Museum Development Yorkshire

Museum Development Yorkshire – Providing advice and support for Museums in Yorkshire and the Humber

Museum Development Yorkshire is part of the York Museums Trust and funded by Arts Council England.

Our vision is for museums of Yorkshire and the Humber to be secure, accessible and sustainable homes for their collections and of value to diverse communities they serve.  Museums will develop excellence, be ambitious, resilient and deliver quality in all that they do.

We recognise the mixed museum ecology and geography of the Yorkshire & Humber region which is reflected in the institutions and the collections that they hold. Our approach will be responsive to this and the needs of individual museums and the broader matrix of museum provision.

Our role is to help museums to fully understand the complexity of operating successfully in the 21st Century and to build on good practice to assist them in releasing the cultural potential of their collections, people and sites. We will guide museums on their development journey by enabling them to benchmark themselves, understand changes in audience, sector and stakeholder expectations and identify the steps needed to realise their ambition.

Our aim will be to build capacity across the region and foster an environment in which best practice is developed, shared and used to inspire others to deliver their own growth.  We match museums with expertise and nurture their capacity to experiment and develop strong museum networks.

We are able to achieve this through our relationships, with museums, the wider sector and using both our broad museum management and business expertise. We have five Museum Development Officers who support museums across the region with 1:1 relationships, training and museum forums.