Annual Report 2017 The Salisbury Museum The King’s House 65 The Close Salisbury Wiltshire SP1 2EN Telephone 01722 332151 [email protected] www.salisburymuseum.org.uk The Salisbury Museum is an independent charity 289850 Front cover: Eric Ravilious, The Wilmington Giant (1939), Copyright: Victoria and Albert Museum, London The Salisbury Museum Annual Report 2017 The year in numbers £177,807 Income from ticket sales 57,424 Museum user number £45,677 Grant from Wiltshire Council 42,106 Museum visitor number 18,190 Volunteer work hours £15,000 Grant from Salisbury City Council £14,408 Donations and legacies 3,210 School children visiting museum 1,473 Members of the museum 1,277 People at Festival of Archaeology 230 Volunteers 33 Family learning events 8 Temporary exhibitions Brian Graham, Winter Menhirs, Imbolc, 2003, acrylic on canvas (Copyright Brian Graham) The Chairman’s Report A successful organisation will greet any understanding of English history across challenge with pragmatism and a steady multiple levels. heart. It is currently true of all museums, whether regional or national, that they face a It is worth remembering that the key objectives demanding financial climate. In 2017 Salisbury for which the museum was founded include Museum has not been immune to challenges the following for the benefit of the public: but has ended the year under review in robust and defiant spirit. Providing exhibits of historical scientific and artistic significance and interest; The Heritage Lottery Fund has been under increasing pressure to support more bids with The provision in connection with the museum an ever-decreasing pot of money. It did not of a library, lectures and other facilities for come as a major surprise to the museum to education relating to the Arts and Sciences; discover that the dwindling source of money and available was allocated to larger institutions and that our bid was not successful in 2017. The promotion of research relating to the Arts However, with support from the HLF, we will and Sciences and the publication of the useful resubmit our bid for a smaller sum to continue results of such researches. our essential refurbishment but phasing it to address, in the first instance, The Salisbury Addressing these in reverse order, 2017 has Gallery. The revised masterplan will focus on seen the continuation and ever expanding the history of the city, creating an environment success of the MODES database. With the that will enable visitors to appreciate what is help of over two hundred and thirty volunteers special and significant about this landscape the museum has also continued to catalogue and the people who have shaped it. The The Salisbury Journal photography archive, gallery will aspire to facilitate the and the costume collection, the latter thanks to 1 support from the Arts Society. Acquisitions insight into the exceptional life and work of Sir worth £24,000, including a painting of Terry Pratchett using key personal artefacts Stratford Tony by Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn, are and artwork. This exhibition received media now part of the museum collection thanks to coverage from all over the world including the HLF funded Creative Wiltshire project co- prime BBC national news. It was an excellent ordinated by Wiltshire Council. example of the museum’s broad ranging offer. Museum outreach has increased in 2017 for Extending our temporary exhibition reach both formal and informal learning groups, outside the museum saw the creation, with a including family events and discovery days. nod to Trafalgar Square, of the ‘Wessex The museum had a presence at the Chalke Plinth’. Julian Sainsbury’s Head surveyed the Valley History Festival, sponsoring a talk by Close from the front garden of the King’s Alex Langlands about Old Sarum. Promotion House and began a series of placements of research related to the sciences is evident which represent contemporary sculptors in our Festival of Archaeology. This event whose work relates to the collections and the continues to draw speakers and attract a wide landscapes of Wiltshire. public audience where the subject of archaeology, its developing ideas and Further to a review in 2016, a Governance discoveries and the collections of the museum committee meets on a quarterly basis to are accessible to all. Even a very wet ensure that relevant issues raised in the weekend did not deter the crowds. review are considered and addressed. Working in partnership with other The year has seen the Director and staff of the organisations continues to be beneficial for the museum, together with an exceptional body of museum. The significance of the successful volunteers, working with enormous energy application, as part of the Wessex Museums and professionalism to ensure that Salisbury Partnership, for Arts Council NPO (National Museum remains a dynamic and successful Portfolio Organisation) funding means that the institution. collective is in the top tier of regional museums in the country. Susanna Denniston, Chair of Trustees The Wessex Museums Partnership comprises Poole Museum, Dorset Country Museum, Wiltshire Museum and Salisbury Museum. The funding, £1.278m, will be for four years for projects spread across the four museums including exhibitions, community engagement, learning, marketing, fundraising and collections care. Hugh Homan joined the Board of Trustees as a retired solicitor who brings knowledge of both the charity and education sectors. Visitor numbers have seen a significant increase this year. This is largely due to the nature of our temporary exhibition programme. January saw the continuation of Constable in Context that included works relating to Constable’s famous painting of Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows. This was followed by British Art: Ancient Landscapes. The exhibition, curated by Professor Sam Smiles, was composed of over seventy works which examined artistic responses to British Antiquity, including works by Turner, Constable, Paul Nash, John Piper and Eric Ravilious. Our final exhibition of 2017 was Terry Pratchett: HisWorld, which provided an 2 Sir Terry Pratchett’s office – recreated in HisWorld (Photo by Ash Mills) Increasing Visitor Numbers Exhibitions The centrepiece of Constable in Context (17 scientific interpretations offered by September 2016 to 25 March 2017) was John archaeologists. Sam produced an excellent Constable’s Salisbury Cathedral from the catalogue for the exhibition which proved very Meadows which returned to the museum in popular with our visitors. the autumn of 2016 for a six month period as part of the ASPIRE partnership. The painting Terry Pratchett: HisWorld, (16 September was acquired for the nation in 2013 by Tate in 2017 to 14 January 2018) was the final, and partnership with four other institutions: most successful exhibition of the year. This National Museum Wales, the National was curated by Richard Henry, Wiltshire’s Galleries of Scotland, Colchester and Ipswich Finds Liaison Officer, who has been a lifelong Museum and Salisbury Museum. Salisbury fan of the author. Richard secured the full was the fourth venue on its national tour support of the Pratchett Estate and had where it was placed in its historical and artistic exclusive access to Sir Terry’s archive, context. including many items not seen by Pratchett fans before. At the heart of the exhibition was British Art: Ancient Landscapes (8 April to 3 Paul Kidby’s incredible artwork which brings September 2017) was a major new exhibition the Discworld vividly to life. curated by Professor Sam Smiles. It explored how the British landscape has been a Three smaller exhibitions were held in the continual inspiration to artists across the museum’s first floor gallery. Rena Gardiner, centuries, particularly places shaped and Artist and Printmaker (14 January to 13 May marked by our distant ancestors. One central 2017) is famous for the guidebooks she theme of the show was the relationship designed, illustrated and printed for historic between how artists view ancient landscapes places, buildings and countryside. This and how archaeologists interpret their work. exhibition looked at the wonderful paintings, This was illustrated brilliantly through works by pastels and prints she produced. Rena artists such as Paul Nash, who sought to offer Gardiner was followed by the Art of an alternative view to the empirical and Stonehenge (20 May to 27 August 2017) 3 which revealed some of the many paintings period and the desire to showcase cutting we have in the archives of this nationally edge thinking in art, history and archaeology. important monument. The year ended with Events were designed to enhance the Paul Kidby’s Charmed Realm (2 September exhibition experience and support interest and 2017 to 14 January 2018) which was timed to learning around the museum’s collections in a co-incide with the HisWorld exhibition and variety of ways. So whether it involved showcased Paul’s work for his book of the recreating a great artwork in LEGO building same name. bricks, tramping across Martin Down, listening to the latest findings on archaeobotany or The final exhibition to highlight is Spoons – A enjoying a visit from vintage and veteran Stiring Tale (8 April to 3 September 2017). steam cars (see below) – the intention was to This unusual project was a collaboration with be as exciting and accessible to the widest the National Federation of Women’s Institutes possible audience. Craft Committee. The aim was to encourage WI makers of all abilities to attend workshops The year started