Thread by @ian_lawley

A potted history of museums in the Potteries Part 4 -
In the early years of the 21st century there was an optimistic sense that years of hard work securing external recognition and investment for Stoke-on-Trent’s museums was bearing fruit.
#Stoke-on-Trent #Museums #cuts

But storm clouds were gathering. Constant Council restructuring saw the museum service move from Museums, Arts & Heritage Department into Leisure and Cultural Services, then Regeneration & Heritage. The service remained at divisional level, headed by an Assistant Director.

In the meantime, there were significant developments on the wider museum front. In 2001, after much lobbying, in particular from the Group for Large Local Authority Museums, Resource (the Museums, Libraries & Archives Commission) published its Renaissance in the Regions report.

As a result, a network of regional museum hubs was established. Stoke joined Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton & Ironbridge to form the West Midlands Regional Museum Hub.

Between 2004 & 2008 £2.8m revenue funding was invested in Stoke’s museums via Renaissance enabling them to address longstanding infrastructure issues & invest in service improvements that could not be delivered from reduced core revenue funding.

15 Renaissance funded additional staff were recruited during 2003-2006, enabling the museums to meet the changing needs and expectations of visitors and develop new educational and outreach initiatives.

At the same time, the museums became part of a network of European ceramic museums (Ceramic Culture Innovation), a trans-national EU funded partnership. The project was so successful that the partners were invited to give a presentation at the European Parliament in March 2004.

MLA funding also facilitated the creation of a national subject specialist network, designed to share knowledge, expertise, research and interpretation skills across ceramics museums.

In 2005 @PotteriesMuseum pioneered joint ownership of a heritage object with national and international significance when it acquired the 2nd-century AD Staffordshire Moorlands Pan in partnership with the British Museum & Carlisle’s Tullie House.

The pan is an enamelled bronze trulla with an inscription relating to the forts on Hadrian's Wall. It was found in Ilam in 2003 by metal-detectorists & was bought with a £112,200 HLF grant . The pan rotates between the joint owning museums & a museum on the Wall.

@PotteriesMuseum was one of 15 museums that benefited from the Contemporary Art Society’s Special Collection Scheme between 1997 and 2004. This provided £30,000 each year for new acquisitions enabling the museum to purchase works by Grayson Perry, Richard Slee & others

Additional income was secured from lottery distributors, grant-giving agencies and foundations, Regeneration streams, @pmagfriends, sponsorship, and through Field Archaeology contracts.

In 2004, after an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate the purchase of the entire Minton Museum collection from Royal Doulton, who were determined to break it up and sell it off piecemeal, @PotteriesMuseum acquired a number of outstanding examples of Minton Majolica ware at auction.

The following year, following the collapse of Royal Doulton, key exhibits from the former Doulton museum were bought at auction although many pieces were sold to private bidders, some from overseas

Other acquisitions included a major collection of 20th century studio ceramics & a number of significant treasure items. The museum also took part in several successful partnership initiatives with other bodies including Tate, the National Gallery & the Crafts Council

Developments @GladstoneMuseum included Flushed with Pride (which tells the story of the toilet) & a tile gallery, both of which were created with support from the EU Regional Development Fund & the Heritage Lottery Fund, & the Ceramic Century digital oral history archive,

Visitor figures were consistently high in the noughties, with around 240,000 visitors every year, around 75% of whom lived locally. Many were regular visitors, attracted by the programme of changing exhibitions, activities, workshops & events

Research from MORI showed that @PotteriesMuseum succeeded in attracting audiences from all sections of society. A 2005 survey showed that 43% of the museum’s visitors were from the lower income social groups C2DE. This contrasted with regional & national figures of 29% & 23% .

Across the West Midlands, @PotteriesMuseum was perceived to be the most enjoyable museum to visit with 98% of visitors saying they enjoyed their visit & 76% saying they were ‘very satisfied’

Of all the museums surveyed in the West Midlands, @PotteriesMuseum was the most likely to be visited to take the children or attend an event. More than 20,000 children visited each year in school groups, with many more visiting in family groups or with friends during leisure time

This success was achieved in spite of difficulties being experienced by the Council. After a failed experiment with an elected mayor,the Independent Governance Commission reported in 2008 that the city had ‘a damaged political system and deep-seated malaise in its politics’

Another Chief Executive arrived & Cultural Services were promptly disbanded & fragmented in yet another restructure. Museums became part of a subsection of the Customer Services Division of the newly created Community Services Directorate. Further restructures & cuts followed.

Proposals to close or transfer the ownership of Etruria Industrial Museum, including its EU funded purpose-built visitor centre, were announced in 2010 and the museum was effectively mothballed, opening only on special occasions.

Etruria Industrial Museum is now managed, maintained and operated by Shirley's Bone and Flint Mill Volunteers CIO, a registered charity. Negotiations regarding asset transfer between the City Council and the CIO are still ongoing ten years on.

In 2011, councillors approved budget proposals to introduce admission fees @PotteriesMuseum as part of budget savings, but shelved plans for a £2.50 entry fee in the face of public opposition. They also proposed to close Ford Green Hall .

However a charitable trust was set up by local volunteers which took over the management of the Hall in 2014.

Three years later it was decided to close @GladstoneMuseum on Sundays & Mondays to save £40,000. The Conservative opposition group leader Abi Brown, now the Council leader, spoke out against this. In the first three months after reducing opening hours, visitor numbers fell by 45%

On several occasions detailed proposals for transferring the museums to a trust reached the feasibility study stage but were dropped in the face of internal opposition within the Council. A 2003 study proposing the creation of a national centre for ceramics was also rejected.

In 2015, the council proposed to transfer its culture and leisure services, including the museums, to a community interest company (CIC), but @pmagfriends arguing that a charitable trust would offer a better model for the city's museums.

Although 2,000 residents signed a petition supporting this proposal, the plans for an alternative delivery model were abandoned.

It is thought that the 2017 City of Culture bid saved the museums from severe cost-cutting measures for a while but the last two years have seen both sites closed for long periods during the pandemic. Now the Council has published the most radical cost-cutting proposals yet.

Despite everything @PotteriesMuseum in partnership with Birmingham Museum & AG managed to raise £3.285 million in order to acquire the Staffordshire Hoard, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found.

In 2017 & 18 @pmagfriends spearheaded two successful campaigns to raise £482,500 to save Josiah Wedgwood’s First Day’s Vase from disappearing overseas and £325,000 to purchase the Leekfrith Iron Age gold torcs. In 2021 the new purpose-built Spitfire gallery opened,.

Recent experience highlights the mismatch between capital and revenue expenditure. It is relatively easy to raise money through an appeal to buy important objects or to secure grant funding for a capital development.

It is much more difficult to find the money to employ qualified staff, operate & maintain buildings and provide a public service.