Canterbury Museums & Galleries Annual Review 2018/19 CANTERBURY MUSEUMS & GALLERIES CANTERBURY MUSEUMS & GALLERIES Annual Review 2018/19 Annual Review 2018/19 Contents Page Executive Summary ............................................................... 5 Canterbury Museum & Galleries Vision ............................. 7 Strategic Objectives - progress report Strategic Objective 1 .........................................................11 Strategic Objective 2 .........................................................13 Strategic Objective 3 .........................................................15 Strategic Objective 4 .........................................................17 Strategic Objective 5 ........................................................19 Ambitions for the Future ......................................................21 Acknowledgements ..............................................................23 2 3 CANTERBURY MUSEUMS & GALLERIES CANTERBURY MUSEUMS & GALLERIES Annual Review 2018/19 Annual Review 2018/19 Executive Summary In 2018, Canterbury Museums and Highlights include: Galleries released a new and ambitious • Over 327,000 visitors Vision for the service; a world of • Providing learning resources for 5,642 school people, places, exploration and children through 129 workshops and activities surprises. • 100% of Canterbury District Primary Schools In this review, we look back at a year of included in the Adopt an Object programme experimentation, innovation and learning, from high profile events to in-depth collection care. • Hosting 63 specialist workshops for people with disabilities or at risk of social exclusion Once again, the team have used their collaborative approach to work with partners • Working with 49 museum volunteers who from artists to academics and have built new contributed a total of 1,465 hours of support relationships in public health and across the local • Using our collection to engage patients authority. suffering from mental health conditions Through hard work and perseverance we including object handling in a hospital setting. celebrate the most successful financial • Protection and preservation of over 50,000 performance the service has had for a long time objects within the museum collection and we present a sample of the new audiences we have worked with throughout the year. • Renewed accreditation for both Canterbury Roman Museum and The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge • We conclude with a little taster of the year to come, including plans for our redesign of The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, and the opening of new and refreshed exhibits at Canterbury Roman Museum. 4 5 CANTERBURY MUSEUMS & GALLERIES CANTERBURY MUSEUMS & GALLERIES Annual Review 2018/19 Annual Review 2018/19 Museums & Galleries Vision 2018-2022 Following a detailed review of the Our Values Museums and Galleries service in 2017, We believe everybody should feel welcome to be we felt it was important to refresh our part of the Museums’ family. Whether they are ambitions for the service, building on just passing through, or a regular visitor, our service is open to all. our strengths and seeking to address the potential challenges of the future. We want to start conversations and exploration as early as possible in our communities and, In this report, we will share our vision, our values therefore, we put family at the heart of and our strategic objectives and explore how we everything we do. Our collections, exhibitions and have addressed these goals over the last year. events are designed with access and inclusion in mind. Our Vision, Your Museums & Galleries: a world of people, places, exploration and surprises. We believe in the transformative nature of cultural engagement to improve health and From Roman history to contemporary art, from wellbeing. Through our collections, programming local stories to global commentary, the and learning we want to offer opportunities for collections and exhibitions will inspire creativity, reflection, inspiration and education. discovery and play as a way of unlocking potential and enabling learning. We are a dynamic museum. We believe in preserving and interpreting the past in order to Conversations, connections and collaborations shape the future. We apply learning as much to with our audiences are the foundations of the our operation as our programming and aspire to service, ensuring that our work is relevant and develop our offer through innovations and current, reflecting who we were, who we are and partnerships. who we hope to be. 6 7 CANTERBURY MUSEUMS & GALLERIES CANTERBURY MUSEUMS & GALLERIES Annual Review 2018/19 Annual Review 2018/19 Our Strategic Objectives We will: 1. Deliver an innovative programme using our collections and learning facilities to engage and inspire audiences, particularly focused on children and young people. 2. Promote Health and Wellbeing for our communities through cultural engagement and partnership working. 3. Create a resilient service that balances commercial opportunities with our core offer. 4. Act as an example of best practice in cultural and organisational development, from the care of our collections to encouraging development in our staff and the people we work with, we will seek out new ways of working and share learning. 5. Reflect our ambitions in the way we design, operate and maintain our buildings, recognising them as part of our collection to be shared, explored and preserved for future generations. 8 9 CANTERBURY MUSEUMS & GALLERIES CANTERBURY MUSEUMS & GALLERIES Annual Review 2018/19 Annual Review 2018/19 Strategic Objective 1: Deliver an innovative programme using This year we have also made significant changes our collections and learning facilities to to our Learning programme. Building on the Case Study 1: success of the Adopt an Object programme, Night at the Museum: Halloween engage and inspire audiences, through which every school in the Canterbury particularly focused on children and District was allocated an object from the Special young people. Collection to learn about and study in more Over October half-term 2018 The Beaney was detail. We have hosted over 5,600 school aged transformed into a Haunted House and Throughout 2018/19 Canterbury Museums and children through various workshops and formal visitors were invited to solve the case of the Galleries have welcomed over 327,000 visitors learning sessions. However, in addition to this, we mysterious disappearance of Edith Miller. The across our two sites: The Beaney House of Art and have significantly increased the opportunities for team used their creativity and knowledge of Knowledge and The Roman Museum. informal learning through special events and the collection to produce an interactive ghost family activities. Our programme was balanced to support a broad trail that offered families the opportunity to explore The Beaney collection in a fun and range of tastes from hosting the work of the From providing family activities alongside exciting way. The event finale included a renowned illustrator Quentin Blake in The BFG in exhibitions, to programming specialist events partnership project with the University of Pictures to our special exhibition Beyond War: such as our Night at the Museum: Halloween Kent’s Architecture department who used a Visualising Peace commemorating the 100 year Special, we have created a welcoming series of lighting and projection installations anniversary of the end of the First World War, environment where families can spend time to animate the museum and galleries. Over including an exclusive commissioned work by together and experience the wonderful heritage 2,000 visitors attended the finale event, 83% artist Kremena Dimitrova. and creativity our service has to offer. of whom were visiting with family. “Really nice work in a museum. Good idea.” “Saw lots of things in the cabinets that we hadn't noticed before.” “Brilliant. Cleverly thought out.” “We did the ghost trail and it was so good! Kids really engaged with it, and fun for adults too.” 10 11 CANTERBURY MUSEUMS & GALLERIES CANTERBURY MUSEUMS & GALLERIES Annual Review 2018/19 Annual Review 2018/19 Strategic Objective 2: Promote Health and Wellbeing for our Through this process we will be testing two communities through cultural hypotheses: Case Study 2: engagement and partnership working. • Working in an organisation with Health & Power of the Object Wellbeing at its core can improve the Health People affected by issues that impact on Since 2013, The Beaney has been working & Wellbeing outcomes for staff. towards becoming a therapeutic museum by their physical health (such as visual placing health & wellbeing at the heart of our • Cultural interventions (particularly using impairment) or their mental health (such as programme. This year was the first year of our museum collections) provide an accessible dementia or depression) are at risk of social four year relationship with the Kent and Medway and effective way to improve personal Health isolation. Our programme, delivered by Museums Partnership Consortium as an Arts & Wellbeing. experienced staff and empathetic volunteers Council National Portfolio Organisation (NPO). provides a free, safe place to meet each Our approach combines science and creativity to month and the opportunity to engage with Canterbury Museum and Galleries are the lead measure the impact of our interventions. By each other through facilitated object partner for the consortium for Health and using tools such as the Warwick-Edinburgh