“Social impact is what museums are for,” Frank Olding, heritage officer for Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council, told delegates at the session Change Lives, Change People at the Museums Association conference in Liverpool yesterday.
“The best museums are run by their communities,” he said. “[At Blaenau Gwent] we don’t actually run any museums, we have five voluntary museums and we facilitate their work. Four of the five are accredited.
“And if our museums are to have real social impact the trustees have to be drawn from the communities that the museums are there to help.” Esme Ward, head of learning and engagement at the Manchester Museum and Whitworth Art Gallery, cited Thomas Horsfall, the founder of the Manchester Art Museum, as being ahead of his time in this respect, pointing to the museum’s 1905-6 winter programme which included craft classes in woodwork and drawing, a rambling club, free music, lectures, children concerts and readings.
Horsfall’s museum also had a resident poor man’s lawyer, and was open late and on Sundays so that working people could visit.
Perhaps, she suggested, the museum of the future could be inspired by a museum of the past.
John Coburn, digital coordinator, Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums, said museums could learn from the ethos of Timespace, a New York Times (NYT initiative inviting entrepreneurs to base themselves in the NYT office and grow their business within the NYT.
The New Museum in New York does a similar thing, he said, providing space for around 70 people, supporting them to develop ideas linked to museum’s art, design and technology focus.
Hilary Jennings, a happiness consultant with The Happy Museum Project, said museums could provide a space to imagine a different future.
“[Museums can be] where people learn new things, play, and have their spirits lifted, valuing the environment and being stewards of the future as well as the past. In this way museums can help citizens understand link between the local and the global.”
Maurice Davies, the Museums Association’s head of policy and communications, who was chairing the session, said: “If there is a single key message of Museums Change Lives, it is that museums should think more explicitly about their impact, and the outcomes they will have for people and places.”
Click here to pledge your support for Museums Change Lives
“The best museums are run by their communities,” he said. “[At Blaenau Gwent] we don’t actually run any museums, we have five voluntary museums and we facilitate their work. Four of the five are accredited.
“And if our museums are to have real social impact the trustees have to be drawn from the communities that the museums are there to help.” Esme Ward, head of learning and engagement at the Manchester Museum and Whitworth Art Gallery, cited Thomas Horsfall, the founder of the Manchester Art Museum, as being ahead of his time in this respect, pointing to the museum’s 1905-6 winter programme which included craft classes in woodwork and drawing, a rambling club, free music, lectures, children concerts and readings.
Horsfall’s museum also had a resident poor man’s lawyer, and was open late and on Sundays so that working people could visit.
Perhaps, she suggested, the museum of the future could be inspired by a museum of the past.
John Coburn, digital coordinator, Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums, said museums could learn from the ethos of Timespace, a New York Times (NYT initiative inviting entrepreneurs to base themselves in the NYT office and grow their business within the NYT.
The New Museum in New York does a similar thing, he said, providing space for around 70 people, supporting them to develop ideas linked to museum’s art, design and technology focus.
Hilary Jennings, a happiness consultant with The Happy Museum Project, said museums could provide a space to imagine a different future.
“[Museums can be] where people learn new things, play, and have their spirits lifted, valuing the environment and being stewards of the future as well as the past. In this way museums can help citizens understand link between the local and the global.”
Maurice Davies, the Museums Association’s head of policy and communications, who was chairing the session, said: “If there is a single key message of Museums Change Lives, it is that museums should think more explicitly about their impact, and the outcomes they will have for people and places.”
Click here to pledge your support for Museums Change Lives
