MUSEUM REPORT - Paper for the General
Meeting at Frome.
Introduction. This lengthy paper aims to brief the membership on the
major success of the new Museum
of Somerset
The New Museum
of Somerset and Somerset
Impressed
by this close association, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) contributed £4.8m
towards the £6.5m cost of the first project, the refurbishment of Taunton Castle
to provide the new Museum
of Somerset
The
archaeological finds and archive recovered by Chris Webster and his team will
be added to the Society’s collection. We
are very grateful to Chris for his recording of the works and to Mary Sirault
for her documentary research. Taken
together these have changed our view of the history and development of Taunton Castle
The
second project, the move of our reserve collection to the new £8m Somerset
Heritage Centre (SHC), now for the first time provides SANHS items not on
exhibition elsewhere with contemporary standards of security and conservation.
This is a major achievement by Steve Minnitt, Head of Museums, and his
staff. A major update of the database is
under way to record the relocation of all these items. Much sorting and recording is still in
progress but access for members and the general public is being encouraged. In
parallel with this activity, work has started to seek HLF funds for
refurbishing the Somerset
Rural Life
Museum
Museum Collection Panel. The Board has established a Museum Collection Panel
whose Terms of Reference include the duty to “. . . advise it (the Board) on
all matters concerning the well-being, development, public access to, use and
management of its Museum Collection . . .”
The first meeting was held on 23 November 2011. There are 4 members: Steve Parker Chairman,
David Baker Vice-Chairman and 2 museum-qualified members, David Dawson and
David Hill; a Secretary has yet to be appointed. The SCC representatives to work with the
Panel are Steve Minnitt and Dennis Parsons.
Steve Parker represents the Panel on the Trustee Board.
Inspection of the Society’s
Collection. Under the terms of the Collections Loan
Agreement with Somerset County Council of 2 September 2008 the Society is
allowed “…. access to the Collection at all reasonable times by prior
arrangement to inspect the Collection.”
This inspection does not appear to have been undertaken for some years
but the Panel was able to inspect the Reserve Collections in Building 2 at the
Somerset Heritage Centre immediately before their first meeting. The Panel also interrogated the associated
databases. Both inspection and interrogation
were satisfactory although it was noted that there is a continuing heavy task
to update the databases following the move. An inspection of the Collection on
display to the public in the new Museum
of Somerset
The
Panel was most impressed by the positive attitude of the SCC staff and by the
conditions in which the Reserve Collections are now kept; the vastly improved
opportunities to access and exploit this valuable material were clearly
apparent. The Panel will be encouraging wider knowledge of the new arrangements
for its museum collection, including the provision of dedicated space on the
Society’s website. This report is part
of that activity.
Research using the Society’s
collection. The Panel has delegated authority from
the Board to approve routine requests for the use of items from the collection.
Loans are subject to the proviso that the items must be insured, collected and
held securely, and duly acknowledged as belonging to SANHS. Recent examples of
approvals given in response to requests from the SCC are: a research student
from Durham to borrow the Clevedon beads for analysis via a non-destructive
scan, as well as 4 or 5 of the 10 teeth from the Clevedon cist burial for
carbon dating and isotope analysis; Professor Mick Aston to borrow 6
unspecified items of human remains for carbon dating as part of his ‘Arthur to
Alfred’ project; and Richard Brunning to undertake further work on Mesolithic
flintwork material from Greylake sand quarry, Middlezoy in conjunction with the
Universities of Oxford, Southampton, Winchester and the British Museum.
Collections Management Plan. The Panel has taken a first look at the draft of a
Forward Collections Management Plan which is being put together in consultation
with the SCC and is required for accreditation of the Museum. The next meeting of the Panel in March will
consider the detailed input from the Society.
The aim is to have the plan agreed in time for it to be reported to the
Society’s AGM in May 2012.
The italicised paragraphs below summarise Dr
Nix’s concerns and the issues involved under four headings: Ownership; Museum
Exhibits Fund; St Mary Redcliffe staircase; and Governance. These paragraphs
are followed by the Panel’s own conclusions and recommendations on the way
ahead, as reported to the Board in January.
a. Ownership
SANHS owns a substantial and important body of
cultural and heritage material which it has acquired legally over more than a
century for its long-term museum collection. This collection, with its
associated documentation, has been loaned to Somerset County
The Society's museum collection is a charitable asset
held long-term in trust for and on behalf of the Society. As such, the Society,
as the owner of this collection, has continuing guardianship responsibilities
for, and obligations to, its collection. It is not clear, however,
whether there is comprehensive, properly documented, accessible knowledge of
the Society’s ownership of its museum collection. Nor is it certain that the correct
arrangements are in place with the Council regarding ownership (including in
some cases joint ownership) of the Society’s collection, supported by detailed
listings of objects and associated documentation.
The current arrangements stem from a long history of
arms length engagement by the Society (not unlike the approach taken to the Library
collection) with a resultant confusion over responsibilities. The aim should
now be to remedy this situation and place the Society’s collection in public
profile as a wholly owned and significant component of the Museum of Somerset
which meets national accreditation standards.
Full recognition should be given to SANHS as the originating body for
the collection (including where appropriate museum labeling), and the Society’s
ownership should be supported by references in the Council’s Collection
Management Policy, associated documents and SCC websites.
b. Museum Exhibits Fund
It was the recent allocation approved by
the Trustees of £10,000 from the SANHS Museum Exhibits (Restricted) Fund
towards the SCC’s purchase of the ‘Frome Hoard’ which led to questioning the
whole basis of the Society’s approach to managing its museum collection. This
section of the paper considers the specifics of the Museum Exhibits Fund, its
precise terms of reference and the legitimacy of this £10,000 transfer.
There is a strong argument that the
restricted nature of the Exhibits Fund, set up to hold insurance compensation
for SANHS items stolen from the collection, means that fund moneys may only be
used to provide for the SANHS collection and may not be transferred to any
other party for any other purpose. However, as there appear to be no
proper terms of reference for the fund and no other appropriate SANHS
documentation, it is inevitable that there are ambiguities surrounding the
fund’s legitimate purpose.
In the absence of precise guidance, it
has been suggested that the moneys might be used for unspecified 'museum
collections', or that the SANHS and SCC museum collection are, for these
purposes, one and the same thing. A
further argument has been put forward that under the CLA there exists a
'partnership' between the Society and the Council which justifies the use of
this SANHS fund to support purchases for the SCC collection.
The actual position is that, although
the Society and the Council may from time to time have presented their
relationship as a ‘partnership’ for the purposes of accreditation and bidding
for funds, the CLA is, in law, purely a loan agreement. The distinction
and separation between the SANHS and SCC museum collections derive from the
basic nature of their separate ownership, as explained in the paragraphs on
‘Ownership’ above. The argument therefore stands that, in the absence of
any other ruling by the Trustees, the Museum Exhibits Fund can only be used for
the Society’s own collection.
c. St Mary Redcliffe
staircase
There are concerns about the processes and policies
involved in the recent disposal of the St Mary Redcliffe staircase which was donated
to the Society, loaned to the SCC and installed in the old museum. The Council
decided that the staircase was unsuited for the new museum and, as they did not
want it in SHC storage, returned it to SANHS.
Without a SANHS disposal policy, decisions on the
future of the staircase could not be based on clear, published criteria forming
part of the Society's long-term approved policies. Nor does it seem that there
was sufficient consultation with the membership. This could be a consequence of inadequate
processes which: failed to recognise membership roles and responsibilities;
denied membership rights to vote in the interests of the charity; relied on
inadequate governance structures to manage the relationship between trustees
and members; and created barriers to membership involvement in the use,
development and disposal of the collection.
Despite a serious attempt to dispose of the staircase
ethically, it is clear that there were inadequacies in the process, including
defective record-keeping. A new
Collections Committee, with members not handicapped by problematic museum
issues of the recent past, should focus on the development and adoption of
appropriate policies. These would
include a Collections Management Policy describing the collection and
addressing acquisitions, disposals, and arrangements on final wind-up.
d. A way forward to good governance
There needs first to be an acknowledgment (without any
attribution of blame) at the Trustee Board of the longstanding lack of direct involvement which has led to the present informal
methods of managing the Society’s museum collection. The Society then needs to restore proper
governance procedures and adequate documentation, compatible with the Arts
Council England(ACE)’s accreditation standards and the Society’s obligations to
the Charity Commission; ACE
might usefully be involved in this process as an adviser.
To achieve this, the following programme is proposed:
a.
An independent SANHS Collections Committee should be established, accountable to
the Board of Trustees, to develop and oversee the Society’s museum
collection. The work of this committee
should be carried out by an appropriately informed group and draw on
independent professional advice as well as the skills and experience of the
Society’s members. It will need to ensure that all record keeping
is clear, available and secure. Fundamental
to this will be the recovery and drafting of appropriate documentation for
managing the collection to meet accreditation standards. The committee should also address the
requirement for any changes to the CLA (which has become moribund through
non-implementation) and develop the Society's requirements for the Forward
Collection Management Plan (CLA 3(b)) for negotiation with the Council. In due
course it may well make sense for all the collections owned by the Society -
museum, library and archive - to become the responsibility of this new Committee.
b.
Proper terms of reference for
the current Museum Exhibits Fund are
required which acknowledge the distinction between the SANHS and SCC museum
collections. One approach might be to recognise that this fund, set up to
dispose of insurance monies due to SANHS for items lost from its own
collection, was established expressly for that purpose and should therefore
terminate once disposal of those funds is complete.
c.
A review of recent allocations into and out of the Exhibits fund
should be undertaken. This would determine whether the £10,000 for the ‘Frome Hoard’ should be
considered lost to SANHS but, as an act of good will, treated as committed, or
whether it should be claimed back as an illegal transfer, or whether it should
be subject to some compromise. The £30,000 allocated to the fund from the sale
of the St Mary Redcliffe staircase should also be examined with a view to
protecting and enhancing the proceeds through matched-funding to
maximise the overall benefit to the collection.
d.
A new Collections Fund - based on paragraphs 6.15 and 6.17 of the Museum
Association’s Code of Ethics – should be established with clear terms of
reference and appropriate documentation.
This would receive monies from any disposals and be used for the benefit
of the Society’s collection or as otherwise directed by its terms of reference.
e.
As recommended by the Museum
Association, Trustees should receive
training on their ethical and management responsibilities for the Society’s
collection, and members should be made aware of this requirement.
f.
A clear Timetable
should be established to deal with all these matters and it is suggested this
should include a 6 month Preliminary Survey, and a Full Assessment in the year
following acceptance of these proposals. Members should be informed of this
timetable.
g.
All these proposals should be reported to the
General Meeting in Frome on 11
February 2012 and be developed so that recommendations can be made to the 2012
AGM in May.
The
Panel’s Conclusions and Recommendations. With the successful completion of the
Museum of Somerset, the move of the Society’s reserve collection to secure
storage in Building 2 at the Somerset Heritage Centre, and the recent formation
of the SANHS Museum Collection Panel, a review of the points raised by Dr Nix
and his proposals for change is opportune.
Considerable Board time over the past few years has been devoted to the
refurbishment of the Castle and the new Museum of Somerset project but, beyond
routine matters, little attention could be paid to the management of the museum
collection itself while major changes were taking place.
The
Panel is aware of earlier advice given to the Board in relation to some of the
enquiries made by Dr Nix. In summary,
this advice, contained in a paper by David Dawson and Steve Minnitt dated 11
October 2011, made the following points:
-
It is a matter of great regret that an important part
of the Society’s records, including all the files relating to the Museum and
the Committees directly involved with its management and supporting
information, have unaccountably disappeared.
-
Clear decisions relating to the museum do, however,
appear in minutes of the SANHS Council, the Finance and General Purposes
Committee and more recently, the Board.
-
The Society’s governance of the collection has always
been consistent and transparent, the core principles being agreed and minuted
most recently at the SANHS Council meeting of 19 April 2006; these formed the
basis for the later Agreement with the SCC.
-
The priorities for the collection set by the SANHS
Council to develop, preserve, research, interpret and improve public access
were targeted at the successful delivery of the new museum and heritage centre
projects; inevitably access to the collections was not possible during this
period.
-
The process for the disposal of the St Mary Redcliffe
staircase followed the Museums Association collections disposal model.
-
The way ahead should centre on identifying and
agreeing improved documentation systems, new forms of (web-based)
communication, and new research programmes.
The
Panel will be reviewing this advice. It
has carried out a preliminary review of Dr Nix’s proposals, recognized the
importance of the issues, and has made the following recommendations to the
January meeting of the Board:
a. Ownership. It is timely that a clear statement or
re-statement of the relationship between the Society and the SCC on the
management and ownership of the museum collections is presented to the Board
for endorsement. The Panel should review
the current documents and arrangements for dealing with the backlog and make
recommendations on how the position is to be improved; the resulting actions
should be included in the Forward Collections Management Plan.
b. Exhibits
Fund. The record of the explicit
terms of reference for this fund cannot be located although the Panel believes
the terms are implicit in earlier SANHS Council decisions. The Panel is already engaged in reviewing the
evidence and formulating the policy for this fund. The points raised by Dr Nix should be
addressed in this review.
c. St
Mary Redcliffe staircase. These
points, including documentation and process, should be looked at in the context
of the review of the Exhibits Fund. The
Panel is aware of a large body of documentation relating to the disposal and
will review this in the context of the Museum Association model before taking a
view on these arguments and making recommendations.
d. Way
forward to good governance. There
are a number of positive suggestions in this section, dealing as it does with
the concerns expressed earlier in the paper.
Some suggestions, such as the establishment of a Collections Committee
and the inclusion of Museum matters on the Frome Agenda, are already in hand.
The Panel should review Dr Nix’s ideas and make recommendations.
e. Resources. The Panel is also concerned that, with
only 4 members, it will be hard pressed to progress this timely and necessary
review of principles and actions and seeks the assistance of the Board to
co-opt appropriate and experienced support.
Of particular concern to the Panel is their ability to give the
necessary priority to ensuring completion of the Forward Collections Management
Plan which will include some of the issues raised above.
On
26 January the Board noted the Panel’s report and endorsed the actions in hand.
A report of progress will be made to the Board in March.
Summary. The Society now has an impressive selection
of its magnificent collection on display in the widely acclaimed new Museum of
Somerset. Our reserve collection is
maintained in high quality, secure accommodation in Building 2 at the new
Somerset Heritage Centre. SCC staff are
eager to grant access to members and exploit the collection for research.
A
SANHS Museum Collection Panel has been set up to work with the SCC, maintain
oversight of our collection, prepare a Forward Collections Management Plan and
advise the Board on the overall management of the Society’s collection. One of the Panel’s first tasks is to review
the principles on which the collection is managed and funded. A report on progress and recommendations for
any change will be made to the AGM in May.
G
Middleton
Hon
Secretary and Acting Secretary Museum Collection Panel
30
January 2012
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