Signs of hope for those starting their museum careers
As news of redundancies and cuts spilled out from the pages of April's Museums Journal it seems nobody is safe. Some time ago we accepted there are no longer any jobs for life, but now we are told to feel lucky for any job at all. Those struggling at the bottom of the career ladder must feel particularly vulnerable and uncertain. But I believe opportunity is lurking beneath the debris.
Recent Museums Association (MA) research found that some museums are improving the normally pitiful standard of pay at entry level. An example is the Royal Air Force Museum, which has increased the starting salary for its documentation assistant from £12,000 (advertised in 2007) to £16,200 (2008).
In the past museum employers have been accused of adopting a laissez-faire approach to recruitment, exacerbating the difficulties facing new entrants by relying on unpaid voluntary work and escalating qualifications to narrow the field for even the lowest-paid jobs. But again this seems set to change.
In January 2009 an advert for a museum assistant at the British Museum was conspicuous in its omission of all but GCSE qualifications and any previous experience. This signals a significant change from 2006 when a similar job came with a long list of essential requirements.
But will the museum resist the temptation to recruit above the advertised skills, knowledge and experience? I hope so, as the job would be a valuable experience for any novice museum professional.
Not merely surviving but truly flourishing in the early years of a career depends not only on the opportunities given by museum employers but also on an individual's ability to seek out and make the most of those opportunities.
Moving On Up 2009 is a two-day professional development conference designed to help people starting out do just that. Join us on 2-3 July in Manchester, details at the following link: Moving On Up 2009.
Rebecca Jacobs, museum development officer, Museums Association
Bristol protests
As the letter in your magazine indicates (Museums Journal March 2009, p20), Bristol's museums are growing and developing. Recent investments from Bristol City Council; the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council; and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) have created a flourishing centre of excellence here in our city.
Changes since 2006 at the City Museum and Art Gallery have dramatically increased visitor numbers, making it one of the most highly visited regional museums in the country - with attendances up by over 25 per cent in the last four years.
Both Bristol City Council and the HLF have now provided capita funding for a major £24m new museum - the Museum of Bristol - to open in 2011. Other changes in the sector have meant that Bristol, like other hub lead services, will be taking additional responsibilities for the region's museums, with the necessary Renaissance in the Regions funding to come.
However, the opening of the new museum makes it the right time to responsibly review our service overall. Far from weakening the service, that strategic review aims to strengthen museums in Bristol and is not financially driven. It provides an opportunity to develop the relationship between the museum service and the community and consolidate and build on the work of our staff over recent years.
As part of that, we propose to develop a new community engagement team and maintain support for our excellent learning team. We intend to develop new collections that better reflect the diversity of the city today and we aim to create an exciting public programme that appeals to visitors and potential visitors, while also ensuring greater access to collections and archives for research and scholarship.
Alongside all of this, we are determined to foster stronger partnerships with others and make our museums service an even more sustainable organisation at the heart of the city and the region.
Our cultural services have a responsibility to serve all of the community in a dynamic and interactive way. I believe our proposed changes will help achieve this and attract further resources to Bristol in future. Nevertheless, we welcome the views of those with museums experience on the future of this vital service.
Anyone who wishes to contribute to that discussion and can help us improve on our exciting plans can contact Paul Barnett, our head of cultural services, on paul.barnett@bristol.gov.uk
David Bishop, strategic director, city development, Bristol City Council
Cultural vandalism
"A fit of arrogance and short sightedness" was how David Starkey described the University of Southampton's plan to close the Textile Conservation Centre (TCC) on Radio 4's Broadcasting House on 19 April.
But it seems that this is too little too late as the university has confirmed its intention to close the TCC on the 31 October, just nine short years since it moved to the Winchester Campus.
Conservation has been a hugely successful export with UK-trained conservators working across the globe and we have led the global development of the sector with the TCC at the forefront. It has an envious research record and was a successful and thriving institution but that was not enough to save it as it did not fit the required model in terms of its pupil/staff space ratio.
It is for that reason that we should all worry because if we are to measure only the costs of caring for our culture and not the benefits then we will be a poorer country in both cultural and economic terms.
We do need to develop a better understanding of the value of conservation to the economy but we also need to acknowledge that there is an intrinsic need to invest in training if we are to successfully develop and maintain the skills required to preserve our cultural heritage.
The closure is a barbarous act of cultural vandalism which directly threatens the survival of our shared textile heritage and undermines the principle that those that excel should succeed.
I am hopeful that the work being undertaken by the Institute of Conservation Task Force will go some way to address this issue but we need to see a fundamental shift in how we evaluate and fund specialist training if we are not to see other universities follow Southampton's lead.
Simon Cane, head of museum operations, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Come dine with me
Congratulations! Maev Kennedy well summarised our depressing experience of the catering in one large museum after another, mostly managed by local authorities (Museums Journal April 2008, p17).
In one famous north country museum we were hit by the horrid smell of cooking cabbage as soon as we entered the museum! But not all museums are like that. Try Nature in Art, near Gloucester (www.nature-in-art.org.uk).
A nice coffee shop with a view of the sculpture garden and serving a wide variety of nice, homemade food all day. It's so good that some locals take their guests there for a meal rather than a local hotel.
David Trapnell, Gloucester
As news of redundancies and cuts spilled out from the pages of April's Museums Journal it seems nobody is safe. Some time ago we accepted there are no longer any jobs for life, but now we are told to feel lucky for any job at all. Those struggling at the bottom of the career ladder must feel particularly vulnerable and uncertain. But I believe opportunity is lurking beneath the debris.
Recent Museums Association (MA) research found that some museums are improving the normally pitiful standard of pay at entry level. An example is the Royal Air Force Museum, which has increased the starting salary for its documentation assistant from £12,000 (advertised in 2007) to £16,200 (2008).
In the past museum employers have been accused of adopting a laissez-faire approach to recruitment, exacerbating the difficulties facing new entrants by relying on unpaid voluntary work and escalating qualifications to narrow the field for even the lowest-paid jobs. But again this seems set to change.
In January 2009 an advert for a museum assistant at the British Museum was conspicuous in its omission of all but GCSE qualifications and any previous experience. This signals a significant change from 2006 when a similar job came with a long list of essential requirements.
But will the museum resist the temptation to recruit above the advertised skills, knowledge and experience? I hope so, as the job would be a valuable experience for any novice museum professional.
Not merely surviving but truly flourishing in the early years of a career depends not only on the opportunities given by museum employers but also on an individual's ability to seek out and make the most of those opportunities.
Moving On Up 2009 is a two-day professional development conference designed to help people starting out do just that. Join us on 2-3 July in Manchester, details at the following link: Moving On Up 2009.
Rebecca Jacobs, museum development officer, Museums Association
Bristol protests
As the letter in your magazine indicates (Museums Journal March 2009, p20), Bristol's museums are growing and developing. Recent investments from Bristol City Council; the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council; and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) have created a flourishing centre of excellence here in our city.
Changes since 2006 at the City Museum and Art Gallery have dramatically increased visitor numbers, making it one of the most highly visited regional museums in the country - with attendances up by over 25 per cent in the last four years.
Both Bristol City Council and the HLF have now provided capita funding for a major £24m new museum - the Museum of Bristol - to open in 2011. Other changes in the sector have meant that Bristol, like other hub lead services, will be taking additional responsibilities for the region's museums, with the necessary Renaissance in the Regions funding to come.
However, the opening of the new museum makes it the right time to responsibly review our service overall. Far from weakening the service, that strategic review aims to strengthen museums in Bristol and is not financially driven. It provides an opportunity to develop the relationship between the museum service and the community and consolidate and build on the work of our staff over recent years.
As part of that, we propose to develop a new community engagement team and maintain support for our excellent learning team. We intend to develop new collections that better reflect the diversity of the city today and we aim to create an exciting public programme that appeals to visitors and potential visitors, while also ensuring greater access to collections and archives for research and scholarship.
Alongside all of this, we are determined to foster stronger partnerships with others and make our museums service an even more sustainable organisation at the heart of the city and the region.
Our cultural services have a responsibility to serve all of the community in a dynamic and interactive way. I believe our proposed changes will help achieve this and attract further resources to Bristol in future. Nevertheless, we welcome the views of those with museums experience on the future of this vital service.
Anyone who wishes to contribute to that discussion and can help us improve on our exciting plans can contact Paul Barnett, our head of cultural services, on paul.barnett@bristol.gov.uk
David Bishop, strategic director, city development, Bristol City Council
Cultural vandalism
"A fit of arrogance and short sightedness" was how David Starkey described the University of Southampton's plan to close the Textile Conservation Centre (TCC) on Radio 4's Broadcasting House on 19 April.
But it seems that this is too little too late as the university has confirmed its intention to close the TCC on the 31 October, just nine short years since it moved to the Winchester Campus.
Conservation has been a hugely successful export with UK-trained conservators working across the globe and we have led the global development of the sector with the TCC at the forefront. It has an envious research record and was a successful and thriving institution but that was not enough to save it as it did not fit the required model in terms of its pupil/staff space ratio.
It is for that reason that we should all worry because if we are to measure only the costs of caring for our culture and not the benefits then we will be a poorer country in both cultural and economic terms.
We do need to develop a better understanding of the value of conservation to the economy but we also need to acknowledge that there is an intrinsic need to invest in training if we are to successfully develop and maintain the skills required to preserve our cultural heritage.
The closure is a barbarous act of cultural vandalism which directly threatens the survival of our shared textile heritage and undermines the principle that those that excel should succeed.
I am hopeful that the work being undertaken by the Institute of Conservation Task Force will go some way to address this issue but we need to see a fundamental shift in how we evaluate and fund specialist training if we are not to see other universities follow Southampton's lead.
Simon Cane, head of museum operations, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Come dine with me
Congratulations! Maev Kennedy well summarised our depressing experience of the catering in one large museum after another, mostly managed by local authorities (Museums Journal April 2008, p17).
In one famous north country museum we were hit by the horrid smell of cooking cabbage as soon as we entered the museum! But not all museums are like that. Try Nature in Art, near Gloucester (www.nature-in-art.org.uk).
A nice coffee shop with a view of the sculpture garden and serving a wide variety of nice, homemade food all day. It's so good that some locals take their guests there for a meal rather than a local hotel.
David Trapnell, Gloucester
