Dear colleague

Last week I met Kate Carreno from the Fitzwilliam Museum and Richard Hunt from Vivacity, who have agreed to act as co-Chairs of Museums in Cambridgeshire now that Liz Hide has left the University of Cambridge Museums. Kate and Richard will help Kerry Wallis (our new Treasurer) and I to plan MiC’s next steps pending the election of a new Chair as early as possible in 2018.

Our first decision was to press ahead with the design and print of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Museum Strategy. Over the next two weeks I will prepare the final draft text, taking account of the points raised at the AGM in September and the latest benchmarking statistics, while we arrange for professional design of the printed version. We anticipate printing about 200 copies for distribution to key stakeholders and for that we will need to know how many copies MiC members will need for local distribution. One key step is to collect some publishable photographs to illustrate the excellent work that is being done by museums across the County. Please do let me know if you have suitable images – obviously we will want to show the full range of museum activity, from collection management to public activities.

We hope to launch the Strategy at MiC’s next meeting which at the moment we plan to hold in Peterborough sometime in the early summer. I will of course keep you posted with further details. In the meantime here is the last batch of news items for 2017:

1. IWM Duxford are advertising for a Producer, Public Engagement and Education, closing date 4 January, at https://www.le.ac.uk/museumstudies/Jobs2/full_job_descriptions/50417.htm.
2. The Sedgwick Museum is advertising for Shop Assistant, closing date 2 January, at http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/16039/.
3. The Heritage Lottery Fund has announced changes to their grant programmes; see https://www.hlf.org.uk/about-us/our-strategy/changes-our-grant-making.
4. Burwell Museum has another batch of objects for disposal (see attached). If you are interested contact Steve Crane as usual at sacrane@btinternet.com.
5. I have been asked to circulate a request from the Arab Horse Society who are mounting an exhibition at the National Horseracing Museum, Newmarket, in March to mid July 2018. They would like to source two table style cases and/or an upright case.  They have been offered items such as Arabian horse saddles and bridles which they will be unable to show without cases.  They can collect and deliver back to you but will be unlikely to be able to afford to pay for the loan as the budget is very small. It’s an even longer shot, but does anyone have a mount in the style of a horse’s head that they could borrow to show a bridle?! Please contact Faith Carpenter, The Company Curator at faithcarpenter@thecompanycurator.co.uk or 01367 241237 if you are able to help.
6. Please note that the new improvement fund has been launched; see https://www.gov.uk/government/news/arts-minister-launches-4-million-dcmswolfson-museums-and-galleries-improvement-fund.

Finally, please let me wish you all the very best for Christmas and for a prosperous 2018 for yourself and for your museums.