Welcome to Your February Newsletter!

Welcome to South West Museum Development’s new-look newsletter as we transition to Museum Development South West, as part of Museum Development England’s 2024-2026 programme.

In this newsletter you’ll find all the content you would usually expect, such as sector news and grants, alongside exciting updates on our projects and programmes.

Programme update

In October we announced our successful award of £1,276,800 in Museum Development funding for 2024-2026 from Arts Council England to deliver museum development services across the South West. From 1 April our Museum Development programme will extend to cover the Arts Council England’s South West Area which includes the Hampshire Solent (Hampshire, Portsmouth, Southampton, and the Isle of Wight).

As the start of this funding period approaches, we would like to welcome museums in the Hampshire Solent and we look forward to working in collaboration. As part of our preparations we have just completed a successful recruitment process for a new board member from Hampshire Solent to join our Strategic Advisory Board.

We would also like to take this moment to celebrate our partnership with Cornwall Museums Partnership (CMP) and thank the dedicated team with whom we have collaborated with for over 10 years. As part of their phased closure CMP are exploring ways to ensure the legacy of their work which created positive social change with museums. Funding from Cornwall Council and South West Museum Development for the Cornwall Museum Development Officer (MDO) is secured for the coming two years ensuing that local MDO development support to museums across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly will continue.

Project update

Our Travelling Together Peer Networking sessions are now in full swing! There are still many more in-person and online sessions which you can book on to.

Meet with our Travelling Together Champions at The Roman Baths on Friday 16 February, 12pm-2pm, for 'Trans-Inclusion in Our Museums'. This peer networking session will be led by those with lived experience, with guest speaker Sophie Meyer, Founder and Director of Queer Kernow CIC.

If you’re looking for ways to include children with autism in your museum, then sign up to ‘Words are not Enough’ at Aerospace Bristol on Friday 1 March, 2pm-4pm. This session will investigate ways to bring your collections alive through the senses, to an audience where the written word alone can be a barrier.

Find out about these sessions and others on our website:

Peer Networking sessions

Focus on... Collections

As part of our SW Museum Skills programme, on Tuesday 30 January we held Collections Care 101 at Dorset Museum & Art Gallery, Dorchester. The workshop was attended by 16 delegates from across the South West who took part in group discussions, hands on activities, and an informative collections store tour. At the end of the day, we asked the delegates for their top tips from the day’s learning, these were:

Always act on what you see
Concentrate on documenting object movement - put a firm process in place
Having an Emergency Plan is great: practising how the plan will work in real life is even better 
Acid-free tissue laid over objects can protect them from smoke damage
Keep silica gel beads in ziplock bags ready for use - prick airholes with a pin just before you deploy them

Other news

SW Museum Skills: Further sessions added

A limited number of places area available again for Disability Essentials, an eLearning programme that helps museum staff and volunteers become confident and skilled in their engagement with disabled people. It takes only one hour to complete and a certificate is provided upon completion. Places will be awarded on a first-come-first-served basis, so don’t wait to register.

A new Museum Skills session, Respond and Plan – Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), will take place on Tuesday 12 March, 10am-12pm. This session will equip delegates with the knowledge, skills and confidence to explore some of the challenging conversations currently in the sector. Led by Inclusive Boards’ Associate Director, Samuel Carey, delegates will reflect on SMART goals for planning their EDI strategies.

Lastly, on Tuesday 19 March, 2pm-3pm, join Becky Coleman for Meet the funder: easyfundraising. easyfundraising is a free to use fundraising platform which your museum can use to receive donations when supporters shop online at no additional cost to them. Our partnership with easyfundraising enables us to benefit from a small commission when our museums sign up to easyfundraising. This funding will feed back in to our skills programme, allowing us to offer more training sessions for museums in the South West.

TEG short courses

The Touring Exhibitions Group (TEG) have an upcoming short online course which takes place over two sessions on Tuesday 22 February and Thursday 24 February, 1pm-4pm each day. Working in Partnership and Writing an Agreement focuses on working in partnership on exhibition and touring projects and writing a partnership agreement. During the course, delegates will have the opportunity to put the learning and ideas shared into practice. The online course costs £59 for TEG members and £89 for non-members.

Kids in Museums Young Trustees

Kids in Musems have launched a new programme, Young Trustees, to support heritage organisations recruit young people to their boards, in partnership with Upstart Projects. The training and networking programme is for Trustees who are interested in appointing young people aged 18-30 to their boards and for young people interested in becoming museum Trustees. There are six free places available to museums in England. Applications close on Thursday 29 February at 5pm.

Grants

Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund

The Esm ée Fairburn Collections Fund is now open for spring 2024 applications. The fund supports a range of projects that bring collections closer to people. Museums Association award the fund on behalf of Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and have awarded over £11m in nearly 200 grants since 2011. The next deadline for applications is Monday 22 April 2024.

AIM and Pilgrim Trust Conservation grant schemes

AIM (Association of Independent Museums) members with fewer than 50,000 visitors a year are eligible for Audit, Collections Care and Remedial Conservation grant schemes funded by The Pilgrim Trust. The grants enable museums to bring in conservation expertise to ensure that collections care and conservation meets professional standards, and has the most impact on the organisation, its collections, and their visitors. The closing date for applications is Friday 29 March 2024.

The best ways to get in touch are via the form on our website or emailing museum.development@bristol.gov.uk

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Photo credits (in order as they appear):

Canva
Canva
Amanda Harman
South West Museum Development/ Fay Whitfield
South West Museum Development/ Fay Whitfield

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