Drawing on the motivational speeches of a presidential campaign and the best-practice mantra of Bob the Builder, museum development officers (MDOs) instil a “yes-we-can” culture in the heritage sector.
“Our purpose is to support, offer a shoulder to cry on or a hand to hold, chivvy people along and act as a conduit for all the information flying around between government and sector organisations, local people and museums on our patch,” says Glynis Powell, community museums officer for Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull.
By and large, MDOs operate – and receive their funding – according to the needs of their communities. A one-size-fits-all job description would be impracticable and a recent Museums, Libraries and Archives Council report (Review of Museum Development by Jura Consultants) highlighted the range of ways in which they go about their business.
While some are employed in local authority HQs, others are museum based under the aegis of the Renaissance in the Regions programme, and hand out technical assistance and advice on issues such as accreditation and fundraising to the people who need it most.
“In my area, there are 40 or so bodies – from large independents to smaller museums, voluntary organisations and heritage groups with collections – and we create a network for them to talk to each other and connect with professionals,” says Powell.
“It is important because a lot of them run small museums in towns and villages, but don’t necessarily see themselves as part of the museum community.”
Unlike many of her colleagues who were seconded from the county museum service, Powell came to her post from a media training background, gaining qualifications and changing careers mid-stream to make use of her enthusiasm for all things historical.
“I felt naive initially, but now I find my previous career useful as I do a lot of marketing, governance, training and coaching,” she says.
Powell is the first point of contact for the Museum Development Network, which was created to help MDOs work together more effectively. She also serves as the MDO representative on the national council of the Association of Independent Museums, an organisation that fully recognises the value of the job.
“MDOs are seen as generalists, people who can advocate on behalf of smaller museums,” says Powell. “We’re there for the long haul and are not constantly being battered by changing targets and initiatives, so we can help with sustainability.
“We could be encouraged to do things more strategically, but sometimes strategy means distance. Organisations don’t want to be spoken down to from on high, they want to be, and feel, included. MDOs are best placed to do that, rather than simply passing on outcomes that aren’t relevant to what’s happening locally.”
Powell highlights the turnaround of one of her local organisations as an example of the effectiveness of the MDOs’ approach. “For a long time, I couldn’t contact anyone connected with a small museum of country bygones and I eventually gave up. Then, out of the blue, a parish councillor rang to ask for help.
"It transpired the man who ran the museum had died years before and the council was wondering if it should be closed or developed. We formed a support group in the village, helped with the governance and documentation, and brought in experts to assess the collection. Now, they’re standing on their own feet.”
Jamie Everitt is a prime example of how MDOs move in mysterious ways. He’s em-ployed by Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service but funded by Renaissance and based at Cromer Museum, where he can call on a variety of colleagues for expert help.
“It’s an important role in rural areas,” he says. “In north Norfolk, there is a cluster of specialist museums varying hugely in size. But they are a major part of the tourist economy.”
Providing a wide range of help
Everitt helps museums with fundraising efforts and grant applications, offers advice and mentoring, and has done some curating.
“A museum called earlier this year to say the volunteer curator had left midway through creating a new exhibition, so I went in to advise on how to finish the work and get the show up and running. The job ranges from direct intervention such as that to the more abstract planning and pulling together of partnerships.”
MDOs carry out huge amounts of that kind of valuable work and there wouldn’t be so many museums reaching accreditation standards without them, says Adrian Babbidge of the Egeria heritage consultancy.
“But the local and national structures are uneven now and likely to get even worse,” he says. “At the moment, much of what they do is work formerly done by the old Area Museums Councils, but there is no other national strategy for supporting smaller museums.
“In the future, the cultural spend is likely to decrease, and the challenge is going to be sustaining MDOs from area to area because the work they do could be seen as low priority.”
Maurice Davies, head of policy and communication at the Museums Association, agrees: “Regional support and development for smaller museums in England is in chaos. It’s unclear what the medium-term plan is for sorting that out, particularly if there are big changes to how Renaissance is structured.
“In that context, MDOs do a fantastic job, particularly in areas such as helping museums of most shapes and sizes to be greener and to think more about income generation.”
The East Midlands has a distinct MDO programme, based on a successful model established by Leicestershire County Council, which now manages the regional MDO network.
“The team doesn’t have the problem experienced elsewhere of being individuals with different terms and conditions employed by different local authorities and answering to different agendas,” says Claire Browne, regional museum development network manager.
“Some parts of the country have low-level, hands-on support for groups of museums, but we have taken the approach that MDOs have a strategic role to play.
“Instead of filling in accession registers, for example, we concentrate on raising the profiles of museums in our cities and counties, working with tourism and other development agencies, and ensuring museums are at those tables because they traditionally don’t have that sort of voice as individuals.”
There is, however, a misconception that MDOs are a low-level priority in the museum pecking order, admits Browne.
“There are jobs that museum people understand fully, such as curators, educators and marketers, but they don’t get what museum development is about until they have close contact with it. They then recognise the significance of the role in an environment where the majority of museums are not populated by people with a heritage background.”
Regional differences
She says that there is an apparent disparity between what MDOs do in different areas of the country, but that diversity is their strength.
“An over-arching structure may be fine, but you have to have people who know their patch, who understand the subtleties and how museums at different levels may need intervention at different levels.”
Hannah Gould, for example, had little idea how many museums were in Lincolnshire when she was appointed the county’s MDO.
“Lots of places started coming out of the woodwork and I now have more than 70,” she says. “There is no way I could have one-to-one relationships with them all, so the job is more about brokering support and building self-help networks that are self-sustaining, as opposed to a sticking-plaster approach.”
Lincolnshire is home to several aviation museums and airfields, and Gould helped establish an integrated aviation heritage project with Heritage Lottery Fund money that brought them together with local councils and tourism bodies.
In turn, that network is now supporting other museums with business development and practical advice.
“I see my job as helping to build more sustainable communities. We just do that through these things called museums,” says Gould.
Responding to local desires is the key, says Susan Eddisford, community museums officer based at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery in Exeter.
“The job takes in traditional grassroots stuff to all aspects of management, including improving practice, collection care and ensuring legal boxes such as disability access, childcare and health and safety are ticked,” she says.
Eddisford, a former teacher, also advises on curatorial concerns, accreditation applications, skills analysis and training courses.
“Being based in a hub museum, I act as the link between the hub, the Renaissance programme and the museum community. A lot of the work is translation – people need to know that ‘outcomes’ are results, for example. The language can be a little strange if you’re not used to it, so clear communication is vital.
“Mostly, the job is about reassuring those museums with self-esteem issues who often refer to themselves as ‘non-professionals’. We help them realise their potential. We really do tell them ‘yes, you can’.”
John Holt is a freelance journalist
www.museumdevelopmentnetwork.org.uk
- North-west: Six posts
Renaissance - North-east: One post
Renaissance - Yorkshire and Humber: Five posts
Renaissance - West Midlands: Eight posts
Seven Renaissance, one local authority funded - East Midlands: Six posts
Five Renaissance, one local authority funded - East of England: 13.6 posts
11.6 Renaissance funded, 2.6 FTE local authority funded - London: Six posts
Renaissance - South-west: 13.5 posts
Three fully funded by local authority, remainder partnership funded by local authority and Renaissance - South-east: 5.6 posts
Renaissance or MLA
Source: Review of Museum Development, Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, December 2009