Agenda item

MUSEUM SERVICES UPDATE REPORT

To receive an update report from Officers.

Minutes:

Suzie Parr introduced the report and gave a presentation to the Panel. Some of the points covered by Suzie Parr included:

 

·         The museum actively collects and shares for the present but also preserve for our collection for the future generations.

·         The museum collection is 70 years old this year.

·         The museum was opened by Her Majesty the Queen, ten years ago, next year.

·         As a service, the museum supported equally the established organisations such as Norden Farm, The Old Court, Windsor Festival, Windsor Fringe and the arts and sports bursaries through annual grants.

·         The service delivery was very broad, the museum was based at the Guildhall before closure in March 2020 due to covid 19 restrictions, the museum had six satellite exhibitions across the borough. The team worked closely with volunteers to offer tours, events and activities in the museum.

·         The museum holds one of the longest established archive collections in the borough.

·         The aims of the museum service were highlighted.

·         Information about the museum accreditation was presented to the Panel by Louisa Knight, Museum Arts and Local Studies Officer. The renewal date for this was April 2021.

·         Stephanie Lewis, Museum Arts and Local Studies Officer, updated the Panel about visitor numbers. The visitor targets had always been met. Since March, the team were trying to capture online involvement and engagement using social media.

·         The income targets had also always been met, with an increase in 2019-20 due to the Royal wedding. The team were currently looking at alternate ways to raise funds since being closed in March 2020.

A volunteer/friend, Brigitte Mitchell, of the museum gave a small talk on the role that they had in supporting and assisting the museum.

 

Councillor Del Campo complimented the presentation. Councillor Del Campo thanked the volunteers of the museum. Councillor Del Campo asked about the consultation that was mentioned in the presentation and how far that had come along. Suzie Parr informed the Panel that the team were in the process of applying for a Arts Council project grant to do some external consultation to review how the service operates moving forward and recognising that the service needed to diversify the income and look at different funding opportunities and different ways that could be worked on to build on audiences. This would be submitted in the next few weeks. The team were hoping that this would run alongside the museum’s 10th birthday and trying to focus on 10 events of significance.

 

ACTION: Suzie Parr to share the application to the Arts Council with the Panel, after it had been submitted.

 

Councillor Davey suggested having a restricted content where schools paid a license fee or something like that to access the more detailed information, to raise revenue. Councillor Davey also suggested famous people coming into the museum and presenting something about their thoughts about the history from the past. It might be a good idea to work with The Old Court as there was already a team there who could assist.

 

Parish Councillor Margaret Lenton asked if the future of the museum was now totally secure? People in and around Windsor were deeply concerned. Parish Councillor Lenton asked what was being done with activities for older people particularly those suffering from dementia where history and background were very important to them. Suzie Parr informed the Panel that the museum had previously worked with older people, particularly with dementia and on Monday’s when the museum was closed, local care homes could come and visit the museum before the lockdown. In the future this could be looked at again. Chris Joyce, Head of Infrastructure, Sustainability and Transport, informed the Panel that there had been some misunderstanding from the interim corporate strategy that had been produced. The intention was to reopen the museum at the appropriate time when it was safe to do so. Chris Joyce was working with the team to look into ways to get the museum open before its 10th birthday, subject to government guidance.

 

Councillor Rayner thanked the Officers for the presentation and Brigitte Mitchell for being a friend and a volunteer.

 

Councillor Baskerville asked that since it was the centenary of the office of prime minister next year, especially as we’ve had a recent prime minister from the royal borough, would the borough be doing anything? Suzie Parr suggested that she would raise this with the Maidenhead Heritage Centre.

 

 

Supporting documents: