Welcome to your October Newsletter!

In this month's newsletter we're focussing on our two National Heritage Lottery Fund funded projects: Hazards in Collections and Growing Together. Find out what our Conservation Development Officer got up to over the summer and how you can take part in peer networking sessions.

You can also read our brand new Impact Report for 2024-25, which highlights our work across the South West over the last financial year. 

In addition, have a new SW Museum Skills session in November in partnership with The Exhibitions Group, From Ambition to Action: Reducing the Environmental Impact of Exhibitions & Loans. This free online training session is running on Thursday 6 November, 10:00am to 12:30pm.

This summer, we sent our Conservation Development Officer back to school, along with our four Reducing the Risk project partner organisations;  Wiltshire Conservation and Museum Advisory Service, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Bristol Museums, and Hampshire Cultural Trust.

To make sure that we were up to date with the legal, biological and safety knowledge about these hazards, we organised three training sessions with specialist hazard trainers. As well as learning more about the wide range of hazards in museum collections and how to deal with them safely, we uncovered a few surprising facts!

Interested? Read our latest blog to find out what we got up to over the summer and learnt along the way.

Copies will be sent out to museums and investors over the autumn, but if you can't wait until yours arrives you can view a copy today on our website!

Join a series of peer-led events designed to support inclusive practice across the museum and heritage sector.  

Whether you are just starting your Equity Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) journey or looking to deepen your impact, these sessions offer practical insights, shared experiences and a supportive community. Places are limited - don’t miss out on these high quality, Champion-devised and led sessions.  

Sessions include: 

Is It Me? – Disability & Employment in Heritage
Thursday 13 Nov 2025/ Online 
Despite good intentions, disability inclusion in the heritage workforce remains limited. Explore what genuine inclusive practice looks like for your museum.  
 
Museums & Gypsy, Roma, Traveller Communities 
Thursday 20 Nov 2025/ Online 
Building positive relationships with these communities through sharing stories and objects. 
 
EDI: From Individual Action to Organisational Change 
Monday 24 Nov 2025/ Online 
Honest reflections from Helen Jacobs, RWA; Jan English American Museum and Gardens and Amanda Hart, Roman Baths. 
 
Confidence in Co- curation at Glastonbury Abbey 
Tuesday 25 Nov 2025/ Online 
Learn how Glastonbury Abbey is working with local villages to co-curate inclusive heritage experiences. 

Anti-discrimination Practice for Visitor Teams 
Tuesday 9 December/ Online 
A practical session to support front-of-house teams in developing successful anti-discrimination approaches.
 
Dance & Collections for Equity Diversity and Belonging 
Monday 26 Jan 2026/ M Shed, Bristol 
Discover how dance can creatively support inclusive interpretation and audience engagement in museums.  
 
Confidence in Co-Curation at Glastonbury Abbey  
Wednesday 28 Jan 2026/ Glastonbury 
A chance to meet in person and learn together from the work of Glastonbury Abbey as they reach out to local villages.  

This month, we take a moment to say a huge thank you and bid a heartfelt farewell to three outstanding members of our Strategic Advisory Board as they complete their terms with Museum Development South West.

Stephen Boyce has served as Chair since the Board’s inception in 2019, playing a pivotal role in shaping the strong governance we value today. We are deeply grateful for his generous leadership, wisdom, and dedicated collaboration across the members and the wider MDSW team.

Phil Collins joined the Board in 2019 and has served two impactful terms, providing critical leadership in the development of our work with museums on environmental responsibility and the national environment.

Also joining in 2019, Crystal Johnson has brought invaluable expertise in project management and extensive experience working alongside diverse museums and heritage organisations.

We extend our sincere thanks to Stephen, Phil, and Crystal for their time, creativity, energy, and enthusiasm. The impact of their contribution will continue to benefit our programme long into the future.

We are delighted to be announcing the new members of our Strategic Advisory Board in our next newsletter.

Heritage Debate 2025 Tickets Now Live!

Join The Heritage Alliance online for the 2025 Heritage Debate, on Thursday 6 November, 12pm-2pm. 

Now in its 16th year, Heritage Debate brings sector leaders, professionals and volunteers together to share cross-sector insights, make connections and find solutions to the key challenges facing heritage today.

The theme for 2025 is 'Closer to Home: Is local decision making the future of heritage?'. With local government reorganisation on the horizon, new mayoral powers emerging, and communities gaining new rights to shape their places, is bringing decision-making closer to home the key to unlocking heritage's full potential? 

Tickets are free to all attendees, book your ticket through the Heritage Alliance website.

Kids in Museums Autumn Training

Kickstart your autumn with free and low-cost training opportunities from Kids in Museums:

• Discover how museum visual stories can transform visits for families with additional needs - and learn how to create your own 
• Explore what meaningful consultation with families really means - and how it can help you shape high quality, relevant events and programmes for your community
• Learn basic language skills to enable simple communication with Deaf children, families and young people in your museum

Find out more and book all sessions on the Kids in Museums website. 

How Charities can use the Royal Voluntary Service

Is your museum or heritage organisation looking for new ways to connect with potential volunteers? If your museum is a registered charity, you can join the Royal Voluntary Service’s free digital platform to connect with volunteers, streamline onboarding, and post available roles. Find out more and sign up on their website.

Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants

National Lottery Project Grants is our open access programme for arts, libraries and museums projects. The fund supports thousands of individual practitioners, community and cultural organisations

Applications for projects £30,000 and under and projects £30,001 - £100,000 are now open. Major Projects, Place Partnerships, and Touring will reopen for applications in mid-October.

Places of Science

The Royal Society, the UK’s national science academy, has opened applications for funding through their Places of Science grant scheme.

The scheme funds museums and galleries across the UK to run outreach projects that engage their communities with science, whether through local stories or new exploration of archives and collections. 

Eligible museums are able to apply for up to £3,500 to run up to two-year projects. The deadline for applications is Wednesday 12 November 2025.

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):

• Museum Development South West (MDSW)
• MDSW
• MDSW
• MDSW
• Arts Council England
• The Heritage Alliance

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