Southampton City Council has restructured its arts and heritage service ahead of a collections review in February.
Arts and heritage manager Janet Owen said the makeup of the service had changed from several small teams focused on curatorial subjects and venues to four larger, task-focused teams.
These will cover collections access and care, learning and interpretation, visitor services and venue management, and business development. The four teams are working across the City Art Gallery, Museum of Archaeology, Southampton Maritime Museum and archives.
The restructure resulted in the equivalent of 22.59 full-time posts being replaced by 24.5 on 1 November. One member of staff, formerly in a curatorial post, was placed on the council's redeployment register. Owen added that the council was reviewing its provision of front-of-house staff, but no decisions had yet been made.
Following the restructure, the council is to review its collections, which comprise 3 million items in 12 sites across the city. The plan is to consolidate collections at a handful of larger sites to enable better stewardship.
Owen hopes to complete the review by September, when items that do not fit in with the core collection will be identified for disposal.
She refuted claims by the local press that councillors had set a target for revenue from disposal.
But she added: "We were asked by the cabinet if there is material of value that falls outside the core collection, that ethically, within the remit of the Museums Association's (MA) guidelines, and through open dialogue with the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and the MA, we could sell and reinvest in the collections."
Maurice Davies, the MA's deputy director, told Museums Journal: "As long as public benefit is the driving force for the collections review, and the review is being done for long-term reasons, then it is desirable - even essential."
Arts and heritage manager Janet Owen said the makeup of the service had changed from several small teams focused on curatorial subjects and venues to four larger, task-focused teams.
These will cover collections access and care, learning and interpretation, visitor services and venue management, and business development. The four teams are working across the City Art Gallery, Museum of Archaeology, Southampton Maritime Museum and archives.
The restructure resulted in the equivalent of 22.59 full-time posts being replaced by 24.5 on 1 November. One member of staff, formerly in a curatorial post, was placed on the council's redeployment register. Owen added that the council was reviewing its provision of front-of-house staff, but no decisions had yet been made.
Following the restructure, the council is to review its collections, which comprise 3 million items in 12 sites across the city. The plan is to consolidate collections at a handful of larger sites to enable better stewardship.
Owen hopes to complete the review by September, when items that do not fit in with the core collection will be identified for disposal.
She refuted claims by the local press that councillors had set a target for revenue from disposal.
But she added: "We were asked by the cabinet if there is material of value that falls outside the core collection, that ethically, within the remit of the Museums Association's (MA) guidelines, and through open dialogue with the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and the MA, we could sell and reinvest in the collections."
Maurice Davies, the MA's deputy director, told Museums Journal: "As long as public benefit is the driving force for the collections review, and the review is being done for long-term reasons, then it is desirable - even essential."
