December Issue 2001

The AIM Bulletin is the main communication channel for the UKs 1000+ independent museums and heritage organisations - half the total provision for the British Isles - which have been in the forefront of the museum movement for over 25 years.

IN THIS ISSUE

• England’s regional museums and galleries will be transformed in a five-year campaign with an investment of £267.2 million if the Government supports the newly-published report Renaissance in the Regions: A New Vision for England’s Museums. The report’s brief is primarily concerned with local authority-funded regional museums.  But independently-funded and administered museums also stand to gain from a number of the report’s initiatives. Financial support and help and advice will be available through a new network of museum development officers, through learning and funding support units, partnerships with larger museum services and, if the Heritage Lottery Fund takes up the idea, a £25 million endowment reserve designed to help independents. AIM chairman Sam Mullins urges independent museums to get behind the report and identify how they can become involved.  “AIM believes this package, if funded and implemented, would be a huge step forward, a national plan in which every museum could recognise its place within its region or subject.”  The December AIM Bulletin features a guide, “What’s in it for independents”, highlighting the initiatives of particular interest to independent museums. Pages 1- 5.
  
  
• Rural life museums stand to become one of the first ‘thematic networks’ envisaged in the Renaissance in the Regions report.  The newly-grouped museums have found a voice through the Rural Life Museums Action Group (RuLMAG) formed after the publication last year of a report into farming and countryside museums.  This urges rural museums to reinvigorate, focusing on the current high-profile range of farming and countryside issues. The museums are felt to have a fresh new role in helping to communicate country life to an increasingly urban population.  Page 5.
  
  
• Historic ships and maritime projects deserve greater priority for funding, the Lydia Eva and Mincarlo Trust has told the Heritage Lottery Fund. Inadequately funded from “almost anywhere”, HLF is virtually the only source of money for maritime projects, and even that was difficult to access successfully.  AIM has promised to encourage better understanding of the needs of historic ships by potential funders, and to press for easier application procedures. Two new HLF grants schemes should help. Page 7.
  
  
• Crich Tramway Village, Derbyshire home of the National Tramway Museum, is increasingly concerned about its future sustainability because of the threat of big new attractions around it. Including Magna in Sheffield, Thinktank in Birmingham, the Royal Armouries in Leeds and the National Railway Museum in York, these projects have attracted huge multi-million funding packages – by contrast Crich Tramway Village is planning a £1.3 million library extension.  Museum treasurer Winstan Bond fears these projects, some of them built on “unsustainable” business plans, may have to be “rescued” by the Government.  Meanwhile smaller independent museums are likely to be left to flounder in a hostile commercial environment. Page 8.
  
  
• A West Country AIM member is gaining thousands of pounds a year by encouraging visitors to give a donation under Gift Aid instead of paying the normal admission charge. Morwellham Quay Museum Trust in Devon has made £22,000 since introducing the system with the blessing of the Inland Revenue.  Operating strict criteria to keep within the law is crucial and there are pitfalls – such as delays to people’s visit while they complete forms.  Page 12
  
  

Also in this issue

• AIM’s Silver Jubilee Conference plans – 9-11 May, 2002
• Encouraging museums to raise money through share giving schemes
• Two warnings – on museums becoming a politician’s plaything, and on independents avoiding bureaucracy and strategies
• 13th AIM Lecture – Arts minister Tessa Blackstone at Sotheby’s Main Galleries, New Bond Street, London on 22 January at 6.30 pm.
  
  

Plus

Information on AIM’s latest events, AIM’s Trading Survey, the Bob Harding Training Fund Bursaries and FOCUS information papers, and the two-page AIM Directory – 30+ providers of products and services for the museum sector.

Further information contacts:  Sam Mullins, AIM chairman - Tel 020 7379 6344.  Fax 020 7565 7250.   Email  samm@ltmuseum.co.uk.  Diana Zeuner, AIM Bulletin editor - Tel/Fax 01243 811364.  Email  heavyhorse@mistral.co.uk.