London Museum Development 2015: Looking Back, Looking Forward
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LONDON MUSEUM DEVELOPMENT 2015: LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD London Museum Development 2015: Looking back, looking forward written by Ben Travers, Regional Museum Development Manager, Museum of London [email protected] Contents London Museum Development programme Foreword Foreword 03 The Museum of London is very proud to be the host of the Museum Development programme for London. London’s non-national museums are the custodians of wonderfully diverse collections and engage with a Part 1: Looking forward 2015-18 04 broad range of audiences across the capital. Supporting and developing this sector is core to the work of the London Museum Development programme and is the inspiration for 2015-18. About the programme 04 This programme was developed through extensive consultation with the sector. The London Museums Group is an important partner and Organisational health 06 they have participated closely in the planning of the next programme. We value the input from this group which has shown great leadership Collections 08 for the sector in London in recent years. Through consultation we also identified a clear need for low cost skill sharing for the museum sector and rebalanced our offer so that we are now able to offer a range of Audiences 09 flexible skill sharing and training offers to both museum workers and volunteers. Digital technologies 10 Reflection on the 2012-15 programme Finbarr Whooley Given the challenging environment within which museums operate and Director of Content, the need to increase their resilience, it is unsurprising that one of the Museum of London most popular programmes which we delivered in the 2012-15 period was Part 2: Looking back 2012-15 11 the Survive and Thrive programme. Our resilience work – one of the main areas that the London Museum Development Programme is noted for – was crucial given the wider context of declining public funding and the Introduction 11 very real threats faced by many local museum services in recent years. The William Morris Gallery has credited the programme with setting Museum Development Officers 12 them on the way to winning the Art Fund prize for Museum of the Year in 2013. Training programmes 12 The programme for Looking forward to the 2015-18 programme 2015-18 is launching As well as building on the themes of the previous programme the Survive and Thrive 14 fresh initiatives that programme for 2015-18 is also launching fresh initiatives that are are responding to new responding to new and emerging sector requirements. We are very Income Generation programme 15 excited about having a new post to run our Digital Futures skills and emerging sector programme. requirements. Looking beyond the Museum Development team to the Museum of Marketing Advisory programme 16 London generally, it is our aspiration to deploy our resources more effectively to support the sector in the coming period. Some of the Collection Grants programme 17 museum’s specialists already have a good track record in offering support to the wider sector. Our Conservation and Collection Care colleagues have a track record in this area as indeed do colleagues within our Museums supported 2012-15 19 Pull quote Kievit Regular Learning team. In the coming period we will look to other areas of 14pt/16.8pt expertise within the museum to also lend their support to the work of the London Museum Development programme team so that collectively we can improve the range of the support that we offer to the non-national sector in London. Museums are currently living through one of their most challenging of periods. The continuing squeeze on public finances means that worse cuts in public funding are likely to unfold by 2018. Over recent years self-mobilisation and innovation have been the hallmarks of the London non-national sector. It is our hope that the London Museum Development programme will support these qualities and help the sector to find innovative solutions to the problems that it will continue to face. Front cover image: UCL Grant Museum of Zoology Inside back cover and back cover images: London Museum of Water & Steam, Kew Bridge 03 Museum of London museumoflondon.org.uk/museum-development London Museum Development programme Part 1: Looking forward 2015-18 London Museum Development programme About the programme Consultation Museum of London will continue Before writing this new programme we consulted extensively with Introduction London Museums Group and with all parts of the sector in London via its highly regarded leadership events and online surveys. The feeling was that both the specialist and The Arts Council England (ACE) Museum Development programme role of sharing best practice on general support provided by Museum Development Officers (MDOs) uses the five ACE strategic goals to drive development and deliver collections care with the wider should be continued. We commissioned a piece of research on a suitable sustainability, resilience and innovation in England’s non-national skills sharing model for the London museums sector to explore whether museums, so they can maximise their benefits to audiences museums sector. MDOs might do even more to facilitate skills sharing (low or zero cost and communities. sharing of knowledge between museum workers). We have acted on its In London over the period 2015-18, we will support museums to conclusions by rebalancing programmes to free more MDOs’ time to realise this ambition in the following ways: pro-actively connect museums to each other. Organisational health MDOs will work more flexibly within and between the various museum We will work to ensure that museums are resilient, well-managed, networks to facilitate or deliver skills sharing sessions, provide action environmentally sustainable and creative in the approaches they take learning training, and will incorporate even more free presentations to strengthening skills of leaders, staff and volunteers. from sector colleagues into their formal training events, particularly from the larger services receiving regular ACE funding. We will also fund Collections the London Museums Group to deliver three big, thematic skills sharing There will be an entirely We will work to ensure that museums are provided with first class events per year. new digital programme area, support in the care and management of their collections and are To take account of the perceived lack of training opportunities for early designed to excite the sector better able to safeguard these priceless assets for current and and mid-career professionals, our training programmes will remain free, future generations. will no longer contain any demarcation between staff and volunteers with the possibilities for and will be open to all. There will be an entirely new Digital Futures Audiences programme, designed to excite the sector with the possibilities for digital technologies We will work to ensure that museums have the potential to better reach digital technologies in museums. The other three programme areas and engage with new and existing audiences with exciting programmes in museums. of Organisational Health, Collections and Audiences, based on the and content both within and beyond their walls. structure of Museum Accreditation, will continue. A need to continue Digital technologies improvements to our web pages was identified and has been addressed by making the lead MDO training role full-time, and renaming it Museum William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow. We will work to ensure that museums are able to better harness the Winner of the Art Fund prize for Museum power of digital technology to better manage their assets and potentially Development Officer Training and Communications. of the Year, 2013 reach every adult and every child in London. Edward Sumner Working as part of the Museum of London The Museum of London’s ongoing status as an ACE-funded Major Partner Museum means it can continue its highly regarded leadership role of sharing best practice on collections care with the wider museums sector. The Regional Collections Care Development Officer post will continue, working closely alongside the MDO team to grow the collections care expertise of London’s museums in a sustainable way. The Museum of London will also be sharing new expertise on collections rationalisation via the Museum Development programme. The Museum of London’s Learning team will be sharing the wide-ranging digital expertise it has developed over the last few years, working closely with the new post of Museum Development Officer Digital Technologies. It will also continue to share best practice through networks covering early years, secondary schools and special educational needs, working closely with the Museum Development Officer Audiences. ACE Accreditation Scheme advice ACE have decided not to continue with Accreditation Advisers and have instead asked Museum Development teams across England to provide all such advice in their region. In London the MDO team will provide this support across sub-regions of London as part of their general advice giving role (see page 6). 04 Museum of London museumoflondon.org.uk/museum-development Museum of London museumoflondon.org.uk/museum-development 05 London Museum Development programme London Museum Development programme Survive and Thrive London Museum Development team Over the last few years our flagship resilience programme has Following positive feedback we will continue the matrix structure of the transformed the way some services work and operate. We will continue it MDOs team which provides both specialist and general support, giving with the aim of having intensively supported eight museums by 2018. The museums a choice as to how they access advice. MDOs will continue to museums will go through a process of self-assessment and peer review provide one-to-one general and now also advice on ACE Accreditation to which will identify strengths and areas for improvement, and will receive museums in specific sub-regions. They will also provide specialist advice up to £4,000 each to implement an improvement plan.