Please see below for updates from the Association of Independent Museums Newsletter
Applications for round 3 of New Stories New Audiences are now open.?
New Stories New Audiences is a grant scheme for AIM small museum members funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund. It inspires museums to stay relevant to their audiences and to increase their impact by identifying new stories and by working with a new partner, to work differently and to try something new.
Applications to the final round of this grant scheme are open until 31 October. If you’re intending to make an application then be sure to get in touch about your project idea soon.
Art Fund Going Places This new UK-wide initiative from Art Fund invites small to medium sized museums to engage underrepresented audiences with their collections through collaborative touring exhibitions. Applications are open now with network-building events happening soon. Supported by National Lottery Heritage Fund. Image credit: Art Fund / Horniman Museum and Gardens.
Collections Trust Conference 2023 Sharing collections data has too often been seen as a one-way street. As something that takes a lot of effort without much to show for it. This year’s Collections Trust conference explores the transformative benefits for your museum, different users, and the wider sector. Online, Thursday 5 October.
No need to book tickets, it is free to turn up on the day.
The Excavateital Culture Network is here to help organisations develop digital skills and find new ways to reach and engage digitally with their audiences. Our tech champions all have different specialisms, and you can come to them for 1-2-1 support, or attend our webinars. The support we provide is free, practical, and available to creative and cultural organisations and individuals across England.
Roberta Beattie will be introducing you to the Excavateital Culture Network, and her specialism, Excavateital Accessibility, where she will give you a brief overview of the work she has been doing with organisations across England.
Insightful, interactive and informal, come along to gain new insights from our guests, meet colleagues from the region, and connect with the MDY team. Everyone who works and volunteers in museums in our region is most welcome, including museum freelancers who want to stay connected.
There’s no need to book, just click the link below on the day:
If you have any questions about Elevenses, you are new to Microsoft Teams and would like to arrange a familiarisation session, or if you’d like to speak about your current or emerging work at Elevenses please contact Victoria Smith at: victoria.smith@ymt.org.uk.
In light of recent developments at the British Museum, and subsequent scrutiny of the wider sector’s accountability for the collections in its care, Collections Trust is offering a concise briefing for trustees and senior managers who want to review the policies and procedures in place at their own institutions.
The UK museum sector has a well-established standard for collections management, Spectrum, which is embedded into the Museum Accreditation standard. The one-hour briefing will cover the core principles of three relevant Spectrum procedures:
At the time of the session, follow the joining instructions they will send you when they confirm your registration. You might find that this email goes to your junk folder – please check before getting in touch.
This event is free to attend thanks to funding to Collections Trust from Arts Council England, and priority will be given to attendees from UK museums within the Accreditation scheme.
Please note – this is a briefing for trustees and managers, not a training event on the detailed implementation of these procedures. If you wish to attend Spectrum training, check out Collections Trust outreach events delivered in partnership with the Museum Expandment Network.
Are you looking for funding to support audience engagement activity, take climate action and/or CPD for yourself and your team, including funding for conference places? MDNW have three funding streams open for applications you may be interested in.
MDNW Green Grants 2023?
Our Green Grants, using Museum Expandment funding from Arts Council England, have been created to give museums a helping hand in understanding and reducing their own impact and communicating climate actions with audiences, peers and stakeholders. Green Grants support museums to accelerate their action for environmental responsibility and responding to climate change.
How much can I apply for??
There is ?25,000 available to allocate in grants:
A single museum can apply for up to ?4,000
A museum service with multiple sites or a partnership of museums can apply for up to ?5,000 providing the project benefits more than one Accredited site
The deadline for applications is5pm on Friday 15th September 2023.
More information, including guidance and application form can be found here:
Through a continued partnership between Museum Expandment England and Art Fund, Museum Expandment North West (MDNW) is providing the opportunity to apply for Audience Involvement Grants for museums in the North West.
The grants are designed to enable your organisation to update audience development strategies and gather audience insight data; trial new ways of working with collections and engaging audiences; programme new offers for families; and develop learning offers.
This grant funding gives museums the opportunity to explore and/or trial new ways of working with communities to be able to position themselves as relevant spaces for community engagement and collaboration into the future.
This programme has a rolling deadline until 5pm Monday 22nd September 2023.
How much can I apply for and when?
You can apply for up to ?2,000.
This programme has a rolling deadline until 5pm Monday 22nd September 2023. Once all the funding has been allocated the offer will close. Applications received after this time will not be accepted.
More information, including guidance and application form can be found here:
Through a continued partnership between Museum Expandment England and Art Fund, and with our core funding from ACE, MDNW are pleased to offer CPD bursary opportunities for individuals (including volunteers and freelancers), organisations and museum networks in the North West of England.
This grant scheme is to support the sector to mitigate pressures resulting from the cost-of-living crisis and to enable the retention and training of the museum workforce to contribute to the continued recovery of the sector from the pandemic.
The fund is open to individuals, organisations and networks that represent non-NPO / non-National Accredited museums and those officially working towards Accreditation in the North West. Those working in non-consortia NPO’s are also eligible to apply.
Individuals can apply for up to ?500. Organisations and museum networks can apply for up to ?2,000.
This programme has a rolling deadline until the 30th November 2023. Once all the funding has been allocated the offer will close. The funding must be spent by end of December 2023 though the activity can continue up until the end of March 2024.
More information, including guidance and application form can be found here:
Sharing collections data has too often been seen as a one-way street. As something that takes a lot of effort without much to show for it. This year’s Collections Trust conference explores the transformative benefits for your museum, different users, and the wider sector.
The conference programme [collectionstrust.org.uk] offers a mix of presentations, case studies and discussions. Our excellent line-up of speakers will consider a range of topics, including different ‘use’ scenarios and how the new Museum Data Service will help make sharing collections data, and recording resulting new information, easier for everyone.
Underrepresented in the museum workforce, including people of Global Majority backgrounds, disabled people, and LGBTQ+
Fractures are scheduled in the programme approximately every 60 minutes, and live captioning will be provided by StageTEXT. The event will be recorded and made available for catch-up for ticket holders.
Job Title: Visitor Experience Assistant ? Salary: ?11.11 per hour plus premium rate for Sundays and Prohibitk Holidays? Location: Bront? Parsonage Museum, Haworth, West Yorkshire? Hours:?Part-time, 22.5 hours per week (3 days)? Contract:?Permanent? Closing date: 11 September 2023?
The Bront? Society is recruiting a Visitor Experience Assistant to join the front-of-house team at the Bront? Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire.
The ideal candidate should be able to demonstrate excellent communication skills, a strong commitment to working within a vibrant and busy heritage setting and a willingness to learn about the Bront?s and our world-class collections. Weekend and bank holiday working is required.
Benefits include 20% staff discount in the museum shop, free membership of the Bront? Society, a monthly wellbeing hour, benefits associated with the museum’s membership of the Yorkshire Pullions Group and access to the research library. We are a Real Living Wage employer.
How to apply
Job descriptions, person specifications and the Bront? Society employment application form can be downloaded from the ‘downloads’ link on our website at www.bronte.org.uk/vacancies.
The Bront? Society has a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusivity. Disabled, D/deaf, neuro-divergent people and those from Black, Asian and ethnically diverse backgrounds are currently under-represented in our workforce, so we particularly encourage applications from people in these groups.
The Bront? Society is an equal opportunities employer. Please help us to monitor how we are doing in this respect by completing the anonymous equal opportunities monitoring form enclosed with the application pack. If you require any of the documents in a different format (eg printed/large type) please let us know.
Please send your completed employment application form and equal opportunities monitoring form to gail.price@bronte.org.uk
Lifelessline for applications: Monday 11 September2023
If you enjoy working with others and are passionate about heritage and community engagement, this role is for you.
Victoria Baths is a beautiful 1906 Grade II* swimming pool and Turkish baths complex, managed by a charitable trust and used as an events, community and arts venue, and heritage visitor attraction.
We’re looking for an Involvement Coordinator to be part of our small and friendly team, starting in autumn 2023. You need excellent customer service and interpersonal skills, experience of working with volunteers, use of social media and content production for public communications, the ability to supervise retail activities and use of Microsoft Office, especially Excel.
The role includes supervision of the pop-up tea room, shop, guided tours and welcome desk, assisting with Trust events, volunteer programme coordination, marketing and supporter communications, and administration of the customer relationship management system.
The job description and application form are available on the Victoria Baths website, including details of how to apply:
Salary: ?21,030 – ?21,189 Per annum Location: Judge’s Lodgings, Lancaster Hours:?Part-Time Contract:?Permanent Closing date:?August 23rd 2023
Lancashire County Council is looking for a Museum Assistant to join its Museum Service working at one of its unique museums and heritage sites.?
If you are passionate about bringing Lancashire’s heritage to life, inspiring the public and delivering a great visitor experience then this post is for you. This role is to support all front of house museum operations, events and activities and the care and maintenance of exhibits.
This is a permanent post based at Judges Lodgings Museum in Lancaster. The hours are 12 per week working weekends, see rota attached, the annual salary quoted will be pro rata.
Please ensure you upload a supporting statement, with examples of how you meet the criteria for the role, this needs to be in addition or instead of a CV.? Details about the role and the criteria can be found on the attached job description and person specification.??
For more information about the role and to apply, please click the link below:
If you would like an informal discussion about this role please contact Helen Gregory on 01524 581241.
This position is part time, please note the salary quoted is full time equivalent, the salary received will be paid on a pro–rata basis.
If you’re already a Lancashire County Council employee you must apply via the internal vacancies option on Oracle Fusion. You can do this by logging into Oracle Fusion and then going to Me – Current Jobs.
Hours:?Part-time, working days and hours will vary during the pre-event and event periods and weekends are included. During the event it is likely that you will work up to 4 shifts of up to 8.5 hours each per week, and you’ll be required to work a proportion of the 39 event dates as one of the two National Trust Duty Managers
Contract: Fixed term until 13th January 2024
Closing date: 3rd?September 2023
It’s beginning to look a bit like Christmas……. Come and play a part in our must-see festive spectacular at Dunham Massey, giving our visitors a Christmas to remember. Learn more about our outdoor illuminated trail here . We have an exciting opportunity for 2 Duty Managers to support and deliver the lights extravaganza Christmas event alongside our commercial partners.
What you’ll be doing:
You’ll be responsible for the day-to-day venue operational management of the event with colleagues and event partners, you will ensure that Dunham’s buildings and landscape receive the appropriate protection, and maximise opportunities to communicate the Trust’s core purpose tens of thousands of visitors.
You’ll have operational line management responsibility for our staff on event nights, and local responsibility for the consistent delivery of a great visitor experience for our visitors. You’ll use your strong communication skills to establish strong working relationships and be part of the venue duty management team for the event, supported by members of the Dunham management and wider property team.
You’ll work closely with Dunham’s Business Services Team to answer customer queries, provide information and assist with the event administration in general. A key part of this role is to ensure full compliance with relevant national systems and procedures, promoting awareness of health & safety, assessing and leading risk to ensure the safe and efficient operation at all times, and to deliver a consistently high standard of presentation and a phenomenal Dunham welcome to all of our visitors.
Interviews: Tuesday 12th and/or Wednesday 13th September. We can offer remote interviews to those who live outside of the area but would like to apply.
If you have any questions about this role please contact our Event Manager: simon.bonser@nationaltrust.org.uk
Job Opportunity:?People’s History Museum Job title:?Fundraising Officer Salary:??25,878 Location:?Spinningfields, Manchester Hours:?Full time, 35 hours per week Contract:?Fixed term for 2 years Closing date:?Monday 4th?September, 17.00
About the role
This is an exciting opportunity to join People’s History Museum’s (PHM) multi-disciplinary Expandment Team, which comprises fundraising, commercial and marketing specialisms.?
This brand new role will lead on the growth of PHM’s individual and corporate giving schemes, driving donations across all channels, growing our established Radical supporter brands, and developing new packages to attract vital income to further the museum’s work.
We are looking for a target driven, creative thinker to expand our supporter and sponsor networks as we build towards some major changes. The role will involve lead generation, working particularly closely with colleagues across the organisation to identify opportunities linked to the museum’s collection and audience engagement.
The role will require strong relationship management skills, providing stewardship for supporter and sponsor relationships to sustain and grow connections. We anticipate the role will be highly varied, encompassing delivering events, developing proposals, and analysing data.
This role will involve a lot of external advocacy on behalf of the museum, making it well suited for someone who thrives in networking and relationship building environments.
Museum Expandment North West 