Issue Three – October 2007
Future funding for Renaissance Minister visits Preston
Diversifying the Workforce
Harris Museum & Art Gallery – Claire Wood
Partnerships in Greater Manchester
James Purnell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The political landscape changed dramatically in June, when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister and appointed James Purnell and Margaret Hodge to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. As MP for Stalybridge, James Purnell is one of a significant number of regional MPs now in key Cabinet positions. Cultural heritage was widely discussed in Westminster during the summer, through Parliamentary Questions and the Select Committee’s report, Caring for Collections. The report highlights the museums sector’s contribution to the country’s educational, social and economic welfare and argues that its value deserves better recognition.
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September’s Curating for the Future conference will help Renaissance North West build on this groundswell of concern and support for the region’s outstanding collections. Priorities for action that came from the conference will strengthen the development of our curators, so that they are best able to care for, use and interpret these remarkable objects for the enjoyment and fascination of all. Virginia Tandy, Director, Manchester City Galleries (Hub Lead) Manchester Art Gallery
Alan Seabright
Future Funding for Renaissance
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If there’s one area of public life where governments should cut loose and show passion, it’s in the promotion of culture. We want ... our museums and collections to be the greatest in the world.
MLA North West Regional Advocacy work In this changing political climate, it has been critical that MLA North West maintains its regional advocacy campaign with political figures. We have met with MPs, elected members for culture and other key figures and have secured several visits to venues in the region – including David Lammy’s recent visit to Lancashire. MLA North West has co-ordinated a regional advocacy group for museums, to discuss how regional museums can be supported. We will produce an advocacy support pack, featuring ‘killer’
facts, visitor profiles and comparative data about museums in the North West. The group will report back in the next issue of this newsletter. The backdrop to our campaigning activity is the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review – the Treasury’s process of setting departmental expenditure and targets. The outcome of the CSR will be announced later in the year. Everyone expects a tight settlement, and that is why it is important that we keep the pressure on, remind politicians of the importance of Renaissance in the Regions and articulate the impact museums and culture have on individuals, communities and society. Clare Connor, Chief Executive, MLA North West
www.mlanorthwest.org.uk
Lancashire Conservation Studios
David Lammy MP visits Preston In June, the former Minister of Culture, David Lammy MP, visited Lancashire to explore its creative and cultural heritage.
The Minister experienced new technology projects that students from Archbishop Temple School have developed to interpret works of art at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery. The students made Podcasts, after researching the collections and temporary exhibitions at the museum. They worked alongside artists at Bluestreak Arts and museum staff to create scripts, producing three podcasts that describe the stories behind the artworks. At the National Football Museum, Mr Lammy met schoolgirls who had
produced a film called One Aim, One Game, about what football means to them and their community. The film is on show in the museum. As part of the launch of the new Lancashire Conservation Studios, Mr Lammy handled objects from the Portable Antiquities Scheme and while he was examining natural history specimens, conservation staff learned that his father was a taxidermist. Mr Lammy also participated in one of the Introduction to Collections Care training sessions that Renaissance ran earlier this year.
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Robina Llewellyn
He visited the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, the National Football Museum and Lancashire Conservation Studios to see how they are working to engage young people, increase visits by schools and develop family learning.
Mr. Lammy examines a Roman vessel made of bronze in the shape of a cockerel that was found and documented by the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
The best Thursday morning I’ve had in a long time. What a wonderful collection. Look forward to returning with the family. Keep inspiring. David Lammy, MP
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National Football Museum
National Football Museum
8 MPs in Gordon Brown’s cabinet have constituencies in the North West including James Purnell Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport
www.mlanorthwest.org.uk
DIVERSIFYING THE WORKFORCE
Claire Wood
Whitworth Art Gallery
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If you are seeking to develop culturally diverse organisations, you need to be culturally diverse.
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Raj Patel, director of the Asdal Institute
The Museums Libraries and Archives Council is supporting the regional Hubs to develop a more diverse workforce. Renaissance North West has commissioned Raj Patel, a consultant who specialises in equality and diversity, to work with each Hub venue to help with this work. Each Hub venue has identified a Workforce Diversity Champion. These individuals are working together and leading an audit of the workforce at each organisation to determine its profile in terms of ethnicity and disability. Some of the venues are focusing solely on diversifying the workforce, while others are also looking at audiences and collections in terms of diversity. The champions are preparing a workforce diversity plan for their venue, which will be implemented from March 2008. The plans will cover issues such as career advice, recruitment, staff development, governance and leadership. Contact: Myna Trustram, m.trustram@manchester.gov.uk
Profile: Paul Fraser Webb, Development Officer (Standards) based at MLA North West in Warrington In a career spanning more than 10 years in heritage organisations, I have worked in virtually every type of museum and with a huge variety of collections. I joined MLA North West in March last year, as Development Officer (Standards) with the principle role of delivering the Museum Accreditation Scheme. Other duties include overseeing other standards, such as Designation, and digital, webbased projects, such as MICHAEL. Accreditation covers a broad range of requirements for a museum, and I have been involved in providing
advice and support on every aspect of museum management. However, since disposals have become such a hot topic in the region, this is an area where I have been heavily involved in providing advice. One of the most rewarding aspects of my job is getting applications to the Accreditation Panel, and seeing the award of Full Accreditation. The most recent museums that we have welcomed into the scheme are the five that make up Tameside’s Museum Service in Greater Manchester.
www.mlanorthwest.org.uk
Hall i’ th’ Wood, Bolton
Partnerships in Greater Manchester The Greater Manchester Museums Forum meets to discuss sector change and share experiences and common pressures. The Forum has developed partnership projects and exhibitions, and is currently working on data collection to develop some useful benchmarking tools. Renaissance supports museums in Greater Manchester, Preston and Cumbria, to increase their capacity to develop education, audience development and marketing initiatives, and their impact in terms of regional economic strategies. The Greater Manchester Museums Forum gives Renaissance a vital opportunity to connect with local authority museums and galleries and support the delivery of services for users. Claire Wood
Greater Manchester Museums Forum Membership:
In the last year Renaissance has invested more than £100K in museums & galleries in Greater Manchester
Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust Bolton Museum & Archive Service Salford Museum & Art Gallery Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery Tameside Museums Service Stockport Heritage Services Bury Art Gallery Museum & Archive Touchstones Rochdale Gallery Oldham Manchester Jewish Museum The Lowry
Audience Development: Claire Wood
Gallery Oldham
Members of the Forum are working to widen visitor participation and engage more with the communities they serve. Alex Saint, Strategic Audience Development Consultant for Renaissance, is supporting museum staff by helping them broker relationships with ‘hard to reach’ audiences. A Heritage Network is being created through the Community Curators Project at Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust. With support from Renaissance, communities throughout the borough will benefit from: # financial and advisory support for their own projects # training and skills development.
Gallery Oldham and Tameside Museums Service are developing links with local Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities. They are using Millscapes, a major exhibition that focuses on regional collections, to explore future engagement between the communities and the venues. Evaluation of each of these schemes will focus on the internal impact of such work, specifically looking at the challenges, benefits and risks in developing meaningful and genuine community partnerships, and the commitment to organisational change, values and processes that may be required.
Claire Wood
Stockport Story Museum
Alex is also working with Stockport Heritage Services, Touchstones Rochdale and Gallery Oldham to pilot the effectiveness of a low-cost visitor research programme, which offers a potentially viable solution to all small, under-resourced museums to capture data and even establish a regional benchmark. continued on back page
www.mlanorthwest.org.uk
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Pathways and Progression: working with secondary schools in Greater Manchester Last year, Renaissance commissioned research that highlights museums’ potential for supporting vocational learning for secondary school pupils. The report is now being used to inform work with secondary school audiences at museums and galleries in Greater Manchester.
Claire Wood
Turnpike Gallery, Leigh
Year 9 Art and Design students are designing a Creative Careers magazine for their peers, with the support of Tameside Museums Service and Galleries Service, Manchester Metropolitan University, creative career professionals and their local library service. Salford Museum & Art Gallery has developed Firm Foundations, a project that will give pupils ‘hands-on’ experience in heritage construction techniques at Ordsall Hall and Victoria Baths. Bolton Museum & Art Gallery and the Imperial War Museum North are giving students a taste of the museums profession, by equipping them with curatorial and archivist skills so they can research and document objects relating to World War I. At the end of this initiative, Renaissance will develop a toolkit for museums and galleries that will be published on the MLA North West website.
Contact us
For an electronic copy of the Pathways report and information about all regional partnerships visit the Renaissance North West pages at www.mlanorthwest.org.uk
Emma Anderson, North West Hub Manager 0161 235 8822 e.anderson@manchester.gov.uk Myna Trustram, North West Hub Research Manager 0161 235 8849 m.trustram@manchester.gov.uk Jennie Crawford, North West Hub Communications & Events Officer 0161 235 8810 j.crawford@manchester.gov.uk Katie Athey, North West Hub Support Officer 0161 235 8825 k.athey@manchester.gov.uk Jane Fletcher, North West Hub Education Development Manager 01228 618767 / 07854 921522 janef@carlisle.gov.uk Alex Saint & Andrew Palmer, North West Hub Strategic Audience Development Consultants alex@alexsaint.com / andrew@palmersquared.co.uk Catriona West, Development Officer (Renaissance) 01925 625056 catriona.west@mlanorthwest.org.uk Paul Fraser Webb, Development Officer (Standards) 01925 625054 paulfraser.webb@mlanorthwest.org.uk Carli Douglas, Collections for the Future Development Officer: Roman Heritage 0161 306 1772 / 07867 528370 carli.douglas@manchester.ac.uk Kaye Tetlow, Collections Liaison Officer 01772 534 07068 kaye.tetlow@mus.lancscc.gov.uk
Events and Training 9 October (PM only) Sustainability: Longterm Secondary Projects FREE Imperial War Museum North, Manchester. Contact: Poppy Bowers, poppy.bowers@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk 10 October (PM only) Basic Introduction to Collections Care FREE National Waterways Museum Ellesmere Port. Contact: Diane Rushbrook diane.rushbrook@mlanorthwest.org.uk 15 October Demystifying ILFA FREE Portland Basin Museum, Ashton-under-Lyne. Contact: Suzanne Spicer, s.spicer@mosi.org.uk, or visit www.gem.org.uk 9 November (AM only) Project Management FREE National Museums Liverpool. Contact: Diane Rushbrook as above 9 November Dynamic Rationalisation FREE Manchester Art Gallery. Contact: Jennie Crawford j.crawford@manchester.gov.uk 13 November Funding FREE in partnership with Museums Association, Lancashire Conservation Studios, Preston. Contact: Diane Rushbrook as above 22 November Reaching the Unreachable? Working with Hard to Reach Audiences Ashton Town Hall. Contact: Emma Varnam emma.varnam@tameside.gov.uk or visit www.nwfed.org.uk 6 December Creating the Best Visitor Experience Grosvenor Museum, Chester. Contact: Emma Varnam as above, www.nwfed.org.uk 7 December Copyright Essentials FREE Queen St Mill Textile Museum, Burnley. Contact: Diane Rushbrook as above 14 December Documentation for Accreditation FREE, Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle. Contact: Diane Rushbrook as above
2008 9 January Managing Volunteers FREE in partnership with Museums Association, MLA North West office, Warrington. Contact: Diane Rushbrook as above 6 February the Museums Association, in partnership with Renaissance North West and MLA North West, is holding an event about ‘Front of House’ at Manchester Art Gallery (www.museumsassociation.org). Renaissance North West is sponsoring 10 FREE places for visitor services staff working at museums and galleries in the region. For more information contact: Jennie Crawford j.crawford@manchester.gov.uk For more information visit: www.mlanorthwest.org.uk/trainingandevents/events