Report 1999-2000
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RE P O RT 1999- 2 0 0 0 The Ninety-second Annual Report of the Council REPORT 1999-2000 © National Museums & Galleries of Wales, 2000 Editor: Penny Fell Translation: Siân Roberts, Elin ap Hywel Design & Production: Arwel Hughes Printing: MWL Print Group Ltd ISBN: 0 7200 0492 6 2 R E P O RT 1999-2000 CONTENTS FOREWORD BY THE PRESIDENT 5 REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES NATIONAL MUSEUM & GALLERY Archaeology & Numismatics 8 Art 10 Biodiversity & Systematic Biology 12 Geology 14 Library 15 MUSEUM OF WELSH LIFE 16 3 INDUSTRY 18 MUSEUM OF THE WELSH WOOLLEN INDUSTRY 19 WELSH SLATE MUSEUM 20 SEGONTIUM ROMAN MUSEUM 21 ROMAN LEGIONARY MUSEUM 22 TURNER HOUSE GALLERY 23 PRIMARY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR FIGURES 24 DEVELOPMENT 25 APPENDICES i. Court of Governors and Council 26 ii Staff 27 The Financial Report for 1999-2000 is published as a companion volume to this Report. REPORT 1999-2000 4 Henry Gastineau (1791 – 1876) Hafod Copper Works (c. 1830) Reproduced courtesy of the Swansea Museum Service R E P O RT 1999-2000 NATIONAL MUSEUMS & GALLERIES OF WALES P R E S I D E N T’S FOREWORD Last year, following the successful renovation of the In the year 2000, we inevitably think about the Welsh Slate Museum, we concentrated on public f u t u re, whether as individuals, as businesses or as consultation on our industrial strategy, and the institutions. With the National Assembly in its development of a new industrial and maritime i n f a n c y, Wales has had an additional impetus to do museum. Swansea was the chosen so. Whatever our background or wherever we live in site and we have made gre a t Wales, it is impossible to suppress the surge of p ro g ress in our partnership with the excitement and hope that a new millennium brings. City and County of Swansea during In my view the National Museums & Galleries of this year. Wales (NMGW) has a crucial role to play in this new drive to the future. We must grow out of our Other partners and possible cultural past, not in isolation from it. funding agencies ex p ressed intere s t in the scheme to create a You will see from the pages of this report that it has ‘ c o re museum’, which embraces the been a year of rich and varied activity thro u g h o u t existing Swansea Maritime our seven sites. For our museums and galleries, it Industrial Museum and also 5 has also been a year of taking stock of our past, re - involves newly built gallery space. thinking our future, quite ruthlessly assessing what This museum will be at the core of a we have, and planning how we can best manage ‘museum campus’, which will Mathew Prichard those assets, to serve Wales pro p e r l y. include the Swansea Museum and President allow for the development of other What should we at existing historic buildings to house activities which N M GW be doing in give wide and easy access, in reality or through the the coming century? use of information communication technology, to It seems to me our Wales’s heritage. The City and County of Swansea role is twofold. Fi r s t also have plans to develop the wider destination of to preserve, maintain Swansea Wa t e r f ront. The core museum and and add to the museum campus are seen as essential in catalysing collections in our the urban regeneration of this historically c a re, so that our part important area of Swansea and we are pleased to be of the nation’ s part of this important project in Wales’s second heritage is C i t y, probably the subject of a future application for p rofessionally looke d E u ropean funding. after and re m a i n s available for future Coal mining is central to Wales’s proud claim to be Anna Southall g e n e r a t i o n s . the first industrial nation. In January 2000 we Director S e c o n d l y, we must h e a rd that the Heritage Lottery Fund had award e d use old, new and N M GW, jointly with Big Pit Mining Museum, a very new methods of communication to ensure that grant of £4.9 million, the largest they have given in what we have is accessible in some way to everybody Wales to date. A further £1.6 million has been in Wales – and indeed, beyond – whatever their sought from other sources in order to implement a age, background, culture or means. capital improvement scheme to allow Big Pit to assume the status of the National Mining Museum The achievements and pro g ress described in this of Wales, as a part of NMGW, in January 2001, thus report would not be complete without an outline of enriching NMGW as well as ensuring a successful f o rw a rd looking strategic initiatives, developed f u t u re for this ex t r a o rdinary and powerfully t h roughout the year. evocative site. 1. We have continued to develop and deliver the N M GW’s industrial triangle of slate at Llanberis in industrial strategy to embrace and reach out to all the North, coal at Big Pit in the south is completed of Wales and to ensure that Wales now takes its time- by the Museum of the Welsh Woollen Industry in h o n o u red place in the industrial history of the world. D re-fach Fe l i n d re in West Carmarthenshire, which REPORT 1999-2000 has also been the subject of an application to the In this year, we welcomed the first Director of Heritage Lottery Fund. If, as we hope, this is National Museum & Gallery (NMG) to Card i f f . successful, it will help us tell the story of this MWL has long had a curator or Dire c t o r, NMG now "Huddersfield of Wales" in the lovely, historic has one too. Michael Tooby arrived in time to c o n t ext of the Teifi Va l l e y. 2. We shall ensure that we can care for and manage, to the highest standards, the collections and estates within our care . N M GW holds 5.2 million artefacts and groups of specimens upon which it draws for re s e a rch, study and display. But history starts afresh each day, and our collections cannot stand still. We continue to collect for coming generations, preserving and re s e a rching our heritage so that we can enhance our own understanding of our world and make that knowledge widely accessible, and enable informed decisions about the present and future . 6 Two years ago NMGW set about creating a new Collections Centre at Nantgarw, a cornerstone of our collection strategy. We are now developing this f a c i l i t y, firstly by creating the Archives Re s o u rc e C e n t re which will hold important archives which compliment the collections; and secondly, in the longer term, we plan an extension to house many of our less-used but equally important res e arc h collections. More modern and accessible storage facilities will lead to enhanced use of these collections by specialists and the public alike . Interactive activities in the Glanely Gallery 3. We shall ensure that NMGW is widely recognised as relevant to today’s society, using old and new means of communication to satisfy the needs of our audiences. p reside over the opening of the Glanely Gallery, an interactive discovery zone where specimens and The redevelopment of WSM has been re f e rred to artefacts can be handled and examined by visitors above. Over the past ten years a phased re d e v e l- of all ages with the help of experts – in person or opment of the Roman Legionary Museum in t h rough electronic links. Caerleon has been implemented, largely funded by private donations. The year 2000 is the 150th We have come late to the benefit of new technology anniversary of this museum, and the celebrations – but, incre a s i n g l y, have seized them with will also mark the near completion of the re d e v e l- enthusiasm. Our website visitors have incre a s e d opment of this highly successful museum, tard i s - m o re than threefold in the last year. Daily coverage l i ke behind its exquisitely elegant classical portico. of live field trips (an archaeological dig for Vi k i n g remains on Anglesey and a trip to re s e a rch life on Developments during the year at the Museum of the sea bed in the Seychelles) were amongst the Welsh Life (MWL) included continuing work on the most dynamic and popular websites. restoration of St Fagans Castle and its historic Vi d e o c o n f e rencing has enabled staff to enthuse g a rdens and on the re - e rection of the medieval schools and colleges all over Wales; both c h u rch of Llandeilo Ta l -y-bont. Work commenced technologies fuse with live interpretation in the new on a 1948 prefab and on the ‘House for the Fu t u re ’ . Glanely Gallery at NMGW. Web-based catalogues It is anticipated that there will be several welcome and data-bases have enabled us to satisfy needs of new attractions opening in the coming year.