Museum Development North Update – January 2024
Your new Museum Development North (MD North) team are busy collaborating to ensure our continued support for museums in the north of England from April 2024.
Museum Development from now until April 2024
Until April 2024, the Museum Development teams in the North-East, North-West and Yorkshire will continue operating as normal, providing advice and support to regional museums. In the lead up to our launch as MD North on 1st April, we will tell you more about the services you can expect.
We are currently finalising the details of our delivery programme for 2024-25 and will provide a new update in February. Please bear with us as we devote our attention to ensuring that we are ready for business as MD North from April 2024.
What is changing after April 2024?
From April 2024, the regional Museum Development teams in the north of England will come together to form one area team covering the same geographical footprint. The MD North team will continue to have staff based throughout the three current regions, now working as one team. Every museum will have a Museum Development Officer as a point of contact, and there will also be opportunities to work with other people across the team through their different specialisms. We will confirm contact details for the team before April. MD North is committed to retaining a close relationship with museums on the ground while gaining the advantages of working across the wider area.
MD North will be managed by a new partnership between York Museums Trust, the Manchester Museums Partnership, Cumbria Museums Consortium and Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums.
Arts Council England will support the new MD North partnership with £1.4m to deliver museum development activity in the north of England from 1st April 2024 until 31st March 2026. This new partnership builds on the team’s experience of collaborative working across the north of England since 2018.
Our support programme for museums in the north of England responds to Arts Council England’s Strategy, Let’s Create, and addresses the four Investment Principles.
The 2024-25 programme will include:
- Providing one-to-one advice for regional museums, with every museum organisation having a Museum Development Officer as a point of contact
- Workforce training and skills development
- Developmental programmes
- Fundraising support
- Accreditation advice and mentor support
- Business diagnostics
- Collections care advice
- Communications and signposting
- Supporting networks and partnership
- Data collection, sharing insights and intelligence about the state of the sector and advocacy
- Sharing learning and good practice, celebrating museums’ achievements
- Small grants programme for Accredited museums
Our 2024-25 programme for has been informed by your feedback during 2023. We will continue to adapt workforce development programming throughout 2024-26, responding to your needs including through the Museum Development Skills Needs Survey.
When will you hear more?
We will update you further in February, including highlight information on the MDN programme for April to June 2024. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns you would like to raise, please talk to your regional MD contact.
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