Case Study – real practice, real impact Museum – partnership and social enterprise Ceredigion Museum – partnership and social enterprise 2

Ceredigion Museum, is county council Ceredigion Museum funded, has five full time staff and welcomes some 30,000 visitors per year. – partnership and social enterprise This case study is about how a project developing craft wares with local young people led to a range of wider benefits – important partnerships for the future, a new source of revenue for the museum, exposure to new evaluations tools, as well as benefitting the young people involved.

Highlights 3 This case study is relevant to: Museum profile 4 • Senior management team Happy Museum funded activities: 4 • Learning and community What happened? 5 engagement teams What’s changed? 7 • Curators and collections teams Happy Museum success factors 8 Tools, online resources 9 Ceredigion Museum – partnership and social enterprise 3 Highlights • The project helped develop a strong relationship “The project was about with the charity Tircoed expanding the idea of the museum, showing that it is • The social impact focus of the project helped the not just a building in town, museum win Heritage Lottery Funding breaking down barriers so that it really is a museum • This was the museum’s first outdoor project, which without walls.” has opened up possibilities for future work

Alice Briggs, assistant curator • The museum learned about and used appropriate impact evaluation tools Ceredigion Museum – partnership and social enterprise 4 Museum profile

Ceredigion Museum in the county between about 1850 Aberystwyth occupies a former and 1950. The museum is run by theatre and cinema dating back to Ceredigion County Council and 1904. The museum has a collection has faced significant cuts in recent of some 60,000 objects relating years. The museum has five full to local craft and industry, the time staff and has around 30,000 majority were made or used in visitors per year.

“It showed that we are a community hub and Happy Museum the project gave us the opportunity to work outside funded activities our own space. We don’t have an outdoor space – this Called ‘Harvest the Knowledge’, used craft skills to mend tools from got us working outdoors.” Ceredigion’s project was bi-lingual the handling collection. The project and was carried out in partnership also invested in proper branding with Tircoed, a woodland and rural for the products with marketing Alice Briggs, assistant curator communities charity. Tircoed and support from an intern sourced the museum trained five young through Aberystwyth University. people with craft and enterprise The project created an enduring skills to make a range of kitchen partnership with Tircoed and by crafts for sale in the museum working outdoors at the charity’s shop that were inspired by and woodland workshop showed the related to objects in the museum’s museum in a new light. collection. The participants also Ceredigion Museum – partnership and social enterprise 5 What happened?

“The project was a chance to really “By getting people with specialist “Our intention is to eventually show what Ceredigion Museum is knowledge of old tools enabled display the objects with about,” says Alice Briggs, assistant us to identify and categories our the tools, giving visitors a curator. “It showed that we are a in-store collection – and we were community hub and the project able to categories the tools and better understanding of the gave us the opportunity to work differentiate the collection. By production process.” outside our own space. We don’t focusing on specific items we have an outdoor space – this got were able to marry the tools with Stuart Evans, designer us working outdoors.” finished objects on display. Our and technician intention is to eventually display “The project was about expanding the objects with the tools, giving the idea of the museum, showing visitors a better understanding of that it is not just a building in the production process.” town, breaking down barriers so that it really is a museum without “Through this process, some of walls.” The museum has planned the tools were identified as being further activities beyond its own ‘A - for display only’, ‘B - good building to continue working with enough for handling’, ‘C - to be communities working with land restored and used again by crafts management. people’, and ‘D – deaccessioned’. This work is still being undertaken “Our partnership with Tircoed and will continue, now that we as a charity is on-going and the have established a body of keen project facilitator Bob Shaw is volunteers.” continuing to work with us on identifying tools and objects Alice Briggs believes the project inside the collection alongside has had an enduring legacy. an additional volunteer. We “In some ways it has been are looking to develop new transformative – here was an partnerships that continue looking initiative that was not just about at land management use and the the past, but that also shows how sustainability of our land within we can live in the future.” other areas of the collection over the next 24 months. With The kitchenware crafts the interns a particular focus on the sheep created not only provide revenue farming community to talk to for the museum, but also helped them about their histories and use develop their woodcraft careers. of the land.” In commercialising the products, the museum has taken care to For Stuart Evans, designer and emphasise that they were made technician at the Museum, working by local craftspeople using local with the interns to explore the materials sourced from properly museum’s objects “refreshed our managed woodlands. The stories of view of the collection.” Stuart the makers, and the tools used to identifies a number of ways this make them, were told and the link happened: made between the products and the museum’s collections. Ceredigion Museum – partnership and social enterprise 6

The museum also benefited from integrated into projects – although “It’s been great being able to the Happy Museum focus on embedding that new culture share our experiences though appropriate evaluation. “We had into staff and the organisation is a community of practice.” done lots of fantastic projects in another challenge. The partnership past, but we didn’t know what model that we used in working impact was,” says Alice. “The with Tircoed has increased the Alice Briggs, assistant curator Happy Museum idea of measuring sustainability of our partner what matters has been really organisation. Tircoed won new important for us.” funding and successfully bid for us to have a paid work placement for “We attended two of the Happy six months to continue working Museum community of practice on the project. We were able to evaluation days, which introduced disseminate the learning from us to the work of Daniel Fujiwara, the project at a symposium on and the Happy Museum’s Harvesting the Knowledge held in evaluation tools. These have June 2014.” been fantastic in several ways; offering case studies and examples Being part of the Happy Museum of evaluation, networking community of practice has been opportunities, and signposting to important. “The museum has other resources about impact. The faced and is facing a lot of cuts. interest in social impact within the The project has helped with the museum that has stemmed from challenges of organisational our working with Happy Museum’s change. Within the staffing evaluation tools formed part of structure we have at the moment, the remit for our recent Heritage many of the people find any kind Lottery capital project funding bid of change really difficult. It’s been (for which we were successful), great being able to share our and we will be working on how experiences though a community to set up integrated evaluation of practice.” into the community engagement plan that forms a large part of the “Working within the Community implementation of that project.” of Practice has been invaluable as a supportive environment to “We have come away from network and develop contacts the Happy Museum activities with other museums. We learnt to with many simple, but effective ‘steal ideas with pride’ where they evaluation tools that can be easily worked at the conference, and our Curator successfully bid for funding to bring the Paper Apothecary (another Happy Museum Project commission), on a tour of which will be beginning soon. It has also helped meeting museum staff from completely different backgrounds of organisation across the UK, big and small, and seeing what innovative projects everyone is working to achieve.” Ceredigion Museum – partnership and social enterprise 7 What’s changed?

Being part of a community of New directions: The museum “Working within the practice: The museum benefitted has shown it can operate beyond Community of Practice from the support of and input its walls and has plans for further has been invaluable as a from other museums facing similar outreach work that shows the challenges. museum in a new light and aims supportive environment to for new audiences. The museum network and develop contacts Successful funding bid: The social has also discovered the benefits of with other museums.” impact work form the Harvest more participatory work with its the Knowledge project helped the collections. museum secure Heritage Lottery Alice Briggs, assistant curator Funding for other activities. Follow up project: A second Happy Museum project, The Commercial, environmental Gospel Ship, has been developed in and social: The sale of craft wares collaboration with artist, Janetka could provide a new source of Platun, Happy Museum and People revenue for the museum, with United. Through the project the positive environmental and social community will co-create modern benefits too. day responses inspired by the themes and subjects of an original 19th Century print (The Gospel Ship) in the museum’s collection. Talks, public events and performances will result from the material created in the workshops while further funding is currently being sought to create a full sized Gospel Ship in 2017. The gathered responses will be painted directly on to the sails of this traditional clipper which will sail along the Welsh coastline, stopping off at least six locations. The voyage will be enriched with commissioned events, artist commissions and a touring exhibition of the museum’s rich collection of maritime paintings and artifacts. Ceredigion Museum – partnership and social enterprise 8 Happy Museum success factors

Since 2008, The Happy Museum themselves in the light of these project has been testing a set principles. The table below is a of working principles through summary of our ‘Story of Change’ commissioned projects. These tool (More information here: ‘action research’ projects have www.happymuseumproject.org). helped us identify critical success This case study best demonstrates factors of how, what and why the aspects of practice highlighted museums might re-imagine in red.

Principles How? What? Why? Drivers Delivery Difference we make

Measure what Share a wellbeing Use time, resources matters vision and scope creatively To re-think what Share a Story of Measure what matters Change matters to people

Be an active citizen Encourage active Work engagement experimentally To create happy, Anticipate challenge Use everyone’s resilient people and change potential

Pursue mutual Share ownership Work across relationships Ensure mutual benefit hierarchies and teams To create happy, resilient teams

All of which help re-imagine museums for better community LIFE*

Create the conditions Consider Be a good host Communities are: for wellbeing playfullness, creativity, Broker relationships • Learning activity and aesthetics Learn for resilience • Interacting • Feeling happy, satisfied and Value the Consider the social Use the museum’s worthwhile environment and be a and financial benefits unique resources. steward of the future of being green • Environmentally Lead by example: care aware as well as the past of people, place and planet

* The Happy Museum Project is conducting a national LIFE survey, where LIFE = Learning, Interactions with others, Feelings and emotions, and Environmental awareness. More: www.happymuseumproject.org Ceredigion Museum – partnership and social enterprise 9 Tools used

The Ceredigion team used the starting with the overall purpose ‘story of change’ to define their and working backwards. The vision for the project and to plan process of ‘measuring what the route to achieve that vision. matters’ can then start at the The purpose of this tool (which planning stage – by defining the is similar to theory of change, or success factors for a project, a logic modelling) is to make sure we strategy or a change of direction. start by focusing on the difference The tool is also valuable for we want to make rather than helping to communicate a on the activities we may use to vision to staff, volunteers and achieve those ends. all stakeholders, as well as the thinking that underpins it. Using a story of change challenges ‘business as usual’ thinking by

More on using a Story of Change can be found here: www.happymuseumproject.org Online resources Museum website: www.ceredigion.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=197 Partner website: www.tircoed.org.uk/index.php/what-we-do/39- harvesting-the-knowledge-project-page Tumblr site: www.hadaucrafts.tumblr.com Facebook page: www.facebook.com/hadaucrafts Article on the project: http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/sense-of-place/ harvesting-the-knowledge-in-ceredigion