What is the Museum Standards Program

In December 2011, eleven museums from the East Coast region completed the Museum Standards Program. To celebrate their (and past participants) achievements Museums & Galleries NSW has put  together a video that highlights the strengths, opportunities, and incredible experiences for museums who have chosen to embark on the Program.

Congratulations to South East Museums!

The Standards Program journey has finally come to an end for eleven museums in the South East region who participated in our 2011 program.

Yesterday Michael, Andrew, Sarah-Jane and I joined South East Arts, local council and other supporters of the museums in Cooma to congratulate the participants on their great achievement. Everyone put in so many volunteer hours and hard work to improve their museums and, despite some very challenging moments, persevered to the finishing line!

Before the celebrations began, each museum had a chance to talk to the group about their experiences in taking on the program. Everyone described significant challenges but also rewarding experiences.

Some of the great feedback we got included ‘the Standards Program got us to focus on what we have as well as what’s missing’; ‘participating in the program brought us together so we know each other’, and ‘we found the independent view and positive feedback about our displays and museum valuable.’ 

Part of the Standards Program includes on site reviews of each participant by Standards Reviewers. It was clear that all the museums appreciated the huge amount of advice and assistance from the reviewers.

Congratulations to everyone who participated, and thank you for being such a great group to work with! Thanks also to Andrew at South East Arts for all the support and helping us make it happen in the South East.

Happy (and relieved) participants of the Standards Program 2011 

Oaks Historical Society on value of winning an IMAGinE Award

The Oaks Jan Noakes & Jacqui Finley with Arts NSW Executive Director Mary Darwell

Nominations open for 2011 IMAGinE Awards

With Nominations open for this year’s IMAGinE Awards we thought we would catch up with a past winner – Doreen Lyons from The Oaks Historical Society Inc.

Has winning an IMAGinE award had a positive impact on your volunteers?

DL: Yes the education group volunteers, Jacqui & Jan, were so surprised to win the award and so excited at being part of the ‘big picture’ event at the MCA. More importantly though, the rest of the team which turns up every Thursday to work at the museum’s Hands on History day were so proud of Jan and their own place on the team. It also increased that team of 10 volunteers to 12!

In what ways do you communicate your win? (ie. Letterhead, website)

DL: The award is covered that week in the local press. It is put on our web site and letterhead and in the Newsletter and the various promotional material we give out to coach tour groups and local Council. We have also committed one display case to showcasing our various awards. This is kept in the Community Room which is where we have our meetings and where we show our a/v presentation to visiting tour groups so it is regularly seen

How do you think the IMAGinE awards can assist volunteer museums?

DL: The award can help to lift the work of small museums into the bigger picture of the museums and galleries sector. Museums who work in isolation in remote areas seldom get the chance to showcase their work and this is one way to do that in the museum community. One suggestion on the actual Awards night would be to have a short film session actually showing those museums who won awards. Very few if any people who attended the awards night would actually come to our museum to see what we do. Receiving the award also helps to lift the profile of the museum with local Council and funding bodies. However, the “IMAGinE Awards” tag is not easily recognised outside the museums and galleries sector – especially with the Tourism Industry. Tourism is often the only way that Museums can remain financially viable. Perhaps a specific section within the Award could recognise this? I am pleased to see that MGNSW are now working with the NSW tourism industry to address this fact because at a local level many small museums like ours have been involved at a local and state level in marketing our museums to the tourism industry.

Click here for nomination forms or more information about the 2011 IMAGinE Awards. 

Queanbeyan!

This week I spent a day in Queanbeyan, just out of Canberra. I was invited to talk about our VIM Grant program at a workshop organised by Elizabeth Brown, Regional Arts Development Officer from STARTS (Southern Tableland Arts). I was so impressed at the sheer range and diversity of the Queanbeyan art community that was represented at the workshop– in the crowd there were poets, ceramicists, circus performers, quilters, folk musicians, and also a few volunteer museums!

Joining me in presenting were Bea Brickhill from Australian Business Arts Foundation (ABAF) and Miriam Stacey from the NSW Heritage Branch. I personally found it really beneficial to hear about their grant programs, in particular the interesting work ABAF are doing in partnering Arts Organisations with local businesses who are keen to engage in some philanthropy.

After the workshop (and sneaky look at some of the best Op shops I have ever seen!) I was very lucky to given a guided tour of both the Queanbeyan Museum and the Queanbeyan Printing Museum. I was pretty excited as both museums are participating in our Standards Program this year, and have just completed the grueling self review component. Having read so much about the museums on paper, it was such a delight to actually visit them in person. Ever since my return I have been raving about the fascinating and well designed exhibitions and beautifully cared for collection both museums provide.

Doug Quane (who volunteers at both Museums) and Peter Conlon (Manager (Library and Cultural Services at Queanbeyan Council) very kindly made the time in their busy schedules to personally show me around the Museums, even though it was outside of regular opening hours. Doug even demonstrated one of the printing presses for us - it was amazing to see the huge amount of work that used to go into just printing one line (let alone a whole newspaper).

At the Queanbeyan Museum next door, it was impressive to see all the hard work the volunteers had put in to developing such interesting and engaging displays. I was interested to see that some exhibitions had been developed in collaboration with local CIT students that are enrolled in Museum Studies. I thought this was a really great idea – the Museum gets some excellent volunteer help and the students get such valuable hands on experience in working with a collection. I’d love to share this idea with more volunteer museums. I also got very excited when I was shown the hospital display and I caught sight of the museum’s Iron Lung which is apparently one of only twenty remaining in Australia!

The Iron Lung!

Museum display curated by a CIT student

A German typewriter complete with umlauts!

Doug Quane demonstrates a printing press.

2011 Standards Program kicks off in Bega

Last Friday Sarah-Jane and I were lucky enough to travel the beautiful South East and meet with eleven museums who have signed on for this year’s Standards Program. After a scenic flight down the coast to Merimbula, we drove up to Bega for the workshop at the Bega Council Chambers. We were delighted to have a representative there from each of the participating museums, and it was great to see some familiar people as well as meeting some for the first time (after many emails and phone conversations!). Many had driven some distance to be there, which was greatly appreciated.

The Introduction to Standards workshop introduced the museums to the range of activities they will be completing throughout the program. It was also a chance for the museums to meet some M&G staff, and to get to know their fellow standards participants for the year.

The eleven museums that are embarking on the program are a diverse group, including the Thredbo Museum, the Eden Killer Whale Museum and the Cooma Corrective Services Museum. Each museum had the opportunity to give a short presentation about their unique organisation. We can tell this group will make for a really interesting program this year.

We were also lucky enough to have a pair of Standards Program veterans join us all the way from Gilgandra in the Orana region. Jeff and Shirley Marks completed the program in 2010 and generously provided their invaluable experiences and advice. One of the main recommendations they stressed to the incoming group was the necessity of working through the activities as a team, in their experience this made completing them much easier.

The participants are now busy completing their first activity, and will all get together again in August for a mid program practical workshop. Keep an eye on our weekly email Alert where we will soon be featuring each museum’s profile.

The Standards Program is initiated by Museums & Galleries NSW, and is an important museum development program that is being put on this year in partnership with the South East Arts Region (SEAR), and is supported by local councils including the Bega Valley Shire Council, the Cooma Monaro Shire Council, Eurobodalla Shire Council, and the Queanbeyan City Council.

Participating Museums include:
Adaminaby Snowy Scheme Collection
Bega Valley Historical Society
Bermagui Historical Society
Clyde River & Batemans Bay Historical Society
Cooma Correctional Museum
Eden Killer Whale Museum
Moruya & District Historical Society
Merimbula Old School Museum
Queanbeyan Museum
Tathra Wharf Museum Committee
Thredbo Museum

Jenny Drenkhahn and Stevi Goldsworthy from the Eden Killer Whale Museum, Kerrie Ruth from the Queanbeyan Museum

Robyn Levy and Denise McGlashan from the Bermagui Historical Society.

Congratulations to the 2010 Standards Participants!

Last Friday Sarah-Jane, Michael Rolfe and I traveled up to Dubbo to celebrate the completion of the 2010 Standards Program with the participants. There were ten museums in this year’s group, from as far as Brewarrina and Lightning Ridge, to Narromine and Rylstone. Despite the Program’s challenging demands of time, hard work and energy, everyone was a delight to work with and I was endlessly impressed by each group’s passion and dedication to develop their museum.

Our celebration was hosted by the Western Plains Cultural Centre, a really fantastic venue. It was great to catch up with everyone again, and we were fascinated to hear the tales of the recent flooding that has had such an effect on the region.

After the group kindly shared their feedback with us on their experience of the program (all very positive!), we had a quick lunch and began the presentations of the Final Reports and Certificates of Achievement. We were lucky to have Deputy Mayor of Dubbo Mathew Dickerson join us to present the reports with Michael. They both expressed their admiration for the museums’ great effort and commitment.

I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone again in Dubbo next year when we hold our workshop Access to Funding on 18th March. Hopefully this will help actualize some of the great ideas people have thought up with their reviewers during Standards 2010.

Thanks so much again to this year’s Standards museums for being such a great group! I’ve really enjoyed getting to know everyone, and look forward to staying in contact in the future.

Ted Davies, Jack Haines and Bob Richardson – Narromine Aviation Museum

Narromine Aviation Museum representatives - Ted Davies, Jack Haines and Bob Richardson

Rochelle Sutherland from the Gulgong Pioneer Museum receives her Final Report and Certificate of Achievement from Deputy Mayor of Dubbo Mathew Dickerson.

Sarah-Jane Rennie, Cr Mathew Dickerson, Michael Rolfe and Phoebe Arthur

Meeting with colleagues from MGSQ

Phoebe Arthur met up with Aimee Board and Debra Beattie of Museum and Gallery Services Queensland at the Standards seminar during the Museums Australia conference

Delegates speak on their experience of Standards

Participants from Standards programs across Australia shared their thoughts and experiences on undertaking standards in their organisations. Thank you to Clare-Frances Craig for chairing the session and Christen Bell (History House Museum, City of Armadale, WA), Lee Scott (McCrossin's Mill museum and Museums Australia national office), Justin Bishop (former director, Stanthorpe Gallery) for being so candid.