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When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES ARCHAEOLOGY Volume 1 of 1 The Future of Museum Communication: Strategies for Engaging Audiences on Archaeology by Becky Yasmin Peacock Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August_2015 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMAITIES Archaeology Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy THE FUTURE OF MUSEUM COMMUNICATION: STRATEGIES FOR ENGAGING AUDIENCES ON ARCHAEOLOGY Becky Yasmin Peacock The heritage industry within the last few years has been undergoing a number of alterations. A number of factors have forced professionals to reassess and adapt the ways they work. As such museums have been assessing their practices in order to survive on increasingly reduced budgets, staff numbers and in some cases time. With all these changes what has been happening? Outreach programmes have been the focus of change within museums over the last few years. This practice has been singled out as an area that can be altered or lost due to its lack of direct return. However, is this lack of return due to the practice or its shortage of appropriate evaluation? This research focuses on the county of Hampshire; its museums and their outreach programmes. It explores the impact of funding, funding organisations and evaluation on outreach within this area. At its heart it looks to introduce a move away from monetary based evaluations towards well-being or social impact. The four case studies illustrate how facets of impact are not evaluated and subsequently lost through the current techniques. Ultimately, the major impacts of this practice are not the ones evaluated presently but those skirted over. Therefore, more appropriate evaluation should be created that captures all the impacts of outreach practices, in order to effectively determine if these programmes are viable within museums. i Contents ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................ i Contents ................................................................................................................................ iii List of tables ......................................................................................................................... v List of figures .................................................................................................................... vii List of accompanying materials ...............................................................................ix DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP ...............................................................................xi Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... xiii Definitions and Abbreviations ................................................................................ xv Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Literature ..................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Definition of ‘Outreach’ ...................................................................... 9 2.1.1 What is Engagement? ………………………………………………..12 2.1.2 What is it to Feel Engaged? …………………………………………12 2.1.3 What is it to Engage? …………………………………………………13 2.2 Definition: Good or Bad? ................................................................... 15 2.3 Museum as an Educational Facility .................................................... 15 2.4 Emergence of ‘Outreach’................................................................... 30 2.4.1 Heritage ………………………………………………………………...30 2.4.2 Public Archaeology …………………………………………………..33 2.4.3 Community Archaeology ……………………………………………35 2.4.4 Impact on 'Outreach' ..……………………………………………...36 2.5 Funding ............................................................................................ 38 2.6 Evaluation ......................................................................................... 41 2.7 Politics .............................................................................................. 47 2.8 Summary .......................................................................................... 50 Chapter 3: Research Area: Museums in Hampshire ................................ 51 3.1 Research Area ................................................................................... 51 3.2 What is a Museum?............................................................................ 52 3.3 Museum ‘Outreach’ in Hampshire ..................................................... 53 3.4 Why Conduct ‘Outreach’ or Not?........................................................ 64 iii 3.5 Summary ........................................................................................... 68 Chapter 4: Methodology .......................................................................................... 69 4.1 Types of Evaluation ........................................................................... 69 4.2 Methods ............................................................................................ 70 4.3 Research Methodology-Observation ................................................... 75 4.4 Issues................................................................................................ 76 4.5 Data Collection .................................................................................. 77 4.5.1 Observation Categories ……………………………………………..78 4.5.2 Why? ……………………………………………………………………..79 4.6 Analysis ............................................................................................ 81 4.7 Summary ........................................................................................... 83 Chapter 5: Issues Encountered ........................................................................... 85 5.1 Initial Contact .................................................................................... 85 5.2 Arranging Observations ..................................................................... 87 5.3 Data Collection .................................................................................. 89 5.4 Summary ........................................................................................... 92 Chapter 6: Impact of Funding .............................................................................. 93 6.1 Nationwide Budget Cuts – The Impact on Museums in Hampshire ...... 93 6.2 Funding Bodies – Past and Present ..................................................... 95 6.3 Funding Evaluations .......................................................................... 99 6.4 Factors Affecting Museums and Their Services ................................ 108 6.4.1 The Status of 'Outreach' in Museums…………………………..108 6.4.2 Reduction of Services……………………………………………….109 6.4.3 Funding Impacting on Time, Staff Numbers and The Amount of Services Available…………………………………………………….109 6.4.4 Staff Numbers………………………………………………………..111 6.4.5 Focus on Activities That are Easier to Prove Impact………....112 6.4.6 Summary………………………………………………………………112 6.5 ‘Outreach’ as the Enemy ................................................................. 113 6.6 Summary ......................................................................................... 114 Chapter 7: Provider Views on ‘Outreach’ .................................................... 119 7.1 Provider vs Museum ........................................................................ 119 7.1.1 Community Engagement & Learning Officer South West vs. Hampshire County Council Museums Service………………….119 iv 7.1.2 Assistant Community Engagement & Learning Officer North & Central vs. Hampshire County Council Museums Service…..120 7.1.3 Other Museums ……………………………………………………..127 7.2 Impact on ‘Outreach’ ...................................................................... 129 7.3 Summary ........................................................................................ 133 Chapter 8: Case Study Analysis ........................................................................ 137 8.1 Case Studies vs Information ............................................................ 137 8.2 Case Studies ................................................................................... 139 8.2.1 The Mary Rose Museum/Trust……………………………………139 8.2.2 The Museum of Army Flying……………………………………...143 8.2.3 Bursledon Brickworks Industrial Museum ……………………..145 8.2.4 Royal Navy Submarine Museum …………………………………147 8.3 What Do The Case Studies Show? .................................................... 149 8.3.1 Continuity