Heritage Volunteering Group West Midlands
The regional networking group covering Shropshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Black Country, Birmingham and Telford and Wrekin. The group is for anyone who works with volunteers in the heritage sector in the West Midlands. It meets quarterly to problem solve together, share best practice and learn from each other.
To attend this meeting and keep in the loop with all future meetings please email Becky Benson.
Heritage Volunteering Group West Midlands
Wednesday 12 July, 1pm-2pm
Online via Zoom
Heritage Volunteering Group West Midlands
The regional networking group covering Shropshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Black Country, Birmingham and Telford and Wrekin. The group is for anyone who works with volunteers in the heritage sector in the West Midlands. It meets quarterly to problem solve together, share best practice and learn from each other.
To attend this meeting and keep in the loop with all future meetings please email Becky Benson.
Heritage Volunteering Group West Midlands
Wednesday 19 April, 1pm-2pm
Online via Zoom
Museum Sector Survey about Admissions Pricing Policy
The Association of Independent Museums (AIM) and partners Arts Council England, Museums Galleries Scotland, the Welsh Government, the National Museum Directors’ Council, and the Art Fund have commissioned DC Research Ltd and Durnin Research Ltd to deliver ‘Research into admissions pricing policy in museums and its impact’. The work will explore admissions policies and pricing strategies in the UK museums sector and produce guidance that organisations can use to help decide on ticketing policies in the current challenging environment for museums, and follows on from 2016’s ‘Taking Charge’ report and Success Guide.
As part of this research, museums of all types and sizes across the UK are encouraged to participate through completing a short survey on their recent and current approaches to admissions pricing. Take the survey https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/admissionsresearch2023
In addition to the survey, the study team at DC Research and Durnin Research are keen to hear from museums that have recent experiences of changing their admissions policy/ pricing to discuss the processes and experiences and to understand the impact of such changes. This could take the form of a confidential discussion and/ or could involve your museum featuring as a case study in the final report.
If you are happy to have a discussion with the study team, please contact them via stephen@dcresearch.co.uk or call Stephen Connolly, Director at DC Research on 01228 402320.
Spring 2023 Rural Voices Seminar Series
Rural Museums Network is delighted to present its online Spring 2023 Rural Voices Seminar Series.
In Your Words – Breathing new life into the Survey of English Dialect
Thursday 2 March, 3pm-4.30pm
The Dialect and Heritage Project is a national project based on a partnership between the University of Leeds and five member museums of the Rural Museums Network. Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we have been taking dialect and heritage resources out of the archive and putting them back into the local communities where they truly belong. At the same time, we have been encouraging members of the public to share their present-day dialect with us. The project has tapped into massive public appetite for sharing dialect leading to huge media coverage. In this talk, we will introduce you to the rich dialect archives held at the University of Leeds, explain what the project has been up to and how you can access the resources, hear from museum partners about what they have got out of it, and think about where we might be headed next.
Find out more and book In Your Words – Breathing new life into the Survey of English Dialect
Utilising Intangible Cultural Heritage to Actively Support Rural Crafts
Thursday 20 April, 3pm-4.30pm
Heritage Crafts is the national charity for traditional crafts skills and the only UNESCO-accredited ICH NGO in the UK focusing solely on the domain of traditional craftsmanship. Daniel Carpenter, Executive Director of Heritage Crafts, and Greta Bertram, Curator at the Crafts Study Centre, will talk about the work of the organisation and the way in which it has partnered with museums to raise awareness of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), as well as the challenges museums face in incorporating ICH into their offering in a way that actively supports the continuation of embodied craft knowledge, skills and practices.
Find out more and book Utilising Intangible Cultural Heritage to Actively Support Rural Crafts
Disability in Rural Museums – past and present narratives
Thursday 4 May, 2pm-3.30pm
Explore how rural museums can better represent D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people in our museums and use our collections. Karen Sayer, Professor at Leeds Trinity University, askes how might we discover the history of disability in rural museums, and Emily Goff, Project Manager at Curating for Change, looks at how rural museums can enable and retain a more diverse work force, essential for museums to remain relevant for themselves and their communities.
Find out more and book Disability in Rural Museums – past and present narratives
Concerned about Closure
- Do you think your museum is facing closure in the next 12 months?
- Unsure of your financial standing or cash flow?
- Looking for advice, clarity and next steps?
WMMD has updated the Concerned About Closure programme to identify museums at risk of closure.
If you believe your museum is facing closure in the next 12 months, please complete our updated online form to notify us. It will take less than ten minutes to complete and is best completed by the museum’s Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer or a Senior Member of Staff (either paid or voluntary depending on your organisation’s structure).
How will this help my museum?
The Concerned About Closure form will enable us to identify and support museums facing closure, will provide insight into the health of the region’s sector, and will help us report concerns to Arts Council England (with your permission*).
For Accredited museums and those Working Towards Accreditation, completion of the form offers you the opportunity for an optional, free confidential surgery** to help you review your museum’s position, talk through the options available to you and help identify the actions you need to take.
The surgeries are structured conversations to help you understand your museum’s financial standing and clarify its position on potential closure. Surgeries will be led by Ari Volanakis with support from Olivia Basterfield (WMMD). Notes will be formalised into a written report to help you and your colleagues with planning and next steps.
About Ari Volanakis
Ari is a heritage management professional with hands-on experience in museum environments, business planning, strategy and commercial operations, with an MA in heritage management from Ironbridge Institute.
If you have any queries about the programme or would like to discuss Concerned About Closure further, please email wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk and a member of the team will be in touch.
*The form will ask your permission for WMMD to share your information with Arts Council England (ACE) as part of the coordinated partnership work to protect museums and collections at risk. ACE is working with the Museum Development Network (MDUK) and fifteen other sector partners to provide a coordinated approach to supporting sector colleagues who have concerns about the future of their museums or collections. More information can be found in the July 2021 joint statement on protecting museums and collections at risk.
Your information will only be shared with your consent.
Sharing your information will help the partnership provide timely and appropriate advice, identify trends, and lobby for support on behalf of the UK museum sector.
**Confidential surgeries are available on a first come first served basis to museums who are Accredited or officially Working Towards Accreditation. If you are a non-Accredited museum, when you complete the survey a member of the WMMD team will contact you to discuss your situation and signpost to other support where possible.
WMMD is grateful to South East Museum Development for developing and piloting the Concerned About Closure programme in their region during 2020 and producing the conversation template for the surgeries.
Museums & Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief: ‘How To’ Webinar
Join the Arts Council and RSM for a guide to the Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief (MGETR).
MGETR is the eighth in a series of creative reliefs introduced by government. It is designed to support organisations to create, and tour public facing exhibitions by helping them to recover some of their production costs.
You will find out:
- who can claim
- what can be claimed
- what it’s worth to your organisation
The session will also cover the Arts Council’s step-by-step guide to developing a claim for the Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief and FAQs that address many common questions and misconceptions associated with the tax relief.
There is a two-year deadline to make a claim from the end of your financial year, therefore many organisations will need to submit claims before 31 March 2023, so join a webinar to find out how you can start to claim money back on your exhibition production costs.
Museums & Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief: ‘How To’ Webinar
Join the Arts Council and RSM for a guide to the Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief (MGETR).
MGETR is the eighth in a series of creative reliefs introduced by government. It is designed to support organisations to create, and tour public facing exhibitions by helping them to recover some of their production costs.
You will find out:
- who can claim
- what can be claimed
- what it’s worth to your organisation
The session will also cover the Arts Council’s step-by-step guide to developing a claim for the Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief and FAQs that address many common questions and misconceptions associated with the tax relief.
There is a two-year deadline to make a claim from the end of your financial year, therefore many organisations will need to submit claims before 31 March 2023, so join a webinar to find out how you can start to claim money back on your exhibition production costs.
Museums & Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief: ‘How To’ Webinars
Join the Arts Council and RSM for a guide to the Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief (MGETR) on Friday 24 February, 12noon-1.30pm and Wednesday 1 March 2pm-3.30pm
MGETR is the eighth in a series of creative reliefs introduced by government. It is designed to support organisations to create, and tour public facing exhibitions by helping them to recover some of their production costs.
You will find out:
- who can claim
- what can be claimed
- what it’s worth to your organisation
The session will also cover the Arts Council’s step-by-step guide to developing a claim for the Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief and FAQs that address many common questions and misconceptions associated with the tax relief.
There is a two-year deadline to make a claim from the end of your financial year, therefore many organisations will need to submit claims before 31 March 2023, so join a webinar to find out how you can start to claim money back on your exhibition production costs.
Digital Volunteering Forum
VocalEyes’ Digital Volunteering Forum aims to address the growing trend of digital and remote volunteering in the arts and heritage sectors and beyond.
Event speakers will bring the expertise that they have gained through running successful digital volunteering projects, and will offer advice and answer questions on best practice. Through a mixture of presentations and panel discussions, VocalEyes seeks to empower organisations to explore a range of aspects of digital volunteering, how make it inclusive and accessible, and question the future of volunteer engagement in their sector.
Sign up for the Digital Volunteering Forum
Digital Volunteering Forum
Thursday 23 February, 9.45am-2.15pm
Online
Midlands Accreditation Advisor
Museum Development East Midlands (MDEM) and West Midlands Museum Development (WMMD) are seeking a freelance Museum Accreditation Advisor to deliver Accreditation support and advice for the whole Midlands region for 2023/24.
A key strand in the delivery of Museum Accreditation in England is the provision of effective technical advice to enable museums to achieve and maintain Accreditation. This includes support for all museums in England, apart from national museums.
The appointed Accreditation Advisor will jointly manage the East and West Midlands Accreditation programme on behalf of MDEM and WMMD to meet the programmes aims within the timescale and agreed budget.
Accreditation technical advice is to be delivered in line with the requirements and exceptions of the Arts Council’s “Museum Development and delivery of Accreditation advice function briefing note 2018-23”.
Bidders should demonstrate a thorough knowledge and understanding of the eligibility stage and Accreditation Standard, the processes that underpin and support it and its applicability to museums of different sizes and scales.
Budget
The Accreditation Advisor fee is a maximum of £16,000 over at least 40 days throughout the year, including VAT and any expenses.
For further details of duties, specification and how to apply, please visit the Leceistershire County Council procurement portal.
Deadline: 12pm, Monday 20 February
The tender is administered through Leicestershire County Council on behalf of MDEM and WMMD.
