Programme

Commissioning art – an adventure into the unknown! 

The Brickworks Museum, Carolyne Haynes, Museum Director  

The Brickworks Museum has undertaken two art commissions over the last four years, working with Arts & Heritage and The Imperial War Museum. As a small museum, and one based on bricks, this was a big step into unknown territory. Carolyne will explain how they started along the journey, some of the pitfalls they encountered but also the delight in letting someone with a very different mindset loose on their stories. The result has been interesting, often unexpected and always exciting.  

Threads of change- reviving endangered silk weaving skills at Whitchurch Silk Mill

Whitchurch Silk Mill, Sue Tapliss, Mill Director  

Whitchurch Silk Mill, an Accredited Museum and one of the UK’s last working silk mills, is dedicated to preserving the endangered craft of silk weaving. This session will explore the Mill’s strategies to create a sustainable heritage weaving business, enhance productivity, and engage new markets. Attendees will learn how the Mill balances its work as a museum with a rich visitor experience and the need to provide a future for its growing team of skilled heritage weavers. Key takeaways include practical tips for developing a new business model, modernising production techniques using an historic collection, and using the power of collaborations to ensure the survival of heritage crafts.  

Stories and strategies - amplifying LGBTQ+ voices around the UK

Queer Britain, Sue Shave, Research Coordinator, Siân Williams, Project Manager, and Tash Walker, Founder – Aunt Nell Production Company/Podcast Producer 

Are you keen to connect with LGBTQ+ audiences?  Get some top tips on how to engage with LGBTQ+ audiences and make your collecting and storytelling more inclusive in the future using LGBTQ+ oral histories. Queer Britain has created a Best Practice Guide to help Heritage organisations collaborate better with LGBTQ+ communities. The guide was the result of a project, funded by Mindsets + Missions through the Museums Association, that saw Queer Britain and Aunt Nell run eight UK wide workshops. hosted by a local heritage organisation which welcomed members of their local LGBTQ+ community to contribute.  

Anchored in the community

The Mary Rose Trust, Dominic Jones, CEO, Pippa Bostock, Sales & Marketing Director, Sally Tyrell, Corporate Development Manager, and Garth McArthur, Learning Manager

Learn how the Mary Rose Trust was able to engage with new and diverse audiences in Portsmouth, reaching those who can’t or don’t visit or take an interest in history. Using inspiration from the Mary Rose collection and funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund, ‘Anchored in the community’ created projects ranging from dance, music and art, working with young adults through to those living with dementia and visual impairments. And find out how community work is now integral to the formal learning offer. 

Telling your story with Bloomberg Connects

Alina Avasilichioaie, Partnerships Manager, Bloomberg Connects, Camilla Stewart, Deputy Chief Executive, Art UK and AIM Trustee, and Hazel Preston, Collections Content and Support Manager, Art UK

Join Bloomberg Connects and Art UK for a hands-on masterclass exploring how digital tools can bring your museum’s stories to life. Discover what makes great content, how to build engaging digital tours, and how to integrate them seamlessly into your visitor experience. Whether you’re starting from scratch or refining existing content, this session offers practical steps—through group work and real-world examples—to take your collections further, both online and on site. 

Find out more about how Bloomberg Connects can help you reach new audiences: https://www.bloombergconnects.org/for-partners/  

Going Places: Resource-led approaches to community collaboration and reducing carbon emissions 

Gracie Divall, Going Places Project Manager, Art Fund, Dana Andrew, Professional Development Manager, The Exhibitions Group, and Laura Crossley, Director, Laura Crossley Consulting, CultureBloom, and AIM Trustee

Sharing insights and practical learnings from the Going Places development phase, this masterclass will consider approaches to community engagement and practical opportunities to reduce the environmental impact of exhibitions and loans. Taking an in depth look at two resources – both created in collaboration with small and mid-sized museums across the UK – participants will:   

• Consider purpose driven, resource-led approaches to community engagement, bespoke to your organisation and local communities.   
• Identify opportunities to reduce costs, in conjunction with the reduction of carbon emissions, of exhibitions, displays and loans.
• Build confidence in applying these approaches in your day-to-day work. 

It’s all about the money – futureproofing your organisation

The Charterhouse, Tom Foakes, Director of Development & Public Engagement (Deputy Chief Executive)  

Financial resilience is ever more critical for museums and heritage attractions, and the ability to diversify unrestricted income streams and reduce the reliance on charitable donations and grants, provides a freedom to set your own financial agenda. But how do you do this and are you making the best use of your resources?   How can you prioritise commercial activities when they are in tension with core charitable purposes? And how do you ensure that the need for cash supports your charitable mission? Join us to explore approaches to building your resilience. 

Re-thinking the Rural Life Museum 

Food Museum, Lisa Harris, Collections and Interpretation Manager, and Katherine Bridges, Curator 

The Food Museum recognised that it had a collection that had been growing since the 1950s, with poor documentation and deteriorating storage. Change was needed fast to make the museum relevant to today’s audiences, enabling them to discover something new and challenging. With over 40,000 objects, a small staff team, a global pandemic and water coming through the roof, where do you start? During this session, Lisa and Katherine will share how the project evolved, how they made a collections audit work for them, intentional and unintentional learnings and the value of working differently with volunteers.

Making a change by picking up a pencil

Cartoon Museum, Joe Sullivan, Director 

Over the past five years The Cartoon Museum has been focussed on building new audiences, modernising storytelling, and opening up collections to audiences that were previously under-represented. Through strategic and cultural changes, including a new vision to create ‘a world where everyone wants to pick a pencil and draw a cartoon’, the museum has pushed the boundaries of what a small museum with limited budget and capacity can achieve, finding new ways to democratise cartooning as an art form. This talk will explore the ideas, successes, learnings, and the role leadership plays in cultural change. 

Leaning in - embracing the unknown

Cornwall Museum & Art Gallery, Bryony Robins, Co-Director, and Jonathan Morton, Co-Director 

Navigating the uncomfortable realities of running a museum in financial deficit and the strategies used in surviving and eventually flourishing. Cornwall Museum & Art Gallery has been on a roller-coaster journey since its funding crisis. Three years on the museum is in a very different place, looking towards an exciting future with significant capital investment. The crisis helped face up to some basic challenges around what a museum could and should be, which led to some surprising and sometimes unorthodox results. 

What’s in store for Newton Abbot Museum? 

Newton Abbot Museum, Dr Charlotte Dixon, Curator 

Newton Abbot Museum is embarking on an exciting project to build a state-of-the-art accessible store and community space.  This follows on from a previous project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and community funding, to refurbish a derelict grade II listed Victorian church into a vibrant new museum along with community rooms and Town Council offices. This session will explore what was learned from the refurbishment project, including the pitfalls to avoid, how to work with funders, community involvement and future proofing and looks ahead to the exciting new store project.  

Demystifying decarbonisation of historic buildings

Historic England, Dan Miles, Sector to Net Zero Project Lead and Senior Sector Development Adviser, and Liz Power, Director, Historic Buildings and Places and AIM Trustee 

The session will use the recent results from the ACE-Historic England funded decarbonisation project to take the audience through the different steps required to commission decarbonisation work of a historic building. This will include what types of surveys are required, what they mean and what organisations can expect to see in a decarbonisation plan. The aim is to demystify the processes and steps organisations need to take when thinking about taking forward the decarbonisation of their building. 

Land research: Taking the conversation outside

This session will present findings from AIM’s research project (with ACE, NMDC, and Welsh Government) exploring how museums operate, utilise and care for their outdoor spaces, and how this might need to change in the future in the face of climate change.