British Association of Friends of Museums

BAFM AREA REPORTS:

NORTH EAST

NORTH WEST

YORKSHIRE & HUMBERSIDE

SOUTH EAST - SOUTHERN

SOUTH EAST - LONDON & MIDDLESEX

NORTHERN IRELAND

SCOTLAND

WALES

CONFERENCE REPORT 2007 - LIVERPOOL

We were welcomed to Liverpool by the Lord Mayor of the city, Councillor Porter. Our Conference came just before the city became Capital of Culture in 2008, an event which will be celebrated with a year-long programme of events of the highest quality. David Fleming, Director of the National Museums of Liverpool, gave an amusing introduction, but emphasised that the museums receive no direct funding from the Council. The present regeneration of the city, following on three decades of being 'poor', has seen audiences and visitors treble, becoming more diverse in age and background and with many more children involved. The museums were nationalised in the 1980s to save the collections.

Andrew Pearce, Chairman, read a letter from BAFM's Patron, HRH the Duke of Gloucester, wishing the Conference well. He then introduced the speakers, beginning with Lucy Price of the Fire Brigade Museum, London. She had just been presented with the Robert Logan Award by Carol Bunbury, organiser of the competition, on behalf of BAFM and AIM. Lucy stressed the importance of volunteers, whether older, often retired, people or younger helpers, often students. These might be members of a Friends' group or might work alongside them, in partnership with professionals. All should understand and sympathise with the aims of the museum.

Dr Adrian Jarvis spoke of Liverpool's collections and the buildings which house them. They owed much to the friends of the time. There were no public libraries or museums but, in 1845, the Libraries and Museums Act allowed councils to levy a penny rate for museums and a halfpenny rate for libraries. He mentioned many benefactors of Liverpool and the North West, including Sir Andrew Barclay Walker who funded the Art Gallery, Lord Derby, George Audley and William Brown. The shipping companies were also very supportive and together these philanthropists left Liverpool with a wonderful legacy of works of art and some splendid buildings to house them.

Andrew Pearce NMM spoke on the changing face of volunteering. He lamented the decline of membership but realised that free entry had taken away an incentive to join. The Friends and volunteers had given 7,000 hours of work, equivalent to £38,000 at the minimum wage.

Other speakers included John Millard, who spoke of the importance of welcoming change. The AGM was chaired by Loyd Grossman and the keynote speaker was Mark Taylor, Director of the Museums Association (MA), who emphasised that the MA receives no public money from the Government. It publishes the Museums Journal and organises training days, seminars and workshops as well as its Annual Conferences. Mark Taylor then went on to talk of present and future changes in the museum world and of difficulties with funding. The lottery money had all but gone and core funding was neglected, especially funding for the collections. Private funding provides the cream on the cake and, in this respect, Friends are well placed to show that people still care about their heritage; Friends are advocates for their museums and for the Heritage sector as a whole. They should be valued for what they do and should strive to increase BAFM's membership to make a more powerful lobby.

Conference gave rise to lively discussion, both at the business sessions and over the whole weekend, though it did not prevent the delegates' wholehearted enjoyment of the social programme on offer.