WMMD Newsletter August 2018Contents:
West Midlands Museum Development UpdateSecret Museums is Back!A West Midlands Museum Development (WMMD) project in partnership with the Beatfreeks Collective and Service Science.Following on from its successful first year, ‘Secret Museums’ is back. The programme will be co-created with young people (16-25 years) and this year will also include an additional visit capturing insights from mature visitors (45+ years). There are just six places available to Accredited Museums or those officially Working Towards Accreditation. Focussing on the visitor experience, the programme will provide an opportunity for museums to test and develop its culture of customer care and aims to support the development of ideas to broaden the range of visitors to the museum. To get involved please complete an application form and return to wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk no later than 5pm, Monday 10 September 2018. Each participating museum will receive:
The Mystery Shopper programme will support Section 3 (Users and their Experiences) of the Museum Accreditation Standard. Snapshot Skills Survey 2018Please take this opportunity to tell us about the skills you have and those you’d like to gain, improve and share. The results of this ten question tick box survey will help us shape our programme and track development within the museum and gallery sector. Diversity Champions Training Programme 2018-2019Applications are open for managers, trustees and decision makers working in museums and heritage venues to take part in this professional training programme. There is a huge movement to ensure that Equality, Diversity and Inclusion is embedded in everything our sector does. Support from Arts Council England (ACE) is now dependent on evidence of commitment to the principles of the Creative Case for Diversity and with this comes a real opportunity to make museums, galleries and heritage sites places of real equality where diversity is an integral part of everyday work, not an add on. The programme builds with each session and full details about the programme, including training dates, can be found by clicking on the button below. Coming Soon!Open to All Access Audits (Mental Health) ProgrammeThe 2018-2019 ‘Open to All’ Access Audit (Mental Health) programme will consider work around improving access to the collections for visitors with specific areas of need relating to problems with poor mental health. It will make reference to compliance with the law in respect of equality and diversity and the moral and business case for social inclusion. Building on legislation included in the Equality Act 2010 and with reference to the ‘Creative Case for Diversity’, the Access Audits will include an initial joint training day for representatives from each participating museum or heritage site, followed by a one day visit to each venue. Each participating museum will receive a final report that offers recommendations to support widening engagement with visitors of all ages experiencing poor mental health. Reminder: ACE Museum Mentor EventThursday 23 August, 2pm-5pm at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery This will be an opportunity to meet fellow Mentors, new and experienced. For more information and to reserve you place please email Rachel.lambert-jones@ironbridge.org.uk before Monday 13 August. West Midlands Volunteer Awards 2018Congratulations to this year's shortlisted finalists. The winners will be announced on Thursday 6 September at a fun-filled event at the Birmingham Hippodrome. If you haven't booked your ticket yet please do so by Friday 10 August using the links sent to your nominator. WMMD Resourceswww.mdwm.org.uk/resources has over 50 presentations, handouts and guides covering Audiences, Collections, Resilience, Workforce and Young People drawn from our programme and workshops. The resources are available to Accredited museums and those officially Working Towards Accreditation. If you would like to access these resources please email wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk for a password. Remember to check back regularly for new content. West Midlands Museum Development EventsAll WMMD events are freeFULLY BOOKED19 September - Collections Knowledge Café: A Practical Guide to Caring for Costume and Textile Collections10am–4pm, Museums Worcestershire Collections Store, Hartlebury, WorcestershireThis hands-on day will be led by curators from Museums Worcestershire and is designed to share practical skills. The session will support museum staff and volunteers working with historic costume who are interested in learning more about handling, packing and caring for costume and textile collections. This event is fully booked, if you would like to go on the waiting list please email wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk.29 November - Every Object Tells a Story: Developing Confidence in Talking about Our Collections10am–4pm, Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum, Royal Pump Rooms, Leamington Spa CV32 4AAWe use our collections to tell stories every day but how confident are we in speaking publicly about our wonderful resources to different audiences? This session will be led by collaborative theatre maker, project coordinator and writer Tom England. It aims to support museum staff and volunteers to build their confidence in talking about objects, enabling museums to effectively tell their part of the region's collections story. Other Events3 September - Museums and Digital Memory: From Creation and Curation to Digital Preservation9.30am - 5pm, British Museum, London WC1B 3DGBooking is now open for the British Museum’s 2018 National Programmes Conference, Museums and digital memory: from creation and curation to digital preservation. The conference will focus on the theme of ‘digital’ with an emphasis on preservation. The day will explore both the exciting outward-facing side of digital technology in museums, and the back-of-house side that can often get overlooked – if we’re memory institutions, how are we ensuring that we retain all the digital memory that we’re creating? Tickets are free, but must be reserved online via Eventbrite. A limited number of travel bursaries are also available for delegates for whom travel costs would be prohibitive. 4-6 September - GEM Conference 2018NottinghamJoin GEM to celebrate their 70th anniversary at this year’s annual conference “Past, Present and Future”. The conference will be exploring how the landscape of heritage education has evolved over time with a look to what lies ahead for the sector. The conference will be of immense help to anyone involved in managing or delivering museum, heritage or cultural learning. Check out the speaker line-up, find out more and how to book here. 15 October - How to Set up, Survive and Thrive as a Freelancer in the Cultural Sector9.30am - 4.30pm - NCVO, 8 All Saints Street, London N1 9RLJoin this practical and inspiring training workshop designed to kick-start and sustain a flourishing freelance or consultancy business. The day is jam-packed with proven approaches, ideas and tools to get started, market yourself, find work, win work, manage your finances,
handle client relationships and look after your health and wellbeing. 8-10 November - Dissent: Inspiring Hope - Embracing ChangeMuseums Association Conference, Belfast WaterfrontTwo keynote speakers have been announced:
For more information about the conference or to book, click here. NewsNew Subject Specialist Network FundingArts Council England has announced a new round of Subject Specialist Network funding. Queen's Award for Voluntary ServicesOn Saturday 28 July HM Lord-Lieutenant of Staffordshire Mr Ian Dudson presented the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service to the volunteers at Ford Green Hall. It was a wonderful afternoon celebrating an enormous achievement by all the team who have worked so hard to make the museum such a fantastic success. GEM Intermediate CPD CoursesGEM has developed a series of intermediate courses aimed at supporting the professional development of mid-career heritage professionals. These courses address core competencies identified by GEM, and help to raise professional standards in the sector. New Free Online Course - Museums as Spaces for WellbeingThe National Alliance for Museums, Health and Wellbeing has launched a free online course Museums as Spaces for Wellbeing funded by Arts Council England and Wellcome. This course is aimed at providing advice, tools and guidance on the steps to take in order to develop, deliver and evaluate health and wellbeing work within a museum, heritage or cultural organisation. It is aimed at sector professionals and anyone interested in health and wellbeing work in museum, heritage, or cultural organisations. It will be useful for those who have yet to undertake work in this area or are already doing so but would like support in certain aspects of their provision. The course has six modules which each take 1-1.5 hours to complete. They contain case study films, useful resources and recommended further reading as well as exercises so you can reflect on your own learning and apply it to your own practice. You can enrol at any time by visiting here. Guides for TrusteesThe Charity Commission have updated their Charity Trustee Welcome Pack. Designed primarily for new trustees, the pack can also be used by existing trustees to refresh knowledge and skills. Click here for more information. AIM also has a useful guide for new trustees. Click here to find out more. HLF Publishes Latest Report on Pilot Scheme into Endowment FundraisingThe final report for 2017 on the Catalyst Endowment: Heritage programme – launched in 2012 by HLF and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) – says UK heritage organisations ‘will be more resilient and less reliant on public funding after attracting £53m of private money for US-style endowment funds’. Find out more. Have your Say on the Apprenticeship LevyCreative & Cultural Skills, together with Creative Skillset, are gathering evidence that could lead to a business case to persuade the Government to change the rules regarding the Apprenticeship Levy to better reflect the needs of the sector. Please share this questionnaire and take the time to have your say. Subject Specialist NetworksThe new Subject Specialist Networks website can be found at https://subjectspecialistnetworks.org.uk/. OpportunitiesHeadley Fellowships with Art FundThe Headley Fellowships encourage the development of UK collections expertise, and intends to give curators – especially those based in smaller or regional museums – the time and resource to work with focused areas of their collections, deepening expertise within their museum and sharing specialist knowledge both with the public and across the sector. The programme is open to mid-career and senior curators, and those with curatorial responsibility, and practically will give curators time away from their day-to-day responsibilities to embark on a bespoke period of research and development. Headley Fellowships with Art Fund aim to encourage the production of ambitious and high-quality museum projects which have collections at their core, while investing in museums across the UK and their curators, helping them to realise exceptional ideas for communicating with a spectrum of audiences. Full details on the aims and scope of the scheme can be found at https://www.artfund.org/headley. Applications are open now with a deadline of 15 October. Collections Care Skills Sharing ProgrammeDo you have a collections management skill that you could share with colleagues from other museums or are you looking for an opportunity to develop a skill in a particular area of collections care? Perhaps you would like to gain experience in collections care work or just find out more about it?The WMMD Skills Sharing Programme aims to connect staff and volunteers from across the region’s museums with opportunities to develop collections care skills through hands on practical experience. Museums are invited to get in touch with offers of potential activities that could be offered to skills seekers. Alternatively if you are looking for an opportunity to work with collections please let us know and we will try to match you up. Skills Sharing Opportunities:
If you have a potential skills sharing opportunity to offer, or if you are looking to develop a new collections care skill please click on the links or contact Helen Johnson for more details. Opportunities will be advertised through the WMMD updates and newsletters. Men’s Shed Project OfficerMuseum of Cannock ChaseFollowing a grant from WMMD, the Museum of Cannock Chase has a freelance opportunity available to assist in the creation of a Men’s Shed to encourage older men to participate in their heritage. Men’s Sheds are a place to pursue practical interests at leisure, to practice skills and enjoy making and mending. They’re about social connections and friendship building, sharing skills and knowledge, and a lot of laughter. The essence of a Shed is not a building, but the connections and relationships between its members. Fee £1000. For further information please contact susan.dalloe@ihlmail.org. Closing date for applications: Friday 24 August Want to Make your Collection more Accessible?Arts Council National Lottery Projects Grants scheme is open and waiting for your applications!Arts Council England (ACE) want to support exciting and diverse work that brings great art and culture to people across the country through their new funding programme. Accredited museums can apply for grants that help people engage with their collections or their work. The grants typically range from £1,000 to £100,000. If you have a project in mind which will help to make your collections more accessible have a look at the Project Grants page on the ACE website. If you have questions before, during or after making an application contact ACE by email enquiries@artscouncil.org.uk or telephone 0161 934 4317. Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund 2018-20The DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund 2018-20 is now accepting applications for capital projects from eligible organisations. The bid pro-forma and guidance can be found here. For informal enquiries, please contact dcmswolfsonfund@culture.gov.uk. All applications must be submitted to dcmswolfsonfund@culture.gov.uk by 31 August. Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund 2018 Open for ApplicationsWeston Loan Programme with Art Fund has opened for its second round of applications. The programme is designed to directly fund and empower museums and galleries which are regional and/or run by local authorities, universities, or have independent Trust status, to borrow major works or collections from the UK’s national museums and galleries. Generously supported by the Garfield Weston Foundation, the programme will distribute a further £200,000 to museums and galleries across the UK for projects that enable loans of works of art and artefacts to go on display. Grants will range from £5,000 to £25,000 and can be used to cover a range of costs, including transport, insurance, conservation, installation, and activities relating to advocacy, marketing and audience development. You can find further details, including the Guidance for applicants, on the website. Here you will also find a short film on one of the projects awarded funding in the first round. The deadline for submissions is 11 September. If you have any queries or would like to discuss a potential project, please contact Penny Bull. 2018-19 ICOM UK – British Council Travel Grant Scheme open for applicationsICOM UK, with support from the British Council, is pleased to offer travel grants to support museum professionals to develop mutually beneficial international projects and partnerships for their organisations. The 2018-19 ICOM UK – British Council Travel Grant Scheme will enable recipients to undertake an international visit to meet with colleagues and share skills, expertise and experience. The Travel Grant Scheme supports museums who are starting to develop mutually beneficial international projects and partnerships. Applications will be considered for grants up to £1,500 per organisation or consortium for visits beyond greater Europe and up to £700 for visits within greater Europe. The total amount of funding available for 2018-19 is £17,000. Priority will be given to non-national museums, museums who have not previously undertaken international work, and mutually beneficial visits to countries on the Overseas Development Aid (ODA) list (see pages 4-5 of the application form). 50% of the funding in each round will be ring-fenced for visits to countries on the ODA list. Application deadline: 9am Monday 24 September 2018 Download the application form and guidelines on the ICOM UK website. Please complete one application form per organisation or consortium and email it to: You can read the Case Studies from previous Travel Grant recipients on the ICOM UK website. Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Grants 2018 deadlinesThis funding scheme through Art Fund is open to curators and other professionals working with public collections. It aims to help individuals realise their curatorial ambitions, through offering grants for collections-based research and curatorial development opportunities. £75,000 is available annually. Over 320 museum professionals have been helped with 294 projects since the programme launched in 2012. Full details of the grants, how to apply and previous awards can be found here. Small grant applications can be made at any point throughout the year, while applications over £1,500 are considered at committee meetings three times a year. The remaining deadline for 2018 is 17 September. Volunteer PortalThe regional Volunteer Portal offers Accredited museums and those officially Working Towards Accreditation the opportunity to advertise for volunteers. Please click below if you would like to register your museum. You don't need to have any current opportunities to register. Keep up to date with the Leicester University Museum Studies jobs desk site here. Images © Lee Allen Photography Hereford Museum Resource Learning Centre, Winners Volunteer Awards 2017, Breaking Boundaries Conference, Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, The Pen Museum, Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery What we need from you…..There are still many museum staff, volunteers and trustees within the West Midlands who do not receive our newsletter. PLEASE make sure your colleagues don’t miss out and forward this newsletter today! To sign up for our newsletter visit our website and submit your email address at the bottom of our home page or at the bottom of all our web pages. |