WMMD Newsletter February 2018Contents:
West Midlands Museum Development Update15 March - Solve to Evolve Conference9.30am – 7.30pm Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, Coalbrookdale TF8 7DQWest Midlands Museum Development's third annual conference, funded by Arts Council England, will be a jam packed day focusing on overcoming challenges to make organisations more resilient and appealing to audiences. The Conference is booking up quickly so don't miss out! For more details about the conference see the WMMD Events section.The conference is FREE and includes refreshments, lunch and dinner. Places will be prioritised for staff, volunteers and trustees of museums and art galleries based in the West Midlands. Need to KnowThe Need to Know event on 25 January was one of the most popular events we have held with 40 delegates attending. In the morning Alan Owen from ICARIS Sentinel gave an overview of the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR ) which come into force in May and what organisations need to do to comply. We will be issuing a GDPR special newsletter shortly and in the meantime would suggest that you look at the ICO website as a good starting point. Richard Hemmings of Insight Training gave an informative presentation on finance in the afternoon. Both presentations are available in the password protected Resources section of our website. If you would like the password simply email wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk. WMMD EventsSee the WMMD events section below for information about all our events. West Midlands Museum Development EventsAll WMMD events are free28 February - Setting the Standard: Recruitment and Selection10am - 4pm, Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery SY1 1LHThis workshop will explore best practice in recruitment and selection processes to ensure that your organisation appoints the best applicants. By the end of this workshop delegates will:
In addition you will receive access to free online resources published after the training including:
Refreshments and lunch will be provided at this free event. 15 March - Solve to Evolve ConferenceIronbridge Gorge Museum Trust, Coalbrookdale TF8 7DQJoin the West Midlands Museum Development team for our third conference. Funded by Arts Council England (ACE), we've a jam-packed day focusing on overcoming challenges to make organisations more resilient and appealing to audiences.We are delighted to welcome Gordon Seabright, CEO, Eden Project, who will deliver the Opening Address. The day will be hosted by broadcaster Adam Kirtley. Plenaries:
The afternoon will feature Birmingham's Poet Laureate Matt Windle and our 'Solution Stations'. These are bite-sized sessions linking to a broad range of topics including collections, audiences, resilience, equality and diversity, workforce development and children and young people. These will focus on overcoming challenges, finding solutions and sharing experiences in small groups. Full details and how to book your choice of Solution Stations will be available soon. Late afternoon will see a change of venue as we head over to Blists Hill Victorian Town for a choice of exclusive after-hours tours of the site followed by dinner and a performance from renowned storyteller Peter Chand. The day will conclude at 7.30pm. With plenty of opportunities to network, surgeries available with sector partners including ACE, HLF, Collections Trust, Accreditation, Audience Agency and Kids in Museums this is a key date for your 2018 diary.The conference is FREE and includes refreshments, lunch and dinner. Places will be prioritised for staff, volunteers and trustees of museums and art galleries based in the West Midlands. Other Events21 and 22 February - Why Exhibitions? Strategies, audiences and future directionsTate Britain, the National Portrait Gallery, and National GalleryThree Subject Specialist Networks are collaborating to offer a two-day conference, free to museum colleagues and researchers. The conference examines aspects of temporary exhibitions – audience engagement, partnership models, online exhibitions and digital tools, and other issues related to the future of exhibitions. Click here for the full programme and booking details. 26 February - Moving on Up: Building a Dynamic Museum CareerAmgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd (National Museum Cardiff)The Museums Association’s popular early careers conference returns for a fifth year, with the writer Nikesh Shukla confirmed as the keynote speaker. This one-day event is an opportunity to hear from inspirational speakers, network with peers and senior museum professionals, and participate in practical workshops and discussions. Delegates attending the event will discover how to navigate the challenges of the current jobs market, how to raise their profile and how to ensure they are developing the necessary skills to benefit their future career progression. To find out more and to book click here. 28 February - Empower the Educator!12noon-5pm Hartlebury Castle, Hartlebury DY11 7XZA Group for Education in Museums (GEM) area sharing event: Strengthen your area network, feel empowered in your organisation, learn how to speak up for your work and make space to be creative! Activities will include:
Book here. 6 March - What Does Digitally Literate Museum Leadership Look Like?10am-4.30pm Birmingham Hippodrome, B5 4TBHow can museums and galleries thrive in the new attention economy and respond to changing audience behaviours? The opportunities around digital culture can be huge but it’s a fast-changing, multi-layered environment that is a challenge for many museums to exploit. A thriving, successful museum needs a digitally literate workforce that understands the ways in which digital technologies, content and culture can best serve their mission. Together with the Arts Marketing Association, Culture24 is offering a new one-day digital leadership workshop for senior leaders within museums, galleries and other cultural organisations. For more information and to book click here. 7 March - Resilience, Participation and Engagement: Learning and Sharing Good Practice10am-4.30pm British Motor Museum, Gaydon, CV35 0BJThis is a free one day conference focused on the three year journey undertaken by the British Motor Museum on their Arts Council England-funded Museum Resilience project: 'The Open Road: sustaining Britain's motor heritage'. It is a day giving people the chance to see how they've benefited from Museum Resilience funding and the chance to see the Museum. This is a free event aimed at all those working in the museum and heritage sector both within the West Midlands region and more widely. Book your place here. 13 March - Museums for Health and Wellbeing ConferenceThinktank, Birmingham Science Museum, BirminghamThe line-up includes speakers Emma Hanson, Head of Strategic Commissioning Adult Community Support from Kent County Council and Jane Povey, GP and Founding Director of Creative Inspiration Shropshire. Workshop sessions will explore green wellbeing, evaluation, embedding wellbeing as an organisation, working with learning disabled artists to design and deliver arts activities for children and families and much more! For more information about the conference and to book tickets click here. The new Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance will be officially launched at the conference. To find out more about the new Alliance please see here. 15 March - Association of Volunteer Managers’ Conference 2018The Whitworth, Manchester M15 6ERWe all know the great impact volunteering makes, but how do we measure the benefits? Can we quantify the health and wellbeing advantages of a particular volunteer programme? This event will address various aspects of the volunteer journey from the volunteer managers perspective, with a particular focus on measuring the health and wellbeing benefits for everyone involved: the volunteers; the programme managers and volunteer leaders; the organisation; the end users and clients. Hear the results of some key work into volunteer motivation and behaviour, including: assessing the volunteering habits of certain groups; attracting and working with younger volunteers and families; two different assesments of wellbeing. For more information and to book click here. 20 March - Future of Museums: Collections10.30am-5pm, Wellcome Collection, LondonCollections lie at the heart of museums, and provide a unique opportunity to engage, inform and inspire audiences in a way that can have a positive impact on society as a whole. The potential to use collections in exciting and socially-impactful ways is huge, but museums continue to be held back by several long-standing challenges including a lack of space to store material and a lack of skills, funds and resources to manage, care and interpret artefacts. This conference, part of the Museums Association’s Future of Museum’s series, will offer an opportunity to debate these issues and discuss what the future holds for our collections and how they can be used to engage audiences and change people’s lives. For more information and to book click here. 23 March - Money and Medals Network ConferenceBritish MuseumTo mark three years of funding from Arts Council England and to celebrate the work conducted so far, the Money and Medals Network (MMN) will be holding a conference. The content of the day will cover the work of MMN over the past three years, outlining its key achievements and demonstrating to a wider audience how the Network has been active all over the UK with the collections mapping project and the provision of training. It will represent an opportunity to learn more about MMN and the approaches that are being taken to different aspects of numismatics by a number of key participating institutions. It will also be a chance to meet colleagues from other UK public institutions to share knowledge and ideas about museum numismatic collections. In addition, there will be a chance for delegates to see the British Museum’s exhibition about the Money and Medals Network which will be on display in Room 69a from 22 March until 30 September 2018. This conference is open to anyone working or volunteering with numismatic collections in UK museums. Attendance is free, but booking is essential. Lunch will be provided and a limited number of travel bursaries are available. Book here. NewsSuccess Guide on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)Museums and other cultural organisations that want to understand how they should be responding to current and forthcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) can benefit from a free Success Guide from AIM. Diversity in Arts and CultureArts Council England has published it's annual report on diversity in the Arts Council and their funded organisations. This year it shows that in comparison with the wider working age population, people from a Black and minority ethnic background and disabled people are under-represented across the arts and culture workforce and leadership. Women are also under-represented in certain leadership roles. The full report can be found here. Agricultural Tools AvailableAs part of the ongoing rationalisation of small agricultural objects collections, Shropshire Museum has a range of items for transfer or disposal. These include butter churns, barn machines, nineteenth and early twentieth century farming implements and nineteenth and early twentieth century hand tools. Anyone interested should contact Tim.Heathcote@shropshire.gov.uk, giving details of the type of material they are interested in acquiring. Help Improve the State of Museum Access 2018In 2016 VocalEyes published a report on the State of Museum Access in which they assessed the provision of access information on the websites of all 1700 accredited UK museums. They are preparing to repeat the audit this spring, and publish the State of Museum Access 2018 in the autumn. While the 2016 research mainly focused on access information relevant to blind and partially sighted people, the scope in 2018 is being broadened to record information relevant to a wider range of audiences. This is a call to action for museum staff across the UK. Providing access information online is not expensive or difficult. VocalEyes have developed Museum Access Information Guidelines to help you, download the guidelines here. Heritage Lottery Fund Consultation: Strategic Funding Framework 2019-2024Using money raised by National Lottery players the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) invests in the full breadth of the UK’s heritage to make a lasting difference for heritage and people. HLF's online consultation about their next Strategic Funding Framework for 2019-2024 is open. Find out more and complete the consultation questionnaire. HLF want the new strategy to benefit from and reflect the expertise and experience of the widest possible range of stakeholders across the heritage sector and beyond. The consultation will provide the opportunity to share your thoughts on their strategic direction and proposals. The findings will help HLF to set their priorities for how the National Lottery Good Causes income is used for the period from 2019 to 2024. Kids in Museums have announced 2018 dates for: Teen Twitter Takeover – Friday 3 August Takeover Day – Friday 23 November Click on the links above to find out more and how your museum can become involved... Upcoming Opportunities with the British MuseumCall for partners: New Partnership Touring Exhibition Call for partners: Knowledge Exchange 2018 Intangible Cultural Heritage SurveyThe Museum of English Rural Life (the MERL) is running an Arts Council England project called Making, Using and Enjoying: The Museum of the Intangible. The project explores the potential of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) and creative and digital practice to improve research and understanding of collections and to extend engagement. As part of the project they are developing a ‘toolkit’ to help museums and heritage organisations use the combination of intangible cultural heritage ideas and visual arts and other creative practices to engage and enrich the lives of new audiences. To help develop this toolkit the MERL would like input from as many museums as possible. ICH ideas are relevant to all museums, and not just those with social history or ethnographic collections. Please complete the online survey which closes at the end of February. GEM SurveyGEM is thinking hard about its future. Their ACE-funded Learning and Sharing Centre is in full swing, delivering a variety of new training courses and CPD, and the website is being redeveloped with a wealth of new and improved features. Guidelines for the Care of Larger and Working Historic ObjectsA new publication ‘Guidelines for the Care of Larger and Working Historic Objects’ is being launched on Thursday 15 February at the Museum of Science & Industry, Manchester. The Guidelines are intended for all museums, organisations and individuals that have larger and or working objects in their collections, including those that do not specialise in transport or engineering, such as social history museums.
The Guidelines will be available to purchase as a hard copy via the Collections Trust or as a free download from the Association of British Transport & Engineering Museums (ABTEM) website. BBC Civilisations FestivalIt's only two weeks to the festival which runs from Friday 2 March to Sunday 11 March. Make sure you have added your events to the Museum Crush listings. Being a Civilisations Festival Partner will also unlock exciting opportunities using digital tools and the BBC’s archive. Sign-up here to become a Civilisations Festival Partner and to receive newsletters. Subject Specialist NetworksThe new Subject Specialist Networks website can be found at https://subjectspecialistnetworks.org.uk/. OpportunitiesBritish Association of Friends of Museums Travel Award Bursary 2018British Association of Friends of Museums (BAFM) is an independent organisation established in 1973 for friends, volunteers and supporters in museums, galleries and heritage sites representing more than 200,000 friends and volunteers across the UK. BAFM is again offering its bi-annual Travel Award. The winner may be either totally committed volunteers of any age (who devote many hours supporting their museum or gallery) or a young professional who is starting their career in the museum world. For more details, including how to apply please visit their website. Deadline for submissions: 30 April Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund - Round 15The Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund, run by the Museums Association, funds projects which develop collections to achieve social impact. Museums, galleries and heritage organisations from across the UK can apply for a grant of between £20,000 and £120,000 for a project lasting up to three years. 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 deadlines for 2018 are as follows: Application deadline Date of meeting Archives Revealed'Archives Revealed' is a partnership programme between The National Archives and The Pilgrim Trust. It is the only funding stream available in the UK dedicated to cataloguing and unlocking archives. The fund is comprised of two funding strands: Cataloguing grants (up to £40,000) and Scoping Grants (up to £3,000). Please visit their website for closing dates and further information. 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. 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. 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. Resourceswww.mdwm.org.uk/resources has a wide range of resources drawn from our programme and workshops which can be accessed by 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. Keep up to date with the Leicester University Museum Studies jobs desk site here. Images © Lee Allen Photography Tamworth Castle, Breaking Boundaries Conference, Leamington Spa Museum and Art Gallery, Oak House Museum, Lapworth Museum of Geology 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! 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