Lakeland life
Gordon Watson tells Simon Stephens about the modernisation of Lakeland Arts and its plans for a major new museum
For a relatively small organisation, Lakeland Arts manages a diverse range of venues, which was one of the attractions for Gordon Watson when he joined the trust in 2010 as its chief executive.
Watson moved to his role in the Lake District from Yorkshire, where he was the project director of the Hepworth Wakefield, a £35m gallery that opened in 2011.
Lakeland Arts has two venues in Kendal, Abbot Hall Art Gallery and the Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry, and one in Bowness, Blackwell: The Arts & Crafts House. It is also developing a museum on Lake Windermere to display and conserve an internationally important collection of boats.
“I had been aware of Abbot Hall’s reputation for putting on interesting exhibitions and I was impressed by Blackwell,” Watson says. “And I saw the project to redevelop the steamboat museum as a rare opportunity to create a wonderful building on such a special site beside Windermere.”
Watson was also interested in working for an independent trust, having spent many years in local authority museums. His new role was challenging though, as the previous chief executive of Lakeland Arts, Edward King, had left in 2009 following a dispute over the future of the boat museum, which the trust had taken over after it had closed due to financial hardship.
“Lakeland Arts had developed an ambitious project, which was really exciting, but it was at the same time as the economy was going into recession,” Watson says. “And the trustees rightly said it couldn’t proceed with such an ambitious scheme.”
So one of Watson’s priorities was to get the boat museum project on track again. He scaled the scheme back to about half its original size and made a successful application for a £9.4m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Windermere Jetty, as the £13.5m project is now known, has been designed by Carmody Groarke architects, and Real Studios is the exhibition designer. It is scheduled to open in 2016.
The museum will combine the display of an internationally important collection of Windermere boats with a workshop, where visitors will be able to see vessels being conserved and restored. Some of the boats are on the National Historic Fleet register.
“It’s going to be different from the previous museum, but the heritage collection boats will still be at the heart of it because they are really special,” Watson says. “All those boats are associated with Windermere. They all have a local story to tell, but they’re also nationally interesting.”
Moving the boat museum project on was not the only challenge for Watson, who is only the fifth head of the trust since it opened Abbot Hall in 1962.
“We needed to modernise Lakeland Arts and put in place a proper strategic plan,” Watson says. “It was clear that we had to increase earned and grant income, both to strengthen the organisation and to improve what we do.”
Community engagement
It was particularly important to bring in more revenue as Watson wanted to develop the trust’s learning and community engagement programmes.
“Prior to me arriving, the trust had a limited learning programme and virtually no community engagement – for me that was the missing part of the organisation,” he says. “I expect that to be something a museum does regularly and well, but we were doing very little of it.”
These programmes are now embedded in the work of Lakeland Arts. But a key part of developing them, and other areas, has been the partnerships Watson has forged with organisations in Cumbria and beyond.
The lack of partnership working was another area he was concerned about when he joined. The Cumbria Museum Consortium, which features the Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery Trust in Carlisle, the Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere and Lakeland Arts, is one key relationship.
The consortium is funded by Arts Council England (ACE) through its Renaissance Major Grants Programme, with a grant of £3.2m over three years (2012–15).
“It took longer to get it going than we thought,” Watson says. “But when we look back, it’s amazing what we’ve achieved in terms of new things. What’s nice is that
now there’s more cross-organisation and joint working.”
One of the areas that the consortium has worked on is staff development. Watson says this has led to better learning and outreach programmes as well as more ambitious and successful exhibitions.
“One of the things that we’re interested in as part of the Cumbria Museum Consortium is developing the quality of curatorship in this area and recognising that as a rural area you have to try a little bit harder,” he says. “And there’s always the risk in a rural area that you can get out of touch, so we try and directly address that.”
Ambitious programming
Employing ambitious and knowledgeable curatorial staff is linked to Lakeland Arts’ aim of having a broad exhibition programme that covers contemporary, modern and historical art.
The trust is supported in this by being one of the few organisations that receives funding from ACE as a National Portfolio Organisation as well as
a Major Partner Museum as part of the Cumbria Museum Consortium.
“We think carefully about the audience and seasonal changes when we are programming, but we also want to develop and challenge our audience,” Watson says. “There is a recurring theme of using the collection but also the landscape, as we are in an area of outstanding natural beauty.”
Previous exhibitions at Abbot Hall Art Gallery include shows on Barbara Hepworth, Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon, Paula Rego and Patrick Caulfield. This year, its programme includes exhibitions on Canaletto, St Ives artists in the 1950s and portraiture from the Arts Council Collection.
“The Lake District is a popular place with stunning scenery so we have a lot to compete with,” Watson says.
As well as the exhibition programme and the Windermere Jetty project, Lakeland Arts is working on a number of other schemes. One of these is a project to revitalise Blackwell by creating a more immersive experience in the Grade I-listed arts and crafts house and garden. The 1901 building overlooks Windermere and was designed by architect MH Baillie Scott for Sir Edward Holt, a Manchester brewery owner.
Watson says the project will introduce arts and crafts furnishings, objects and textiles to enrich the period rooms. It will tell stories of the people who lived, worked and went to school at Blackwell as well.
The trust is also looking at the potential to redevelop the Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry, which is housed in the coach house and stable block at Abbot Hall.
Recreated period rooms and workshops reveal how rural people lived, worked and played over the years.
“Audiences vary across the three museums and will also be different at Windermere Jetty,” Watson says. “It is important to involve local people all the time, even though they can get swamped by the 15 million visitors each year to South Lakeland, where the resident population is only 100,000. Locals often reflect back to us how important Abbot Hall and Blackwell are to them and how much they welcome seeing art of national significance in Cumbria.”
When Windermere Jetty opens, Lakeland Arts will have a fantastic mix of venues that should prove attractive to tourists and locals alike. And for Watson, it will be a sign that the modernisation of the trust he joined more than four years ago has been a success.
Gordon Watson became the chief executive of Lakeland Arts in 2010.
Previously, he was the project director of the Hepworth Wakefield (2004-10), leading the development of the gallery from writing the vision through to completion of construction. Before that he was the manager of Wakefield’s museums and arts service.
He has a degree in econoamic and social history from Queen’s University, Belfast, a postgraduate certificate in museum studies from the University of Leicester and a diploma in management studies from Sheffield Hallam University.
Lakeland Arts operates three venues: Abbot Hall Art Gallery and the Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry in Kendal, and Blackwell: The Arts & Crafts House in Bowness.
It is also developing the £13.5m Windermere Jetty, a new museum opening in 2016.
The project is supported by a £9.4m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Lakeland Arts gets about 25% of its revenue from grant income, mainly through Arts Council England as a National Portfolio Organisation and a Major Partner Museum (as part of the Cumbria Museum Consortium).
About 20% of income is from membership, patrons, benefactors and other grants.
The remaining 55% is earned income from activities such as ticket and shop sales.
Lakeland Arts employs the full-time equivalent of 45 staff and has 160 volunteers.
In 2013, Lakeland Arts’ learning and engagement team worked with more than 9,000 people through lectures, workshops, events, school programmes, festivals and off-site activities.
Watson moved to his role in the Lake District from Yorkshire, where he was the project director of the Hepworth Wakefield, a £35m gallery that opened in 2011.
Lakeland Arts has two venues in Kendal, Abbot Hall Art Gallery and the Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry, and one in Bowness, Blackwell: The Arts & Crafts House. It is also developing a museum on Lake Windermere to display and conserve an internationally important collection of boats.
“I had been aware of Abbot Hall’s reputation for putting on interesting exhibitions and I was impressed by Blackwell,” Watson says. “And I saw the project to redevelop the steamboat museum as a rare opportunity to create a wonderful building on such a special site beside Windermere.”
Watson was also interested in working for an independent trust, having spent many years in local authority museums. His new role was challenging though, as the previous chief executive of Lakeland Arts, Edward King, had left in 2009 following a dispute over the future of the boat museum, which the trust had taken over after it had closed due to financial hardship.
“Lakeland Arts had developed an ambitious project, which was really exciting, but it was at the same time as the economy was going into recession,” Watson says. “And the trustees rightly said it couldn’t proceed with such an ambitious scheme.”
So one of Watson’s priorities was to get the boat museum project on track again. He scaled the scheme back to about half its original size and made a successful application for a £9.4m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Windermere Jetty, as the £13.5m project is now known, has been designed by Carmody Groarke architects, and Real Studios is the exhibition designer. It is scheduled to open in 2016.
The museum will combine the display of an internationally important collection of Windermere boats with a workshop, where visitors will be able to see vessels being conserved and restored. Some of the boats are on the National Historic Fleet register.
“It’s going to be different from the previous museum, but the heritage collection boats will still be at the heart of it because they are really special,” Watson says. “All those boats are associated with Windermere. They all have a local story to tell, but they’re also nationally interesting.”
Moving the boat museum project on was not the only challenge for Watson, who is only the fifth head of the trust since it opened Abbot Hall in 1962.
“We needed to modernise Lakeland Arts and put in place a proper strategic plan,” Watson says. “It was clear that we had to increase earned and grant income, both to strengthen the organisation and to improve what we do.”
Community engagement
It was particularly important to bring in more revenue as Watson wanted to develop the trust’s learning and community engagement programmes.
“Prior to me arriving, the trust had a limited learning programme and virtually no community engagement – for me that was the missing part of the organisation,” he says. “I expect that to be something a museum does regularly and well, but we were doing very little of it.”
These programmes are now embedded in the work of Lakeland Arts. But a key part of developing them, and other areas, has been the partnerships Watson has forged with organisations in Cumbria and beyond.
The lack of partnership working was another area he was concerned about when he joined. The Cumbria Museum Consortium, which features the Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery Trust in Carlisle, the Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere and Lakeland Arts, is one key relationship.
The consortium is funded by Arts Council England (ACE) through its Renaissance Major Grants Programme, with a grant of £3.2m over three years (2012–15).
“It took longer to get it going than we thought,” Watson says. “But when we look back, it’s amazing what we’ve achieved in terms of new things. What’s nice is that
now there’s more cross-organisation and joint working.”
One of the areas that the consortium has worked on is staff development. Watson says this has led to better learning and outreach programmes as well as more ambitious and successful exhibitions.
“One of the things that we’re interested in as part of the Cumbria Museum Consortium is developing the quality of curatorship in this area and recognising that as a rural area you have to try a little bit harder,” he says. “And there’s always the risk in a rural area that you can get out of touch, so we try and directly address that.”
Ambitious programming
Employing ambitious and knowledgeable curatorial staff is linked to Lakeland Arts’ aim of having a broad exhibition programme that covers contemporary, modern and historical art.
The trust is supported in this by being one of the few organisations that receives funding from ACE as a National Portfolio Organisation as well as
a Major Partner Museum as part of the Cumbria Museum Consortium.
“We think carefully about the audience and seasonal changes when we are programming, but we also want to develop and challenge our audience,” Watson says. “There is a recurring theme of using the collection but also the landscape, as we are in an area of outstanding natural beauty.”
Previous exhibitions at Abbot Hall Art Gallery include shows on Barbara Hepworth, Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon, Paula Rego and Patrick Caulfield. This year, its programme includes exhibitions on Canaletto, St Ives artists in the 1950s and portraiture from the Arts Council Collection.
“The Lake District is a popular place with stunning scenery so we have a lot to compete with,” Watson says.
As well as the exhibition programme and the Windermere Jetty project, Lakeland Arts is working on a number of other schemes. One of these is a project to revitalise Blackwell by creating a more immersive experience in the Grade I-listed arts and crafts house and garden. The 1901 building overlooks Windermere and was designed by architect MH Baillie Scott for Sir Edward Holt, a Manchester brewery owner.
Watson says the project will introduce arts and crafts furnishings, objects and textiles to enrich the period rooms. It will tell stories of the people who lived, worked and went to school at Blackwell as well.
The trust is also looking at the potential to redevelop the Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry, which is housed in the coach house and stable block at Abbot Hall.
Recreated period rooms and workshops reveal how rural people lived, worked and played over the years.
“Audiences vary across the three museums and will also be different at Windermere Jetty,” Watson says. “It is important to involve local people all the time, even though they can get swamped by the 15 million visitors each year to South Lakeland, where the resident population is only 100,000. Locals often reflect back to us how important Abbot Hall and Blackwell are to them and how much they welcome seeing art of national significance in Cumbria.”
When Windermere Jetty opens, Lakeland Arts will have a fantastic mix of venues that should prove attractive to tourists and locals alike. And for Watson, it will be a sign that the modernisation of the trust he joined more than four years ago has been a success.
Gordon Watson at a glance
Gordon Watson became the chief executive of Lakeland Arts in 2010.
Previously, he was the project director of the Hepworth Wakefield (2004-10), leading the development of the gallery from writing the vision through to completion of construction. Before that he was the manager of Wakefield’s museums and arts service.
He has a degree in econoamic and social history from Queen’s University, Belfast, a postgraduate certificate in museum studies from the University of Leicester and a diploma in management studies from Sheffield Hallam University.
Lakeland Arts at a glance
Lakeland Arts operates three venues: Abbot Hall Art Gallery and the Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry in Kendal, and Blackwell: The Arts & Crafts House in Bowness.
It is also developing the £13.5m Windermere Jetty, a new museum opening in 2016.
The project is supported by a £9.4m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Lakeland Arts gets about 25% of its revenue from grant income, mainly through Arts Council England as a National Portfolio Organisation and a Major Partner Museum (as part of the Cumbria Museum Consortium).
About 20% of income is from membership, patrons, benefactors and other grants.
The remaining 55% is earned income from activities such as ticket and shop sales.
Lakeland Arts employs the full-time equivalent of 45 staff and has 160 volunteers.
In 2013, Lakeland Arts’ learning and engagement team worked with more than 9,000 people through lectures, workshops, events, school programmes, festivals and off-site activities.