BAFM SOUTH WEST AREA
South West Conference
9th September 2010
with the Friends of the Museum of Bath at Work
Venue: Museum of Bath at Work, Bath
Theme: ‘Attracting Younger People’
Contact: Carol Bunbury, SW Co-ordinator
Download Programme & Booking Form
South West Regional Conference 2009
On 14th September 2009, Margaret Rose and Sylvia Oliver represented the Friends of Philpot Museum, Lyme Regis, at the South West Regional Conference in the newly refurbished Plymouth City Museum. Magnificent! In the splendid South Gallery, City Curator Nicola Moyle spoke with feeling about the funding raised and the processes involved in bringing the ground floor refurbishment project to fruition: a sort of how-to-do-it-and-what-exactly-is-involved guide for other Friends whose museums might be contemplating a similar development.
There had been widespread consultation before application was made to the Heritage Lottery Fund. What did people want? How to pull together all the various suggestions made, to create a vision that was viable, fund-able, achievable? It appears that a three-strand vision emerged:
Bring the world to Plymouth;
Plymouth uncovered – show visitors
hitherto unsuspected aspects of the city;
Plymouth: port and place. It is probably
the most iconic port in Britain – Sir Francis
Drake and all that - but it is so much more
besides.
After long-drawn-out consultation and much detailed work, the refurbishment was designed in partnership with The Friends and other community groups, and the bid submitted. HLF contributed £750,000, the balance of a further £750,000 having been found from other sources, including the City Council. Then the whole building was closed for six months while the work was carried out, and the project completed, on time and on budget. The Duke of Edinburgh was a guest at the opening – a naval man himself, of course, and one of the Museum’s Patrons.
After a tour of the museum and a splendid buffet lunch we went back to the South Gallery for a reading by Margaret Shaw. We learned that there is a Writers’ Group based in the Museum, and she had won a competition to write an article about a visitor’s response to the refurbishment. Initially she had been saddened at the prospect of change to her beloved museum – but sadness turned to delight when she saw the building again after the six-month closure, her delight being reflected in her prize-winning article. Appropriately, she was presented with a book token by the Friends.
Do some of our Friends feel that way about our proposed extension, known unofficially as ‘The Mary Anning Wing’? Would some Friends like the museum to stay just the way it is, we wonder? Food for thought.
We had the great good fortune to see the magnificent Joshua Reynolds Exhibition and to have a Powerpoint Presentation by art historian Donato Esposito, co-curator of the exhibition and former curator at the British Museum: he was representing the partnership between the Museum and the University of Plymouth. We learned that paintings and drawings borrowed from many other museums and galleries, including the Louvre in Paris, are included in the present superb exhibition. It seems that Reynolds himself owned about five thousand drawings, including a large number of Rembrandts ‘which no doubt he plundered for his own portraits!’
In what turned out to be a very busy day we also had presentations on the links between the local U3A Shared Learning Group and the Museum, and a fascinating talk on ‘The Past in Partnership with the Present’ - which was given by Neil Wressell, Senior Conservation Officer, explaining the delicate balance between preserving and displaying the collections and the incredible techniques used to conserve, repair and present the items.
A lot to take in on one day, and a steep learning curve, but as always in gatherings of Friends from other venues it was convivial, stimulating, refreshing – and gave us a great deal to think about.
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