MA responds to HLF consultation
Geraldine Kendall, 20.04.2011
MA president Vanessa Trevelyan outlines key points for HLF to consider in strategic framework
The president of the Museums Association (MA), Vanessa Trevelyan, wrote last week to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to highlight the issues the MA believes are particularly important to the organisation’s strategic framework.
The HLF is holding an online consultation into its funding priorities for 2013-19 based on analysis of the emerging funding environment for heritage.
In a letter to HLF chairwoman Jenny Abramsky, the MA president first addressed worries that the proposed strategic aim for HLF did not include adequate reference to learning and participation.
Trevelyan wrote: “The absence of learning and participation from the aim could, gradually over time, lead to less attention being paid to them.” This could in turn weaken the sustainability of heritage organisations that might be tempted to overlook these areas, she said.
Trevelyan asked HLF to reconsider its suggestion that urgent acquisitions would not require a learning plan in future. She wrote: “If time is of the essence, the learning plan could be produced after the acquisition was made.”
Trevelyan also urged the HLF to go further in prioritising organisational sustainability. She said: “HLF has been excellent at implicitly considering the sustainability of applicants. We suggest that you should now consider doing this more explicitly when you scrutinise applications.”
The MA welcomed the HFL’s pledge to support the sharing of skills and knowledge. Trevelyan suggested that one way of encouraging this would be to require all grant recipients to share what they have learned from a project with the wider sector through, for example, low cost workshops.
Finally, the MA urged the HLF to significantly lower the £1m threshold at which applicants are required to have training plans, and suggested that the sector’s expertise would be greatly enhanced if the HLF found ways of disseminating its “cumulative knowledge of best practice”.
In addition to the letter, the MA has now responded in full to the online consultation, covering a number of additional issues.
The consultation deadline is 26 April. The HLF is welcoming feedback from both individuals and organisations in the heritage sector.
Click here to respond to the consultation
Click here to read Trevelyan’s letter in full (pdf)
The HLF is holding an online consultation into its funding priorities for 2013-19 based on analysis of the emerging funding environment for heritage.
In a letter to HLF chairwoman Jenny Abramsky, the MA president first addressed worries that the proposed strategic aim for HLF did not include adequate reference to learning and participation.
Trevelyan wrote: “The absence of learning and participation from the aim could, gradually over time, lead to less attention being paid to them.” This could in turn weaken the sustainability of heritage organisations that might be tempted to overlook these areas, she said.
Trevelyan asked HLF to reconsider its suggestion that urgent acquisitions would not require a learning plan in future. She wrote: “If time is of the essence, the learning plan could be produced after the acquisition was made.”
Trevelyan also urged the HLF to go further in prioritising organisational sustainability. She said: “HLF has been excellent at implicitly considering the sustainability of applicants. We suggest that you should now consider doing this more explicitly when you scrutinise applications.”
The MA welcomed the HFL’s pledge to support the sharing of skills and knowledge. Trevelyan suggested that one way of encouraging this would be to require all grant recipients to share what they have learned from a project with the wider sector through, for example, low cost workshops.
Finally, the MA urged the HLF to significantly lower the £1m threshold at which applicants are required to have training plans, and suggested that the sector’s expertise would be greatly enhanced if the HLF found ways of disseminating its “cumulative knowledge of best practice”.
In addition to the letter, the MA has now responded in full to the online consultation, covering a number of additional issues.
The consultation deadline is 26 April. The HLF is welcoming feedback from both individuals and organisations in the heritage sector.
Click here to respond to the consultation
Click here to read Trevelyan’s letter in full (pdf)
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