WMMD Newsletter January 2017
Contents:- West Midlands Museum Development Update
- West Midlands Museum Development Events
- News
- Other Events
- Opportunities
West Midlands Museum Development Update
Breaking Boundaries The Ironbridge annual conference will take place on 16 and 17 March 2017. The conference
will encourage delegates to build resilience by thinking beyond traditional boundaries in relation to collections, physical space, audiences and the workforce. Funded through Ironbridge's Major Partner Museum and Museum Development programmes, this free two day conference will share best practice from a range of museums. See the WMMD events section below
for information about the programme. Museum Learning SurveyPlease complete our online survey of learning programmes in museums and galleries in the West Midlands and help to shape our future programme. To complete the survey please
click here. Thank you if you have already completed the survey. Capital Grant SchemeExpressions of Interest for the next phase of the Ready to Borrow Capital Grant Scheme will be invited from 1 March 2017. Now is the time to start thinking about what capital spend is required to give you the opportunity to borrow
from a National museum or a Major Partner Museum. For an informal chat please contact Helen Johnson. Diversity Champions SchemeHear from our Diversity Champions at the Breaking Boundaries
conference on 16 and 17 March 2017. WMMD EventsSee the WMMD events section below for our upcoming events and to book your places.
Volunteer PortalThe regional Volunteer Portal will soon go live on mdwm.org.uk. Offering Accredited museums and those officially working towards Accreditation the opportunity to advertise for volunteers. Contact
wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk to register your museum
ResourcesAccredited museums and those officially Working Towards are now able to access a wide range of resources drawn from our programme and workshops. See www.mdwm.org.uk/resources If you have not received your password to access these resources please email
wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk
Mystery Shopper Programme 2017Service Science are leaders in the measurement of customer service quality in the tourism, hospitality and leisure sectors. They work extensively with clients in the museum and heritage sector. There is an opportunity for 10 museums to be Mystery Shopped. The Mystery Shopper Programme will: - Provide a detailed and accurate picture of your service provision based on the feedback from two Mystery Shopper visits to your museum
- Identify strengths and areas for improvements
- Provide a detailed report with recommendations to help you improve your service
How does it work? It will be launched with a workshop to ensure potential participants understand what the programme entails, the standards looked for and
why. Following the workshop, all interested museums will need to complete an Expression of Interest form to apply to take part. 10 museums will be selected to take part in the programme. Service Science will follow up with two Mystery Shopper visits to your museum and you will receive two sets of written feedback. On completion of the visits you will receive a detailed report with recommendations for improvement of your service. This will support Section 3 of the Accreditation Standard: Users and their experiences. See
WMMD events section below for more detail about the launch workshop.
Small Grant SchemeAs this year's successful applicants continue to work on their projects here is a final reflection on 2016's successful recipients: Red House Glass Cone - Teenage Market & Tweets What were they able to achieve with their grant?
The aim of the project was to develop a new offer to encourage 14-25 year olds to visit The Red House Glass Cone through the use of the national brand ‘Teenage Market’. Teenage Market encourages young entrepreneurs to sell their wares or perform.
The museum wanted to explore new ways of marketing to a teenage audience who were not currently engaged with the museum through development of their use of social media, in particular Twitter. They also wanted to increase staff awareness of safeguarding issues and the correct use of images in social media. As a result of the grant 15 museum staff were trained in the effective use of social media led by Born Communications. Eight tablets were bought and are now in daily use by museum staff and the tourism officer for social media, being used to showcase tenants, collections, events and visits. A successful Teenage Market was held on Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 July 2016 at the Red House Glass Cone. 14 young people and their
families attended the event as buskers and stall holders. They all made a profit and made contacts. “Teenage Market at Red House Glass Cone – Amazing talent amongst our young people.” @DudleyMayor
Have You Considered Becoming a Museum Mentor?Museum Mentors play a critical role in supporting smaller museums to retain Accreditation. Why take part? 100% of West Midland Mentors surveyed in 2014 would recommend mentoring to others:
‘It is an excellent way to gain real-life experience outside your employing organisation.’
‘A great chance to work with different collections (and work with) different types of museums, dealing with the kinds of issues not necessarily facing your own organisation.’ 64% of current West Midlands Mentors became a mentor as a form of continued professional development.
‘I feel privileged to mentor and list mentoring in my own biographical information and that of my organisation. Being a mentor adds to my professional credentials.’ Next steps?
For full guidance please click here
To discuss further please contact us; call 01952 435900 or email wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk
West Midlands Museum Development Events
All West Midlands Museum Development events are free
18 January - Collections Knowledge Café10am - 4pm, Coventry Transport MuseumChoose from a selection of workshops and 'Ask the Expert' advice points to learn more about the areas of interest. Our featured workshops:
• Handling and packing collections - Jane Thompson-Webb, Birmingham Museum Trust
• Hazards in museum collections - Derek Brain, Birmingham Museum Trust
• Identifying and looking after plastics - Abby Moore, Museum of London Ask the Experts:
• Identifying and looking after numismatics collections - Henry Flynn, British Museum
• Identifying and caring for photographic collections - Chris Copp, Staffordshire Archives and Heritage Service
• Standards, copyright and collections care - Sarah Brown, Collections Trust
• Environmental monitoring equipment advice - Michael Hall, Meaco Workshops will be repeated and our experts will be on hand throughout the day to offer advice and answer questions about different areas of collections care. Simply click below to book your place on this event. Lunch will be provided.
27 January - Arts Award Advisor Training - Full Details Announced10am - 4pm, The Hive, Worcester WR1 3PDTrain to become an Arts Award Advisor and deliver Discover and Explore in your museum. You will receive an Advisor toolkit and meet other museum professionals who are planning to deliver Arts Award in their settings. The workshop will include the opportunity to share ideas and receive support from the Arts
Award Trainer. This course is open to Accredited museums and those officially Working Towards Accreditation. Please read the Arts Award Advisor person specification. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. Click below to book your place for this free event.
30 January - Archives in Museum Collections: Meeting the Standard?10am - 1pm, County Record Office, Stafford, ST16 2LZ Many museums hold discreet archive collections within their main holdings. Owen Munday, Engagement Officer for The National Archives (TNA) will give an overview of the scheme and look at whether there is a case
for museums working towards the Archives Accreditation Standard for these collections. This half day workshop will help to answer the question, ‘What is the Standard and is it right for us?’ Click below to book your place.
2 February - Entrepreneurship in Cultural Heritage10am-4.45pm, The Old Ikon Gallery, Fazeley Studios, Birmingham B5 5SESpeakers from across the UK will explore innovative approaches to entrepreneurial management practices of the heritage sector and the challenges and opportunities for future entrepreneurship. Organised by the Ironbridge Institute for Cultural
Heritage, University of Birmingham in association with West Midlands Museum Development. This event is for staff and volunteers from Accredited museums and those officially Working Towards Accreditation in the West Midlands. Click below for the full programme and to book your place.
8 February - A Smile is the Universal WelcomeFully Booked
Please contact us to register your interest for future events10am – 4pm, Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust Join us at Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust for a day of Customer Service Excellence. The morning will see examples of best practice from the sector including Vicky Howell from VisitEngland who will provide an overview of the Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance Scheme (VAQAS) and its benefits, ideal for anyone considering joining the scheme. Vicky Parr, trainer and assessor for VisitEngland will provide an afternoon of ‘Exceeding Visitor
Expectation’ which explores delivering a high quality service. This training is aimed at: - New or experienced Front of House staff who are meeting customers regularly
- Museums who have participated in WMMD’s recent Mystery Shopper programme
- Supervisors and Front of House managers who are seeking new tips and suggestions on how to improve the customer service at their venue or simply to be re- energised for the new season!
16 February - A Fresh Look at Forward Planning9.30am - 4.30pm, Birmingham (venue to be confirmed)An opportunity to take an objective look at your organisation, its aspirations and challenges whilst engaging with peers and laying the ground work for an effective Forward Plan. More details to follow.
23 February - Mystery Shopper Launch10am - 4pm, Wolverhampton City Archives, Molineux Hotel Building WV1 1SFThis launch workshop will explain the logistics and workings of the Mystery Shopper programme and how to use the feedback to drive standards and motivate others. Participants from the previous programme
are welcome to attend. *Please note attendance at this workshop is essential if you wish to participate in the full programme
16 and 17 March - Breaking Boundaries Conference
Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, Coalbrookdale, TF8 7DQCome along to the beautiful Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire for a free two day conference to network with museum colleagues and hear from speakers with a wealth of experience on topics including:- Day one- Young people
- Advocacy and Fundraising
- Diversity
- Partnerships
Day two- Retail and catering
- Collecting
- Events
- Social Media
We hope that you can invest the time to join us on both days. However you may choose to come for the day that best suits your needs.
Working with Special Educational Needs (SEN) Groups conferenceCulture CoventryDevelop an understanding of how to deliver outreach projects for young people with learning difficulties in this one-day conference for museum professionals. Museums enable the community to voice its story and progressively this is done through multimedia. This course is aimed at
creative professionals who want to set up outreach projects which enable the community to explore the museum collection and, in doing so, gain qualifications in the arts, multimedia or soft skills for work. Specifically, They will help creative professionals to understand the needs of community members with special educational needs or learning difficulties. Click below to book your place.
Power through DiversityOn Monday 12 December 2016, Contact Manchester hosted Power through Diversity, a free one-day event for arts leaders, Chairs and decision makers. The event was designed to provoke debate, inspire change and celebrate good practice around diversity of governance, leadership and thinking. Arts Council England's Chief Executive Darren Henley gave the keynote speech. The event also included speakers on different areas of diversity from across the arts and cultural sector. See below for videos of their
talks.
Disabled Access Day 2017Disabled Access Day returns for its third year and will take place between 10th and 12th March 2017. Due to popular demand they have extended the dates so more people can get involved and more places can be visited. Disabled Access Day began in 2015 to celebrate good access and created opportunities for people to try something new, highlighting the fantastic access that already exists in places, such as touch tours, relaxed performances, sensory experiences, level access and of course a warm welcome! Click below to find out more and how you can get involved.
Kids in Museums: Highlights of 2016Kids in Museums has had much to celebrate in 2016, here are some of their highlights: Over 10,000 people downloaded their resource
How can your museum better welcome families and young people with autism? created with a wonderful team of partners including Ambitious about Autism. Check out their website
for lots of other free factsheets and toolkits to make your museum more family friendly. Kids in Museums was one of three organisations selected to run a pilot project for the Cultural Citizens programme announced in March’s Culture White Paper. Over the next six months, Takeover Birmingham
will see 200 young people taking over cultural and heritage organisations across the city. Nearly 30,000 people saw tweets from teenagers who’d taken over a museum Twitter feed on @takeovermuseums
on Teen Twitter Takeover Day in August. In November, Takeover Day in England
and Wales was a record-breaking event, with over 5,000 children and young people taking over 200 museums, galleries and heritage sites.
Click below to find out more about Kids in Museums and how you can get involved.
Museum + Heritage Awards 2017
Entries Now Open!The annual Museums + Heritage Awards, now in its fifteenth year, recognise projects of excellence, innovative and ground-breaking exhibitions from galleries and visitor attractions across the UK and Europe. These range from remarkable achievements of national institutions to projects crafted with limited resources and those championing their staff and volunteers who work hard to deliver inspiring visitor experiences. With
11 categories to choose from the Awards are open to all museums, galleries, cultural and heritage visitor attractions and their suppliers, no matter what size, this is an unrivalled opportunity for everyone. For more information click here:
http://awards.museumsandheritage.com/
Project Officer: HLF Education ModelThis is a part-time post for 2 days a week. The post holder will train, recruit, develop, and manage a team of ambassadors employed under the University of Worcester's Ambassadors scheme. Closing date Sunday 12 February 2017. Follow the link below for full details and how to apply.
Keep up to date with the Leicester University Museum Studies jobs desk site here.
Images copyright Lee Allen Photography.
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
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