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.
