Annual Report 2018 The Salisbury Museum Annual Report 2018 The year in numbers £84,742 Income from ticket sales £72,960 Donations and legacies 34,396 Museum user number £22,320 Grant from Wiltshire Council 24,632 Museum visitor number 17,945 Volunteer work hours £15,000 Grant from Salisbury City Council 2,192 School children visiting museum 1,886 Members of the museum 1,393 People at Festival of Archaeology 206 Volunteers 33 Family learning events 7 Temporary exhibitions The Salisbury Museum is an independent charity No: 289850 The Wessex Plinth: Anello Flow by Almuth Tebbenhoff The Chairman’s Report The opening sentence of the Chairman’s The museum has suffered financially as a Report in the museum annual report for 2017 result of the lack of visitors and it was suggested that a successful organisation unfortunate that both our submissions to the would greet challenge with a steady heart. It is Heritage Lottery Fund were unsuccessful in true to say that a deadly nerve agent attack on 2018. This important source of income for art Salisbury was not the sort of challenge that and culture the length and breadth of the anyone could have anticipated. It has required country continues to come under enormous solidarity and a highly professional response pressure due to dwindling funds and an from government, police and our health increasing number of demands from charities service to find our way through what has been unable to secure support from other sources. a very tough year for this city. The museum has seen its grant from Wiltshire Council reduced by half in the year under Cultural institutions and the business review, a reminder that the Council itself is community have been adversely affected by also under increasing pressure to deliver its the inevitable fall-out related to this incident. services with less money. However, we have Footfall throughout the city has been received encouragement from the Heritage significantly reduced. The media has not Fund and will continue to seek support from always played a helpful role in refuting the them for the refurbishment of the museum. idea that Salisbury is an unsafe place to visit, and the work of re-building confidence Our temporary exhibition programme remains continues. The museum is very much a part of an important source of income and reflects the the cohort of people involved in reimagining diversity and interests of our audience. Terry the city and reminding the world, as it is an Pratchett: HisWorld, finished in January of international audience we address, that 2018 and was responsible for bringing 21,064 Salisbury is a beautiful medieval city with a people through the museum’s doors. Due to modern future. the nature of this exhibition we welcomed a 1 gloriously diverse audience including some professional research into dialogue with numerous 18-30 year olds (a very welcome the local business community. We anticipate demographic that the museum cannot always that this will result in a mutually beneficial reach). Henry Lamb: Out of the Shadows, exchange of support in the near future. curated by Harry Moore-Gwyn, opened in May. This exhibition was conceived in We continue to examine our marketing and conjunction with Poole Museum as part of the publicity strategy and 2018 has seen Wessex Museums Partnership. Poole showed increased engagement with a diverse an exhibition on Augustus John in May 2018 collection of museums and galleries through and the two museums will swap shows in the use of social media. The Wessex Plinth, 2019. The exhibition was the first major our sculpture platform enabling emerging and retrospective of Henry Lamb’s work since established sculptors to exhibit work that links 1984 when Manchester City Art Galleries held to our collection and landscape, has engaged an exhibition of Lamb’s work. We were and delighted audiences on foot and on our delighted to support the Chalke Valley History Instagram feed. We are indebted to the artists Festival by sponsoring a talk from Primrose and galleries who have supported us. Campbell: Henry Lamb: A Life in Pictures. Our final exhibition of the year, Hoards: A Hidden John Hutton, a long standing board member History of Ancient Britain, in partnership with and Hon Treasurer stepped down this year the British Museum, aimed to reveal the after seven years of sustained hard work and stories behind the headlines of buried an outstanding contribution to the life of the treasure. These three exhibitions are a very museum. We will miss his expertise and his good example of the wide-ranging themes that excellent sense of humour. We are delighted the museum seeks to offer to its audience. to welcome David Edmonds in his place and look forward to working with David in the The museum continues to extend a strong coming years. out-reach programme to the wider community, more details of which are contained in this As Salisbury approaches its 800 year report. This includes engagement with anniversary it is worth acknowledging that, educational establishments as well as local whilst we have experienced an unprecedented social initiatives and cultural institutions. attack on our way of life, the museum reminds Working in partnership with others is an us, in telling the story of our history across essential element of our success in extending thousands of years, that the sum of this city is our audience. The Wessex Museums so much more than this one incident in its very Partnership with funding from Arts Council recent past. That a museum like ours can offer England, continues to link us to other such perspective, wisdom and hope in the museums and enables us to share ideas and face of this attack is a source of true value. expertise. Susanna Denniston, Chair of Trustees 2018 saw the purchase of a much needed storage site away from the King’s House. The museum has been pursuing this facility for several years as it is a key component in allowing us to move forward with our crucial preservation and development plans. The support of Wiltshire Council and Wessex Archaeology in achieving this has been much appreciated as the preservation and collection of archaeological artefacts is at the heart of the museum’s remit. With the expected deluge of new material resulting from work around the A303 and surrounding area in the near future this facility is more than timely. Further to our drive to identify funds to maintain a sustainable future we conducted 2 Henry Lamb, Evelyn Waugh, 1930 (Copyright: Estate of Henry Lamb) Increasing Visitor Numbers Exhibitions Brian Graham: Towards Music of music. The results were stunning and 27 January 2018 – 12 May 2018 eloquent paintings which inspired us to think about our ancestors living long ago and how This exhibition of the work of artist Brian they communicated through sound and Graham, represented a unique interpretation movement and the ultimate joy of this. of the evolution of music and dance. By creating a series of 40 painted reliefs Brian Henry Lamb: Out of the Shadows took us on a visual journey, exploring how he 26 May 2018 – 30 September 2018 imagined music and movement began. This body of work also reflected his research in This exhibition was the first major fields beyond art and encompasses science, retrospective of Henry Lamb’s work since archaeology and anthropology. Each of the 1984. Lamb was one of the leading British works is dedicated to a piece of music, a figurative painters of the first part of the 20th composer or a significant figure from the world century. He was also an accomplished 3 musician, trained as a doctor and his friends Smaller Exhibitions described him as a well-read and erudite conversationalist. A close friend of Augustus The main exhibition in our smaller temporary John, patron of Stanley Spencer and friends exhibition gallery on the first floor was with members of the Bloomsbury Group he Salisbury Snapped (20 January – 26 August was a founder member of the Camden Town 2018). This showcased images from the Group in 1911. museum’s photographic archives revealing how Salisbury has changed down the years. The exhibition was based on loans from the This was followed by Anello Flow by Almuth family archive as well as private and national Tebbenhoff (1 September 2018 – 16 February collections. Portraiture was an important 2019) which showed some of Almuth’s work in feature alongside townscapes of Poole and conjunction with her piece on the Wessex early subject pictures from Brittany and Plinth (see below). Ireland. A major highlight was his World War I commemorative piece: Irish Troops in the The Wessex Plinth Judaean Hills Surprised by a Turkish Bombardment on loan from the Imperial War Sculpture on the ‘Wessex Plinth’ outside the Museum (IWM). Lamb was an official war front of the museum in 2018 included: artist in World War II and works from this period were also borrowed from IWM. Goliath by Johannes von Stumm 8 March – 1 June 2018 The exhibition was a partnership between The Salisbury Museum and Poole Museum and Johannes von Stumm especially created was co-curated by Harry Moore-Gwyn, an Goliath for Salisbury Museum. Primarily made independent curator, dealer and writer on from a granite pillar he stated: ‘It is an modern British art. The project was supported imposing figure, about 280 cm high. Looking by Arts Council England as part of the Wessex at it I have associations with a guardian figure. Museums Partnership. Poole Museum, who The name ‘Goliath’ sprang to my mind, will mount a similar Henry Lamb exhibition in because it is a powerful, unapproachable 2019, curated an exhibition about Augustus figure.