I know it's been around for a long time and that we'll all die in the ditch for it, but what does the word 'museum' really conjure up in the public's mind? A number of positives such as integrity, education, academic and old stuff for sure, but also some negatives such as dry, boring, static, silent and dusty.
At least that's what our focus group in Lincolnshire found. The fact that there were more negatives than positives was worrying, but also the starting point for our rebranding journey. After three years, the new brand was launched last month with a public opening set for June 2005.
'You can't really spend £12.5m building a new museum and then call it the City and County Museum and Usher Gallery, can you?' said the project team and the focus group. Well, actually yes, we could, because that's what the two venerable institutions in Lincoln had been called since 1906 and 1927 respectively.
Just like the de-Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre (incorporating the Mosquito Aircraft Museum), it didn't exactly trip off the tongue but we were hard pressed to come up with an alternative.
We knew what we wanted. Something that was fun, educational, lively, honest, stimulating, responsive, current, inviting, authoritative and of course perfect. Our minds immediately went blank.
A public appeal yielded some interesting ideas: Usher and Banks, as in Usher Gallery and Sir Joseph Banks - sounded like a brewery; Lincs with the Past - a weak pun; The Big Dig - doesn't quite fit for an art collection, and its been used by Time Team; Light on Lincolnshire: A Land Revealed/The Lincolnshire Museum/ the County of Lincoln Museum - all rejected because they didn't encompass the art gallery.
Desperation was setting in. Investigate: Lincolnshire's Museum and Art Gallery was a leading contender for a while. It also picked up on the fact that the new building is located between Flaxengate and Danesgate.
But Investigate was being used in other locations, including the Natural History Museum. It was of course almost universally disliked by staff who thought it was gimmicky, hard work and sounded like a third-rate detective agency.
The breakthrough came at the end of 2003 from one of the project's local sponsors. While working with the museum team it was pointed out that we were constantly extolling the virtues of the collection. So why not call it The Collection? Because, said the critics, it sounds like a compilation CD and it doesn't tell you what we are about: art and archaeology.
OK, so how about if we use The Collection as the title and Art and Archaeology in Lincolnshire as the strapline? In that case it goes beyond the buildings and straight to the heart of the matter. In fact, it does exactly what it says on the tin - or stone in our case.
Why not Art and Archaeology of Lincolnshire? This was debated long and hard, but our collection of more than 2 million objects isn't just from or of Lincolnshire, but it is undeniably in Lincolnshire.
Add our mission to 'inspire enjoyment and understanding' and a new website address www.thecollection.lincoln.museum and Bob's your uncle! Damn that word's back again isn't it...?
Jonathan Platt is the project director of The Collection: Art and Archaeology in Lincolnshire
At least that's what our focus group in Lincolnshire found. The fact that there were more negatives than positives was worrying, but also the starting point for our rebranding journey. After three years, the new brand was launched last month with a public opening set for June 2005.
'You can't really spend £12.5m building a new museum and then call it the City and County Museum and Usher Gallery, can you?' said the project team and the focus group. Well, actually yes, we could, because that's what the two venerable institutions in Lincoln had been called since 1906 and 1927 respectively.
Just like the de-Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre (incorporating the Mosquito Aircraft Museum), it didn't exactly trip off the tongue but we were hard pressed to come up with an alternative.
We knew what we wanted. Something that was fun, educational, lively, honest, stimulating, responsive, current, inviting, authoritative and of course perfect. Our minds immediately went blank.
A public appeal yielded some interesting ideas: Usher and Banks, as in Usher Gallery and Sir Joseph Banks - sounded like a brewery; Lincs with the Past - a weak pun; The Big Dig - doesn't quite fit for an art collection, and its been used by Time Team; Light on Lincolnshire: A Land Revealed/The Lincolnshire Museum/ the County of Lincoln Museum - all rejected because they didn't encompass the art gallery.
Desperation was setting in. Investigate: Lincolnshire's Museum and Art Gallery was a leading contender for a while. It also picked up on the fact that the new building is located between Flaxengate and Danesgate.
But Investigate was being used in other locations, including the Natural History Museum. It was of course almost universally disliked by staff who thought it was gimmicky, hard work and sounded like a third-rate detective agency.
The breakthrough came at the end of 2003 from one of the project's local sponsors. While working with the museum team it was pointed out that we were constantly extolling the virtues of the collection. So why not call it The Collection? Because, said the critics, it sounds like a compilation CD and it doesn't tell you what we are about: art and archaeology.
OK, so how about if we use The Collection as the title and Art and Archaeology in Lincolnshire as the strapline? In that case it goes beyond the buildings and straight to the heart of the matter. In fact, it does exactly what it says on the tin - or stone in our case.
Why not Art and Archaeology of Lincolnshire? This was debated long and hard, but our collection of more than 2 million objects isn't just from or of Lincolnshire, but it is undeniably in Lincolnshire.
Add our mission to 'inspire enjoyment and understanding' and a new website address www.thecollection.lincoln.museum and Bob's your uncle! Damn that word's back again isn't it...?
Jonathan Platt is the project director of The Collection: Art and Archaeology in Lincolnshire
