Sustainable Museums

Funding from Renaissance East Midlands meant that the Sustainable Museums programme was able to continue and offer more East Midlands independent and small local authority museums the chance to benefit from two initiatives: Clearing out the Cupboard and Practical Partnerships. 

Clearing out the Cupboard offers an opportunity for members of the museum’s Board of Trustees, key staff and volunteers to come together in a facilitated discussion, or series of discussions, to examine their values, objectives and ideas and through this to develop a forward or business plan that reflects the whole museum.

All discussions are documented in a way that reflects the developing consensus among the participants, and which will constitute key elements of a business or forward plan, which can be used as part of work towards Accreditation.

At present there are no more Clearing out the Cupboards available in the current round, but interested parties should contact their county-based museum development officers for more information.


Practical Partnerships provides an opportunity for museum staff and volunteers to work with a mentor or advisor to review a particular issue which would support the development of the museum.

Previous partnerships have covered areas such as:

• Ways of attracting new visitors
• Interpretation
• Collections Care
• Disaster and Emergency Planning
• Expanding education and outreach work
• Developing new approaches to fundraising
• Working more effectively with volunteers

The programme will pay the adviser's fees and provide £150 to support the partnership's work or cover subsistence or other resource costs.

For an informal discussion as to how your museum might use a Practical Partnership, contact Sally Hartshorne at Arts Training Central on 0116 242 5202.

Application forms and further information is available from the county-based museum development officers.

Evaluation

The initial Sustainable Museums programme was funded by MLA East Midlands and the European Union through the European Social Fund programme and ended in 2007. It provided a range of support and training for museums to support their development.

An evaluation of the programme was carried out in November and December 2007 and aimed to assess the successes of the programme and learning outcomes for the participants as well as informing the further development of the programme funded by Renaissance East Midlands.

The evaluation found that Sustainable Museums was seen as a ‘good thing’ that should be continued and expanded to include all independent and small local authority museums in the East Midlands. It also found that:

• Museums had benefited from involvement and many had a strong desire to stay involved,
• Participants gained an increase in their skills, knowledge and understanding, resulting in a new focus for many organisations. Many had also established entrepreneurial and business skills through the programme,
• One of the strengths of the programme was the availability of a pick and mix selection of activities which allowed participants to select the best method for them,
• Clearing out the Cupboard, one of the elements to be continued, enabled museums to undertake a fundamental reassessment of their purpose and operation and ensured a firm basis for future business planning.

The report also put forward recommendations for the development of the programme. These included:

• To provide maximum sustainability, those organisations that have already participated in elements of the programme should be encouraged to continue their participation and act as ambassadors to encourage others to take part,
• A range of activities and tools for advocacy should be developed to disseminate knowledge and good practice information about the programme. 

A full copy of the evaluation is available below.

Sustainable Museums evaluation report (477 kb)

A further evaluation and report were carried out after the extension of the programme between January and March 2008. A copy of the report is available below:

Final Report Sustainable Museums 2 July 2008 (70 kb)