South West Museum Development Programme Annual Review 2017/18 South West Museum Development Annual Report 2017/18 Contents 4 The 2015 – 2018 Programme 5 2017/18 in numbers 7 Introduction 8 Goal 1: Excellence 12 Goal 2: Audiences 16 Goal 3: Resilience and environmental sustainability 19 Goal 4: Leadership and workforce 20 Goal 5: Children and young people 21 Cornwall 22 Devon 24 Dorset 25 Somerset 26 West of England 27 Gloucestershire 28 Wiltshire 30 Financial Overview 31 Support 2 South West Museum Development Annual Report 2017/18 South West Museum Development Annual Report 2017/18 3 Goal 1 Excellence is thriving and • 10,227 people actively volunteer 2015 –2018 celebrated in the arts, museums for museums. and libraries. • There is a relatively small paid * Programme Goal 2 Everyone has the staff base with around 1,588 opportunity to experience and to (856.FTE) people employed £973,628 be inspired by the arts, museums by museums. 206 and libraries. • Visits to museums help Total invested in The development The number of museums Goal 3 The arts, museums contribute approximately museums through that benefitted from support services and libraries are resilient and £92.7 million annually to the provided to museums environmentally sustainable. regional economy. our programme support during the year across the region are 1 Goal 4 The leadership and focused on delivering • 31% of the museums in the workforce in the arts, museums against Arts Council region are small independents and libraries are diverse and England’s five with half of these receiving less The number of museums appropriately skilled. strategic goals, set than 9,999 visits per annum. supported with volunteering out in their 10-year Goal 5 Every child and young *Statistical data based on development vision Great Art and 2 person has the opportunity to 2016/17 south west Annual Survey £22,061 Culture for Everyone. experience the richness of the arts, of Museums. The total awarded in grants The South West museums and libraries. to support museum projects Museum Development Our 2015 –18 programme 50 programme Museums in the • Invests over £750,000 in maximises the grant 3 South West museums per year with award provided by Arts As part of our programme we funding from the Arts Council Council England by deliver a data survey, analysis and and 23 local authorities across working in partnership reporting activity for several other the region. to align existing regions. During 2017/18 we have 125 The total • Was developed through Number of museums and new funding for continued to deliver this work for extensive consultation with supported to improve contributed by museums to meet 4 the East Midlands, East of England, 309 local authority museums about their priorities. collections care these ambitions. North East and also, for the first The total partners time, with the West Midlands. • Ensures that museums, no number of to support Further information on the South matter what their size or scope, can access professional delegates museums West Annual Museum Survey can through our be found under publications and expertise and opportunities to that attended 5 build their resilience. programme resources on our website. Museum Skills • South West Museum • Integrates Arts Council’s training Development (SWMD) supports five goals with the needs of local museums and with the strategic £113,146 212 museums within the Arts 27The total number Council Accreditation scheme. priorities of local authorities. of museums • Museums in the region attract supported to around 7,602,274 million visits develop their digital per year. engagement • 29% of Accredited museums are entirely volunteer-run. *Inc £92,910 funds from 2016/17 4 South West Museum Development Annual Report 2017/18 South West Museum Development Annual Report 2017/18 5 Introduction The South West is home to a vibrant museum sector from small independent, volunteer-led museums to large local authority museums. Regardless of their size or governance, museums play an important part in our communities whether in our region’s cities, towns or rural and coastal areas. This vibrancy extends to their collections; they not only document the lives of local people and their experiences, but those from across the globe, spanning the breadth of human history up to present day. This uniqueness is to be celebrated and championed, however it is not without its challenges. Funding cuts and an overall difficult economic climate continues to place pressure on museums and they must look to new ways of working to ensure they thrive. South West Museum Development provides professional support and expertise to the region’s workforce through its local Museum Development Officers and regional specialists in audiences, collections, digital and volunteering, and through its programme to support museums in strengthening their resilience. The final year of our 2015-18 programme has seen 206 museums supported by the programme with a further £113,146 additional investment secured from 23 local authorities over the course of 2017/18. We have brokered new partnerships and worked with sector bodies to deliver national initiatives at a local level to directly meet the needs of our region’s museums. This year saw us work with the Association of Independent Museums, the Audience Agency, Culture 24, Collections Trust, Kids in Museums and the Touring Exhibitions Group. We have also continued to channel additional investment into the region; delivering the Ready to Borrow capital funding stream and secured additional funding to support at risk collections with Raising the Standard: Banners of Devon and Cornwall as well as funds to encourage new approaches to collections with our Muse: Makers project. As I step down from my role as Head of Bristol Culture and Chair of the South West Museum Development Partnership I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of the region’s museums every success for the future. I have loved getting to know the sector here in the south west and I am sure that South West Museum Development’s 2018-2022 programme will not only continue to support museums during these difficult times, but will also move them forward as responsive and innovative spaces which serve our local communities and the many visitors our region receives each year. Laura Pye Chair of South West Museum Development Board 6 South West Museum Development Annual Report 2017/18 South West Museum Development Annual Report 2017/18 7 Goal One: Excellence Our aim: Work with museums to achieve and maintain high collection care and management standards and enhance collections accessibility to audiences and communities. In 2017/18: In 2018/19 we will: • Our Conservation Development • We worked with 10 community- • Continue to support museums Officer supported 125 museums led museums across Devon and to improve their collection care in 2017/18 through a mixture of Cornwall to secure £67,500 and management. direct support including remote from the HLF as part of a • Continue to offer a central advice, site visits, training and project to conserve, interpret purchasing scheme, saving surgery sessions at county and display 15 banners and museums money on collections museum group meetings. engage local communities and care supplies and a loans service • 19 site visits supported schools with the vibrant social for essential environmental museums to assess the history and contemporary monitoring and control condition of their collections relevance of the banners. The equipment such as data loggers and provide recommendations project, Raising the Standard and dehumidifiers. for improvements. – Banners of Devon and Cornwall, engaged 3,280 • We1 partnered with Collections visitors across 18 community Trust to deliver a suite of engagement events plus a collections care training further 53 activities in 2017/18, delivered through the South capturing the imagination of West Museum Skills local residents and audiences programme reaching from further afield. 39 delegates. We were part of the Raising the Standard Project and it was amazing. We also called for professional advice with our collection especially in the area of pests. Helston Museum 8 South“ West Museum Development Annual Report 2017/18 South West Museum Development Annual Report 2017/18 9 Case study: Officer first caught sight of a members of the Toc H group beautifully painted banner, were invited. With fabulous Raising the draped awkwardly over attention paid to every detail, furniture and boxes in an the lower ground gallery of the Standard: unheated, dusty garage she museum was transformed with Banners of Devon knew something had to be Toc H bunting and small prayer and Cornwall done. Little did she anticipate it books were created, alongside would take three projects, five a wall of research and archive Raising the Standard was funders, at least six painting photographs to reignite the a project working with 10 and textile conservators, 25 memories of past Toc H community led museums banners and many miles in a activities. Most of this was across Devon and Cornwall to hire van, squeezing through the delivered by a small number of conserve, research, interpret cobbled Mevagissey streets to volunteers, whose dedication and display 15 banners transport the final, beautiful and skill contributed almost alongside a programme silk Methodist, banner back to 1500 volunteer hours at a value of vibrant community the museum four years later. of over £9,900 to the project. engagement. The project took The project is testament to place during 2017 and enabled the museums to share the local the partner museums who stories of social justice, identity delivered 18 community and comradeship that the events and 53 further activities banners represent. and workshops in the summer and autumn of 2017 Due to the fragile nature of reaching approximately 3,280 some of the banners it is participants. There are too the first time they have been many highlights to mention, on display for many years.