Does your organisation care for Roman archaeology?
Does your organisation care for Roman archaeology and present ‘the Romans’ to the public? Glynn Davis (Colchester Museums) and Frances McIntosh (English Heritage) are seeking to understand how museums and heritage sites across England and Wales present the history and archaeology of Roman Britain to the public. Whether you have one Roman object or hundreds, they would like to hear from you.
Please take 10-15 minutes to complete this survey, and have a chance of winning £50.
The closing date is 12noon, Friday 30 June.
Win a live subtitled tour for your museum
To celebrate Museum Week 2023 and in celebration of all our wonderful museums and exhibition spaces across the UK, Stagetext is offering an opportunity for a venue to make a tour accessible to their deaf, deafened and hard of hearing visitors.
Stagetext is looking for a museum or exhibition space that already runs public tours of their collections or exhibitions, who would like the opportunity to make their tours accessible through remote speech-to-text reporting. The winning venue will get a free live subtitled tour, and Stagetext will help you promote your event to deaf people in your area.
Read more about the competition
The competition closes Friday 30 June.
How to make your website more sustainable
Did you know that a whopping 3.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions are created by the internet and its supporting network and systems? This is broadly equivalent to the emissions created by the aviation industry. Internet emissions are predicted to double by 2025, as more people come online and digital services increase. We can all do something to address this.
In this one hour webinar from Digital Culture Network, website Tech Champion, Andy Leitch, will be in conversation with Tom Greenwood – a leading voice in the campaign to make websites and digital activity more sustainable.
You will learn:
- Why web and digital sustainability matters
- How to judge if your website is eco-friendly
- Practical tips on how to make your website greener and reduce your digital carbon footprint
- To consider sustainability for your ongoing digital activity
Marketing Your Museum to Schools
This event is aimed at museum staff and volunteers who are new to communicating with schools or who want to promote or adapt the education offer they have more successfully. The event will be facilitated by Mary Sibson, Creative Learning Officer for Creative Learning Services.
Gain tips on effective ways to:
- Find out exactly what schools want
- Promote and market the offer you have
- Gather feedback to inform your practise going forward
Who should attend?
Staff and volunteers who are involved in their museum schools offer.
Maximum two delegates per organisation. Priority will be given to delegates from non-NPO and non-National museums in the West Midlands which are Accredited or officially Working Towards Accreditation. This event is being delivered in partnership with Museum Development East Midlands. Museums based in East Midlands can book their place here
Access Information
This online event will be auto-captioned by Zoom. If you would benefit from live captioning or any other form of access support, please answer ‘yes’ to the access requirements question on the booking form and email the WMMD team as early as possible stating the support you require.
All participants will receive an email containing a Zoom link to the training prior to the event. The email will be sent to the email address used for booking. If you have not received an email the day before the event please contact us.
If you can’t see the booking button this event is fully booked. To join the waiting list please email wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk
Marketing Your Museum to Schools
Wednesday 2 August, 10am-12noon
Online
Apply now: Diversify Your Income programme
Museum Development East Midlands (MDEM) and West Midlands Museum Development (WMMD) are delighted to be working with Arts Fundraising & Philanthropy to run the Diversify Your Income programme this autumn.
Programme Aim
This support will allow museums and heritage sites across the Midlands to explore and launch new income streams, with support through training and coaching, enabling them to become more resilient organisations.
The intensive programme will allow six organisations from each region to benefit from hands on support as they diversify their income, incorporating:
- Group sessions: three two-hour workshops focusing on
- setting goals for the programme,
- developing pitching and communication skills, and
- a concluding presentation on progress to key stakeholders
- Coaching: each participant will access two one-hour coaching sessions with an expert in their new area of income, benefitting from guidance, knowledge sharing and a sounding board for new ideas
- Network building: support and advice between group sessions through a moderated Slack group, allowing participants to share successes and challenges and build a supportive network in the region
- Training*: a programme of eight two-hour workshops on specific topics around income generation, presenting key theory and case studies and allowing for discussion on practical application. Training dates and topics are:
- Essentials in Fundraising – Wednesday 13 September, 10am-12noon
- Digital Fundraising Campaigns – Monday 25 September, 10am-12noon
- Essentials in Application Writing – Wednesday 4 October, 10am-12noon
- Online Ticketing – w/c 16 October
- Getting Started with E-commerce – w/c 30 October
- Developing Onsite Retail – Tuesday 21 November, 10am-12noon
- Maximising Income from Hires – Friday 1 December, 10am-12noon
- The Role of Trustees in Income Diversification – Thursday 14 December, 10am-12noon
*Participating organisations will have priority places for these regional training sessions. We would encourage museums to sign up for the sessions most relevant to their action plans in this area.
The programme will run from September 2023 to January 2024, with an expected time commitment of one day per month. Additional work will be required to apply learning to active income diversification between sessions. We require all participating organisations to attend the three Group session workshops:
- Group session 1 – Tuesday 5 September, 10am-12noon (online)
- Group session 2 – Wednesday 15 November, 2pm-4pm (online)
- Group session 3 – Wednesday 17 January, 11am-2pm (in person)
Are you eligible?
To be eligible for this programme you need to be an Accredited museum or Working Towards Accreditation in the East or West Midlands. This programme is aimed at organisations with less than 50,000 visitors a year.
East Midlands museums must have completed the MDEM Organisational Health Check within the last two years.
West Midlands museums must complete the WMMD Organisational Health Check as part of the programme (if you haven’t already done so within the past 12 months).
How to apply
For interested organisations who would like to know more we will be holding a Q and A event with Programme Leaders Arts, Fundraising and Philanthropy on Wednesday 21 June 12noon-1pm which is open for anyone to attend without obligation. You can register here.
To submit your application, please review your availability to take part in the key programme dates and complete the Expression of Interest form and return by 5pm, Monday 24 July. For more information, please contact mdem@leics.gov.uk
Brave Conversations: For Museum Managers
Do you find that what you say is sometimes misinterpreted by others, or people don’t do what you’ve asked them to?
Maybe you shy away from giving difficult feedback or having conversations that might provoke a negative response?
Perhaps you sometimes wonder why you bothered having the conversation in the first place?
This full day, in person interactive workshop is designed to help managers to develop their communication skills to feel more confident at handling difficult conversations effectively to achieve positive outcomes.
At the end of the workshop you will be able to:
- Use a variety of approaches to help you deliver difficult messages to people with a focus on a win-win outcome
- Recognise how to prevent difficult conversations from escalating
- Explain the skills and behaviours required to manage emotional conversations
- Demonstrate increased self-awareness and use this knowledge to build positive working relationships
This workshop is delivered by ted Learning in partnership with Museum Development East Midlands and West Midlands Museum Development.
Maximum two delegates per organisation. Priority will be given to delegates from non-NPO and non-National museums in the East and West Midlands which are Accredited or officially Working Towards Accreditation. Museums based in East Midlands can book their place here
Dietary requirements
Lunch and refreshments will be provided. Please let us know any allergies or dietary requirements on the booking form when you book your place.
Accessibility
The workshop will be held in the Grand Jury Room at the National Justice Museum. You can download their access statement here and details of their corporate hire access can be found on pages 19-20.
If you would benefit from access support, please answer ‘yes’ to the access requirements question on the booking form and email the WMMD team as early as possible stating the support you require.
Brave Conversations: For Museum Managers
Tuesday 18 July, 10am-4pm
National Justice Museum, Nottingham NG1 1HN
If you can’t see the booking button this event is fully booked, to join the waiting list please email wwmd@ironbridge.org.uk
Inform our 23/24 Collections Workshops
Ann Sumner and Beth McIntyre (SumnerMcIntyre), the West Midlands Museum Development (WMMD) Collections Advisors, are finalising plans for this year’s Collections workshops.
The proposed programme has three key emerging themes:
- Community Consultation and Co-curation
- Contemporary Issues in Collections Research
- Upskilling – Sustainable Collections Care
Please complete our short survey by 5pm, Friday 16 June to let us know what workshops you want and how you want them delivered. The survey should take no more than five minutes to complete.
SumnerMcIntyre and WMMD are keen to hear your feedback. Your response will help us develop the workshop programme and ensure our training supports your collections priorities and ambitions.
Call for Proposals
The West Midlands Museum Development (WMMD) conference brings together an exciting mix of plenaries, workshops and exhibitors to create a space to network, share news and best practice from within and outside the heritage sector.
Since 2016 we have welcomed over 550 delegates from local, regional and national organisations to four jam-packed conferences. The covid pandemic paused our conference programme so we are thrilled to host Conference 2023 as a hybrid event. The day will be filled with inspirational speakers and thought provoking workshops.
We’d love to share your interesting, inspiring and useful experiences with conference delegates from across the wider West Midlands and beyond.
Please send us proposals for presentations, workshops/ interactive sessions and lightning talks based on recent activity at your museum or gallery. Simply complete the Proposals form and send it to wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk by 9am, Monday 17 July
Key information
Conference date: Wednesday 25 October 2023
Location: Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, Coalbrookdale TF8 7DQ and online
Audience: circa 100 in person delegates and online audience
Proposals Timetable
- Submit Proposal form to WMMD by 9am, Monday 17 July
- WMMD will contact you for further information (if required) by Monday 31 July
- Confirmation for inclusion at conference w/c 7 August
- Text for conference brochure sent by Monday 25 September
- Final presentation sent to WMMD by Monday 9 October
Further Information
If you have any questions please contact wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk
Practical Business Planning Programme
Practical support for small and medium sized museums
West Midlands Museum Development (WMMD) has commissioned The Collett Consultancy and Jenni Waugh Consulting Ltd to deliver a short, practical business planning programme intended to support four small to medium sized museums to develop their skills in line with the requirements of the Accreditation Scheme.
Over nine months, the programme will
- focus on realistic goal setting and priorities, relative to your museum’s size, capacity and ambition
- enable you to embed monitoring and review processes to aid ongoing action learning
The programme will comprise:
- Two in-person Business Planning workshops for a cohort of four museums. The workshops will take place July 2023 and February 2024.
- 1:1 mentoring session for each participating museum in autumn/ winter 2023
- Supporting materials and worksheets for independent activity between workshops
Participating museums will work individually on developing their own business plans and monitoring systems, whilst sharing the challenges and breakthroughs as part of a wider cohort.
This model will provide an opportunity for you to raise issues particular to your own circumstances, enrich your learning and skills and share the journey together.
Find out more about the programme
You can find out more details by downloading the Expression of Interest form.
Tonia and Jenni will also be joining WMMD at Coffee and Chatter on Thursday 1 June from 10.30am-11.30am to chat about the Practical Business Planning programme how it can support your museum. It’s a great opportunity to find out more and ask questions.
Interested in taking part?
Please complete an Expression of Interest form and return no later than 9am, Monday 26 June to tcollettconsultancy@gmail.com
Essential information
The Practical Business Planning programme is open to small to medium sized museums (under 50,000 visitors) who are Accredited or Working Towards Accreditation in the West Midlands. National museums and NPOs are not eligible to apply.
Successful applicants will nominate two people to drive this work within your organisation. Nominated individuals can be staff/ volunteers/ trustees. Not only is this better for succession planning, but as we know how busy you all are, it means you spread the load over the year.
Both nominated leads will need to attend both in-person workshops. The first workshop will take place on Thursday 20 or Friday 21 July 2023, depending on availability, and the second in February 2024 (date to be confirmed).
Both nominated leads, and other team members you feel should participate, will take part in the mentoring session scheduled to take place autumn/ winter 2023
Small Grants 2023 Now Open
We are delighted to open the WMMD Small Grants 2023.
The Small Grants are part of the West Midlands Museum Development Programme (WMMD) funded by Arts Council England (ACE). There are six different grants within the scheme, three of which are match funded by Art Fund in collaboration with MDUK. This continues the successful partnership between Art Fund and MDUK supporting museums throughout 2020-2023.
The grants will support the continued recovery of the sector, embed good practice and explore new ways of working.
The grants available are:
- Audiences Grant* – to support your audience development, marketing and insight
- Collections Development Grant – to research, interpret and use your collections in new ways
- Collections Management Grant – to enable high quality collections care and management
- Green Museums Grant – to support you to be environmentally responsible
- Resilience Grant* – for activity that supports your financial and organisational resilience
- Workforce Grant* – to support the wellbeing and development of your museum workforce, including paid staff, volunteers and Trustees
*Grants match funded by Art Fund
The deadline for applications is 9am, Monday 10 July 2023
Each of the grants directly relates to one of ACE’s four Investment Principles.
What you need to know about the grant scheme
- You can apply for any amount between £500 and £5,000
- You may only apply for one grant per organisation
- The grant cannot be used for match funding
- The Grant will support Accredited museums or those formally Working Towards Accreditation in the West Midlands
- We will prioritise applications from small to medium sized museums (museums with fewer than 50,000 visitors per annum) that are located in areas of low cultural engagement, where the museum is the main cultural offer in a locality, and/ or where museums that have niche collections outside the larger city institutions
- National Portfolio Organisations and National museums are not eligible to apply
- Museums that have previously received a Reset Grant from WMMD are eligible to apply providing their final report has been submitted
- Please note:
- There is a total budget of £26,000 WMMD funding for open small grants available, and an additional £14,000 Art Fund funding for eligible schemes*
- The deadline for applications is 9am, Monday 10 July 2023
- We encourage applicants to carefully consider the value of their grant requested in order to support as many museums as possible
- We strongly recommend that you discuss your application with a member of the WMMD team before you submit it
*Eligible schemes are Audiences Grant, Resilience Grant and Workforce Grant.
Guidance notes and application form
Select the most appropriate grant for your project after reading the Guidance Notes for each grant.
Supporting your audience development, marketing and insight. It directly relates to ACE’s Inclusivity and Relevance Investment Principle.
To research, interpret and use collections in new ways. It directly relates to ACE’s Ambition and Quality Investment Principle.
To enable high quality collections care and management. It directly relates to ACE’s Ambition and Quality Investment Principle.
To support you to be to be more environmentally responsible. It directly relates to ACE’s Environmental Responsibility Investment Principle.
For activity that supports your financial and organisational resilience. It directly relates to ACE’s Dynamism Investment Principle.
To support the wellbeing and development of your museum workforce, including paid staff, volunteers and Trustees. It directly relates to ACE’s Dynamism Investment Principle.
Bid writing support
We are pleased to offer a small number of 1:1 bid writing support with Jenni Waugh to help you prepare your application. These are available on a first come first served basis. To book a session please email wmmd@ironbridge.co.uk.
