City challenge
Simon Stephens hears how Kate Howe has led the development of a museum that tells the story of Cardiff and its people
When Kate Howe joined the project to give the people of Cardiff their very own city museum in August 2008 there was great enthusiasm, but no collection, very little funding and just a handful of staff.
Less than three years later, the Cardiff Story is open for business and welcoming its first visitors. The museum was unveiled on 1 April with an official opening planned for early June.
“They had the germ of an idea of what they wanted to do, but they did not really have a plan as to how they were going to fund it and bring it to reality,” says Howe.
“Cardiff Council had the ambition but they had no collection at all. So what we have achieved has been absolutely from scratch. It is great testament to the council’s ambition but also to how well the team we have put together here have worked.”
Howe joined with 15 years’ experience working in a number of different museums but she also points to her time outside the sector as an important factor in helping her to make the Cardiff Story a reality.
After taking her first degree, she wanted to do a master’s in women’s studies but a lack of funding meant she looked for full-time work and ended up at a national healthcare company.
“I did very well, and they paid me lots of money and gave me a big swanky car and before I knew it I was a director running a really big operation,” says Howe.
“I worked there for seven years and it gave me a fantastic formal training in business management, which is where I think I’m different from lots of other museum professionals. That background gave me a real business acumen and an entrepreneurial edge.”
The money she earned allowed her to do a heritage management course at the Ironbridge Institute in Shropshire that led to work at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum on projects such as the restoration of Rosehill House and access provision at Blists Hill Victorian Town.
From there she worked on the redevelopment of Bantock House Museum in Wolverhampton and then at Dudley’s Black Country Living Museum.
Public consultation
Howe says each of these jobs gave her experience of fundraising and project management, which has helped greatly at Cardiff.
“If you have had to raise the money yourself you are incredibly careful about how you spend it as you know that if you go over budget you are the one who is going to have to find the money, so you will be up again until two in the morning doing another funding application.”
But it is not just the management and fundraising side of museums that appeals to Howe, she is also passionate about history. “I suppose I am a little bit different from a lot of people in the museum world, because I grew up on a council estate,” says Howe.
“Neither of my parents went to university but they were very creative people, and had this absolute enthusiasm and love of history.”
This love of history was taken up by Howe, who has been very involved in making sure the content and tone of the interpretation in the displays are right at the Cardiff Story. Much of this has been done with museum officer Victoria Rogers, who has worked alongside Howe and exhibition designer Redman Design.
“Victoria and I have been very hands-on throughout the process,” Howe says. “We had a very clear vision of what we wanted to achieve, very much based on what we had been asked to produce on behalf of the community.”
Howe is keen to emphasise that public consultation has been central to the project and has led the museum’s development at every turn.
There have been various consultation panels representing areas such access, education, lifelong learning, older people and youth. These groups advised on the series of temporary exhibitions that the museum created to help develop the content and tone of the permanent displays.
“Every story is told from an individual’s point of view and there is no curatorial authorship of anything; we just helped to structure the story and make sense of it,” says Howe.
As well as the advisory groups, the museum has worked closely with the South Wales Echo, and has used the newspaper to call for donations of objects.
“The Echo has raised our profile with communities that are not always the easiest to engage with and told them what objects we need,” says Howe.
The consultation has been important but it has also been challenging, as catering for a wide range of access groups can be difficult, particularly when their needs conflict.
But public consultation is just one of the many challenges that Howe has had to overcome to make the Cardiff Story a reality. Putting together a team to carry out the project was one of the most important of these.
Most of the staff are in their first museum job and partnerships have provided ways to access funding streams to increase staff numbers beyond the core team. One such post is the digital stories curator, Mari Lowe, whose work as been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in partnership with the University of Glamorgan.
National museum partnership
“She has gone out and worked with the valley communities, which are very important for us to engage with as they have a very different view about the city’s heritage,” says Howe.
“She has made some terrific digital stories with individuals and communities that I don’t think we would have been able to reach easily through any other route.”
Having no collection in the beginning was obviously a major challenge, but shortly after joining the Cardiff Story Howe formed a partnership that allowed her to access an 8,000-strong collection that was owned by a museum in Cardiff that closed in the 192os and has since been held in storage by National Museum Wales.
“It was a typical turn of the century city collection so, to be frank, we wouldn’t want to display all of it and we have no storage here,” says Howe.
“We have a fantastic partnership with the national museum because they allow us to have back the objects we want to display that are meaningful to the city now, but not have the stuffed animals and splayed insects that are not relevant to the city at all.”
A range of audiences
The Cardiff Story also has the challenge of catering for a wide range of audiences, says Howe. There are those living in Cardiff, which is a pretty diverse city.
Then there are tourists from the rest of Wales and elsewhere in the UK. And, as Cardiff is a capital city, the council is also keen for the museum to appeal to the international market.
But Howe says that despite its remit to appeal to tourists, the museum does not shy away from tackling the more controversial aspects of life in the area.
“We already have a tourist information centre at the front of the building and the museum is not intended to be an extension of that,” says Howe.
“Cardiff Council are being quite brave in allowing us to show the city’s nightlife as well and to allow us to present some views from the valleys that would not always be complementary.”
Fundraising has been a big challenge for Howe and she has used all her connections to get the best advice on raising the £2.4m needed for phase one of the project.
She has been a council member of the Association of Independent Museums for some time and her mentors have included Diane Lees, the director-general of the Imperial War Museum, and Mark Taylor, the director of the Museums Association.
Howe says the Cardiff Story project really moved forward in December 2009, when a number of pieces fell into place. Firstly, it gained Accreditation and then a £445,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund was confirmed.
Shortly after, Howe secured a £256,000 donation from Henry Engelhardt, the chief executive of financial services firm Admiral, which has its headquarters in Cardiff.
Howe is now looking to fund the next phase of the Cardiff Story, which will require a further £1.6m, and she knows that private money will be vital now public cash is so scarce. “I think the current financial climate is very challenging. If you asked me to raise £2m five years ago for a capital city museum I would have thought no problem.”
Howe is proud of what she has achieved in Cardiff so far and is keen to press on with phase two. She says she has developed a great affinity for the area’s culture, despite being born in Newport.
“I am very much aware that I’m not a Cardiff city girl, so I very much value the input from people who are real Cardiffians,” she says. “We have a lot of Cardiffians on our team and we listen to what they say.”
Kate Howe has 15 years’ experience in museums and has worked at Ironbridge Gorge Museum in Shropshire, Bantock House and Park, Wolverhampton, and Dudley’s Black Country Living Museum.
She has a PhD in history, and an MA in heritage management.
Following university, Howe began her career working for a national healthcare company, where she spent seven years.
She was born in Newport.
When the Cardiff Story opened on 1 April in the Old Library building, Cardiff was no longer the only major UK city without a museum to conserve its heritage and celebrate its identity.
The first phase of the museum cost £2.4m and comprises a ground-floor gallery, new entrance and learning centre, education suite and the historic tiled corridor. The Heritage Lottery Fund gave £445,000 to phase one, while Cardiff Council provided £1.75m.
Phase two will feature a first floor gallery, cafe and a temporary exhibition space.
The museum’s core funding comes from Cardiff Council. Cardiff Story employs 12 staff.
Less than three years later, the Cardiff Story is open for business and welcoming its first visitors. The museum was unveiled on 1 April with an official opening planned for early June.
“They had the germ of an idea of what they wanted to do, but they did not really have a plan as to how they were going to fund it and bring it to reality,” says Howe.
“Cardiff Council had the ambition but they had no collection at all. So what we have achieved has been absolutely from scratch. It is great testament to the council’s ambition but also to how well the team we have put together here have worked.”
Howe joined with 15 years’ experience working in a number of different museums but she also points to her time outside the sector as an important factor in helping her to make the Cardiff Story a reality.
After taking her first degree, she wanted to do a master’s in women’s studies but a lack of funding meant she looked for full-time work and ended up at a national healthcare company.
“I did very well, and they paid me lots of money and gave me a big swanky car and before I knew it I was a director running a really big operation,” says Howe.
“I worked there for seven years and it gave me a fantastic formal training in business management, which is where I think I’m different from lots of other museum professionals. That background gave me a real business acumen and an entrepreneurial edge.”
The money she earned allowed her to do a heritage management course at the Ironbridge Institute in Shropshire that led to work at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum on projects such as the restoration of Rosehill House and access provision at Blists Hill Victorian Town.
From there she worked on the redevelopment of Bantock House Museum in Wolverhampton and then at Dudley’s Black Country Living Museum.
Public consultation
Howe says each of these jobs gave her experience of fundraising and project management, which has helped greatly at Cardiff.
“If you have had to raise the money yourself you are incredibly careful about how you spend it as you know that if you go over budget you are the one who is going to have to find the money, so you will be up again until two in the morning doing another funding application.”
But it is not just the management and fundraising side of museums that appeals to Howe, she is also passionate about history. “I suppose I am a little bit different from a lot of people in the museum world, because I grew up on a council estate,” says Howe.
“Neither of my parents went to university but they were very creative people, and had this absolute enthusiasm and love of history.”
This love of history was taken up by Howe, who has been very involved in making sure the content and tone of the interpretation in the displays are right at the Cardiff Story. Much of this has been done with museum officer Victoria Rogers, who has worked alongside Howe and exhibition designer Redman Design.
“Victoria and I have been very hands-on throughout the process,” Howe says. “We had a very clear vision of what we wanted to achieve, very much based on what we had been asked to produce on behalf of the community.”
Howe is keen to emphasise that public consultation has been central to the project and has led the museum’s development at every turn.
There have been various consultation panels representing areas such access, education, lifelong learning, older people and youth. These groups advised on the series of temporary exhibitions that the museum created to help develop the content and tone of the permanent displays.
“Every story is told from an individual’s point of view and there is no curatorial authorship of anything; we just helped to structure the story and make sense of it,” says Howe.
As well as the advisory groups, the museum has worked closely with the South Wales Echo, and has used the newspaper to call for donations of objects.
“The Echo has raised our profile with communities that are not always the easiest to engage with and told them what objects we need,” says Howe.
The consultation has been important but it has also been challenging, as catering for a wide range of access groups can be difficult, particularly when their needs conflict.
But public consultation is just one of the many challenges that Howe has had to overcome to make the Cardiff Story a reality. Putting together a team to carry out the project was one of the most important of these.
Most of the staff are in their first museum job and partnerships have provided ways to access funding streams to increase staff numbers beyond the core team. One such post is the digital stories curator, Mari Lowe, whose work as been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in partnership with the University of Glamorgan.
National museum partnership
“She has gone out and worked with the valley communities, which are very important for us to engage with as they have a very different view about the city’s heritage,” says Howe.
“She has made some terrific digital stories with individuals and communities that I don’t think we would have been able to reach easily through any other route.”
Having no collection in the beginning was obviously a major challenge, but shortly after joining the Cardiff Story Howe formed a partnership that allowed her to access an 8,000-strong collection that was owned by a museum in Cardiff that closed in the 192os and has since been held in storage by National Museum Wales.
“It was a typical turn of the century city collection so, to be frank, we wouldn’t want to display all of it and we have no storage here,” says Howe.
“We have a fantastic partnership with the national museum because they allow us to have back the objects we want to display that are meaningful to the city now, but not have the stuffed animals and splayed insects that are not relevant to the city at all.”
A range of audiences
The Cardiff Story also has the challenge of catering for a wide range of audiences, says Howe. There are those living in Cardiff, which is a pretty diverse city.
Then there are tourists from the rest of Wales and elsewhere in the UK. And, as Cardiff is a capital city, the council is also keen for the museum to appeal to the international market.
But Howe says that despite its remit to appeal to tourists, the museum does not shy away from tackling the more controversial aspects of life in the area.
“We already have a tourist information centre at the front of the building and the museum is not intended to be an extension of that,” says Howe.
“Cardiff Council are being quite brave in allowing us to show the city’s nightlife as well and to allow us to present some views from the valleys that would not always be complementary.”
Fundraising has been a big challenge for Howe and she has used all her connections to get the best advice on raising the £2.4m needed for phase one of the project.
She has been a council member of the Association of Independent Museums for some time and her mentors have included Diane Lees, the director-general of the Imperial War Museum, and Mark Taylor, the director of the Museums Association.
Howe says the Cardiff Story project really moved forward in December 2009, when a number of pieces fell into place. Firstly, it gained Accreditation and then a £445,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund was confirmed.
Shortly after, Howe secured a £256,000 donation from Henry Engelhardt, the chief executive of financial services firm Admiral, which has its headquarters in Cardiff.
Howe is now looking to fund the next phase of the Cardiff Story, which will require a further £1.6m, and she knows that private money will be vital now public cash is so scarce. “I think the current financial climate is very challenging. If you asked me to raise £2m five years ago for a capital city museum I would have thought no problem.”
Howe is proud of what she has achieved in Cardiff so far and is keen to press on with phase two. She says she has developed a great affinity for the area’s culture, despite being born in Newport.
“I am very much aware that I’m not a Cardiff city girl, so I very much value the input from people who are real Cardiffians,” she says. “We have a lot of Cardiffians on our team and we listen to what they say.”
Kate Howe at a glance
Kate Howe has 15 years’ experience in museums and has worked at Ironbridge Gorge Museum in Shropshire, Bantock House and Park, Wolverhampton, and Dudley’s Black Country Living Museum.
She has a PhD in history, and an MA in heritage management.
Following university, Howe began her career working for a national healthcare company, where she spent seven years.
She was born in Newport.
Cardiff Story at a glance
When the Cardiff Story opened on 1 April in the Old Library building, Cardiff was no longer the only major UK city without a museum to conserve its heritage and celebrate its identity.
The first phase of the museum cost £2.4m and comprises a ground-floor gallery, new entrance and learning centre, education suite and the historic tiled corridor. The Heritage Lottery Fund gave £445,000 to phase one, while Cardiff Council provided £1.75m.
Phase two will feature a first floor gallery, cafe and a temporary exhibition space.
The museum’s core funding comes from Cardiff Council. Cardiff Story employs 12 staff.