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 March to May 2025.  A copy of the report is attached to the minutes.

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

1)    Exhibitions and events at Lynn Museum

1.1    Current Exhibition Woof: A Celebration of Dogs

1.2    Forthcoming Exhibition May the Toys Be with You

1.3    Family events

1.4    Family Trails

1.5    Mini Museum

1.6    Coffee Mornings

1.8   Warm Wednesdays

1.9   Pewter Workshop

1.10 National Lottery Open Week

1.11 Forthcoming events

The Curator of the Lynn Museum invited questions from the Committee in relation to those areas of the report, as summarised below.

The Chair, Councillor Bubb referred to the Warm Wednesdays and asked what heat source was used in the Lynn Museum.  The Curator of the Lynn Museum explained they had gas boilers which provided a wet central heating system within the Museum.

The Chair, Councillor Bubb raised a further question and asked if there was any scope for putting any solar panels on the roof of the Lynn Museum.  The Assistant Head of Museums explained it would be difficult to install solar panels on the roof of the Lynn Museum as it was a Grade 2 Listed Building.

The Vice Chair, Councillor Kemp referred to the Borough Council’s scheme around decarbonising public buildings and asked whether air source heat pumps could be installed to the perimeter of the Lynn Museum.  The Assistant Head of Museums explained the space was not managed or controlled by them and did not think it was realistically possible.  In terms of decarbonisation, the Assistant Head of Museums explained that over the years they had replaced the gallery lighting with LED lighting.

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

2)    Newman Legacy project

3)    Other Museums developments

3.1 Publicity and promotion

3.2 NMS Teaching Museum Trainees

3.3 Retail offer at Lynn Museum

3.4 Object Photography

3.5 Volunteers

3.6 Baines Publication

3.7 Study visit to see the Lynn Museum’s doll collection

3.8 Finds Identification and Recording Day

Councillor de Whalley referred to the Newman Legacy project and asked how many more records there were to update and how much longer the project would take.  The Curator of the Lynn Museum confirmed the Aikman’s Yard collections facility was progressing well and added that a number of rooms had been done.  The Curator of the Lynn Museum commented that he would find out the precise figure and share with the Committee after the meeting.

Councillor de Whalley raised a further question and asked if they were looking at ways to making the Aikman’s Yard stored assets more accessible.  The Curator of the Lynn Museum explained they were looking at including more of the artwork at the Town Hall in King’s Lynn to ensure there was more on public display and added they were looking at other creative ways to have more on display.

The Portfolio Holder for Culture and Events, Councillor Lintern advised that following a meeting, they were looking to set up a Working Group to look at that specific area.

The Assistant Head of Museums added that they were exploring more opportunities in terms of other venues where there was the appropriate level of security and environment to make collections more accessible.  He advised the team were working on plans for an exhibition next year at the Lynn Museum to celebrate the work that had been going on down at Aikman’s Yard.

The Chair, Councillor Bubb asked if it was possible to consider opening Aikman’s Yard to the public.  The Assistant Head of Museums advised there were challenges around that building in terms of making it suitable for public access particularly because of fire restrictions.  He added that the Norfolk collection centre which was housed at Gressenhall had larger objects from across the service including material from King’s Lynn that was available for the public to view.

In response to questions from the Vice Chair, Councillor Kemp, the Assistant Head of Museums advised there was a lot of material that whilst significant in terms of King’s Lynn heritage and of value to researchers, would not necessarily lend themselves to public display.  The Assistant Head of Museums explained there was no other space in the Lynn Museum to store collections from Aikman’s Yard.

The Portfolio Holder for Culture and Events, Councillor Lintern commented that the discussions around the collections at Aikman’s Yard would be addressed through the new Working Group and would hopefully provide some answers in the forthcoming months.

The Chair, Councillor Bubb asked if they had found anything exciting from the Finds Identification and Recording Day.  The Curator of the Lynn Museum explained that previously someone had brought in a Bronze Age gold torc which was one of the best enquiries they had received.

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

4)    Borough Council partnership working

5)    Learning & Outreach

Councillor Kybird referred to Norfolk County Council’s proposal for a single unitary and asked how they would be addressing the service level agreements.  The Assistant Head of Museums explained that at this stage, they did not have the information but commented that King’s Lynn had worked really closely with District Councils as a joint service and over the years the service level agreement in King’s Lynn had been very effective.

Councillor de Whalley asked how challenging it was to ensure the content was compatible with the curriculum and syllabus and whether it was becoming more challenging to engage with schools.  The Assistant Head of Museums commented that NMS had a good track record of maintaining and developing engagement with schools and sustaining numbers of school visits.  The learning teams across NMS were effective at working with local teachers to continually review and re-evaluate the programmes which were being offered.  He added they also offered small bursaries to help schools with transport costs.

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

In response to a question from Councillor de Whalley, the Assistant Head of Museums explained they were pulling together a programme to track young people who had reached the age of 25 to stay with Kick the Dust to provide mentoring and buddying support to other younger people.

County Councillor Chenery of Horsbrugh asked if they had linked into the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust.  The Assistant Head of Museums commented that with the new project coordinator coming in, this would be a good opportunity to develop those links with the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust.

In response to a question from the Vice Chair, Councillor Kemp, the Assistant Head of Museums confirmed he would see if a theme around the future of Local Government would be something the project team would be interested in taking forward.

The visitor figures were circulated to the Committee at the meeting and were noted.  A copy of the visitor figures is attached to the minutes.

RESOLVED: The Committee noted the report.