MuseumMentorandMuseumDevelopmentOfficerReport

27 March 2017

  1. South West Museum Development Programme update

The South West Museum Development Website and blog have been established to give museums information on the work of the programme and the thematic officers.

  • Audience and Performance
  • Volunteering
  • Digital Engagement
  • Conservation

To find out more go to:

South West Visitor Insights

Tom Newman the South West Museum Development programmes Audiences and Performance Officer has developed an audience data programme. Based on the Audience Agency’s Audience Finder this has been designed for smaller museums who can work together to gather audience data. There are 13 museums which include the Blake Museum who have expressed an interest in become the Somerset Cluster. Tom will be in touch in due course about the planned training.

For more details on Visitor Insights please see the pdf of the Powerpoint presentation which Tom gave to the Museums in Somerset meeting on 20 February 2017 (attached separately).

  1. Accreditation update

Over 2017 Arts Council England is carrying out a light touch review of the 2011 Museum Accreditation Standard. Any museum due to receive its invitation to submit a return in 2017 will retain their accredited status for an additional 12 months. The outcome of the review will be known by the end of 2017. This may have an impact on the Blake Museum as it may change the date when the Museum will receive its invitation to complete its accreditation return which is currently in 2018.

If there are any questions please contact Vicky Dawson, the South West Technical Accreditation Advisor on

  1. Collections - Musical Instruments in Museum’s Collections

The MINIM-UK project is being led by the Royal College of Music. It aims to provide a new online database of historic instruments that will allow the public to find out about 20,000 individual instruments held in more than 100 musical instrument collections in the UK.

If you have any musical instruments in the Blake Museum’s collections please go to the website for further information and contact Ana Silva the project lead on

  1. Grants update: AIM Hallmarks

I am sending details of the AIM Hallmarks programme. This is open to accredited museums and focuses on building one area of the Hallmarks (see below) to ensure the museum is resilient for the future. If you have any ideas and would like to discuss this please contact me.

Background information to Hallmarks:

•The 'AIM Hallmarks of Prospering Museums' offer a framework to help museums and heritage organisations

•The Hallmarks identify what it is about how successful heritage organisations work that enables them to prosper and thrive.

•The Hallmarks are based on the understanding that successful museums share certain characteristics

•To help museums begin to use Hallmarks to improve the way they work to make them more resilient, for example:

•Review and planning

•Taking forward new ways of working

•Review organisational health and planning future development

•Projects can be linked to any of the Hallmarks but must seek to support change at a strategic level and/or to have an impact on organisational culture and behaviour.

•Museums must be able to show that the work undertaken could not have taken place without external support.

•Grants are between £5,000 to £15,000

•Round three: £75,000 for museums in England. Closing date: 15th May 2017

•The AIM Hallmarks Awards are open to museums which are members of the Association of Independent Museums (applicants may join at the point of application)

•For further information please see

  1. Museums in Somerset – Next meeting

The next Museums in Somerset AGM and meeting will be on Monday 22 May 2017 at Hayes International Motor Museum near Sparkford, Yeovil. Full details of the day will be sent out after Easter.

  1. Museum Visits

Looking ahead to 2017 and thinking about the Museum’s objectives I would like to arrange dates for future site meetings, which could link to the Museum Sub-Committee meetings. If however there are specific issues you would like to discuss please contact me, my details are below.

ElizabethNeathey,SomersetCommunityHeritageandMuseumsDevelopmentOfficer

E:

T:07961674121

Working days: Monday and Tuesday

Produced20 March 2017

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