-
Agenda item
Curator's Report
Minutes:
Cathy Walling, Museum Curator, presented a report to provide an update on issues arising from previous meetings and confirmation of Curator’s actions.
1. Most of the content of the main store has been moved to the temporary exhibition galleries to enable cleaning and repairs to take place. The conservation cleaning of objects by staff, volunteers, students and work experience continues. All archives and works on paper have been removed to the Keep for storage and cleaning. All items taken to the Keep are catalogued. A meeting is due to take place with the Councils Building Surveyors and (DCB contractors) to discuss issues concerning the ceiling tiles with a view to replacing or covering the ceiling with plaster board. Due to the temporary halt to the exhibition programme, staff have arranged a number of small displays and gallery updates.
Councillor Hodges asked the Curator what action was being taken to ensure items returned from the Keep were kept clean. The Curator said the building was being cleaned and environmental controls upgraded which will enable the conditions to be better monitored. When the work is complete in June 2016, the temporary exhibition gallery will reopen.
Councillor Hodges asked if there was any form of digitisation to further protect documents when public look at them. The Curator advised the Keep were also taking copies of the documents.
2. Interviews for the consultants to work with the Museum on the ACE Resilience project took place on 9th July. A project meeting will be set up with stake holders to consider what type of museum want to be moving forward.
3. The Curator gave a verbal update regarding the preliminary discussions concerning HLF funding for exhibiting the local history material. She advised that they decided not to pursue the funding this year because of other priorities and because many of the items were in storage. She said they will consider submitting an application next year and feed it into Hastings and Heritage events by providing material. Mrs Purdey asked for assurance that the store environment will be monitored. The Curator advised that she would be happy to supply the readings.
The Curator informed the committee that Susan Ward, Exhibitions Officer, would be leaving to take up a new post. Consideration is being given to a temporary post to deal with collections management issues prior to re-advertising her post. Marion Purdey said she would not wish to see the post lost.
Councillor Charlesworth asked if the Elizabethan Charter could be displayed as part of the exhibition next year. The Curator said the Museum has a copy and they are looking to provide possible screen access to this as the original is too fragile. Early discussions had taken place for next year’s exhibition on the story of Hastings since 1066; she said the Museum hoped to get the public involved by voting via social media etc for their favourite objects or stories.
4. The project based on the role of women during WWI continues with a display on 19th September. Facebook and twitter are regularly updated with events of 100 years ago. The Young Creators Group have started work on the topic of women’s’ roles. The Museum is also working with Hastings Women’s Voice on a creative writing exhibition to be held on 19th September.
5. Permission has been given for two image reproduction requests:
a) Images of Bathing Pool for Café information boards
b) Images of White Rock Baths for Saville Jones Architects report.
The Curator said the BBC had recently filmed an episode of the Celebrity Antiques Road trip with Gok Wan, which includes a feature on the Brassey Collection.
The Curator advised the data collected for the ‘Visitor Finder’ was available and enable participants to compare website statistics. The Sussex Cluster participants include Jerwood Gallery, Bexhill Museum, Horsham Museum and The Novium. The preliminary findings were based on 38 questionnaires, the results are as follows:- Hastings has younger visitors than other museums; more first timers, and better gender split. The main reason given for visiting was to learn something; visitors were mainly accompanied by friends and family, and the visitors liked the atmosphere. The Curator confirmed she would provide quarterly updates.
Councillor Poole expressed her thanks to staff during an ambitious year.
RESOLVED – that the Committee accepts the report and are satisfied with the comments in the report.
Supporting documents:
-
My council
Contact
Contact us if you have a question about democratic services.
Content
The content on this page is the responsibility of our Democratic Services team.