There must be something appealing about being the director of Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums (TWAM), as Iain Watson’s two most recent predecessors both spent a fair amount of time in their jobs.
Watson took over as director in November last year, replacing Alec Coles, who led TWAM for eight years before being lured to the sunshine of Australia and the directorship of the Western Australian Museum in Perth.
Before Coles, museums in Tyne & Wear were led by David Fleming, now the director of National Museums Liverpool, who spent 11 years in the top role.
In an interview with Museums Journal in 2003, Coles paid tribute to Fleming: “It was his vision of what the service could become which turned the place around from a political laughing stock to a well-respected, high-achieving local service.”
Coles said the challenge for him was “to keep moving forward” and his most obvious achievements were the opening of the £26m Great North Museum in 2009 and the merging of Tyne & Wear Museums with the archives service in the same year.
When Coles became director in 2002 he was looking forward to the museum service becoming a pathfinder hub in the Renaissance in the Regions scheme and was also waiting to hear if the city’s bid to become the European Capital of Culture in 2008 would be a success – it wasn’t, and, ironically, it was Fleming who won that title in Liverpool.
So what kind of museum service has Watson inherited and what are the main challenges that he faces? Like museum and gallery directors all over the UK, his main concern has been getting his budgets sorted out in the face government funding cuts.
“From fairly prudent management we have made the savings we need to make effectively and efficiently, and in partnership with our local authority partners,” Watson says.
The budget has now been set and the corporate plan is in place for this year and next. The aim now will be to keep the finances on track and find new sources of funding to support TWAM’s work.
“We have to realise that museums like our own have to diversify some of our funding,” Watson says. “It is not to change what we do, but we need to generate income to ensure that we continue to deliver our mission to make a difference in people’s lives.”
But it’s not all about trimming budgets and driving down costs, as Watson says he is looking forward to working on projects such as Paul Hamlyn Foundation-funded scheme to encourage community engagement. There are also still aspirations to develop capital projects.
The two most advanced schemes are for the Hatton Gallery and the Laing Art Gallery, which are both in the centre of Newcastle.
The Hatton revamp will be smaller in scale, but completed sooner, while a scheme to extend and enhance the Laing will be in the medium to long-term. Architects Terry Farrell and Partners have already completed a pre-feasibility study for the Laing.
The great north
Watson has experience of capital projects, having worked on the lottery application to secure funding for the Great North Museum.
Seven months of hard work culminated in a desperate dash to get the bid in on time, with Watson having to overcome cancelled trains on the east coast mainline and a tube strike in London. But he reached the Heritage Lottery Fund’s office in London with all the information intact and £9m was in the bag.
It was during this period that Watson got the newly created post of assistant director, which effectively made him Coles’s deputy (the assistant director’s post has not been filled as a cost-saving measure). By this time he had already gained a wide range of experience at a variety of museums.
“I have been incredibly lucky in my career, in that I have managed art galleries, regimental museums, natural history museums, social history museums, transport museums and so on.
"There have not been many types of museums and galleries or local history services that I haven’t actually managed and for some people that might not be something you choose to do because you might want to have a particular specialism and stay with it. But I’ve enjoyed that huge diversity.”
Being a generalist is something that has appealed to Watson from early on: “I was somebody who could never make up their mind whether they wanted to be on the arts side or the science side and I always liked both and wanted to do both. There comes a certain point in your life where you can’t really do both anymore, but I kept it going for as long as I possibly could.”
Watson decided to do degree in archaeological science, then a master’s in methods of archaeology, which he says was quite hard science. He then did some research in Oxford before getting a job in Durham doing analysis of pottery samples.
“I was all set for a career as a researcher until I decided I was not very good at it and didn’t really like it. I was interested by it, but it was not what made me want to get up in the morning. I recognised what actually interested me was the people side of the whole business.”
So Watson changed track and trained to be a secondary school English teacher, which provided a route to a job at Tyne & Wear Museums. He started out at the Wallsend Heritage Centre, the precursor to what is now Segedunum Roman Fort, Baths and Museum and part of the 12-strong family of TWAM venues.
Starting out at a small museum proved a great way to learn the ropes, as it has for so many others in the sector. “I had the most fantastic job as the assistant manager. It was a bit of everything, because there were two of us on the staff.
"You physically built the exhibitions with a saw and a hammer, showed school groups round, planned exhibitions, wrote you own press releases. You literally did everything, but it was a fantastic way to learn a lot of different aspects so I was very, very lucky to do that.”
Watson spent six years at Tyne & Wear Museums, including a stint as the keeper of science collections, before moving to Durham County Council for a job looking after archaeology and local history across libraries and museums.
This involved activities such as organising local history events in mining villages across Durham and Watson describes it as “great fun, a lovely job”.
He then returned to Tyne & Wear Museums in 2001 as manager of the Hancock Museum. Like Coles before him, Watson is keen to use the strong identity and cohesiveness of the north east to benefit TWAM.
He says even before the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council was abolished and its responsibilities were taken over by Arts Council England, he had a strong relationship with the head of the region’s arts council, which he will now be able to build on as the new relationship takes shape.
Family values
“They say everybody in the north east is related, so we have always had a close relationship with arts council. As soon as we started to get an idea of what was happening I picked the phone up to our regional director and said we need to talk about this. We meet once a month anyway.”
And forums such as the Newcastle and Gateshead Cultural Partnership allow him to expand TWAM’s work beyond the confines of museums and archives.
“We do try to be very, very broad and engage in things that are outside what museums normally do,” he says. “I don’t see the borders between arts and culture, we are all part of the same business.”
As well as the benefits of working in the north east, Watson also has a personal attachment to the region, having grown up there.
“It’s a great place to live and work. You are very connected and there is great cultural scene and fantastic heritage. You have that mix of big enough conurbations to have an impact and a sense of place but also lovely countryside and the coast on your doorstep.”
With a job he enjoys, and new challenges on the horizon, in a region that he grew up in and obviously has great affection for, it looks likely that Watson will stick around as Tyne & Wear’s director, even if he does hear tales from Coles about the fantastic weather in Western Australia.
Iain Watson was appointed director of Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums (TWAM) in November 2010.
He was acting director from March 2010 after Alec Coles left to become the director of the Western Australian Museum in Perth.
Watson started his museum career at Tyne & Wear Museums before moving to Durham County Council to oversee archaeology and local history across libraries and museums. He returned to Tyne & Wear Museums in 2001 as manager of the Hancock Museum.
He has been a member of TWAM’s senior management team since 2001.
Watson is a director of Audio Visual Arts North East, a board member of the Tyne & Wear Area Tourism Partnership and a lay member of Newcastle University’s Ethics Committee. He is also the Museums Association’s representative in the north east.
Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums employs about 335 people and has an annual turnover of over £17m.
It manages 12 museums across five local authorities: Newcastle (which acts as lead authority and legal body), Sunderland, South Tyneside, North Tyneside, and Gateshead. It also receives funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
TWAM is supported by the Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums Development Trust, which was established in December 2010 to raise funds from individual donors, trusts and foundations.
Watson took over as director in November last year, replacing Alec Coles, who led TWAM for eight years before being lured to the sunshine of Australia and the directorship of the Western Australian Museum in Perth.
Before Coles, museums in Tyne & Wear were led by David Fleming, now the director of National Museums Liverpool, who spent 11 years in the top role.
In an interview with Museums Journal in 2003, Coles paid tribute to Fleming: “It was his vision of what the service could become which turned the place around from a political laughing stock to a well-respected, high-achieving local service.”
Coles said the challenge for him was “to keep moving forward” and his most obvious achievements were the opening of the £26m Great North Museum in 2009 and the merging of Tyne & Wear Museums with the archives service in the same year.
When Coles became director in 2002 he was looking forward to the museum service becoming a pathfinder hub in the Renaissance in the Regions scheme and was also waiting to hear if the city’s bid to become the European Capital of Culture in 2008 would be a success – it wasn’t, and, ironically, it was Fleming who won that title in Liverpool.
So what kind of museum service has Watson inherited and what are the main challenges that he faces? Like museum and gallery directors all over the UK, his main concern has been getting his budgets sorted out in the face government funding cuts.
“From fairly prudent management we have made the savings we need to make effectively and efficiently, and in partnership with our local authority partners,” Watson says.
The budget has now been set and the corporate plan is in place for this year and next. The aim now will be to keep the finances on track and find new sources of funding to support TWAM’s work.
“We have to realise that museums like our own have to diversify some of our funding,” Watson says. “It is not to change what we do, but we need to generate income to ensure that we continue to deliver our mission to make a difference in people’s lives.”
But it’s not all about trimming budgets and driving down costs, as Watson says he is looking forward to working on projects such as Paul Hamlyn Foundation-funded scheme to encourage community engagement. There are also still aspirations to develop capital projects.
The two most advanced schemes are for the Hatton Gallery and the Laing Art Gallery, which are both in the centre of Newcastle.
The Hatton revamp will be smaller in scale, but completed sooner, while a scheme to extend and enhance the Laing will be in the medium to long-term. Architects Terry Farrell and Partners have already completed a pre-feasibility study for the Laing.
The great north
Watson has experience of capital projects, having worked on the lottery application to secure funding for the Great North Museum.
Seven months of hard work culminated in a desperate dash to get the bid in on time, with Watson having to overcome cancelled trains on the east coast mainline and a tube strike in London. But he reached the Heritage Lottery Fund’s office in London with all the information intact and £9m was in the bag.
It was during this period that Watson got the newly created post of assistant director, which effectively made him Coles’s deputy (the assistant director’s post has not been filled as a cost-saving measure). By this time he had already gained a wide range of experience at a variety of museums.
“I have been incredibly lucky in my career, in that I have managed art galleries, regimental museums, natural history museums, social history museums, transport museums and so on.
"There have not been many types of museums and galleries or local history services that I haven’t actually managed and for some people that might not be something you choose to do because you might want to have a particular specialism and stay with it. But I’ve enjoyed that huge diversity.”
Being a generalist is something that has appealed to Watson from early on: “I was somebody who could never make up their mind whether they wanted to be on the arts side or the science side and I always liked both and wanted to do both. There comes a certain point in your life where you can’t really do both anymore, but I kept it going for as long as I possibly could.”
Watson decided to do degree in archaeological science, then a master’s in methods of archaeology, which he says was quite hard science. He then did some research in Oxford before getting a job in Durham doing analysis of pottery samples.
“I was all set for a career as a researcher until I decided I was not very good at it and didn’t really like it. I was interested by it, but it was not what made me want to get up in the morning. I recognised what actually interested me was the people side of the whole business.”
So Watson changed track and trained to be a secondary school English teacher, which provided a route to a job at Tyne & Wear Museums. He started out at the Wallsend Heritage Centre, the precursor to what is now Segedunum Roman Fort, Baths and Museum and part of the 12-strong family of TWAM venues.
Starting out at a small museum proved a great way to learn the ropes, as it has for so many others in the sector. “I had the most fantastic job as the assistant manager. It was a bit of everything, because there were two of us on the staff.
"You physically built the exhibitions with a saw and a hammer, showed school groups round, planned exhibitions, wrote you own press releases. You literally did everything, but it was a fantastic way to learn a lot of different aspects so I was very, very lucky to do that.”
Watson spent six years at Tyne & Wear Museums, including a stint as the keeper of science collections, before moving to Durham County Council for a job looking after archaeology and local history across libraries and museums.
This involved activities such as organising local history events in mining villages across Durham and Watson describes it as “great fun, a lovely job”.
He then returned to Tyne & Wear Museums in 2001 as manager of the Hancock Museum. Like Coles before him, Watson is keen to use the strong identity and cohesiveness of the north east to benefit TWAM.
He says even before the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council was abolished and its responsibilities were taken over by Arts Council England, he had a strong relationship with the head of the region’s arts council, which he will now be able to build on as the new relationship takes shape.
Family values
“They say everybody in the north east is related, so we have always had a close relationship with arts council. As soon as we started to get an idea of what was happening I picked the phone up to our regional director and said we need to talk about this. We meet once a month anyway.”
And forums such as the Newcastle and Gateshead Cultural Partnership allow him to expand TWAM’s work beyond the confines of museums and archives.
“We do try to be very, very broad and engage in things that are outside what museums normally do,” he says. “I don’t see the borders between arts and culture, we are all part of the same business.”
As well as the benefits of working in the north east, Watson also has a personal attachment to the region, having grown up there.
“It’s a great place to live and work. You are very connected and there is great cultural scene and fantastic heritage. You have that mix of big enough conurbations to have an impact and a sense of place but also lovely countryside and the coast on your doorstep.”
With a job he enjoys, and new challenges on the horizon, in a region that he grew up in and obviously has great affection for, it looks likely that Watson will stick around as Tyne & Wear’s director, even if he does hear tales from Coles about the fantastic weather in Western Australia.
Iain Watson at a glance
Iain Watson was appointed director of Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums (TWAM) in November 2010.
He was acting director from March 2010 after Alec Coles left to become the director of the Western Australian Museum in Perth.
Watson started his museum career at Tyne & Wear Museums before moving to Durham County Council to oversee archaeology and local history across libraries and museums. He returned to Tyne & Wear Museums in 2001 as manager of the Hancock Museum.
He has been a member of TWAM’s senior management team since 2001.
Watson is a director of Audio Visual Arts North East, a board member of the Tyne & Wear Area Tourism Partnership and a lay member of Newcastle University’s Ethics Committee. He is also the Museums Association’s representative in the north east.
Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums at a glance
Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums employs about 335 people and has an annual turnover of over £17m.
It manages 12 museums across five local authorities: Newcastle (which acts as lead authority and legal body), Sunderland, South Tyneside, North Tyneside, and Gateshead. It also receives funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
TWAM is supported by the Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums Development Trust, which was established in December 2010 to raise funds from individual donors, trusts and foundations.