News
Open Up - Museums for Everyone
The AIM led Diversifying Museum Visitors Project is now entering an exciting phase, with 20 museums from across the UK, selected from over 60 applications, sharing their experience and exploring ideas about how to diversify visitors to their sites.
Open Up: Museums for Everyone, a Guide to Diversifying Museum Visitors for museum staff is now in production. This features key criteria that impact on diversity, supported by case studies of success stories that all UK museums can benefit from.
The project is being delivered by Julie Aldridge Consulting in partnership with Mel Larsen and Pam Jarvis.
Endeavour Galleries
National Maritime Museum: evaluating organisational transformation HLF
HFF funding for the Endeavour project - four new galleries at National Maritime Museum, is intended to transform relationships with audiences and how diverse cultures and experiences are represented in its collections, displays and programming. NMM aims to embed the audience at the heart of this transformation. Our evaluation reflects the impacts of the project on NMM; how the project is achieving change internally in organisational culture and building a shared understanding of what being audience-focused really means - and externally, by measuring how the changes impact on audience engagement, composition and perceptions. It considers how the knowledge and confidence gained provides a range of benefits to the NMM, HLF, the museum sector and the audience in all its diversity. (with Mel Larsen)
‘You’re in for a treat. The new galleries are absolutely fabulous’ Sir David Attenborough
Read more at https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/four-new-galleries#eEUu32z7S6r5bWVY.99
The Story Museum
Anna Cullun, Nicky Crabb and Pam Jarvis are preparing an Activity Plan for The Story Museum in Oxford. The plan will address and support:
- A clear blueprint for reaching out to, and bringing in, younger, more diverse people, to enjoy and use The Story Museum with clear pathways and tested approaches for reaching young people with the opportunities to access, use and participate and through new volunteering and training opportunities
- Ensuring the financial viability of the msueum by meeting audience expectations and developing competitive advantage and new opportunities for audience engagement and expansion
- Developing a programme of events and exhibitions that attract new and existing audiences to the museum and promote heritage, increased understanding and enjoyable experiences as key reasons to visit.
The Story Museum celebrates story in all forms and explores their enduring power to teach and delight. The Museum is currently transforming a central Oxford building and the activity plan celebrates the completion of stage One of this redevelopment.
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich: Endeavour Galleries
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich is the world’s largest maritime museum with a vast collection that spans artworks, maps and charts, memorabilia and thousands of other objects.
The HLF funded Endeavour Galleries Project aims to transform the way audiences can discover and enjoy this rich history. sam-culture and Mel Larsen have been appointed to evaluate how the project is achieving change internally through changes in organisational culture and building a shared understanding of what being audience-focused really means - and externally, by measuring how the changes impact on audience engagement, composition and perceptions.
The evaluation will consider how the knowledge and confidence gained provides a range of benefits to the NMM, HLF, the museum sector and critically, the audience in all its diversity.
Garden Museum Development Project: Activity Plan
The Garden Museum is currently undergoing a major structural overhaul to create new galleries and increased public space at its iconic location adjacent to Lambeth Palace in London. This project will also bring the UK’s first Archive of Garden Design, creating access to the Museum’s historically significant collections.
sam-culture and Mel Larsen are evaluating the Heritage Lottery Fund Activity Plan to assess how this development project recognises both the close links between the museum and its local community and volunteers and also the opportunities to provide enjoyable, inspirational, practical and creative experiences for existing and new audiences.
Following the transformation the Garden Museum will reopen in Spring 2017
Kenley Revival Project: Evaluating Impermanent Architecture
Kenley Airfield in Surrey is owned by City of London Corporation. An HLF grant will enable conservation of heritage assets at this historic Airfield. Plans include a new website, a dedicated learning officer, community archaeology, learning festivals, guided walks, heritage days and an oral history project to record local people's experiences of RAF Kenley during the last century.
sam-culture is working with Anna Cullen on the monitoring and evaluation systems for this exciting project. Over the development of the initiative we will ensure the effectiveness of the plan and in 2018, produce a final evaluation report.