In 1988 financial problems led the University to propose closure of the museum and the sale of its city-centre home which also housed an active art gallery. This proposal was vigorously opposed and the Friends of Bangor Museum came into existence to lobby for a solution. In 1991 Gwynedd Council agreed to take over most of the cost of running the museum and the University would make a long-term loan of the collection and the building, which would remain legally theirs.
This regime has remained in place for the last 16 years, during which the museum has had a full-time professional curator for the first time and a good deal of conservation work has been done on the collection. During the years of Gwynedd control the collection has been expanded by merger with Gwynedd’s own collections and the addition of material from local excavations by Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, together with purchases made with the help of the Art Collections Fund and the V&A.
Registration has ensured that a more exciting series of loan exhibitions can be planned and the Art Gallery has increased in stature. The craft shop has also flourished.
All this development was put in jeopardy last autumn when Gwynedd Council received a very low financial settlement from the Welsh Assembly. Since the Council was paying £80,000 a year to look after a collection which it did not own, the Gwynedd Museum in Bangor was a vulnerable target. They extracted themselves from their agreement with the University to whom they proposed to hand back the collections and the building. The Council would cease its funding of museum staff and maintenance in September 2008. The museum would close unless the University accepted full responsibility.
This situation was made public just after Christmas and the Friends once more had to campaign to save the museum. Gwynedd Council, at a meeting in January, revealed that if the University could be persuaded to pay 50% of the annual costs (i.e. £45,000 rather than the £10,000 they were currently paying) the Council would be prepared to continue funding and keep the museum open on the original terms. They would have to seek cuts in other services. At a further meeting with City councillors, the County Council, the Friends and the University it was agreed that a Tripartite Committee should be set up to discuss this offer and try to find a way in which new funding, perhaps from Research Councils to explore the research potential locked in the collections, might be raised.
This Committee met first in early March this year, and then again on 28th April. At the first meeting the Council made a further offer to hold the museum open until March 2009 in order to give more time for discussion. The University said remarkably little.
The Friends have been very disappointed at the attitude of the University and we are urging all our supporters to continue to write to the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Merfyn Jones (University of Bangor, Bangor, Gwynedd. LL57 2DG) urging him to view this crisis as a challenge from which the University’s engagement with the local community and with the material history of the area can gain; for what, in the context of the University’s total expenditure, is a relatively small annual sum – the equivalent of the salary of a very minor administrator. Even to simply store the collections would cost more.
www.savegwyneddmuseum.org.uk
“Since the Friends were formed in 1977, they have raised more than £1 million in support of museum projects and this has always been acknowledged in our annual accounts. We have never put a financial value on the time individual members give to our various activities, but I know it far exceeds the recorded cash contributions. It is significant that, when the NRM was awarded European Museum of the Year in 2001, the judges acknowledged specifically the contribution made by the Friends over a wide range of museum activities. Making these awards today is a sincere thank-you and a tangible means of recognising individuals who have played such a positive part over the years. I hope you will wear the medals with pride when you are in the museum, so that our visitors are aware of the scope for volunteering,” commented Andrew Scott.
Among the group who were given long service awards at the function at the NRM in York were George and Margaret Rutter, who were founder members of the South of England Group of Friends. Despite being over 200 miles from the York Museum, the group has a tremendous record of support and fund-raising. Throughout the year they have organised an outreach programme, where they fly the flag for the NRM at a wide range of venues in the south-east. During the winter they meet monthly in Marylebone station and have a programme of speakers on railway subjects.
Full details are on their website: www.nrmfriends-south.org.uk
In the autumn of 2005 the Heritage Lottery Fund allocated £4.9 million for the restoration project and, following the development stage of the scheme and after a further successful application, this money has been made available to enable this restoration to begin. Sue Bowers, HLF Manager for London said, “The importance of Strawberry Hill to our architectural heritage cannot be overemphasised and, without this project its future was looking very bleak. The HLF is committed to investing in our historic buildings so that more people can enjoy them and we’re very much looking forward to seeing Strawberry Hill restored to its full splendour once again.”
During the past two years conservation architects Inskip and Jenkins, with the involvement of the Trustees and the Friends and Guides of Strawberry Hill, have carried out a massive amount of research into the history of the house which will inform the restoration process. There has also been an oral history project, which included interviews with several Fathers who lived in the house when it was first purchased by the Catholic Education Service in 1923. Strawberry Hill is one of the most comprehensively documented houses in the country, with surviving literature, visual evidence and accounts.
The Trust expects work to begin in 2008 and hopes it will be completed and the house opened to the public in 2010, to coincide with an important exhibition on Walpole and his Treasures which is to be mounted at the V&A Museum.
£5 Million Committed to International Contemporary Art
Art Fund International will run alongside the charity’s regular grant-giving programme and be rolled out over a five year period, following an application process in 2007. Uniquely, the initiative will require collecting institutions to form partnerships with contemporary exhibition spaces or with independent commissioning agencies which are already successful in presenting contemporary art of this nature. The funding for this scheme is in addition to The Art Fund’s regular budget for grants for works of art.
Art Fund International has its origins in the Art Fund’s centenary exhibition and conference, which identified the failure of UK museums and galleries in the 20th century to acquire works by non-British artists like Picasso, Kandinsky and Hopper. The charity has decided to dedicate a separate fund of money with the aim of enriching the contemporary holdings of UK regional collections.
David Barrie, The Art Fund’s Director, said: “We have wonderful museums and galleries packed full of historic art from all over the world, but over the last 100 years we’ve all too often turned our backs on the most exciting works being made by living artists from overseas. It’s too late to put that right, but this scheme is designed to make sure that we don’t make the same mistakes going forward. Art Fund International represents a major new investment in building the heritage of the future.”
The Art Fund anticipates that up to five partnerships will be funded under the new scheme, following a two-stage application process. All works of art will be 100% funded by The Art Fund. The Art Fund has established a new committee to take responsibility for the scheme; many leading figures in the art world have joined some of the Art Fund’s own trustees on this committee. For further information on the initiative and for details of the application process, please go to the charity’s website.
www.artfund.org/grants/artfundinternational.html
or contact Sarah Harrison, Head of Press: www.artfund.org
The links with the other Celtic lands, languages and cultures are also catered for, as are connections with the Welsh overseas from Patagonia via North America and Canada to Australia. Historically, the Library’s main collections have been primarily books and the written record from manuscripts containing literary treasures of worldwide importance such as the mediaeval Mabinogion and countless deeds and legal documents that are of immense value to genealogists and historians. The collections are by no means confined to Wales and Celtic interests.
Because it is a copyright library it has the right to ask for any printed material published in Britain, so the collection grows daily with an influx of every kind of printed matter from children’s comics to important scientific or other academic works and ephemera. But books are no longer the prime conduits of knowledge and entertainment in the 21st century - this is the age of film, television, sound and the computer and the Library is in the forefront of collecting examples of these new media.
It houses the National Sound and Screen Archive, with films dating back to the early twentieth century, whilst also collecting the latest outpouring of TV and computers. It also functions as the National Portrait Gallery for Wales, as well as holding a vast collection of paintings and sculpture by Welsh artists, in addition to depictions of Wales in general. If any BAFM members visit Aberystwyth they will be well rewarded if they drop in at the beautiful white building on top of Penglais - especially in this centenary year.
www.liverpoolheritageforum.org.uk
A representative of AIM attends BAFM Council meetings and the Association has, this time, joined with BAFM in sponsoring the Robert Logan Award for a paper given by a young worker, professional or volunteer, in the heritage field. AIM is seen particularly as a support and source of information for the smaller museums and, to this end, is very much in favour of the appointment of Museum Development Officers (MDOs).
Last November, AIM organised the first ever national conference for MDOs, highlighting the essential job they do for smaller and volunteer-run museums. The event was sponsored by the Museums, Libraries & Archives Council (MLA) and supported by Birmingham Museums & Art Galleries. MDOs came into being to improve the help and advice available to smaller museums, often those without professional staff.
The AIM Chairman, Diane Lees, Director of the V&A Museum of Childhood at Bethnal Green, praised the work of MDOs and pleaded for improved recognition of their valuable work and for increased support, in terms of training and of funding. The conference focused on the skills and developmental needs of MDOs and, following this, a skills development day will be hosted by AIM in June 2007. People management skills, lateral thinking and understanding the big picture are among the greatest strengths of these officers, so advancing these and improving knowledge of charity, employment and commercial law will be central to the planned skills development day.
Diane Lees urged the Department of Culture, Media & Sport to recognise the contribution of smaller museums - often operating as Charitable Trusts and run by volunteers - and the work that MDOs and the MLA’s Museum Development Fund do to help them to fulfil their potential.
For further information: www.aim-museums.co.uk
Founded in 1931, with a core membership made up from the main museums of the South West, the SW Federation is the oldest regional museum federation. By 1961, the Federation saw the need for the establishment of a Regional Museums Board, which later became the Area Museums Council for the South West, then the South West Museums, Libraries & Archives Council and, most recently, MLA South West. Recently, the Federation has been engaged in a process of consolidation, redefining its role within the sector, working closely with MLA SW and the South West Museum Hub. In turn, MLA SW and the Hub have recognised the important part that the Federation can play, by enabling it to appoint a Co-ordinator to work with the committee to see that the needs of the community are met. The Federation’s primary objectives are to represent the interests of the museum and museum professional at all levels, to provide a means by which the museum community can share resources and expertise, facilitate training and promote excellence. It can be seen that these aims are very close to the aims of BAFM and, indeed, in many cases, BAFM members are working alongside members of the Federation, sharing their concern for the welfare of their local museums. We congratulate The SW Federation of Museums and Art Galleries - may they go from strength to strength in the next 75 years, ensuring that the institutions we all support continue to flourish.
This year there was a shortlist of twenty projects in five different categories: Built Heritage: Wildlife: Memories: Museums & Archives: Children & Young People. Adrian Tinniswood, Chairman of Heritage Lottery Fund’s South West Regional Committee and Chairman of the distinguished panel of judges, told his audience that it had been difficult to choose the winners. He added, “Every one of the projects on the short lists deserved a prize and each one showed how important volunteers are in the struggle to secure our heritage.”
Winners included Nothe Fort in Weymouth, Bedminster Green Renaissance, Saving & Preservation of Opie’s Cornish Masterpiece in Falmouth, Youth Promoting Heritage in Crewkerne and ‘Capturing Memories: Building for the Future’ in Bristol, the overall winner.
Since 1994 more than 1,560 projects and nearly £323.5 million of HLF funding have benefited children and young people in the South West.
For more details: www.hlf.org.uk
