Museums and heritage sites that are about to embark on major capital projects can now prepare for the work and challenges ahead thanks to a recently launched free new publication by the Association of Independent Museums (AIM) and Biffa Award.
‘Successfully Managing Capital Projects’ has been written on behalf of AIM by Bill Ferris OBE DL, Chief Executive of Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, who has extensive experience of managing major heritage capital projects over many years, including the award-winning Chatham Dockyard World Heritage Discovery Centre.
The guide, which has been partly funded by Artelia UK, has also been written to share useful learning from the AIM Biffa Award National Heritage Landmark Partnership Scheme. This scheme provided £1.5million of Biffa Award funding to fifteen heritage organisations to rescue, restore or bring into use, nationally significant industrial heritage, and case studies and top tips from some of the beneficiaries are included in the new Success Guide.
Topics covered in the Success Guide include Getting Ready for Your Project, Project Planning, Appointing the External Project Team and Project Delivery and the guide has been created to support all sizes of capital project and organisation.
At launch, Bill Ferris OBE DL, Chief Executive of Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust said:
“The Historic Dockyard Chatham has been lucky enough to have received substantial capital grant support from HLF, AIM Biffa Award and many others that has resulted in us completing 3 major capital projects over the last 15 years with another planned. We have a reputation of completing these on time and to budget with outcomes exceeding expectations.
Our loyal and professional team has developed a huge amount of practical experience of how to achieve such results and I was delighted to work with AIM to share the knowledge gained and hopefully give members an insight into the complicated world of successful capital project management. The guide is intended to be a really practical pointer to the routes to success.
It is full of lessons learned and tips but such a guide can only ever be a pointer, all projects are different and professional advice is key, hopefully the guide will also be useful in framing the brief in seeking such advice.”
‘Successfully Managing Capital Projects’ has been funded by AIM with the support of Artelia UK.
You can download the Success Guide here: ‘Successfully Managing Capital Projects’
Photo: Courtesy of The Coffin Works, Birmingham