Awareness and networks

The organisation constantly looks ahead, including outside of itself to the broader heritage and tourism sectors. It is aware of trends and anticipates challenges. It makes itself well known, relevant to and visible within its immediate community and has a range of other, wider networks.

How does the museum world work?

Museums are part of a thriving UK cultural sector and range from the large ‘national’ museums, such as the British Museum, which are funded primarily through central government, through to museum services provided by local authorities (both large and small), and museums run by universities and the military. There is also a large group of ‘independent’ museums. They are typically charitable organisations that are funded through a mix of earned income, grants and sponsors. Independent museums range from the large – e.g. Ironbridge and Beamish, to small, volunteer run community museums and many shapes and sizes in between.

There is regional and local support available for museum development across the UK, provided through the lead bodies listed below. Contacts for museum development teams can be found here>>

There are a large number of ‘subject specialist networks’ that bring together museums with common collection interests- from costume to industrial history to geology and many more. Contact details can be found here>>

The lead bodies for museums in the UK are;

• Arts Council England
• Welsh Government
• Museum Galleries Scotland
• Northern Ireland Museum Council

There is also an agreed Code of Ethics for the UK museums sector to inform and support your work. Click here for the Code of Ethics>>

Building a good network

Successful museums have good relationships with other organisations in their local area and organisations where they have common interests. These don’t have to be active relationships, but awareness of each other’s work can bring invaluable insights, support and opportunities over time. A typical small independent museum may be connected to:

• Local – village/town/city organisations – from history groups to schools to other voluntary sector groups
• Local authority bodies – including your local councillor(s) and officers who have a remit for museums, heritage and or culture
• Tourism bodies, whoever is responsible for promoting your region to tourists
• Groups who share your museum interests, from transport history to farming history to climate change awareness to early years education. You will know who they are!
• Museum sector organisations. We would definitely recommend joining AIM! It is a supportive and engaged community of over 1000 independent museum and heritage organisations across the UK. You can find out more information here>>

Accreditation – the UK standard for museums and galleries

Accreditation is a UK-wide standards scheme for museums and galleries that defines good practice and agreed standards. It aims to provide a benchmark quality standard that museums can use to develop and improve their services. It is scaled so that museums of different types and sizes can all gain the Accreditation Standard.

You may or may not decide that becoming an Accredited Museum is the right approach for your new museum. There are approximately 1800 Accredited Museums in the UK and the first step is to complete an Eligibility Questionnaire. Click here for the Accreditation Eligibility Questionnaire>>

Self-assessment questions to help you focus on awareness and networks:

• How effectively do we identify external developments that might affect us?
• How well do we know our community?
• How well are we known by our community?
• How good are we at making connections with wider networks within and outside the museum and heritage sectors?

Click here for the next section on Purpose>>

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