Museums Association Conference 2019 Blog Post

Keynotes

Arriving at the Museums Association Conference was exciting; I’ve never seen as many museums people in one place. Subhadra Das opened the conference inspiring us all to be activist and to challenge Empirical ways of running museums. The theme of Sustainable and Ethical Museums in a Globalised World echoed throughout the key-note speeches and used examples of good practice to help inform participants of the activism that needs to take place so change can be made.

Subhadra Das, Conference Host

Indeed topics were wide and varied covering subjects such as human rights, ethics being at the heart of working for public benefit, the de-colonisation of collections, and climate/ecological emergency. The main message being that museums are not neutral and big issues should not be fudged.

Museums and Their Communities

I enjoyed, Giving up the power: producing community driven content seminar, detailing work relevant to all museums their communities. In this case allowing the people using museums to drive the content they want to see in their own way. Bristol City Council team, using an expert panel representative of the black communities in the city, produced a series of stories from slavery to bus boycotts and carnivals. Their work is live on their website helping to change perceptions of an important community in Bristol’s history.

Following the community theme I found the Community Curation discussion       inspiring. The panellists are all involved in community led museums based on         minority communities such as Trans people, black and queer people, the homeless and topics no one talks about, in this case vaginas. All of these museums were formed from activism, a need to tell stories and encourage varied representations of difficult issues.

All of the museums are not afraid of contemporary, contentious subjects and subsequently attract young visitors wanting to find out more, a difficult audience to engage with. By connecting with what people find important these new museums are able to represent people. We are all human.

Local Museums for Future Generations

In Wales a Wellbeing for Futures Generations Act was passed in 2015 and requires public bodies in Wales to think about the long-term impact of their decisions, to work better with people, communities and each other, and to prevent persistent problems such as poverty, health inequalities and climate change. All are topics which are at the heart of museums in the UK and can create long lasting positive change.

Welsh museums are incorporating the act into their work and have found they are a relevant part of their public sector by implementing positive change in multiple ways. Museums have accessed funding from the Happy Museum to start projects where artists work with people with mental health problems to produce goods for their shops. The project was based in the woods and they made objects inspired by wooden museum objects. This took participants out of their natural habitat where they experienced peace, quiet, nature, colour and making. Ecological projects improved wildlife through planting and placing boxes for birds and squirrels. Lastly museums became places to share memories through reminiscence, memory boxes and dementia friends training. 

Last Words

Scenes from the party

Finally I have to say it wasn’t all work and no play. What could beat the opulent and crazy, chinoiserie décor in Brighton Pavilion for a few drinks with friends?

This is just a snapshot of what goes on at the conference. Thank you to the MA for hosting a well-organised, inspiring and educational conference. Lastly without the generosity of MDNW I would not have been able to go so I would like to pass on my gratitude to you.

Blog by Gillian Berry, Deputy Manager and Curator, Haworth Art Gallery, Accrington

AIM Conference – Guest Post

As I am writing this blog post, I realise that it is now just over a month since I had the great pleasure to attend the annual AIM National Conference for the very first time, courtesy of a sponsored place from Museums Development North West.

I was very grateful for the opportunity to attend this conference, I really wanted to go as soon as I learned of the 2019 theme – ‘How to be a great destination’. Working for a Local Authority Museum Service, I was very interested to learn more about the Independent Museum Sector approaches and achievements in this area, as I feel that we have a lot to learn from each other.

This small conference was not a disappointment. From the selection of keynote speakers, to the breakout sessions and indeed the networking opportunities, it really was invaluable to be able to catch up with colleagues in the sector. The conference provided a refreshing opportunity to have a break from the day-to-day grind of the office, take stock, learn from others and consider some of my organisations’ approach in the process.

A month on, I am still thinking about some of the particularly thought provoking messages delivered by a few of the keynote speakers.

The first one was by the passionate, honest and energetic Carl Bell from the Whitaker Museum, who gave the most inspiring presentation. Carl charted the remarkable growth of a community museum. He spoke about choosing to think beyond the historic perceptions of museum behaviour and expectations, to ensure that the ongoing journey of the Whitaker is one that is shared with all who visit. He spoke of access to heritage and culture as a right that everyone should have – and how central he felt this view was to understanding of place and identity. He described the Whitaker and the team there as an integral part of the community ‘we are the community’ as opposed to ‘we have to attract the community’. This subtle change in language, alters the position of the museum in the local community. Passion apart, an integrated approach to programming, quirky exhibition style and award-winning catering experience has also helped with the Whitaker’s positioning as a distinct and popular destination.

The second presentation that really stood out was that by Sarah Matthews from the Melton Carnegie Museum. Sarah shared how a number of small changes have made a massive difference and helped to reposition the museum in a local community that had become disengaged. As an example, visitors were invited to have their McDonald’s lunch (restaurant next door) on the gallery floor. Once people were through the door, they were encouraged to engage with the museum. Sarah said ‘we just had to get over ourselves’– This statement has won Sarah a prize for the most memorable conference quote!

I was inspired by Quonya Huff from the National Mining Museum for Scotland and her down to earth approach to creating a five star visitor experience on a budget. She shared her methods on how to energise, empower and develop the visitor services team to provide the very best visitor experience. She clearly demonstrated that you do not necessarily have to spend a lot of money to get the best out of your team.

From the breakout sessions, I particularly learned a lot from Katherine Lynch from Port Sunlight Museum Trust. She shared their approach to improve Port Sunlight’s position as a group tour destination. Katherine explained how they have begun to grow group tour visits through a more co-ordinated approach, brokering strategic partnerships and cross selling packages, including local and regional products. I became convinced of the benefits of having a CRM system to support engagement with this market and this is something that I will be looking into securing for my own service.

I attended a session entitled Capital Development in a Small Museum – transforming your destination delivered by a panel of speakers. What I took away from this was a wonderful example of partnership working between two independent museum, one local authority and one community. The ‘Renaissance Conway’ project highlighted what can be achieved when organisations and the community work with a shared vision for a local area, supporting and strengthening one another by sharing resources and expertise between projects.

In addition to the conference highlights above, I attended a number of highly informative and engaging presentations on subjects such as place making, volunteering, immersive visitor experiences and some very encouraging practical advice from the National Heritage Lottery Fund.

To briefly summarise my key learnings from this conference in terms of you how you create a ‘great destination’, it would be:- Put your visitors at the centre of everything that you do, position your organisation at the heart of the local community, broker and build strong partnerships and ensure that your products and stories are relevant!

I would like to compliment the AIM team for a well-organised conference, from the warm welcome, excellent catering and of course the engaging programme.

The National Civil War Centre was a lovely venue and there were some nice little touches, like the pots of ice cream served mid-afternoon to ensure that conference fatigue was kept at bay.

It was also a pleasure to visit the small market town of Newark and learn more about its tumultuous role in Civil War history.

After two very inspirational days, I have also added a number of museums to my ‘must visit’ list: The Whitaker, The Melton Carnegie Museum and The Coffin Works!

Linn Robinson
Museums Officer, Stockport Museums

AIM National Conference Blog

Like many organisations in the North West, we face challenging times with reductions to budgets and staffing. Generating income from cultural trading is of key importance in ensuring our ongoing resilience and financial sustainability. I was therefore very intrigued to hear that the theme for this year’s AIM Conference was ‘How to be a great destination’.

Museum Development North West supported my attendance at the two day conference in June, held at the National Civil War Centre in Newark.

Over the two days we heard many inspirational presentations and had opportunities to meet and catch up with colleagues from other cultural organisations. Travelling home after the conference there were three main themes that I ruminated on:

Community

Summed up best by Carl Bell from the Whitaker in Rossendale, who explained his philosophy that we should put people and their needs first, choosing to think beyond historic perceptions of museum behaviour and expectations.

Zara Matthews from Melton Carnegie Museum gave a brilliant presentation describing how she and her colleagues had decided to ‘get over themselves’ and be more open and welcoming to their local community in order in increase visitor numbers.

Paul Baker from Creswell Crags explained his approach to commercial activity by placing much greater emphasis on the café as a destination in it’s own right, which can be used independently from the visitor attraction and thereby generating income year-round.

Learning

Charlotte Smith, Head of Discovery and Learning from Chester Zoo shared her experience of embedding an organisation-wide approach to play. It was a very inspirational presentation and one that demonstrated the importance of thinking creatively about not just having a ‘family offer’ but making this approach an intrinsic part of all you do.

Katherine Lynch of Port Sunlight Village Trust gave us insight into a programme to realise the potential of Port Sunlight as a leading visitor destination and in particular, to increase group visits. An AIM Hallmarks grant enabled audience research to be carried out and for the team at Port Sunlight to apply the learning from this work to develop and revitalise their groups offer.

Place

Richard Huthwaite, Tourism Marketing Manager for Newark and Sherwood District Council talked about destination management in our host town. We learned about the importance of overnight visitors to the local economy and the steps that Richard and his team are taking to position Newark are a place to experience English history through the ages.

Iain Standen and Hilary MacGowan gave a fascinating presentation about Bletchley Park and the many challenges and opportunities of this unique location. It was great to hear about previous developments and plans for the future which include bringing unused buildings back into operation and further expansion of the site.

I returned from the conference with a tote bag full of business cards, leaflets and pages upon pages of notes. I also came away with a sense that the learning from this conference does apply to venues like ours, that there is a lot we can do without a huge budget and a massive team. If we can look at our venues and audiences a little differently and not be constrained by what museums ‘should’ be we have room for innovation and the opportunity to create truly great destinations.

Amy Senogles, Head of Retail, Catering & Venue Hire, Salford Community Leisure

 

Museums Association Conference Blog

Heading across the water to go and see what the dissenters of the museum association had to dissent about in a troubled political climate, I wondered what was to be expected. How was I, a mere front of house assistant going to fit in and understand such big ideas that was going to be discussed this November in Belfast?

As I think about what it takes me to dissent, to participate, to write this for you… some 2 months later I reasoned that it takes privilege and it takes power. It hasn’t been easy however I won’t elaborate as I am certain that you, the reader can think back to your early days clambering up the proverbial ladder and you will empathise.

Putting my situation aside and listening intently to the Balkan Museum Network (BMN) I felt slightly ashamed of my own obstacles and grateful to be living in a democracy which allows some privilege in its protection that enables us to speak up and speak out.

Milena and Aida spoke modestly about the challenges of framing multiple contested histories in a network which boasted just a few individual members who would freely speak out despite fear of discrimination based upon their membership status. With many members forced into anonymity, these women opened up the idea of struggle, cost and privilege to the room in their fight for freedom to dissent.

So there we have a little of their story and a little of mine which can set the scene for ways in which we can think critically about experiences and how these stories much like the ones we endeavour to tell through our collections can resonate and allow for a wider narrative to be constructed.

The BMN dissenters had sacrificed a lot in order to get to us that day in Belfast so I wondered what the UK had to say on its united front? There was surprisingly little scheduled to discuss our looming world post Brexit and besides, as a fledgeling in my museum career I decided to stick to topics which I had more experience in and which might be more relevant to my position at this time.

Trying to make sense of fractured histories was the challenging histories in historic houses session that talked of multiple narratives existing and while there is demand to develop the confronting histories there is also a tradition of the historic house as refuge, as oppressor, as quaint idyll and symbol and signee of our British prescribed identity and Englishness. A lovely past that wants to remain in its lovely untroubled haven. This talk became especially pertinent during a session on values led practice in which John Orna-Ornstein of the NT who sat on both panels, gave a strong sense of the pressure felt to serve both personal and company values in the midst of this transformation which has not gone unnoticed by its members, the media or the public. This trepidatious and tentative tip toe into dissent has been marked with equal measures of criticism and applaud as uncharacteristically challenging exhibitions which just had to be done, have caused more members to leave the membership but has also attracted a new more culturally sensitive audience to join the NT.

By looking at the histories we choose to reveal and those we don’t of course deals with the way in which we handle our collections. How we collect, how we interpret and how to engage the communities as well attract and support the communities we have not yet met. These were just a couple of the questions highlighted in the packed out seminar room discussing the Collections 2030 paper. The room was jostling with ideas, bursting at the seams, dissenters covering every inch of floor space, leaning shoulder to shoulder against the walls of the now tiny seminar room.

Perhaps attracting such an audience was down to the production of the ‘Collections 2030’ paper which undoubtedly helped keep this discussion moving along at a rapid pace. It had been published well in advance with questions set clearly and provocatively which were accessible for all who wished to be involved.

The 2030 discussions revealed the sometimes terse conversations between curators, managers, exhibitions staff and community champions. There was an overwhelming feeling that collection managers are continuing to prioritise the preservation and care of collections and thus maintaining the outdated notion of the museum as mausoleum.

How to balance this struggle between the gatekeepers and organisational agendas to display, educate, inform and inspire the public through exciting programmes and introduce new ways of seeing? It was agreed that collections needed to work more quickly and dynamically in order to meet public expectations and demands that better reflect our pace of life. There was also time for thinking about the items we continue to collect, the realities of caring for growing collections and how disposing of items needs to be pushed further up our agendas as a matter of urgency.

A point which was relevant for everyone managing collections, staffing exhibitions and programming was the issue of budget cuts. I was curious to sit in on the Mendoza review, one year on and try to understand some of the discussions affecting the sector bodies.

Throughout the hour I sat grappling with some of the complex issues which surround and prevent the arts from receiving additional funding whilst continuing to dish out budget cuts.

I had no need to worry about my confidence in these matters as although I couldn’t comprehend the finite details, it seemed as though all questions went around in circles trying to pin down concrete answers and solutions for which there seemed not to be one.

The panel certainly baffled myself and others who listened and reacted out of frustration with the lack of clarity and progress, ideas from the floor suggested that new sources such as a tourist tax needed to be ascertained which could only be used for cultural learning and not diverted into another stream.

The talk which had the most impact on me, both at the time and in the months that have followed was a 30 minute presentation which asked ‘Do we still need front of house’? The answer was a resolute ‘YES we do’. The seminar led by William Tregaskes and Abbi Battis alerted the room to the inequalities felt between front of house and back of house staff within the sector and included a perceived lack of specialism in FOH roles. This half an hour slot was so powerful and relevant to my own career path that I immediately looked towards my own attitude, my lexicon, how I preferred to refer to myself as a ‘museum assistant’ rather than ‘front of house’ and how this terminology suddenly made me feel less apologetic for being here and slightly more qualified. How was I still suffering from imposter syndrome as a FOH staff member?

Looking back and continuing on after the 2018 conference, thinking about the key messages I heard, taking notice of Elaine Heumann Gurian who spoke of Museums as being difficult arenas which harbour opposing views and opinions which could classify museums as buildings of ‘bad news’ and who also talked of how important it was to deliver with tenacity and humour, I thought again back to my own role and how I was going to dissent, how was I going to help rebalance the division between front of house and the back of house in my small place of work?

The key is to find your cause and understand it well, find that fighting spirit and develop an army to help deliver your dissent with tenacity, with passion and of course humour.

Naomi Roberts
Museum Assistant
Salford Museum & Art Gallery

 

 

 

 

 

AIM Conference 2018 Blog

My first experience of an AIM conference was well-timed, as I was just in the door at my new workplace of Port Sunlight Museum. I was able to attend thanks to a Museum Development North West bursary, and I very much welcomed the opportunity to meet peers from other independent museums, and to get an insight into the current landscape in the sector.

The conference kicked off with a series of talks on why diversifying audiences is good for everyone. Hannah Fox’s case study of Derby Silk Mill’s model of co-production, and the importance of being asked ‘What do you need?’ at a pivotal time in her own life, was really inspiring. The power of words was a recurring theme in this session, with Tony Butler of Derby Museums questioning the term ‘hard to reach’ as rather patronising to audiences with agency and discernment, who choose not to visit museums. Butler called for ‘empathy not sympathy’, and challenged museums to let people change us, rather than vice versa. Shaz Hussain of the Science Museum challenged the term ‘diversity’ itself as something she would never use to describe herself, preferring the term ‘representation’. She articulated the power of language with the example of referring to ‘enslaved people’ in interpretation rather than ‘slaves’; an accurate and more nuanced term, which could have real impact for its readers. A bizarre question from the floor about ‘changing history’ was handled well by Hussain; it made me question assumptions about the liberal mindset of the museums workforce, and highlighted the need to keep issues of representation high on the agenda.

This year’s conference was literally close to home for me, hosted at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon. As a Coventrian, the car industry has been an important part of my life – my dad worked at the now-closed Peugeot factory, and my sister and brother-in-law are at Jaguar Land Rover. Somehow though I’d never visited what I’d always heard referred to as the ‘heritage centre’, and so was quite amazed at the scale of the museum and its facilities. I enjoyed going on one of the guided tours of the Collections Centre; a fantastic purpose-built facility, complete with an active workshop area, and fully open to the public as part of the museum experience. On the second day of the conference I attended a talk by Julie Tew of the British Motor Museum, where she explained the museum’s history, its changing relationship with its landlord, Jaguar Land Rover, and its work to position itself as a major tourist venue and capitalise on its conference facilities. It was very interesting to hear from another museum with such a close connection to industry. Port Sunlight was founded as a worker’s village for the Lever Brothers soap factory; my organisation’s relationship with what is now Unilever has changed over the years, and we similarly are working hard to ensure financial sustainability.

These sessions were my personal highlights of a really full two days of conference – it also included breakout workshops, important legal updates for charities, an eclectic set of three-minute showcases, and talks on everything from good financial management to the fascinating history of local gallery and historic house Compton Verney. I appreciated the opportunity to attend and as well as some practical ideas, and new and reignited connections, it’s given me much food for thought.

Denise Courcoux, Museum Officer, Port Sunlight Museum

AIM Conference 2018: Review and Key Lessons

The AIM conference this year was hosted by the British Motor Museum at Gaydon, Warwickshire and the focus was on supporting audience growth. Tony Butler, Director of Derby Museums opened and eloquently reminded us that diversifying audiences not only promotes equality, but it is crucial in bringing extra revenue through our doors through shop sales, through ticket and event sales and through new grant funding opportunities.

But is ‘diversity’ just a buzzword we use to chase funding and tick boxes, or does it have a deeper meaning? A provocative first section concluded with a sensitive and thoughtful presentation by Shaz Hussain, Assistant Curator at the Science Museum in London entitled ‘Have you been doing Diversity wrong?’ and challenged the language we use to describe diversity.

Shaz suggested that ‘representation’ is a more suitable word, and it reminds us that the narratives in our exhibitions should be representative, not only of people in our community past and present, but tourists too, and society as a whole, and those that may be in our community in the future. She thoughtfully suggests that we no longer refer to enslaved people as ‘slaves’ in our museum narratives, as it defines them by their slavery, rather than their humanity. This profound statement attracted applause from the audience.

We are reminded that diversity or ‘representation’ is not simply confined to Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic narratives, but it is applicable to all groups of people. I was a speaker at the Museums Association Championing Diversity in Museums Seminar in Birmingham, in January, and reminded the audience of the importance of having permanent and accessible handling collections in our museums, in order to make museums more accessible for blind and partially sighted people, and more enjoyable and engaging for people of all ages. The Kids in Museums initiative and their Mini Manifesto helps to remind us to engage children and families in our exhibition design and narratives.

During the Q&A, I addressed the conference and questioned whether BAME narratives, while perfectly suited for a multicultural melting pot like Birmingham, would be possible for a small town museum in the middle of nowhere like Nantwich Museum, in Nantwich, Cheshire. Nantwich is a market town whose populace is more than 99.5% white and our exhibitions are focused on the social history of the town, and of the Civil War in Nantwich. Tony Butler responded simply that we should look harder, and we would find something, and that any area with a significant trade or industry can inevitably be connected to the colonies and the slave trade. This is true perhaps for the lucrative salt trade in Nantwich that helped make the area prosperous.

I took Tony’s advice and I looked harder. A previous curator at Nantwich Museum held an exhibition about the Polish resettlements camp in Doddington, Cheshire in the late 1940’s, which housed some of the thousands of displaced Polish people. This exhibition proved extremely popular and brought in Polish diaspora from across Cheshire. I brought BAME narratives to the attention of researchers at Nantwich Museum, and we found that during WW2, local people in Cheshire remember being confused to find that American soldiers in Nantwich had been segregated by race, and had separate facilities in the town.

It seems Tony was right, different narratives can be found, but sometimes we have to start that dialogue ourselves, we have to ask questions, we have to be able to create the space for new narratives in our minds and in our exhibitions, and we have to remember that those that wrote the great history books of the 20^th century that we often turn to, largely did not do this. Therefore, it is up to us as modern museum professionals to discover and display those representative narratives, and in doing so, draw in newer and more representative audiences, and more truly represent the society that we claim to be in service of.

The other highlights from the conference was the behind the scenes walking tour of the British Motor Museum by the curator Stephen Laing, as the museum highlighted the difficulties in making the museums designated collection transparent and accessible for the general public, similar to what has been achieved at Beamish. It reminds us that collections are preserved for the public, and that greater public accessibility is something that all museums should include in their forward plan and should be striving for.

The exhibitors at AIM proved to be especially helpful and specialised for assisting smaller museums, and some even recommended specific grants to apply for in order to upgrade our technology, get a lift installed or save money on our energy. Sarah Brown from the Collections Trust was there to offer free and friendly advice on acquisitions and collections management enquiries. Kate Bellamy, ACE Director of Museums provided some useful lists of grant funding bodies, and an update on the direction of Arts Council England. Even though the theme this year was about audiences, it was clear that there was still a deep understanding of the need for grants and income in order to make significant progress in our museums, although the simplest of changes in our museums can be made from simply a change in our attitudes.

Elliot Goodger, Nantwich Museum

Elliot was funded by Museum Development North West to attend this year’s AIM Conference.

 

Exhibitionists: Great Exhibition Design Event Report

I’m currently undertaking my AMA and one part of my CPD plan is to expand my knowledge about current trends in exhibition design as my role at the National Waterways Museum now incorporates looking after our temporary exhibition programme. So, when I saw the Museums Association’s MP Seminar Exhibitionists: Designing Great Exhibitions at the V&A I asked MDNW if they could fund a place for me to go.

The seminar showcased the huge range of work that goes into exhibition design, both permanent and temporary. The day began with a multi-sensory talk from Bompas and Parr which started by tasting champagne jelly in the form of St Paul’s Cathedral and ended with an explosion of banana smelling clouds. The point behind this was that sounds, smells, visual stimulation and fun are all essential ingredients for an exciting experience and shouldn’t be overlooked in exhibition design, even if the smells are disgusting.

The banana cloud

The focus then moved to permanent gallery design with two V&A examples discussed, the new Europe 1600-1815 gallery and the Scottish Design Galleries at the V&A Dundee (unfortunately no sneak peeks as all the designs were still embargoed). The new Europe galleries gave the V&A the chance to redisplay objects, putting unseen objects on display, and update the interpretation to represent European artwork in a global context. The challenge was how to design a museum space that tells a continuous narrative when there is more than one entrance. The decision was made to put a focus on star objects to lead visitors through the space, but this threw up an interesting curator vs design question – with the focus on star objects, is it ok for visitors to have more of a browsing experience and miss some objects? Do visitors get a cohesive message from this experience? Also, for the first time, the V&A introduced family labels to their exhibitions aimed at provoking young children and adults into discussion. The design approach by ZMMA Architects was to use the architecture of the building and bring objects such as costume to the same level as visitors. At the V&A Dundee it is the River Tay that is the influence on the design of the building and ZMMA are currently working out how this translates into the exhibition spaces. In Dundee, there will be the Scottish Design Galleries and a temporary exhibition gallery. It won’t be an acquiring institution, everything will be on loan, including using some of the 12,000 objects connected to Scotland identified in the V&A’s collection and key loans such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s period room from Glasgow. The V&A Dundee opens on the 15^th September so watch this space.

After, Samantha Elliot together with Nichola Ward from Leach Studios shared how Bolton Museum were using design to explore Bolton’s connections with Egypt. They have used a think, feel and do framework behind their design with the emphasis on low tech interaction, linking to the national curriculum as much as possible. The new entry display aims to get visitors to think about Bolton’s collections, what they as visitors collect and why. In the new Egyptology galleries, it was about bringing in the stories of the early curators and their significance in why Bolton has a world-class Egyptology collection and giving the collection the space it deserves. Nichola gave an important piece of advice for exhibition design which was to explore every idea no matter how bonkers – something I’ll definitely be doing.

In the afternoon, highlights included a powerful talk from Marina Willer about the impact design can have on storytelling and getting ‘Under the Skin’ with the design of the Ferrari exhibition at the Design Museum. This was followed by Zoe Partington from the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive who provoked us to think about how we can embed disability equality at the heart of exhibition design. What can we do to eliminate the barriers to our collections and make change happen? How can we use gallery spaces to empower disabled people? We need to identify the gaps in our organisation and identify people who can contribute, using disabled curators and designers. We also need to make sure that accessibility isn’t an add on to exhibition, it should be in the design from the beginning which means you then don’t have to unpick and retrofit later and it costs less! Zoe challenged us all to think of 10 things we could do to make our organisations more accessible using the social model of disability.

Although no one speaking really had my budget as most examples were from larger museums or capital projects I’ll be taking away the ideas that exhibition design should aim to ‘address the senses’ and ‘get under the skin’.

Zofia Kufeldt, Collections Assistant, Canal & River Trust

Museums + Heritage Show 2018 Report

For those of you that haven’t been, the Museums + Heritage Show (16^th and 17^th May 2018) is a free annual event hosted at Olympia in London, and offers the delegates the chance to attend a vast array of talks and demonstrations. There is also the opportunity to meet with sector organisations such as AIM, Collections Trust and Kids in Museums and delegates can talk with suppliers about their products. I hadn’t been for a couple of years so a packed my bags and headed down south.

First up was a session entitled “Beauty and the Beast”. Led by Georgina Grubb, Visitor Experience Manager for Kensington Palace and Beverley Law, Founder and Managing Director of ALL Creative Branding, it showcased the rebranding work done at Kensington Palace in light of the huge increase in visitor numbers to the “Diana: Her Fashion Story” exhibition. This session gave some great insights into their process and if there was one thing to take away from it, it was listen to your audience. They know what they want, so if something isn’t working for them you need to address it asap to ensure they have an enjoyable and relaxing visit to your organisation.

Next up I heard from Harry Huskisson, Head of Communications and Marketing from The Postal Museum in “Keeping The Postal Museum’s Mail Rail On Track”. During this workshop delegates heard about the audience segmentation work they did, and how benchmarking themselves against other organisation drove them to be the best they could. They did realise though that trying to be everything for all people would somewhat dilute their offer, so they decided to focus on their USP, which is mainly their Mail Rail experience.

The next session I attended was “All In! Making Museums Accessible To All, One Step At A Time” in which Melody Beavers, Visitor Experience Manager from York Museums Trust gave a case study, and shared the work they did to make the York Castle Museum more accessible.

In response to a number of complaints about the lack of communication about accessibility issues, YMT created an in-house Access Team who oversaw the developments and work needed to become a more accessible museum.

In the session delegates got some great advice about what information to include on websites:

1.     A dedicated access page that is easy to find and use
2.     Ensure any web searches for a museums’ access information takes people straight to the relevant page
3.     Ensure all information about accessibility is clear, concise and easy to navigate
4.     Include friendly and positive language – focus on what people CAN do and see, not what they can’t
5.     All basic information such as parking, toilets, prices, café, shop, first aim
6.     Physical access info such as any restrictions, including location of lifts
7.     Information on any extras you offer such as wheelchairs or walking sticks to borrow, hands on activities, extra assistance and whether or nor assistance dogs are allowed
8.     Information on any training that staff have had in relation to accessibility

Day two started with a talk about the Mentoring for All programme. Led by Tamsin, Russell, Professional Development Officer from the Museums Association and Isabel Churcher, Senior Manager, Museums at Arts Council England, this session focussed on the project from start to finish and showcased the wonderful impact that mentoring can bring to both mentor and mentee.

Evaluation from this programme showed that:

1.     100% of mentees increased their personal confidence
2.     94% of mentees understand themselves better now
3.     93% of mentees were more willing to challenge themselves
4.     88% of mentees developed their personal qualities
5.     83% of mentees improved their self-efficacy
6.     100% of mentors felt more confident in their mentoring abilities
7.     100% of mentors increased knowledge and understanding of mentoring

Later in the day I attended a session delivered by Amy Adams, Senior Curator at National Museum of the Royal Navy and Christina Leahy, Marketing Director of Axiell called “How To Choose A CMS: Finding The Right Fit”. This engaging session did everything it set out to do and gave some advice on the steps to take:

1.     Know your objectives
2.     Prioritise needs
3.     Research what’s available
4.     Evaluate your options
5.     Make your decision

Lastly I attended a session called Provocative, Disruptive And Risk-Taking led by Bernard Donoghue from AVLA. This inspiring talk gave some insight into the number of people that visit some of the countries largest visitor attractions with the following facts:

·      More people visited the V&A, Natural History Museum and Science Museum combined than visited Venice
·      More people visited the British Museum and National Gallery combined than visited Barcelona
·      More people visited the Southbank Centre, Tate Modern and Tate Britain combined than visited Hong Kong
·      More people visit heritage properties in the UK every weekend than attend football matches – 32x more in fact.

We were told that organisations that performed well between 2012 and 2017 had the following in common – they refreshed their offer and ensured it was enticing, they have an authentic sense of place, they telling people’s stories, they develop their staff and not their stuff.

It was interesting to hear that organisations that were refreshed did well regardless of the weather, and especially with local and domestic audiences. We also heard those that thought outside of the box and developed unusual and creative partnerships did extremely well; for instance the Van Gogh Air BnB

At the end of the session delegates were challenged to shock their visitors and were given some great case studies to inspire us:

·      Ai Weiwei at Blenheim Palace
·      Lumiere Festival at Durham Cathedral
·      Queer City at the National Trust

All of these projects saw the audience numbers grow dramatically and the average visitor age drop by 20 – 25 years.

After two long days I found the Museums + Heritage Show 2018 to be a wonderful experience. I came away both inspired and enthusiastic and it confirmed my thoughts that its a must for anyone working in the sector.

Alex Bird
Museum Development North West

Museums Association Conference Blog 6

When MDNW gave me the opportunity to attend the Museums Association Conference I realised it’d be a fantastic opportunity for gaining inspiration and learning best museum practice. The themes of this year’s conference were Audience, Collections and Workforce; as you can imagine with the mix of topics available and a two day programme of exciting speakers it was a challenge to choose which seminars to attend. I found the conference app extremely useful for this acting as a one stop shop to the whole event. There was access to daily programmes, events and exhibitors information. The My Agenda function was really convenient and helped me to shortlist seminars, identify clashes and then decide on the programme best for me.

The Conference started with an extremely positive welcome from conference host Hilary Carty that really set the tone for the next two days, followed by speeches from the conference coordinators of the three main themes. Social purpose is becoming more central to museums and their collections and these themes get us thinking about how museums get audiences more active, participatory and engaged with our collections. Lemn Sissay’s opening poem presented how often the simplest tasks are complicated by bureaucracy and how truly ridiculous things can get. Some of the scenarios may have been exaggerated but they were things I have come across and despite being light-hearted and entertaining I’m sure it resonated with everyone in that Exchange Auditorium and it was good to know I wasn’t the only one.

I was really interested in looking at new ways to use the collection, especially to increase income generation. Like many sites, offsetting running costs with income is becoming increasingly important as funding becomes more stretched. Because of this I attended the seminar, Should Museums Sweat their Assets. The panel consisted of professionals from Royal Greenwich Museum, Norfolk Museum’s and the University of Aberdeen Museum, all very different types of organisations but it was established pretty quickly in the discussion that yes – museums need to do it as a necessity. The real question was how much should you sweat them? Some of the methods that they used were not suitable to apply to my museum, but they had certain principles that could be applied to any site. Firstly don’t be afraid to say no, if you don’t think an event or opportunity fits in with you branding then don’t do it. Secondly, make sure that anything you do is within your capacity to deliver. Finally and most importantly, don’t be afraid to try new things out. Takings risks can be good, sometimes failures happen (even at big venues!) You can learn from those failures but will gain much on the successes.

This leads nicely onto another very inspirational talk at the conference, the keynote speech from 14-18 NOW Director Jenny Waldmen and artist Jeremy Deller. Not only was the story behind the sensational We’re Here because We’re Here project fascinating but Jeremy’s talk around what motivated him to take on the commission was really interesting.it sounds like Art briefs set by museums can be so specific and full of guidelines that they can stunt creativity and put artists off. It was the open brief given to him by Jenny that convinced him to take on the role. What was her brief?   ‘We don’t know what to do for the centenary of the Somme, do you have any ideas’ – as simple as that but it gave him the freedom to create something truly unique and relevant. Museums seem to have a reluctance to give ‘power’ to the unknown. This is something that came up in an earlier seminar on Youth Participation with a young artist Pat Farrell, but as Jenny advised partnerships only work when generosity is given from all sides and it seems that that includes artist freedom to explore. Assessing the 14-18 NOW commission, ok, the soldiers were not in the museums, museums did not get the initial footfall, but the visibility of such a project to regular public had a massive impact with 48% of audiences wanting to go an learn more which would not have been successful if not for external thinking.

Another excellent seminar was Belief Trumps Facts looking at where museums sit in a world of ‘fake news’ and ‘experts’ and as trusted institutions what is our role in ensuring that we provide a balanced narrative. One particularly interesting discussion by the panel surrounded if and how museums can ethically accept funds from organisations with specific agendas. How important it is to provide ‘real’ information, particularly when covering global or sensitive issues. In an era where there is less money available should institutions be turning down funds/sponsorship to run their programme. General thought by the panel was museums should be covering important issues like these but it was integral that museums researched the information to ensure it was a true story. Research the individuals first then look at the wider story and finally if it controversial then it needs to be much more rigorously researched.

Alongside the main programme there were other events running throughout the conference. Free workshops were offered to all museum professionals with a diverse and engaging programme running across both days. I luckily managed to get a seat in the Developing Innovative Events Programmes workshop with a focus on events around the Robots exhibition by the Science Museums Group. It was an interesting workshop but extremely busy. This could be applied to all of the workshops, as I couldn’t get into the others. I stood at the back trying to listen but with the noise of the exhibition hall I gave up. Feedback for next year, run these sessions in bigger spaces. This did give me an opportunity to experience some of the other fantastic offerings at the Conference put on by the Festival of Change. I adjourned from talks and museums to attended a relaxing life drawing class put on in exchange

Final thoughts on the conference; I really enjoyed the three days and the difficulty in choosing which seminars to attend was testament to how good the programmed sessions were. I attended thirteen sessions across Thursday and Friday and took away lots of ideas to go back to site with. The keynotes were wonderful, Lemn Sissay, Alejandra Naftal and the fantastic presentation by the wonderfully wobbly Francesca Martinez were the highlights of the conference. I would recommend any museums professional go to one of these lively events. Thanks MDNW.

Jenny Ingham, Museum Manager, Queen Street Mill Textile Museum

Museums Association Conference Blog 5

Trying to reflect on one of the most challenging and moving presentations I have encountered in my professional career has proved somewhat difficult. A week after the conference I found myself trying to convey to friends the experience of listening to Alejandra Naftal, Director and Co-Curator of the ESMA Memory Site Museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina, talk about her museum and the ‘Disappeared’ of the Argentinian military dictatorship.

The museum is a former military building, which was used by the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983 as a clandestine centre for detention, torture and extermination. Some 30,000 people were ‘disappeared’ by the state. Children born in captivity were given away to military families, their real identities hidden from them. In a powerful and moving presentation, Alejandra explored the museums role in modern Argentinian society.

When it is easy to become bogged down in an institutional bubble and distracted by day to day concerns, the conference helped me reengage with the bigger questions facing our sector; why do museums matter, how do we engage with the challenges that face modern society and how do we better represent that society?

Focusing primarily on the Curatorial strand of the conference, I was very impressed with the panels I attended. They all made me look afresh at the work of my own museum and our collections. In the Legacies of Empire panel, Yasmin Khan delivered a very honest appraisal about the challenges and rewards of co-curation as museums seek to better represent the varied communities from which British society is drawn. Jonathan Wallis of Derby Museums too delivered an impressive illustration of how to engage with the often forgotten traces of Empire in local museum collections that are anything but local in nature.

Panels on the Fearful Object and Reanimating Collections of Disability History also provided other examples of best practise to aspire to. In the Fearful Object it was particularly interesting to see the shared challenges that were encountered in quite different settings and the support we can give each other as professionals. In Reanimating Collections of Disability, the combination of presentations on current exhibitions and a practical workshop element was particularly useful.

The wider provision of workshops was my one area of disappointment. These were frequently too full to allow people in and after some initial attempts I gave up. It seemed a shame to advertise these workshops, by all accounts very good, and then host them in quite small venues.

To end on this critical note would not be reflective though of what was a very positive experience. Since then I have been trying to take the time to look again at my own museum and reflect on how we can better represent the world around us. It may seem a long way from the subject matter of the ESMA Memory Site to that of the National Football Museum but there are fact close links. In reading more about the Disappeared I was reminded that the prisoners were allowed to listen to radio coverage of the 1978 World Cup Final. Argentina beat Holland in a stadium only a short distance from the ESMA Memory Site Museum, with the fans celebrations audible to those incarcerated inside. Thanks to Alejandra’s presentation, I now look at familiar items in our collection in a very different way.

Alexander Jackson, Collections Officer, The National Football Museum