August Issue 2007

IN THIS ISSUE –

•A new Conservation Grant Scheme to benefit smaller museums was announced at the AIM 30th Anniversary Conference at Ironbridge, Shropshire in June. The AIM scheme has been made possible by a generous £300,000 grant from The Pilgrim Trust, which has a special interest in conservation. Spread over the next three years the fund will be used to help smaller museums restore and conserve significant objects within their collections. The scheme will be administered in a similar way to AIM’s other successful recent initiative, its Sustainability Scheme supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. The scheme will benefit AIM members with fewer than 60,000 visitors or a turnover of less than £300,000 per year. Maximum grant is £10,000, but most will be around £5,000. Applications close on 31 March and 30 September each year. Page 1/2

•The Department for Culture, Media & Sport needed to speak up more for museums and their emphasis on collections, scholarship and conservation, said Keith Nichol, DCMS Head of Museums, Libraries and Cultural Property, at the AIM Conference. Promising that the Government “will respond to the need for a national strategy for museums”, he said the perception that the Government was interested only in access and education and “doesn’t get what museums do” was wrong. “People infer that we don’t care about collections, scholarship and conservation. . . We do care about these things, and we probably need to say it more.” Skills and workforce development would be high on Prime Minister Gordon brown’s agenda for the next few years, he said. He also urged MLA (Museums, Libraries and Archives Council) to help museums reach the “deep pockets out there” to exploit wider funding sources. Page 2/3

•AIM was congratulated on its 30th anniversary by Keith Nichol of the DCMS who said independent museums were “the incarnation of what is achievable.” Museums could look to the independents to take the lead on that. AIM’s pioneering work had become standard for the sector. AIM chairman Bill Ferris, speaking at the Anniversary AIM Banquet at Ironbridge said the association continued to achieve as much for its members now as it ever had. “Times have changed, things are different, agendas move on, but the entrepreneurial spirit and the ‘get things done’ attitude go on,” he said. Page 1 and 3

•AIM’s 2007 Conference exhibition was the largest yet, organised for the fifth year by Tony Baker of AJB Designs. The exhibition provides valuable sponsorship for the conference as well as opportunities for delegates to make direct contact with companies working in the sector. Participants were -

•Continuum Group (leisure and tourism specialists), AIM’s premier Conference sponsor
•Adlib Information Systems (collections management)
•AJB Designs (collection surveys and storage design)
•Blackwall Green (fine art insurers)
•Britannia Storage Systems (specialist storage and display equipment)
•Candle Makers Supplies (suppliers to candlemakers and reproduction candles)
•ColourMatch (design and print)
•Development Partners UK (fundraising and marketing)