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.

Putting Poverty in the Museum: Can public galleries be agents for inclusive change?

Lisa Anderson (UTS Shopfront), Michael Huxley (Museums and Galleries NSW) and Vanessa Kredler (UNESCO)

In an event partnered by UTS Shopfront Community Program and the Research Centre for Creative Economy and Cultural Practice, and Museums and Galleries NSW, Vanessa Kredler, Program Specialist, UNESCO Cultural Sector, gave an illustrated talk on her experiences working on the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Cairo. UNESCO focuses on capacity building, including in this example and in previous work with the establishment of the Nubia Museum in Aswan (opened 1997), working with the Egyptian government on major capital works, training museum staff and providing technical and specialist assistance.

Questions on the nature of poverty, defined as 'capacity deprivation', the role of UNESCO in 'human development' and the link between culture and development were explored. Vanessa led a discussion based on her international experience on the nature of successful inclusive practice, its many challenges including cross cultural differences and ethical considerations and invited the audience to discuss projects with similar aims of social inclusiveness in which they were involved.

Michael Huxley, General Manager, Finance and Administration, Museums and Galleries NSW, presented the findings of the three year Australia Council core project funded audience research ‘Guess Who’s Going to the Gallery?’ 7000 responses from visitors to 41 galleries from across New South Wales were analysed to provide information on the composition and characteristics of gallery audiences. These results, useful for sector advocacy, are available at www.mgnsw.org.au.

Thirty cross-sector representatives participated in the lively and interesting discussion and networked afterwards over drinks.

Vale Glen Johns

Glen Johns with Bob Williams at Working Spaces 3

Museums & Galleries NSW is deeply saddened by the news of Glen John's death on Monday 31st January. Since the late 1990s, Glen has played a significant role with the museums of the Lachlan Chapter of Museums Australia (NSW). Always ready to challenge the status quo, Glen's enthusiasm, thoughtful insight and wry sense of humour were always appreciated.

Glen became involved with the Boorowa and District Historical Society in the late 1990s and was instrumental in obtaining a grant from the Commonwealth Federation fund to refurbish the museum. The funding led to the redevelopment of the museum's exhibitions to highlight the local wool industry and the introduction of new technology through a DVD about Boorowa. Always keen to learn and improve the museum, Glen approached the Powerhouse Museum and M&G NSW to run a workshop focused on the museum's Hamilton Hume textile collection. And so began Glen's enthusiasm for coordinating workshops.

Hearing that M&G NSW had begun a standards program, Glen approached us about running the program with the museums of the newly formed Lachlan Chapter of Museums Australia (NSW). Along with others from the chapter, Glen's willingness to participate and capacity to encourage everyone else to join in made for a great year with the Standards program.

Within museum circles, Glen will probably be best remembered as the man behind the Working Spaces workshop based conferences held at St Clements, Galong. As a man who believed anything was possible, Glen approached us in 2006 about an idea for a volunteer museums conference with "no talking heads" and plenty of practical workshops. Before we knew it, he had convinced the major cultural institutions in Canberra to contribute staff to run the various workshops and the Working Spaces conference was born. The conferences are live in over a weekend and provide opportunities for museum workers to get together not only to learn but to have a good time. Trivia nights, Q&A sessions and Postcards from home have given those involved the opportunity to have some fun along the way. With four conferences under their belt, Glen has left the Lachlan Chapter and the volunteer museum community of NSW with a wonderful legacy.

Our thoughts are with the Lachlan Chapter, especially Glen's wife Elizabeth at this difficult time. Glen's unique and enthusiastic approach to life will never be replaced but I feel his legacy will allow a little of him to stay with us into the future.

Guess Who's Going to the Gallery? launched last Friday

From Left: Michael Huxley, Finance & Administration, M&G NSW, The Hon. Virginia Judge, Minister for the Arts and Fair Trade, and Michael Rolfe, CEO, M&G NSW

As someone involved quite closely with gallery audiences over the past few years it was genuinely exciting in my new role as CEO of M&G NSW to introduce NSW Minister for the Arts , Virginia Judge, as she launched our much anticipated gallery audience evaluation study  Guess Who’s Going to the Gallery , in Sydney on Friday.

Three years in the making, with over 7000 responses across 41 public galleries, the report’s key findings confirm that galleries offer an accessible, stimulating and engaging form of cultural activity for people from all walks of life – in communities throughout NSW.

In short, the research reveals that if you have 10 people standing in front of an artwork in a public gallery, it is likely that:

·        At least one will speak a language other than English

·        Two will be under 35 and at least three will be aged between 35-54

·        At least five will live in the local area

·        Three will be first time visitors

Significantly, survey results also highlight the importance of cultural tourism to the gallery audience base, with over 20% of all visitors describing themselves as a tourist. I would expect that this figure is also reflected in museum visitation – adding impetus to calls for Tourism NSW to sharpen and renew its focus and support for regional cultural tourism campaigns and strategies.

Strong connections are also being made locally. In Regional NSW for instance, some 72% of audiences live within the local government area of the gallery visited.  Statewide, 13% of audiences are from culturally diverse backgrounds, a figure which rises to 20% in metropolitan Sydney, and across age groups, income levels, education and work commitments, visitors express an overall 98 % satisfaction rating of experiences had.

It must be remembered that all this happens within an extremely competitive market for all sorts of leisure and general recreational pursuits. Reinforcing (for those that didn’t already know) that cultural activity is a significant and important part of many peoples lives – indeed it just might be a driving force!   

Follow the link below for access to the detailed report (which we hope might inspire a bit of blogging in response)!

http://mgnsw.org.au/resources/guess_whos_going_to_the_gallery_the_nsw_state_report/

To view the ABC Story click here: www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/28/3124239.htm?section=justin

To view the SMH Story click here: www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/art-galleries-draw-the-young-the-old-and-most-of-those-in-between-20110128-1a8dg.html

 I look forward to talking to you soon.  

Michael Rolfe

CEO

M&G NSW

Disaster response- introducing Q-Dis

It seems that 2011 is starting out the way that 2010 ended- floods and driving rain!

In a moment of great insight, our colleagues in Queensland started a disaster discussion list on the MANexus website late last year, Q-Dis . The site has become a great reference point for updates on how museums across Queensland are faring with the current flood crisis, as well as providing a good range of information on disaster response and recovery. It's well worth a visit.

Discussions with colleagues in various parts of NSW indicates that while a number of places have had heavy rain and some communities have been isolated, the museums and galleries have not been flooded in this recent round of rain. Sadly, the news in Victoria is not so good with a number of museums flooded, some for the second time in less than 6 months.

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

Preparing for disasters

Lockhart Museum in flood, October 2010

With flooding occurring across the state and predictions of rain through to April next year, we thought it would be opportune to focus on disaster preparedness and response at this week’s biannual Museum Advisor meeting. The meeting included a discussion with

• Libby Newell, Museum Advisor with Lockhart Shire about the museum’s impressive response to its recent flood
• Julia Davies, Outreach Officer at the Museum of the Riverina, who also helped out with Lockhart and had observations about the state of floods across the region
• Vanessa Keenan, Museum Advisor with Tumut Shire whose first visit to the area coincided with major flooding in the area
• Tamara Lavrencic, Collections Manager, Historic Houses Trust who outlined the HHT’s approach to disaster preparedness and response
• Kay Soderlund, Preservation Australia, who spoke of the recently formed Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material (AICCM)’s HEART (Heritage Emergency Action Response Team)

The following are a few brief reminders of things to think of as we enter this season of climatic instability.

· Discuss possible outcomes of a disaster in advance. If you know bad weather’s coming or you are entering the bushfire season, make sure you know who’s around to help out and update phone numbers etc.

· The HHT have found that an annual training session helps people prepare for unforeseen events. In debrief sessions people have reported that their initial response was shock and that they often froze but having discussed this in training they were able to move forward.

· Preparing a list of significant objects, including information about why they are significant is an important step in preparation. This will help the disaster response team to know where to start. If you are working with loss adjusters, it will also help explain why you want to spend funds on conservation of the existing item rather than purchasing something similar in a second hand shop.

· Having a list of significant objects with photos of them and a floor plan with locations assists in locating objects quickly.

· The checklist found on p72 of Be Prepared (http://www.collectionsaustralia.net/sector_info_item/2) provides a good outline of what to think through when facing a disaster. Several people reported that stopping and planning the response was a good way of slowing down the team to take stock before rushing in.

· Establish a good relationship with local emergency services, including walking them through the building, pointing out vulnerable items. Some organisations hold an annual barbecue with the fire brigade

· Remove wet carpet as soon as possible- the underfelt can hold a lot of water which will have a huge impact on humidity levels

· Check for “black water” (water containing contaminants) before proceeding into a flooded area

· Take photos as you go along. If you are making any sort of insurance claim (even just on the building) this will help show the loss adjuster what the site was like before the clean up started.

· Things to include in your disaster bin/tub:

o Mobile phone chargers (including a car charger as you may not have access to electricity)

o Cheap digital camera and batteries

o Lots of paper towel (3 ply)

o Disposable drop sheets

o Post it notes