Museums in Cambridgeshire News no. 63 (26 August 2016)

Dear colleague

Here is this week’s rather large crop of news:

  1. SHARE has been awarded funding to help a handful of museums in the region to prepare an audience development plan. I would like a Cambridgeshire museum to be able to take advantage of this, so if you are interested, and have been collecting visitor data, please let me know.
  2. I have just found out about modest scale digitisation grants open to museums but the closing date is 31 August. The details are at https://www.townswebarchiving.com/twa-digitisation-grant/ .
  3. Just in case you missed it (which I have just discovered can be called ICYMI) the deadline for the AIM conservation grants is 30 September. See http://www.aim-museums.co.uk/content/aim_grants/ .
  4. As I have previously mentioned (MiC News 62) the MiC AGM is at Ramsey on 15 September. I have had a request from the Treasurer for someone to give him a lift there and back from Cambridge, please? I may need a lift myself, because I’ve got vertigo (temporary I hope!) and have been told not to drive. Any help with this would be much appreciated.
  5. I have decided to take out a ‘basic’ level countywide subscription to the emergency conservation service provided by Harwell Restoration. I will confirm when it is ‘up and running’ so that you can add it to your Emergency Plans. This should only take a few weeks to confirm.
  6. I have had a request from a museum in the north of the County to run a labelling course. SHARE have such a course on 8 November in Colchester which I think is too far away for the museum concerned, so my question is: would any other members of MiC come to a local course if it could be organised?
  7. So far only about one third of Cambridgeshire Museums (of all sizes!) have submitted their benchmarking returns. If you have not already done so, please send in your return before the 30 September deadline as it is very important for future funding (see MiC News 62).
  8. The Farmland Museum is advertising for a Visitor Services Assistant, closing date 2 September. Please contact Ann Wise, Museum Manager at managerfarmlandmuseum@yahoo.com for more information and an application form.
  9. The Accreditation Partners are seeking to recruit five new members of the Museums Accreditation Committee, for an initial three-year term from October 2016. To apply for this voluntary role go to http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/accreditation-scheme/accreditation-how-apply. Deadline 5pm on Friday 2 September 2016.
  10. I attach the latest newsletter of the British Association of Friends of Museums (BAFM).
  11. May I draw your attention to a grants scheme for the promotion of scientific heroes, closing date 30 September: https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/local-heroes/ ?
  12. SHARE Museums East is advertising for a Museums Development Project Officer (Leadership & Resilience), salary £25,694 – £27,394 p.a. (Scale H), pro rata for 0.8 FTE. The application deadline for this post has been extended to Wednesday 7 Sept. Full details via this link View Vacancy Details.

Best wishes for the Bank Holiday