Post on 15-Dec-2015
Lancashire Museums
• We STILL operate 12 museums!
• An off-site stores• A commercial Conservation Service
• Museums owned by 6 different bodies!
What has changed since last year?
• Lancashire Conservation Studios (almost) fully operational
• Fleetwood and Turton Tower Museums: – Still open– Reduced budgets (and staff!)– New partners
• Service Review (successful) led to increased support from elected members and Directorate senior officers
Lancashire Conservation Studios
• Conservators trained on EMu, but waiting for the new EMu Conservation Module!
• IT skills very variable
• Aiming to record – Object movements– Conservation treatments on objects– Costs of treatments i.e. time and materials
Other Pressures
• Natural History Collections (partly) moved out of Fleetwood Museum, with
• Long-term aim to remove all reserve collections from Fleetwood
• Clitheroe Castle Museum HLF grant– Need to clear the site by September!
• Limited storage space• Need to record object movements• Budgets still under great pressure!
Backlog Documentation
• Accreditation Requirement– Large backlog of basic documentation – Limited resources – making negligible
progress!– Will not meet timetable set by Accreditation
panel– Very limited possibility of more resources
• No funding for additional posts• Volunteers seen as the only source
Website Development• Some wishes actually come true!
• Funding found for narrative-based thematic approach– Starting with one theme, Slavery, adding
others later– Working with the staff who want to make it
work!– Limited number of objects, keeping it simple!
• It’s happening this year!
Conclusions
• Lancashire County Museum Service are:– Still Afloat!– Not where we expected to be– Becoming better at using the skills and
resources available to us– Making progress (Slow Ahead?)