Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales
Update for the Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee January 2019
Highlights from 2018
Growth in Visitor Numbers
This
included welcoming 1,800,000 visitors to our seven national museums
– with 42% coming from outside Wales. This was highest ever
number of visitors since the Museum was founded in 1907 and an
increase in attendance of 101.7% since 2001, when the Welsh
Government introduced free entry. We also reached over 150,000
followers on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and 1.6 million people
viewed almost 6.2 million pages on our website.
St Fagans National Museum of History Redevelopment
We made history with the completion of the £30 million
redevelopment of St Fagans National Museum of History in October, a
project that was only made possible with significant support from
the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Welsh Government.
We involved people across Wales in creating three new galleries and
reconstructing Llys Llywelyn, a medieval court – creating
history with rather than for people, thus facilitating
people’s access to their cultural rights. We also
collaborated with artists, craftspeople, young people, academics
and community groups to reimagine the Museum.
We raised £960,000 for the St Fagans capital fundraising
appeal, which included gifts from the Garfield Weston Foundation,
the Foyle Foundation and the Moondance Foundation. The opening of a
new gift shop and restaurant at St Fagans was also part of the
redevelopment project.
The site received thousands of visitors over the first weekend and
the galleries have been well received. Visitors have spent time on
activities in the galleries, have responded to the content, and are
already providing feedback. St Fagans has lready won several awards
including the RICS Tourism and Leisure award for Wales and Highly
Commended across the UK; Best Craftsperson or Apprentice award,
Heritage Angel Awards Wales and Best Rescue of a Historic Building
over £5 million, Heritage Angel Awards Wales.
Events & Exhibitions
We hosted 29 exhibitions and 13 displays across our museums and
partner organisations, telling inspiring stories and celebrating
Wales’s vibrant culture and Welsh language.
We worked with the Japanese Government Cultural Agency and the
National Museum of Japanese History to bring Kizuna: Wales Japan
Design to National Museum Cardiff in summer 2018. Kizuna
was a major exhibition of Japanese Art and Design - the first ever
on this scale outside London – which attracted nearly 60,000
visitors over a 12 week period.
We marked the 25th anniversary of our partnership with
the Derek Williams Trust with Who Decides? - a major
exhibition of modern and contemporary art run in partnership with
homelessness charity The Wallich. The ground-breaking exhibition
attracted over 91,000 visitors and was conceived and curated by 12
women and men who have experienced homelessness in Wales.
Of particular relevance in the current climate
of #MeToo the photography exhibition for our new permanent
photography gallery was Women in Focus, which invited us to examine
how photography has been used to misrepresent women through
objectification and idealization.
Lle Hanes at the National Eisteddfod in Cardiff saw us
working in partnership with the National Library of Wales, the
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales,
Cadw, People’s Collection Wales, Cardiff Story Museum,
Glamorgan Archives and others to bring together objects and stories
about Cardiff Bay.
We developed a new Events Strategy and Action Plan for 2018-23.
Programmes delivered included: celebrations of Diwali, Black
History month, Pride and LGBT+; new programmes including Silent
Discos and Sleepovers; as well as the re-introduction of Halloween
and Christmas Nights as market leader events at St Fagans National
Museum of History.
Partnerships and Participation
We collaborated with over 120 charities and public sector
organisations. Our partnerships enables us to focus on long-term
needs, ensuring we use our resources effectively to benefit people
in Wales.
We are a leading cultural partner and provider in the programme
Fusion, creating opportunities through culture, which saw us
work with a huge range of partners including eight local
authorities. We are also one of twelve organisations across the UK
to be successful in obtaining funding from the National Lottery
through the Heritage Lottery Fund to develop Kick the Dust,
a five-year programme to increase youth engagement with heritage in
Wales.
We opened a chill out room at the National Waterfront Museum, which
was later highly commended at the Wales Council for Voluntary
Action awards. The concept was inspired by a teenage volunteer with
autism and allows people to take time out, relax and feel
calm.
Learning for Life
We remain the leading provider of
learning outside the classroom in Wales, welcoming 187,249 pupils
and students, and over 420,995 informal learners in 2017/18.
We launched Ar Lafar, a festival for Welsh
Language learners, developed with the National Centre for Learning
Welsh at the National Slate Museum, the National Waterfront Museum
and St Fagans National Museum of History. Over 635 Welsh language
learners participated in the Festival, which has now been
established as an annual event.
We reached over 192,000 users via our vibrant digital learning
programme. New bilingual digital experiences include the
development of a Roman iBook at the National Roman Legion Museum
and Google Virtual Reality Expedition at Big Put National Coal
Museum, created as part of Google’s Expeditions Programme to
reach 1 million school-children across the UK. The expedition
helped to prepare learners with additional learning needs for their
visit underground and was the first expedition to be created in the
Welsh language.
We also developed our Early Years programme for children under
five, to support families who face disadvantage and in particular
families living in Pioneers Areas.
Income Generation and Fundraising
We continued to diversify our funding from
research, charging, trading company profit and revenue fundraising
which resulted in an overall increase in net income of 46% and
£1.9 million in donations.
One initiative going from strength to strength is the
programme for Cruise Ship Passengers at the National Slate Museum,
with 1,200 passengers from the MV Corinthian visiting the museum.
Passengers paid for a welcome package which included a typical
quarryman meal, a presentation on community history and a chance to
meet one of the Museum’s very own quarrymen.
Research and Conservation
In the last 10 years, our scientists have
discovered over 400 new species of living and extinct species from
over 65 countries.
We currently have 68 pioneering research projects ranging from
natural sciences and art, to history and social sciences.
Our 5 million objects and intangible heritage include some of the
finest masterpieces of impressionist art outside Paris.
Supporting Skills and Volunteering
We appointed four new mining apprentices at Big
Pit National Coal Museum, including our first female guide,
supported craft apprenticeships at St Fagans National Museum of
History and appointed a blacksmith at the National Slate
Museum.
Over 700 volunteers donated 29,000 hours of their time. Of these
people 42% were under the age of 25 and 4% of our new volunteers
consider themselves BAME. 8% of our volunteers consider themselves
to have a disability or additional learning needs. We worked with
organisations such as the Down’s Syndrome Association and the
National Autistic Society to make our volunteer programme more
accessible. In April 2018 we also received the Investors in
Volunteers award for our outstanding work with volunteers.
What does 2019 have in store?
Learning for Life
We are developing programmes and resources to meet the needs of the
new curriculum currently in development and are developing a close
working relationship with Postgraduate Certificate in Education
courses across Wales. We hope to launch the Skills Report in 2019
and will continue with the apprenticeship scheme at Big Pit
National Coal Museum.
Evaluation
We will be undertaking a detailed summative evaluation of the St
Fagans National Museum of History redevelopment to ensure lessons
learnt are shared with the wider sector. We will also be
re-branding the St Fagans Food Festival to celebrate its tenth
Anniversary and offering craft courses across Amgueddfa
Cymru.
Health and Wellbeing
Amgueddfa Cymru is participating in the Mind Cymru Time to Change
Campaign and is developing a range of initiatives to support staff
well-being. We will also be applying for additional funding to
support new health and well-being programmes. We are working
towards submitting an Investors in People standard award. 69% of
staff participated in the survey over the summer and 28 members of
staff are now working together across Amgueddfa Cymru to develop an
Action Plan for the workforce.
Economic impact
Every £1 invested by the
Welsh Government in the National Museum generates £4 of
additional expenditure in Wales. This is the highest of any
publicly funded cultural institution in Wales, contributing
£83m of Gross Value Added (GVA) to the Welsh economy.
Visitors from outside Wales have increased as a proportion of total
visitors from 37% in 2012 to 42% in 2018. The Museum’s
contribution through the construction work for the St Fagans
National Museum of History redevelopment project was £27
million over overall investment in the Wales and UK economy.
Exhibitions
Building on our role in leading
photography in Wales we are planning a major photography season.
This will feature the internationally renowned photographers Martin
Parr, Ernst and Hilla Becher and August Sander for autumn
2019.
David Nash: Sculpture through the Seasons will be David’s first major solo exhibition in Wales and will highlight the importance of Capel Rhiw as studios and environment for Nash’s ‘family of sculptures.
The Fossil Swamp AC-NMW has
been working with the Brymbo Heritage Group for several years to
conserve world-class fossil finds from the Brymbo Steelworks site.
The exhibition will be used to discuss why we now need to move from
fossil fuels to more sustainable energy sources with links to the
Future Generations and Environment Act supporting government and
Amgueddfa Cymru Visions.
Snakes, our major
charged exhibition for families, will take place during summer
2019.
Leonardo 500 -
To mark the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death
in 2019, the Royal Collection Trust has organised a UK wide
programme where they will lend 12 Leonardo drawings each to 12 UK
venues. This will be a charged for exhibition.
National Waterfront Museum Swansea is working on their 1918: The
Return to Peace exhibition focusing on industry after the end
of the war.
St Fagans National Museum of History is working with local
communities on an event in February 2019 to commemorate the Victory
Ball held at Oakdale Institute in 1919.
In 2019 we will deliver a Year of Discovery exhibition at Oriel Y
Parc using AC collections of archaeology, geology and art to
explore prehistoric Pembrokeshire, climate change and cultural
ownership. We will also begin a collaborative three-year
programming process with PCNPA, OyP and local stakeholders, with
the intended outcome of developing new audiences and embedding
community engagement at the heart of the OyP programme.
2019 will see us working in collaborative partnership with Wrexham County Borough Museum to produce an exhibition around the making of a replica Mold Gold Cape. The Mold Cape is a unique ceremonial cape of gold, made during the Early Bronze Age around 3,700 years ago and this exhibition will focus on the findings of experimental archaeologists to understand how this icon of Welsh archaeology was made.
Aberystwyth Old College: The hugely popular natural history exhibition Wriggle: The Wonderful World of Worms, will be presented at Aberystwyth University Old College in April 2019, in support of their Heritage Lottery Fund bid to create a museum standard gallery and we look forward to further developing our relationship with the university.
We will be working with Chepstow and Abergavenny
Museums to support future programmes and exploring new ways of
working with museums and galleries in Wales with the Federation of
Museums in Wales.
Building on the strong relationship
between Amgueddfa Cymru and Japan, we aim to launch a digital image
display of unique Sakubei Yamamoto Coal Mining Paintings to
be held at Big Pit in 2019 – 2020.
Income Generation and Fundraising
In 2017/18 - the last full
financial year – out of a
total income of £36.6m the Museum raised £9.5
million from all non-GIA sources (including trading company
turnover, restricted and unrestricted donations and sponsorship).
This included net unrestricted revenue income, available for the
Museum’s core activities, of £1.25m (including research
and charging, trading company profits and recharges, and revenue
fundraising). This is a 46% increase on 2016/17, reflecting the
Museum’s efforts in expanding its income generation
activities. The Museum is expanding these activities further and is
recruiting a Commercial Director to take this forward.
Supporting the Welsh Government’s National Goals
Amgueddfa Cymru works with Wales's
national institutions in helping the nation to achieve the goals of
the Well-being of Future Generations Act (2015) for education,
health and well-being (for example, dementia programmes),
addressing poverty, environmental change (for example, species
taxonomy and monitoring) and economic development. Our Vision
Commitments and Objectives are aligned with the Well-being
Goals.
Greater engagement with virtual visitors
The website recently moved over to the flagship .wales /.cymru domain and has been completely redesigned to improve orientation, e-commerce, and to provide more up-to-date content about Wales and its place in the world. It attracts around 1.6 million visits a year. Engagement on social media has increased by 460% over the last three years, since the implementation of our updated Social Media Policy and training programme.
We have also introduced a technology first for UK museums: Museum ExplorAR, an Augmented Reality experience providing our visitors with an enhanced interpretation to some of our permanent exhibitions. Due to positive review and the results from our evaluation, the experience is being extended indefinitely with ideas for future content in the pipeline. We are also planning Virtual Reality (VR) experiences at two of our museums - with Museum’s focus on new digital experiences as a potential income stream, we are developing the knowledge and skills to determine the feasibility of commercial digital ventures and the operational awareness to run them.
To further improve
our reach and accessibility, we are in the process of commissioning
accessibility testing for the website. This will result in a number
of recommendations around design, website architecture and content
that will be implemented over 2019-20. The Museum is also exploring
access needs in the galleries at National Museum Cardiff and how
digital technologies can help. This will build on our work on
iPads, phones and Augmented Reality to improve accessibility in our
physical spaces.
International role
Amgueddfa Cymru has long term
partnerships, underpinned by MoUs, with national governments and
museums in China and Japan. The Natural Sciences Department alone
has long term partnerships with 40 overseas museums. As well as
loaning individual specimens and works of art, the Museum has
toured major income generating exhibitions over the last decade to
the Gulf, the United States and Japan. We are in the process of
finalising an MoU with the National Museum of Ireland, to be
launched in the Spring of 2019 and are expanding our international
partnerships, which will be even more important post Brexit to
ensure that Wales remains to play a leading role on the
international stage.
Partnerships with
other museums in Wales
The Museum works closely with the Federation of Museums and Galleries in Wales, and supports local museums through loans and exhibitions. This includes our 10 year relationship providing exhibitions with Oriel Y Parc in Pembrokeshire National Park. In 2014, after a 20 year absence, Amgueddfa Cymru and the Federation collaborated in hosting the UK Museums Association’s most innovative and successful annual conference to date. The conference is due to return to Wales in 2020 or 2021. A legacy of the conference was the Welsh Museums Festival, and Amgueddfa Cymru continues to work closely with local museums to deliver the Festival annually since then. Amgueddfa Cymru has also been working with the Fed and others on developing a new Museums Strategy for Wales.
Roof Works at the National Roman Legion
Museum
In September 2018 the National Roman Legion Museum closed its doors
to the public so that essential roof maintenance could take place.
The museum will remain closed until autumn 2019 however, staff will
continue to deliver the Museum’s formal provision for schools
during this period.
How We Achieve This . . . . Our Unique Identity
Our commitment to the public
Our vision
‘Inspiring People, Changing Lives’, expresses
our commitment to achieving social justice through cultural
participation and is the foundation of all our work. Research
underpins everything we do, and the exceptional range of our
research on visitor learning and cultural participation provides us
with a depth of understanding of the social value and impact of our
community partnerships, exhibitions and learning programmes.
Interdisciplinary
The Museum is the
most interdisciplinary national museum in the United Kingdom,
embracing: Art, Design, Earth Sciences, Life Sciences, Archaeology,
So-cial History, Oral History, Industrial History, and Learning and
other Social Sciences.
Geographical distribution
The Museum
has sites in North West Wales (Slate Museum, Llanberis), West Wales
(Wool Museum, Drefach), South West Wales (Waterfront Museum,
Swansea), and South East Wales (St Fagans and National Museum
Cardiff in Cardiff; the Roman Legion Museum in Caerleon, and Big
Pit in Blaenavon), as well as the National Collections Centre in
Nantgarw. We also work in partnership with Wrexham Museum and Oriel
y Parc, as well as local museums throughout Wales to enable access
to the national collections.
Collections and curatorial expertise
Amgueddfa
Cymru holds over 5 million items in total. Of these around 3
million specimens are in the natural science collection; through
these, the Museum holds the only national evidence base for climate
change in Wales over centuries, millennia and aeons - a vital
resource for the nation now and in the future. It also holds the
archaeological archive for over 50% of the historic environment in
Wales, a total of 1,275,000 objects. It has the most significant
collections of social history and oral history in Wales, comprising
396,823 items. The Museum also holds the national collections of
Welsh and European art, including some of the finest Impressionist
works in the world.