Agenda item

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The Curator of the Lynn Museum introduced the report on the King’s Lynn Museum activities in the period from June to August 2024. A copy of the report is attached to the minutes.

 

The Committee’s attention was drawn to the following areas of the report:

 

·        Exhibitions and events at Lynn Museum

o   Current Exhibition: The Moon: Meet our Nearest Neighbour

o   Forthcoming Exhibition: Woof! A Celebration of Dogs

 

The Curator of the Lynn Museum explained all Members of the Committee were welcome to attend the forthcoming exhibition, Woof! A Celebration of Dogs and advised the opening event was on Tuesday 1^st October 2024 at 2.00pm.

 

The Curator of the Lynn Museum invited the Committee to ask any questions in relation to those areas of the report.

 

Mr B Davison referred to the forthcoming exhibition, Woof! A Celebration of Dogs and commented that he would have liked to have seen artwork by the artist Sally Muir and asked officers to look into using that artist in the future if the exhibition was successful.

 

Councillor M de Whalley congratulated and thanked officers for the quality and success of the temporary exhibitions in the Lynn Museum. Councillor M de Whalley informed the Committee he had been invited to look around Aickman’s Yard which was very informative and it suggested given what was housed there, a topic for a future temporary exhibition be that of exploration of the North West and explained there were two famous names associated with King’s Lynn, Samuel Gurney Cresswell and George Vancouver and added that they could link in well with the town’s history. He asked whether a complimentary exhibition could be considered to celebrate the reopening of the St George’s Guildhall.

 

Mr B Davison referred to Aickman’s Yard and commented that the Committee should arrange a visit to view the collections and encourage more young people to visit and suggested having an exhibition of Aickman’s Yard in the future to look into the industrial past of King’s Lynn and what affect it had on the town’s structure.

 

Councillor A Kemp made comments in relation to the Carnegie library and asked what could be done for more joint working with the Norfolk Museum Service and the library service to make sure they were looking after their heritage buildings and ensuring they kept their purposes. In response, the Assistant Head of Museums confirmed there was a process ongoing around the Carnegie library and explained they had a good track record of working really well in partnership with the Norfolk library service.

 

The Assistant Head of Museums referred to Aickman’s Yard and explained there were ongoing discussions between the Curator of the Lynn Museum and Borough Council colleagues around a date for Members of the Committee to have a tour of Aickman’s Yard and the date would be confirmed at the end of the meeting.

 

The Assistant Head of Museums explained they had active projects including the Newman Project running to ensure that information about the collections were made as accessible as possible.

 

The Committee’s attention was drawn further to the following areas of the report:

 

o   Family events

o   Family Trails

o   Mini Museum

o   Coffee Mornings

o   Talks Programme

o   Finds Identification and Recording Day on Saturday 27^th July

 

Councillor A Kemp referred to the Finds Identification and Recording Day and asked whether they had received any treasure trove which would be worth putting in the Lynn Museum. In response, the Curator of the Lynn Museum confirmed there was a treasure process for objects and explained that if things were identified as treasure, the Lynn Museum had an opportunity to register an interest in that item and once the interest was registered, there was a process of acquiring it for the Lynn Museum with grant-giving bodies. He added that over the years they had had interesting items brought into the Lynn Museum by people such as a bronze aged gold fork.

 

In response to a further question raised by Councillor A Kemp, the Curator of the Lynn Museum explained they had an excellent relationship with The British Museum. The British Museum had been very good at lending local material of international importance but he confirmed the gold talk which Councillor A Kemp referred to had gone to the Norfolk collections which were looked after by the County but agreed with Councillor A Kemp that it would be good for local material to be shown locally.

 

The Assistant Head of Museums reported that nationally, for many years, Norfolk had the highest levels of reported finds for both treasure and non-treasure material and explained this was because they had built a really strong relationship between the Norfolk Museum Service and the Identification and Finds Service.

 

The Committee’s attention was drawn further to the following areas of the report:

 

o   Pewter Pilgrims Adult Workshop

·        Newman Legacy project

·        Other Museum developments

o   Publicity and promotion

o   NMS Teaching Museum Trainees

o   Building Work at Lynn Museum

o   Retail offer at Lynn Museum

 

The Chair, Councillor A Bubb asked whether the Seahenge mugs would be on sale at other museums. In response, the Curator of the Lynn Museum and Assistant Head of Museums confirmed they would ask Hat Johnson to see if that was something they could arrange.

 

The Committee’s attention was drawn further to the following areas of the report:

 

·        Borough Council partnership working

·        Learning & Outreach

 

The Curator of the Lynn Museum invited the Committee to ask any questions.

 

Councillor A Kemp asked how they publicised the Lynn Museum’s free admission period. In response, the Curator of the Lynn Museum explained they displayed banners at the front of the Lynn Museum advertising free admission through the winter period. He added they used other marketing strategies such as social media and their website.

 

The Chair, Councillor A Bubb asked the Democratic Support Officer if they would be able to advertise information in relation to talks and events at the museums in the Members’ Bulletin which got circulated to Borough Councillors on a two weekly basis.

 

The Assistant Head of Museums provided an update on the Kick the Dust Norfolk project.

 

The Assistant Head of Museums highlighted that on page 28, they encountered a formatting error within the report and confirmed they would share those details within that section of the report in more detail with the Committee after the meeting.

 

Councillor M de Whalley commended officers on the work they had done with younger people. In response to a question raised by Councillor M de Whalley, the Assistant Head of Museums explained their core funding was secured for 4 years through Arts Council England which meant they were able to maintain their team of project workers based across the county who had been delivering the programmes. He added they also received revenue funding from Public Health Norfolk and were looking to develop their relationship and if that was successful, they would see additional activity happening particularly focused around mental health outcomes. The Assistant Head of Museums explained the new National Lottery Heritage Funding bid was a way to take the practice developed in Norfolk and extend that learning across the whole of the East of England and the East Midlands working in partnership with the Museum Development Agencies.

 

In response to a question raised by County Councillor M Chenery of Horsbrugh, the Assistant Head of Museums advised he would get in contact with the Kick the Dust coordinator to provide County Councillor M Chenery with an update in relation to developing new partnerships.

 

Councillor A Kemp asked what areas were being looked into for people to work with Kick the Dust. In response, the Assistant Head of Museums explained they had trainees based in a number of different settings. He added as part of the development phase for the Your Heritage, Your Future project, they had a trainee at True’s Yard. Through the Kick the Dust programme, they were also working with the King’s Lynn and Gaywood library in terms of developing libraries as a base for some of the community work and were continuing to engage with young people.

 

The Chair, Councillor A Bubb asked whether there would be an opportunity to meet with Members of the Kick the Dust in the future. In response, the Assistant Head of Museums suggested inviting the temporary cover Learning and Engagement Officer to a future meeting along with the Kick the Dust coordinator to provide the Committee with an update of the work which was going on in King’s Lynn and that would provide an opportunity to introduce some of the young people who were working locally.

 

The visitor figures for the period April to the end of August 2024 were circulated to the Committee at the meeting and noted. A copy of the visitor figures is attached to the minutes.

 

The Curator of the Lynn Museum reported that due to the free admission period at the Lynn Museum, they got more visitors during the October to March period. He added it looked like the trend was on to be as good as the previous year and were overall pleased with the visitor figures.

 

Councillor A Kemp asked whether the Committee could be informed of the outcome of the application for the Kick the Dust project which they were getting that week. In response, the Assistant Head of Museums explained the Committee meeting was taking place that week but they were unsure of when the decision would be relayed.

 

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.