Museums in Somerset
Minutes of the Autumn Group Meeting heldon
Monday 10th October 2011 at the Museum of Somerset, Taunton
Present:Colin Spackman (Chairman) and 31 members.
Apologies were received from 11 members.
Stephen Minnitt welcomed members to the newly opened Museum of Somerset. Since its opening on 29th September, the two Saturdays have had 1500 and 1200 visitors, and daily around 500 visitors. The Museum collections were begun in 1849 by the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society (SANHS), initially used as a roving museum and then displayed in temporary premises in Taunton town centre. In 1897 TauntonCastle was for sale, and the society purchased it. 1875 saw the first museum on the site. There has been periodic museum development and extension. The latest development cost around £7million, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, SANHS and the Somerset Military Museum Trust.
The Minutes of the AGM and Spring Group Meeting(16th May 2011)were agreed and signed.
Chairman’s report: These meetings have achieved good numbers over the years, both amateur and professional members, and are a good setting to exchange information and catch up with the Museum Development Officer. We are all aware that the MDO’s role has been extended to March 2012, but it is currently unclear what happens after 31st March. The relationship is symbiotic – we need Natalie and now Natalie may need us. Can museums and members do anything to support the MDO’s position?
Treasurer’s report: There are now two categories of money, Museums in Somerset’s own funds (£54), whichcan be used towards venue hire for meetings, and grants ring-fenced for Somerset Routes (c £5,000), which will be used for website development. £5268.14 has already been paid to Higher Sites at the start of the website project.
The next meeting will be the Winter Group Meeting, on Monday 20th February 2012, at Watchet.
Updates from regional representatives:
South West Federation of Museums and ArtGalleries (Kathryn Tucker)
Since we last met, we held our AGM across 2 venues in Bristol which was very well attended. The highlight of the morning was a panel discussion titled ‘Reasons to be Cheerful’ , where we heard from 4 professionals from different parts of the sector all of whom contributed to a reasonably upbeat discussion based on positivity, and this was followed by an opportunity to look around MShed, the new museum in Bristol’s harbourside. The fact that the AGM was so well attended, I believe, is suggestive that the Federation does provide a focal point for museums and similar organisations throughout the region and I therefore encourage anyone who has not yet explored what the Federation offers to do so, using the website and members of the board as starting points. (Vicky, Helena, Natalie, myself).
At the beginning of this month, SW Fed had a presence at the Museum Association’s annual conference via our Chair, Alison Bevan, who spoke at a session entitled ‘Last Man Standing’, Federations of the Future. The session was designed to bring the regional federations together to offer the opportunity for sharing experience, ideas and inspiration, and to help develop a degree of coherence so that the federations can develop a network for themselves to help share skills, ideas and resources throughout the country. Delegates were told that federations have a vital role to play and discussions involved how feds might use funding from national bodies such as ACE, whether feds should be more closely aligned to MA and what federations could do beyond training and advocacy. I’m sure that outcomes of these discussions will be discussed in more detail at forthcoming board meetings.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly for many of us here, I can report that the Skills Programme has been well received as usual and we here in Somerset have benefitted from additional training provision from the Sustainable Somerset project too. Most of the Somerset specific sessions are now fully booked, although there are some spaces available on the ‘Practical Social Media’ day on 16 November , which is being held at Somerset heritage Centre. There is also a session here in Taunton in January on Forward Planning, Audience Development session is in Wiltshire on 23 November and ‘How to set up a Touring Exhibition in Bath on 25/11, all of which have spaces remaining.
What would be incredibly helpful at this point is feedback; for example what has been missed that you would have liked to see available? Would sessions on the new accreditation standard be helpful as there have been utterings that sessions on this theme might run next year. General feedback on the current programme would be appreciated – did it meet people’s needs? What was missing? Are there specific reasons why you have/not booked certain sessions? Is there a general feeling that people find it harder to attend training now because of budget and therefore operational strains at their sites? Any feedback is welcome so feel free to approach me in the break or by e-mail or phone at the HelicopterMuseum and I will collate responses and pass it on.
Arts Council England (ACE): This has taken over the Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) role from 1st October. Last year’s forward plan was for the Arts and this is now beingadapted to include museums. ACE is taking over the money for Renaissance in the Regions, the part-funding of MDOs and Conservation Development Officers (eg, Helena Jaeschke), and training. £43million will be divided between major grant programmes (3-year funding for large museums), a challenge fund and a museums development fund. Details are still to be announced. Keep looking at the SWFed website, which has a link to the ACE website. The new accreditation standard was announced last week at the Museums Association conference. The SWFed training programme is geared to accreditation. The accreditation timetable has not been released yet. A new Accreditation Advisor has been appointed, Fiona Mitchell-Innis, whose (large) geographical area includes the south-west.
Renaissance: Vic Harding (3 days per week) and Eleanor Moore are still there.
(A question was asked about whether MiS can lobby Renaissance for the MDO post. So far the money has been paid to Somerset County Council, which employs Natalie. There should be a formal statement from MiS to SCC about how important the MDO is to museums, especially with the change in accreditation. It was suggestion that individual museums also write in about MDO and Museum Development Funding, which has given us Somerset Routes.)
An email update had been received from Renaissance: There have been two Accreditation Roadshows in the south west. 13 museums had been given Accreditation Small Grants. Accreditation Small Grants (up to £700) are easy to apply for. Helena urges people to apply. For guidance, liaise with Natalie and speak to Sophie Ainsworth (Museum Development Assistant) , tel. 0117 922 4653.
N.B. IDENTIFY A SPECIFIC AREA FOR IMPROVEMENT!
Six Museum Development Fund Activity Grants have been awarded, including one to Somerset. ACE held a south west regional briefing in September. A Regional Photographer has been/will be appointed as a shared resource, to produce high quality images to promote cultural tourism. Anyone using the Regional Photographer should ensure that their museum gets usable images and copyright. SWFed’s training contract has been extended to cover accreditation.
Somerset Routes Website (Adam Sharpe, Higher Sites)
With the £17,000 awarded to extend the Somerset Routes brand, Natalie and the Standing Committee have commissioned a joint website for all the heritage sites in Somerset. It will be mobile-friendly and will link into social networks such as Facebook. Visitors will be invited to engage with the website, sending photographs and comments.
Adam presented Wireframes (concept designs ) for the website and invited comments from members. The Somerset Routes map will be interactive, so that users can zoom in and pick a site. Individual museum pages will have links to the museum’s own website (if it has one). For museums without a website, their site page will act as their website. The members were keen to see a geographical map available, with colour-coded site pins to tie in with the route lines. One person in each museum has been asked to complete an on-line form for its entry. This is a good time for suggestions, as content and appearance are not yet firmly fixed. There was concern that sites would be listed in alphabetical order. On alternative suggestion was to list by distance from nearest town or from user’s start point.
Visitor feedback will be moderated by the MiS committee members before appearing on the website. Members asked for comments to be fed to museums, giving a possibility for reply. It will not be easy to add or remove sites, but ‘deleted’ sites will have an entry indicating closure. Additional sites could be added to the geographical Google map. It will be important to keep the site up to date, so annual updates will be sought for (eg) opening times, admission prices. If information is not submitted by a deadline, the missing information will be replaced by ‘CONTACTMUSEUM’. The site profile page will have a ‘last updated’ date.
The launch will be held back till the opening of next season, rather than launch when many museums have just closed for the winter. A working version of the website will be brought to the February MiS meeting. The booklet will still be available, and if funding is available there may be reprints. The website will allow the booklet to be downloaded.
Sonja Power (NT) told members that the National Trust this year has found the proportion of visitors prompted to visit by using NT brochure or handbook V website reversed, so that 60% now use the Internet when planning a visit.
Natalie made a plea to members to send electronic data to her as soon as possible, and to include some good images.
Museum Development Officer’s report (Natalie Watson)
Somerset Routes - Funding is in place for hosting the Somerset Routes website till 2016. After that, each site may have to contribute an amount such as £10 per annum.
Sustainable Somerset Museums – Social media training is still available. On-line fact sheets from last year’s project are available on the SWFed website.
Somerset Routes Exhibition opens on 12th November at the RuralLifeMuseum with 31 different museum taking part. Objects will be taken to the RLM of the Somerset Heritage Centre 17th-21st October. They need a Condition Form and an Entry Form.
MDO newsletter – next edition due at the beginning of November.
Reports from museums
Community Heritage Access Centre, South Somerset District Council
The One Show have been filming at the Community Heritage Access Centre, doing a piece on gloving. We have been informed that this will be shown shortly on BBC1 at 7pm.
We thank the diligence of a curator, Ed Purvis at the NationalArmyMuseum, which has enabled the medals of Sir Charles Knight Pearson to be returned to Yeovil for the first time since they were donated to us in 1979. The original museum that they were loaned to was in Kent and that shut down around 2001. We also thank volunteer Stephen Bartlett for collecting them for us on our behalf and we hope to display them at some point in the future, somewhere in the town.
Tanya Camberwell has left us to start a new job at the Holnicote Estate as Learning and Outreach officer.
If anyone has any queries with pest traps, we have discovered an eminent biologist amongst our volunteer team who has a special interest in insects.
We have been continuing with outreach requests even though we do not have an outreach officer. We hope to continue to support the Community Museums in South Somerset.
Volunteers are meeting with management concerning the setting up of a Trust for the collection.
IlchesterMuseum
The museum closed at the end of September, with visitor numbers up on last year. In July, the museum held a Heritage Day at the Ilchester Street Fair, attracting many visitors. (A big thank you to CHAC for the gloving exhibits!) We are looking at possible redecorating the museum. It is at present a rather dull brown! Since this was the colour it was originally decorated over twenty years ago, it is due a change.
Although we are closed from September until Easter, we continue to make use of our window which has a prominent place in the High Street. We also make it available for other organisations, such as the Britsh Legion for the Poppy Appeal.
Rural LifeMuseum, Glastonbury
We were delighted to hear at the end of June that our Round 1 Heritage Lottery Fund Application for the Somerset Museum of Rural Life Project had been given approval. We have been awarded £51,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to develop the project to the next stage and this work will commence in the New Year. We have 2 years in which to complete a Round 2 Heritage Lottery Fund application, which if successful will secure £675,000 towards the project. We will need to raise a further £700,000 match funding from other grant giving bodies, partners and through public fundraising to meet the total £1.4 million project costs.
We have had a busy summer although visitor numbers are lower than last year. The World War II themed day on Saturday 13th August proved a success with just short of 700 visitors attending on the day. We are very grateful to all the members of Museums in Somerset who took part on the day.
Our current exhibition ‘Good Impressions’ by local members of Print South West opened on the 10th September and will run until the 5th November and will be followed by ‘Somerset Routes II ‘ which features objects from Community Museums across Somerset.
MilvertonVillage Archive
Indexing of the collection has come to a temporary halt, as the remainder of the collection is still not accessible, which is a concern as it is stored in adverse conditions. Much use has been made of the charity documents by researchers of family history. The archive has been asked to provide material for the Queen’s jubilee exhibition to be held in the village next year.
Coker Rope and Sail Trust
Dawes Twineworks continues to open to the public on the fourth Saturday of every month. Usually several visitors call in. Two weeks ago a class from the local primary school visited, and the children then brought their parents along on the Saturday. Several historical societies from the area have asked to be shown around the Twineworks. Not only have they made financial contributions as thanks for the tours, but they have made donations of items that were linked to the project, map plans and objects used at the Twineworks.
An application to the Architectural Heritage Fund for financial help to complete the restoration project has been successful, with the full bid amount allotted. The Carpenters’ Fellowship has been asked to replace the major supporting timbers and to organise an NVQ Level 3 course for young people wanting to gain a qualification for working with large timbers. There is still a long way to go, but the AHF, using English Heritage’s and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s money has provided the financial resource for full restoration.
ChardMuseum
18 months ago we thought there was no future for small independent museums without LA funding but we are pleased to say that ChardMuseum has succeeded in covering its operating costs this season and is anticipating ending this final month of 2010 in the black even had it not had any LA grants. Our supporters have been very generous, a few especially so, but we had to put on several special events to enable and encourage them to be so. Examples include Museums at Night and Heritage Open Days. However visitor attendances at those events were disappointing perhaps because of the dismal weather. In fact total visitor numbers are well down compared with 2010 but which was a relatively good one to beat.
To operate such a business model, though, places a heavy burden on just afew unpaid volunteer trustees who are not sure they can continue that wayon a regular basis.
SomersetMilitaryMuseum
This is part of the Museum of Somerset. The ceiling shows the motif of a Union Flag and the layout of cases mirrors this. The theme of the first section is, ‘Why we serve’ - both historically and why youngsters TODAY want to serve. It also features a film of recent accounts from Afghanistan.
The museum trustees thank the Somerset Heritage Service team for all their help.
Westonzoyland Engine Trust
After a significant fall in the first half of the year, this was compensated for by our special event in June to celebrate the 150th birthday of the ‘Easton and Amos’ engine, which was attended by over 350 people, resulting in an on-par performance for the year. There was also a good attendance for the free national Heritage Open Day in September.