NWFED

Museums and Galleries in Hospitals

Between 6-12 February, several hospitals in Manchester will be taking part in a museums and galleries week. +Culture Shots is a week-long series of creative events run by Manchester museums and galleries in all five Central Manchester University Hospitals. The launch event will take place on Thursday 2 February.

To find out more go to

Museum Development Fund news

More details of the Renaissance Museum Development fund have also been announced today. This new fund will help to enhance the sustainability and resilience of the museums sector by enabling the sharing of expertise and knowledge, to maximize the benefits to audiences and communities.

Applicants will bid to deliver development support for museums through local museum networks. The Museums Development fund will open to applications on 7 February 2012 and close on 7 March 2012, with a total of £8 million available between 2012 and 2015.

To read more see

Significant areas of England left without Renaissance funding

The Arts Council England today announced its 16 major partner museums that will be funded as part of the Renaissance programme.

There are some newcomers on the list such as the Cumbria Museums consortium, which includes the Wordsworth Trust and the Lakelands Arts Trust, which weren’t previously part of the hub structure.

But there were also some significant losers.

There is no major partner museum in the East Midlands despite the fact that Derby and Nottingham museum services applied as a partnership.

To read more go to

Job advert: Weaver Hall Museum and Workhouse, Northwich

Working across Cheshire West Museums, you will be based at Weaver Hall Museum and Workhouse in Northwich and manage this building and staff day to day. You will be responsible for collections management of social history collections across Cheshire West including the development of exhibitions and community history activities. In the first few years you will support the development of the Lion Salt Works, Northwich, an £8m HLF project, which will open in 2014. You will have a related degree and museum qualifications, along with curatorial experience. Closing date 11/11/2011, 17.00

For an informal chat please contact Museum Director Sue Hughes on 01244 402012 or e-mail grosvenormuseum@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk marked for the attention of Sue Hughes.
For further information and to apply go to www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/jobs or e-mail jobenquiries@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk or call 01244 972503 quoting reference number CWC1053.

Feedback from Last Man standing?Federations of the Future session at MA conference

The NWFED session at the Museums Association conference this year, was chaired by the Chairman of the NWFED, Piotr Bienkowski. Speakers included Peter Field, President of the Midlands Federation of Museums and Galleries, Alison Bevan, Chair of the South Western Federation of Museums, and Judy Lindsay, Chair of the London Museums Group. The session was attended by about 80 people and generated useful practical suggestions.

Key issues identified at the workshop included:
• Capacity: feds are run by volunteer committees of busy people, and their potential – and the calls on them to deliver – far outstrip their capacity to deliver. Practical suggestions included urging regional museums to pay subscriptions to be negotiated according to the museum’s ability to pay.
• Funding from ACE compromising the Feds independence? Several voices in the audience argued that independence would not be lost, and indeed the SW fed delivered the Museum Skills Programme with funding from Renaissance without compromising its independence, partly because the training needs were identified from the grass roots.
• Potential for a closer strategic relationship with the MA to provide national and regional support for museums and to develop a national strategy for English museums, in partnership with the feds, who have the regional contacts through which discussion and consultation could be effectively carried out. First of all, though, the feds need to talk more frequently to each other, to exchange ideas and good practice. There are now suggestions for an annual meeting of the feds.
• If advocacy within their regions is a difficult and time-consuming activity for which the feds do not have the capacity then who would do advocacy on behalf of museums in any given region, especially the small, more vulnerable ones? ACE has stated that it will focus its activities and advocacy on those museums with which it has a direct relationship through Renaissance funding, and that will exclude most museums in the country. This is likely to be a difficult period, with, effectively, a two-tier museum sector. Feds may be the only organisations in their regions who can provide any form of support or advice – or even advocacy – during that time, and probably beyond.

Cheshire West Museums looking for Keeper of Early History

Keeper of Early History (ref. CWC1031), £24,646-£28,636, (maternity cover, 1 year temporary contract)

Working across Cheshire West Museums, you will be based at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester and be responsible for the collections management of the early history collections across Cheshire West, including managing documentation, storage, enquiries and exhibition development. You will have a related degree and museum qualifications, along with curatorial experience and preferably experience of documentation systems including Modes.

For an informal chat please contact Museum Director Sue Hughes on 01244 402012.

For further information go to www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/jobs

Neighbourhood pilots announced for Localism Bill

The government has announced 36 more ‘neighbourhood planning front runners’ to pilot its new neighbourhood development proposals, to be introduced in the Localism Bill. The local authorities in these areas will receive £20,000 to work with community groups and parish councils to prepare Neighbourhood Plans and Neighbourhood Development Orders. Runners include Liverpool Innovation Park and Trafford Park.
To read more go to

Smarter Loans project consultation

The consultation on the Museums Association’s (MA) Smarter Loans project is now open. Part of the Esmée Fairbairn-funded Effective Collections programme, it aims to increase the use of stored collections through loans, transfers and disposal. A working group has produced a draft set of guiding ethical principles for loans and supporting advice. To view the consultation, which runs until 21 October go to

Museum visiting on the increase

The Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has published a report on participation in culture and sport from 2005-11, including statistics from its regular Taking Part survey.  
Museum visiting is on the increase (up from 42.3% to 47.5%) compared with heritage sites remaining steady and library visiting declining. The biggest growth in museum participation is in the North West (up from 40.4% to 50.1%).  People who had visited a museum as a child were significantly more likely to visit museums as an adult (57.7% of adults had visited as a child).  The DCMS sectors with the highest proportion of charitable giving were heritage (16%) and museums and galleries (15.2%).  The percentage of people visiting websites for information and ticket bookings for exhibitions or events had increased from 47.9% in 2005/06 to 54.5% in 2010/11.  But the percentage looking at collection items on a website had dropped from 33.7% to 22.3%. 
To read more go to

Arts Council England opened applications for the revised Renaissance funding for regional museums

ACE has budget of £46 million a year for its new responsibilities with £43.6 million set aside for Renaissance in the Regions – a 15 per cent reduction in the Renaissance budget for 2012-15 when compared to the last spending period.

The funding for the reworked Renaissance major grants programme – which replaces the MLA’s core museums fund – is £20 million a year. For the first time, major grants to regional museums will be awarded via an open application process, assessed against published criteria, in a similar fashion to ACE’s National portfolio funding process for arts organisations earlier this year. ACE hopes that by opening up the application process a new mix of museums across the country will find support through Renaissance.

Applications will close on the 2nd of November. Funding decisions will be announced towards the end of January 2012.
To read more and view funding criteria go to