The challenge for Hertfordshire Museums? project ?Expanding Our Audiences? is to build a new audience from young people and families on low income, explains Laura Elliott.
The project started in November 2001, supported by a grant of £89,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund until October 2003. It involves a consortium of five museums, each of which has designed a different project to attract this target audience. The first six months were spent developing the strands of the team, developing relationships in the community across different sectors. This created a platform for consultation with community organisations that helped the museums plan a range of taster activities during the summer. Feedback from participants will inform the next phase of events planned for 2003.
Watford Museum?s ?Faces of Watford? project ran art workshops for families to create portraits for a touring exhibition alongside the museum?s 17th and 18th Century portraiture collection. Mill Green Museum and Mill based their activities for families on story telling sessions based on the Mill. People of all ages were invited to share stories of wartime rationing as part of Borehamwood Museum?s project ?You Are What You Eat?. To attract young people, Hitchin and Stevenage Museums have initiated partnerships with local youth groups, colleges and sports organisations. Hitchin Museum approached the local football club with ?Kick Off?- a project based on the museum?s football collection to create an educational CD-ROM. ?Stevenage Vibes? project is working with Bowes Lyon Youth Club to make a contemporary collection reflecting youth culture to be exhibited at the museum and at local venues.
The museums have made use of organisations that already work with their target audiences in order to get their message across. Phase two is currently being planned with a view to making audience development sustainable. The outcome of the project is expected to lead to recommendations for future improvements in how Hertfordshire Museums work with their communities.
A consortium approach has been important for addressing the range of barriers to museums for people from low-income groups across Hertfordshire, and the scale of the project has had the added advantage of releasing significant funding and support, for example enabling external consultants to be appointed to carry out evaluation over the two years. The consortium approach also carries weight in the community and has attracted greater interest from other museums as well as the wider heritage sector wanting to know about attracting new audiences. Project staff have found it helpful to learn from each other?s successes and failures, and discuss common issues.
The downside, of course, is that whereas the success of a single project rests on its own merits, the success of a consortium depends on all partners performing well. In the event of one partner failing to deliver, the ?brand name? of the project can be undermined. The project has encountered setbacks, but being a team has helped to limit the damage by combining resources to compensate in vulnerable areas.
Laura Elliott is Project Co-ordinator for Expanding Our Audiences
t: 01992 556526 e: laura.elliott@hertscc.gov.uk