Meeting documents

The Buckinghamshire County Museum Trust has now been operational for two years. Members will receive a progress report highlighting the Trust's successes and challenges.

Attendees:

Mr Martin Phillips, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and Public Health

Mrs Ruth Page, Culture & Leisure Services Development Manager

Mr Richard de Peyer, Museum Director

The Chairman welcomed Mrs Margaret Aston, Deputy Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and Public Health, Mrs Ruth Page, Culture and Leisure Services Manager and Mr Richard de Peyer, Museum Director to the meeting.

The Committee received an update on the performance of the Bucks County Museum Trust which had delivered the county museum service on behalf of the County Council for the past two years.  Mrs Ruth Page and Mr Richard de Peyer highlighted both successes and challenges for the Trust and in response to member questions and during subsequent discussions, the following main points were noted:

·         A Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) bid in April 2016 to enable the extension of the Museum had been unsuccessful. A revised bid would be submitted in December 2016.  If successful, this would secure £3.5million and the Trust hoped to raise a further £1million through other grants.

·         The Trust was keen to extend the Museum to enable more of the collection to be put on display for the public.  Meanwhile there were plans to promote Tours of the Museum Stores in Halton in a more profitable format.

·         The Museum had some collections of national significance, including the McDowall collection of neo-romantic 20^th Century art, the Embroiderer’s Guild collection and artefacts belonging to the National Paralympic Heritage Trust.  There were plans to exhibit these collections with a view to attracting a much wider audience to the Museum.

·         The Trust’s service level agreement (SLA) with Milton Keynes would end in April 2018.  The Museum Director was confident that a further SLA could be negotiated with the Milton Keynes Museum Trust.

·         School visits accounted for 14,000 of the Museum’s 90,000 annual visitors, mainly servicing schools in Aylesbury Vale but also attracting schools from as far away as Leicester and Hampshire. 

·         The Museum varied its exhibitions to appeal to different sections of the community for example, the recent Friars Music Club and the Art of Islam exhibitions.  A Wedding exhibition was being planned next year to appeal to younger adults.

·         In relation to promotion through tourism, the Museum Director commented that links between the Museum’s artefacts and where they were found or originated from, could be useful for generating interest in the Museum and additional income. Wifi hotspots at certain sites, could enable access to online historical information, linked to artefacts.  Similar Apps had been successful in Brighton and Bristol.

·         There was a discussion about the possibility of rationalising the Museum’s three sites – the Museum itself in Church Street, Aylesbury and its two stores at Halton and Great Missenden - in order to cut costs. In addition, the suggestion was made to sell all three sites and use the capital receipts, plus any HLF funding, to buy one larger building which would be fit for purpose. However, this was not a realistic option as none of the three sites were owned by the Trust.

·         A feasibility study had been undertaken with a view to combining access and storage facilities for the Museum and the County Archives and a proposal had been developed for a new Cultural Hub (including Aylesbury lending library and study centre) on the Waterside North site in the centre of Aylesbury.

·         Members were impressed with the Museum’s recent achievements and plans for the future, but there was some criticism about the Museum’s lack of visibility.  The Museum Director explained that the marketing budget was small.  The Museum’s website had been improved, but the trustees were aware of a need to continue with website optimization and other promotional activities.

The Chairman thanked the Deputy Cabinet Member, Mrs Ruth Page and Mr Richard de Peyer for attending the meeting.  It was agreed that the Committee and Governance Adviser would make arrangements for any interested Members of the Committee to visit the Museum’s stores at Halton.

ACTION: Committee and Governance Adviser