Coming from a local authority background, John Roles, the head of Leeds Museums and Galleries, knows a few tricks of the trade when it comes to impressing council bigwigs, or, as the jargon has it, "key stakeholders and people of influence".
It can often be as simple as breaking down local politicians' preconceptions: "You still get reactions such as: 'Art is just for poncey southerners,' so you tell them 500,000 people visit your site and 75 per cent of them are from the locality."
Alternatively, it can be making sure that visiting dignitaries coincide with school parties or that they are welcomed by particularly enthusiastic members of staff, adds Roles.
"Always give the impression something interesting is happening and demonstrate that curators aren't simply there to carry out esoteric research in elbow patches, but can actually engage the public in what they do."
Surprisingly, large numbers of local authority councillors can still be ignorant about what museums actually get involved in, he adds.
"I was once dragged in front of a committee to justify the approach we were intending to take on a new project. I think they intended to indulge in some museum bashing, but I turned it into a selling job; did they have any idea, for example, how many items we loaned abroad and did they know we had nationally important collections? Many hadn't a clue.
"My site keepers produce quarterly reports which are now circulated to officers and politicians. We actually get feedback saying: 'This is amazing.' It's all about winning people over," says Roles, who believes advocacy is critical in uncertain financial times.
Equipping museum staff with the skills and confidence required to make a strong case to their local funders and stakeholders is the primary focus of a new Museums Association (MA) advocacy campaign, says the organisation's deputy director, Maurice Davies.
"Museums that are going to thrive will want to have awareness and, ideally, respect and recognition for what they do in a wide range of areas. Teaming up with local tourism, education or social services organisations, for example, seems a pretty obvious thing to do. But this is still often done either very informally or in an ad hoc fashion."
There is evidence that the best advocates, particularly to private donors, are the specialist curators themselves, adds Davies: "They can tell accurate stories about the work they have done and the potential for what could be realised with further investment."
But any refined focus on advocacy must look to the long term, he says. "Organisations need to be constantly making their case and not simply look at it as something that happens every few years when there's a potential change of government or another spending review."
Establishing the Museum of East Anglian Life at the heart of its community in Suffolk has been a work-in-progress for four years. Not only does the 75-acre site provide a popular oasis and considerable income for the town of Stowmarket, its entrepreneurial spirit and strong social conscience continually drive new ways of improving the lives of local people, engaging new audiences and attracting potential funders.
"Museums should be a force for good that provide people with the experiences they need to look at the world differently and to feel good about themselves," says the museum's director Tony Butler, who arrived at the organisation in 2005 to find dangerously low levels of self-esteem and revenue.
He set out to create a feelgood factor with values based on the can-do cultures engendered by the likes of Big Issue founder John Bird, TV chef Jamie Oliver and social housing activist Iain Tuckett. He sought mutually beneficial partnerships with schools, community groups, businesses and prisons.
The museum set up its own social enterprise two years ago aimed at offering a wide range of wellbeing activities while bringing in some much-needed income. The long-term unemployed, offenders and people with disabilities were encouraged to develop new skills through environmental and construction work at the site. There are now many volunteers among the museum's 180-strong workforce.
The museum's horticultural business has a contract to supply hanging baskets to the local council and strategic partnerships are just as important on the bigger stages; Butler has been building alliances to help the museum with an application for a large Heritage Lottery Fund grant towards the cost of renovating Abbot's Hall, a Queen Anne house in its grounds.
"There are so many local people working here with a stake in how the museum is run and we involve them in the decision-making process. They are all advocates for this place with the kind of evangelism you can't get across in a PowerPoint presentation."
As director of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM), Alec Coles runs 12 different institutions on behalf of 10 funding clients, including five local authorities and a university.
"Some people might ask: 'How can you advocate all those with conviction?' I argue that, in many ways, it makes you more effective as you are truly making the case for a cause and a principle rather than one self-interested group."
Coles believes advocacy by achievement is vital, as people prefer to be associated with a success story, but care should be taken to prevent the process being misused.
"There's a problem when it becomes simply a cipher for 'Save our museums'. It should be a positive thing. We talk about helping people determine their place in the world and having respect for themselves and others. Some eyebrows are raised at what could be seen as an odd mission statement for a museum.
"But every new project is mapped against our priority areas such as young people, communities and regeneration. Obviously, I can't prove that people live longer because we have good museums but I can say that our staff use those guidelines as a touchstone for the way they work."
It can lead to some enterprising relationships such as TWAM's tie-in with Northumbrian Water, which sponsors the museums' environment project and supported this summer's refurbishment of the Play Tyne Gallery at the Discovery Museum. In return, Coles was asked to chair the utility company's stakeholder group.
Meanwhile, a 2001 local authority best value review remains one of the most effective pieces of advocacy carried out in Glasgow, according to Mark O'Neill, head of arts and museums for Culture and Sport Glasgow.
"Many people saw the process as an bureaucratic straitjacket, but as we were on the verge of financial collapse at the time, we used it in a very positive way by setting up a cross-party review group that heard submissions from a range of parties," says O'Neill.
He remembers consulting focus groups made up of visitors and non-visitors alike on a variety of topics.
"We asked them about conservation and collections management, not the stuff it's assumed the public are interested in. People were genuinely shocked at how badly some of the work was done.
"They said things like: 'Why don't you know where everything is, don't you have an inventory?' After a half-hour presentation, people who had never been in a museum in their lives helped define a policy we have worked with for years."
Since then, O'Neill adds, the city has spent some £18m on improved storage and the stores are now accessible seven days a week. About 30,000 visitors are expected each year following last month's opening of an extension to the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre. "Advocacy needs to be structured and based on long-term thinking," adds O'Neill.
Nearly 10 years after financial meltdown was averted, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, which reopened in 2006 after a £27.9m redevelopment, stands as a testament to what can be achieved through hard graft and the right word in the right ear.
"People forget that, back in 1997, our first lottery application for Kelvingrove was rejected," says O'Neill. "That, combined with losing some of our staff budgets, really galvanized us.
"By the time of our second application, we had made the case and we had hundreds of letters of support. People love museums, but there often isn't a way for them to express it or for us to harness it."
John Holt is a freelance journalist
It can often be as simple as breaking down local politicians' preconceptions: "You still get reactions such as: 'Art is just for poncey southerners,' so you tell them 500,000 people visit your site and 75 per cent of them are from the locality."
Alternatively, it can be making sure that visiting dignitaries coincide with school parties or that they are welcomed by particularly enthusiastic members of staff, adds Roles.
"Always give the impression something interesting is happening and demonstrate that curators aren't simply there to carry out esoteric research in elbow patches, but can actually engage the public in what they do."
Surprisingly, large numbers of local authority councillors can still be ignorant about what museums actually get involved in, he adds.
"I was once dragged in front of a committee to justify the approach we were intending to take on a new project. I think they intended to indulge in some museum bashing, but I turned it into a selling job; did they have any idea, for example, how many items we loaned abroad and did they know we had nationally important collections? Many hadn't a clue.
"My site keepers produce quarterly reports which are now circulated to officers and politicians. We actually get feedback saying: 'This is amazing.' It's all about winning people over," says Roles, who believes advocacy is critical in uncertain financial times.
Equipping museum staff with the skills and confidence required to make a strong case to their local funders and stakeholders is the primary focus of a new Museums Association (MA) advocacy campaign, says the organisation's deputy director, Maurice Davies.
"Museums that are going to thrive will want to have awareness and, ideally, respect and recognition for what they do in a wide range of areas. Teaming up with local tourism, education or social services organisations, for example, seems a pretty obvious thing to do. But this is still often done either very informally or in an ad hoc fashion."
There is evidence that the best advocates, particularly to private donors, are the specialist curators themselves, adds Davies: "They can tell accurate stories about the work they have done and the potential for what could be realised with further investment."
But any refined focus on advocacy must look to the long term, he says. "Organisations need to be constantly making their case and not simply look at it as something that happens every few years when there's a potential change of government or another spending review."
Establishing the Museum of East Anglian Life at the heart of its community in Suffolk has been a work-in-progress for four years. Not only does the 75-acre site provide a popular oasis and considerable income for the town of Stowmarket, its entrepreneurial spirit and strong social conscience continually drive new ways of improving the lives of local people, engaging new audiences and attracting potential funders.
"Museums should be a force for good that provide people with the experiences they need to look at the world differently and to feel good about themselves," says the museum's director Tony Butler, who arrived at the organisation in 2005 to find dangerously low levels of self-esteem and revenue.
He set out to create a feelgood factor with values based on the can-do cultures engendered by the likes of Big Issue founder John Bird, TV chef Jamie Oliver and social housing activist Iain Tuckett. He sought mutually beneficial partnerships with schools, community groups, businesses and prisons.
The museum set up its own social enterprise two years ago aimed at offering a wide range of wellbeing activities while bringing in some much-needed income. The long-term unemployed, offenders and people with disabilities were encouraged to develop new skills through environmental and construction work at the site. There are now many volunteers among the museum's 180-strong workforce.
The museum's horticultural business has a contract to supply hanging baskets to the local council and strategic partnerships are just as important on the bigger stages; Butler has been building alliances to help the museum with an application for a large Heritage Lottery Fund grant towards the cost of renovating Abbot's Hall, a Queen Anne house in its grounds.
"There are so many local people working here with a stake in how the museum is run and we involve them in the decision-making process. They are all advocates for this place with the kind of evangelism you can't get across in a PowerPoint presentation."
As director of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM), Alec Coles runs 12 different institutions on behalf of 10 funding clients, including five local authorities and a university.
"Some people might ask: 'How can you advocate all those with conviction?' I argue that, in many ways, it makes you more effective as you are truly making the case for a cause and a principle rather than one self-interested group."
Coles believes advocacy by achievement is vital, as people prefer to be associated with a success story, but care should be taken to prevent the process being misused.
"There's a problem when it becomes simply a cipher for 'Save our museums'. It should be a positive thing. We talk about helping people determine their place in the world and having respect for themselves and others. Some eyebrows are raised at what could be seen as an odd mission statement for a museum.
"But every new project is mapped against our priority areas such as young people, communities and regeneration. Obviously, I can't prove that people live longer because we have good museums but I can say that our staff use those guidelines as a touchstone for the way they work."
It can lead to some enterprising relationships such as TWAM's tie-in with Northumbrian Water, which sponsors the museums' environment project and supported this summer's refurbishment of the Play Tyne Gallery at the Discovery Museum. In return, Coles was asked to chair the utility company's stakeholder group.
Meanwhile, a 2001 local authority best value review remains one of the most effective pieces of advocacy carried out in Glasgow, according to Mark O'Neill, head of arts and museums for Culture and Sport Glasgow.
"Many people saw the process as an bureaucratic straitjacket, but as we were on the verge of financial collapse at the time, we used it in a very positive way by setting up a cross-party review group that heard submissions from a range of parties," says O'Neill.
He remembers consulting focus groups made up of visitors and non-visitors alike on a variety of topics.
"We asked them about conservation and collections management, not the stuff it's assumed the public are interested in. People were genuinely shocked at how badly some of the work was done.
"They said things like: 'Why don't you know where everything is, don't you have an inventory?' After a half-hour presentation, people who had never been in a museum in their lives helped define a policy we have worked with for years."
Since then, O'Neill adds, the city has spent some £18m on improved storage and the stores are now accessible seven days a week. About 30,000 visitors are expected each year following last month's opening of an extension to the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre. "Advocacy needs to be structured and based on long-term thinking," adds O'Neill.
Nearly 10 years after financial meltdown was averted, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, which reopened in 2006 after a £27.9m redevelopment, stands as a testament to what can be achieved through hard graft and the right word in the right ear.
"People forget that, back in 1997, our first lottery application for Kelvingrove was rejected," says O'Neill. "That, combined with losing some of our staff budgets, really galvanized us.
"By the time of our second application, we had made the case and we had hundreds of letters of support. People love museums, but there often isn't a way for them to express it or for us to harness it."
John Holt is a freelance journalist
Links
www.museumsassociation.org/campaigns
www.museumsassociation.org/campaigns