on a large scale and some of the key solutions to major global challenges.’ Engineering UK 2018, Synopsis and Recommendations ‘Museums enable individuals and communities to learn together. Museum learning is already all the things much orthodox learning is not: curiosity driven; non-judgmental; non-compulsory; engaging; informal; and fun. The people needed in the future will be resilient, creative, resourceful and empathetic systems-thinkers, exactly the kind of capacities museum learning can support.’ The Happy Museum Paper, 2011 2 CONTENTS 1 VISION 2025: THE WORLD’S RAILWAY MUSEUM 1.1 About us 1.2 Our goals 1.3 Interpretive objectives 1.4 An interpretive-led approach 1.5 What is interpretation? 1.6 How can interpretation help? 2 WHY NOW? 2.1 A watershed moment for the UK rail industry 2.2 York Central 2.3 Stockton and Darlington Heritage Action Zone 2.4 Science Museum Group strategic context 3 WHAT WILL WE INTERPRET? 3.1 The railways 3.2 The National Railway Museum and Locomotion 3.3 Our site and buildings 3.4 The region – the north and the north-east 3.5 The collection 3.6 Intangible assets 4 INTERPRETIVE STRATEGY 4.1 Audience-led interpretation 4.2 Open for all 4.3 Making it easy 4.4 Telling a holistic story 5 NEXT STEPS 3 1 VISION 2025: THE WORLD’S RAILWAY MUSEUM 1.1 ABOUT US Our mission: The National Railway Museum and Locomotion exist to inspire the next generation with the past, present and future of the railways. Our vision: We are the place of railways – past, present and future Our chronology stretches from the 1600s to now and into the future, rich with stories of engineering made real. This story lives through our remarkable collections and spaces, making us the only railway museum in the world that can tell the story of railways in the places they happened. We are about the people behind the railways. We will give voice to the stories of countless men and women who lived, worked, travelled on and were affected by the railways. We are a home to our passionate supporters and beloved by curious young people. We stretch minds, connect people, and uncover hidden histories. We are a place of possibility As a place of inspiration and learning and a worthy partner for the modern rail industry, we will be a showcase for the infinite possibilities of engineering. With our stories, collections and public programming, we will influence young people to embrace the railways – plugging the skills gap and inspiring engineers, innovators and inventors of the future. We are more than a museum We are not only a place of collections and interpretation – we are a live, playful, – telling stories beyond our walls and a wide range of vibrant experiences. By appealing warmly to visitors from across the country and around the world, we will create places that are welcoming, diverse and safe. We are the world’s railway museum As the world’s railway museum, we will tell globally relevant stories of railways and we will share these stories everyone. Our masterplan, known as ‘Vision 2025, the World’s Railway Museum’, describes a six-year journey to become the World’s Railway Museum, exceeding visitor expectations and inspiring our audiences. By 2025, 1.2 million visitors will visit the National Railway Museum and 250,000 to Locomotion. Vision 2025 will enable us to: think big; reveal wonder; share authentic stories; ignite curiosity; and be open for all. 1.2 OUR GOALS Our ambition to become the world’s railway museum can be expressed as two fundamental goals – these are the heart of our vision, and the foundation for our future. We want to: 4 1. Inspire a generation with the past, present and future of the railways. This goal will - see us inspire a generation of engineers, scientists, inventors and innovators to solve the problems of the future - ensure that STEM learning and content is embedded in our stories and public programmes - enable us to partner with the modern rail and engineering industries, showcasing the very latest developments and highlighting inspiring people and breakthroughs past, present and future 2. Be the cultural heart of our communities, leading the way for regeneration, placemaking and pride in our local regions This goal will - position ourselves as a civic resource for all visitors – from the very local to the international - prioritise wellbeing, bringing much-needed green space to our cities and towns - enable us to take advantage of the changes brought by York Central the Stockton and Darlington Railway Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) designation in Shildon - forge new relationships with our neighbourhoods of residents, workers, commuters and tourists - contribute to meaningful place-making in our regions 1.3 AN INTERPRETIVE-LED APPROACH When you change a museum’s buildings, you reveal a great deal about the culture of a place and what it values – from whether we’ll have contemporary stories or changing places toilets. By rooting those changes in our overarching vision and our interpretive approach, embedding narrative into our sites, we ensure our future plans are authentic, visitor centred and connected to our core mission. National Railway Museum, York The way visitors experience the National Railway Museum will change physically as we build new buildings and outdoor spaces and alter the internal make up of our site. As we change, visitors will start to see our content evolve – to include galleries about the future of railways to interactive experiences about the principles of engineering, while improving and uplifting the way we tell stories of the past. In York, we have chosen a ‘chaptered’ approach to our galleries and spaces, meaning that we will tell different parts of the railway story, past, present and future, in different spaces across our site. Chronology may overlap, and content may interrelate – visitors may find a story in one gallery connects perfectly with an interactive experience elsewhere or a phenomenon observed outside on the railway lines. This interconnectivity is a part of our meaning-making and will be encouraged. We will: 1. tell a chaptered story where each space is a portal to the next – this approach avoids rigid chronology or fixed start and end points in favour of narratives that use object placement, design and natural visitor flow to make meaning 2. work with, not against, the museum’s porous site with multiple entry points and myriad visitor journeys 3. create a central visitor ‘hub’ where the majority of visitor journeys will begin 4. improve the surroundings of the site 5. encouraging moments of narrative connectivity, while not repeating content 5 Mapping the story to our site Locomotion, Shildon At Locomotion, the greatest interpretive opportunity is to celebrate Shildon as the cradle of the railways. This approach will relate the achievements of the past and Shildon’s global reach to the engineering marvels of the future already taking place in the local area. Visitors to Locomotion will experience a more holistic narrative across its two museum buildings, its railway line, and its historic cottages and sheds to create an interconnected destination experience that makes sense of its landscape and proves a worthy day-out. Enhancing the interpretation of the site and almost doubling the amount of covered gallery space available to visitors will ensure that the railway story, past, present and future, can be told in Shildon. We will: 1. relating Shildon’s past to the present by expressing the significance of the site and its far-reaching impact today 2. working with, not against, the museum’s porous site with multiple entry points and myriad visitor journeys 3. creating a central visitor ‘hub’ where the majority of visitor journeys will begin 4. improving the surroundings of the site 5. showcasing the region’s strengths and instilling pride in the local area Mapping the story to our site 6 1.5 WHAT IS INTERPRETATION AND HOW CAN IT HELP? Interpretation is the meaningful link between an object, story, building/place or idea and its audience. It can take many forms – a written label, a sign, a piece of film or sound, a way of displaying or experiencing objects, an interactive, a conversation, an anecdote, a song, a conversation. Put simply, interpretation is the work that is needed to make something meaningful to a person. Yet interpretation is meaningless if not embedded into the museums’ culture and identity. The best approach to interpretation supports the work of many teams – including design, public programming, marketing, branding, front of house, catering, events, learning, and many more – to contribute to an integrated, high quality visitor journey fully loaded with the stories and messages we are trying to tell. Interpretation is therefore a) strategic and vision-making – it’s a framework to help organise our story and how we tell it, using fundamental principles, mapping our content into space, and establishing tone of voice. This is better if we can all play our part. b) And specific – it’s that direct link between a visitor and an object, a building or an idea or concept.