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.
Display Cases Available
Hereford Museum and Gallery is planning a major refurbishment over the next few years. As such, it is looking to disperse and re-house the existing display cases and exhibition equipment. Many items have already been allocated within Herefordshire, the remaining items for re-housing can be seen in this file.
The dismantling and removal of the case/s would be down to the acquiring institution.
Please email HerefordMuseums@herefordshire.gov.uk to book to view the cases, and for any further information.
They will be allocated on a first come first serve basis. The deadline for firm acceptance is 30 June 2023.
They will then become available for removal around late August/September 2023.
Energy Bills Discount Scheme – Get ready to apply for support
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero team has issued a letter for non-domestic customers that are eligible for the higher level of support under the Energy Bill Discount Scheme (known as Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII), and including museums, libraries and archives, historical sites and buildings, and zoos).
Eligible organisations will have 90 days from the scheme introduction date of 26 April to apply for the higher support.
Applicants will need to provide information about their organisation or business including:
- contact details
- registered name and address
- company registration number (if you have one)
- up to 4 ETII eligible SIC codes
- whether you pay bills directly to an energy supplier and details of any intermediaries involved (such as a landlord)
- the names of gas and/or electricity suppliers
- the gas or electricity meter point numbers (MPRN or MPAN) associated with the property, found on your bills from your energy suppliers.
- the name of your organisation as it appears on your bill from your energy supplier(s)
- a declaration letter signed by a named director or equivalent of your organisation or business (a template will be provided)
- a template has also been provided to record your meter point numbers. This can also be used when applying [if you have more than 10 meter point numbers per supplier].
In addition to this, you may be asked to provide financial evidence to determine your eligibility. For more information visit the government website page.
If you have any questions about the application process, or how you might be eligible, you can contact the EBDS customer support team by phone or by email.
Email: support@ebds.beis.gov.uk Telephone: 0300 400 5251 Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm Saturday, 9am to 1pm
Metal thefts in England – message from Arts Council England
Arts Council England (ACE) is mindful that metal theft is becoming more of a risk as the prices of certain metals (eg copper) have recovered since the pandemic, corroborated by recent isolated incidents of theft. ACE urges museums to review their risk assessment and to adopt a multi-layered security approach to better protect their collections and premises. You may find the following Arts Council England resources – hosted on the Collections Trust website – helpful:
Digitisation Guidance
The National Lottery has published new, specially commissioned guidance designed to help small, volunteer-led organisations in the heritage sector better prepare for digitisation projects, while keeping their costs down.
The two guides are:
- Digitisation project planner, handbook and examples This project planner and handbook helps you develop your digitisation project idea into a comprehensive plan.
- Doing digitisation on a budget: a guide to low cost digital projects This guide provides an overview of low-cost heritage digitisation and shares inspiring examples.
Essentials of Collections Care for Non-Conservators
From minor cracks in a objects to unprecedented water leaks, there are a huge range of conservation issues that can impact a heritage institution’s collection. But without a official conservator on board, what are the measures that a non-specialist can take to mitigate damages and keep a collection secure?
This course from the Institute for Conservation will provide an overview of the key aspects of collections care, and provide relevant conservation training for those working in heritage institutions who don’t currently employ a dedicated conservator.
Essentials of Collections Care for Non-Conservators
The course will take place over four sessions on Thursday 20 April, Thursday 27 April, Thursday 4 May and Thursday 11 May. The first three sessions will take place over Zoom, and the fourth will take place in-person at Birmingham Museum Collection Centre.
New Heritage Strategy
The National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) has launched its new strategy ‘Heritage 2033 – a strategy for the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s next ten years’
Building on nearly 30 years’ experience of grant-making, it has launched a bold new ten-year strategy to conserve heritage for the long-term.
NLHF aims to invest around £3.6billion raised for good causes by National Lottery players to make a decisive difference for people, places and communities.
Input from thousands of stakeholders and the public shaped this strategy, resulting in a clear and simple approach for collaborative delivery and sustained impact. Find out more and read the strategy.
31 March 2023 deadline to lodge any appeals against 2017 business ratings
The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) has finally accepted the use of Receipts and Expenditure (R&E) method to calculate business rates for all types of museums in England and Wales, which will save hundreds of thousands of pounds across the sector.
This follows the announcement in September 2021, after a successful appeal by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) against valuations for three of its sites, that the VOA would no longer be using Contractor’s method to calculate business rates for many museums. However the VOA had proposed to continue the use of Contractor’s method for museums set up by statute (so including most national museums) and those occupying ‘modern’ (post-2001) buildings.
The VOA has now confirmed a change in this policy, meaning that the vast majority of museums will now be valued using R&E method. This means that business rates will be based on a museum’s activity and financial position – rather than being penalised, as a sector, for occupying the large spaces needed to care for and display collections and to welcome communities, which are often expensive to operate and maintain. The change will result in huge long-term savings across the whole museum sector.
The news is a real victory for long-term collective lobbying by AIM, NMDC and others as well as the tenacity of business rates agents, notably Colin Hunter who represented TWAM, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and York Museums Trust in their successful appeals and has been advising sector bodies for many years.
However, the change in the VOA’s policy will not be retrospectively or automatically applied to the 2017 ratings list. This means that any museum wishing to challenge their current valuation, which could result in a significantly reduced and backdated rates bill, needs to lodge an appeal via the ‘Check, Challenge, Appeal’ process.
There is a deadline of 31 March 2023 for appeals to be registered – and the process can take some time – so all museums are urged to begin the process immediately if they haven’t already by completing the VOA’s ‘Museums Information Request form’. More information on the appeal process is available in the AIM Success Guide.
https://www.nationalmuseums.org.uk/news/update-business-rates/
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.
