New Museum Director

As part of the restructuring and realignment of the Museums service as a whole, Canterbury City Council has appointed a new Director of Museums. She is Joanna Jones, currently Arts and Cultural Services Manager for Sefton Museums & Galleries, she is due to take up her new post in June.

Ken Reedie, who has been Curator of the City Museums and Galleries Service since the early 1970s is due to retire as soon as the Beaney project in Canterbury is complete.

The timing of Ms. Jones' appointment means that no great changes are likely take place in the near future. We can be encouraged that in making this appointment the Council seems serious about its commitment to support the museums and avoid any further threats of closure.

We look forward to working with the new Director, who we understand is enthusiastic about community involvement, to help make Herne bay Museum become the attraction that the town needs.

What next?

Having, for the time being, won a reprieve for the museum, it is essential to decide where the energies of the Friends are best focussed next.

So, ideas please:

• What have you ever wanted to see or do in the museum?
• What is right about the museum?
• What is wrong about the museum?

Please add a comment below, or write to the newsletter or the website, or email the Friends with your ideas.

Museum Saved!

Before Christmas on 6th December I sat with representatives of several other interested bodies to hear the Head of Culture & Enterprise, Janice McGuinness present to us the plan for the future of the whole museum service, including Herne Bay. There had been indications that the news might be good, but this was confirmation, the museum was indeed saved and the campaign had made a significant impact on the chain of events that led to the new policy.

The new commercial approach which has assured the museum a future includes: a £2 entrance fee for non resident adults, a complete overhaul of the retail and shop area, efficiency measures within the museum including greater staff empowerment, a proactive approach to attracting outside funding and much closer links with the community.

The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council were instrumental in helping to formulate the fresh approach. Their review of the City Council's whole museum service highlighted all these issues and reserved special praise for the potential level of community support as demonstrated by the campaigns triggered by the original council proposals to close three museums out of six.

The council has listened to these campaigns and all the interest groups who have had input into the subsequent review procedure. In Herne Bay it was quickly evident that our ad-hoc campaign had to turn onto something properly constituted so that we could have a voice in the proceedings. Friends of Herne Bay Museum was the result and up to now has been exclusively engaged in the campaign and the consultation process. This is a victory for the whole community, without those 2000 signatures and the blizzard of emails and letters, we would not have had the weight behind us during the talks, and Herne Bay would have been left without a voice, well done, everyone and thank you.

The future is exciting, if the council is as good as its word and adheres seriously to the recommendations of the MLA review, then lots of things then become possible. One of the most common complaints from people has been that, apart from the gallery space, "the museum never changes". There is a general perception that "there are things in storage that we never get to see". One of the complaints I most often hear is "there isn't enough information on the things that are on display".

Action on all these complaints we can now begin to press for. By spring next year the restructuring within the museum will have taken root and we can start to build relationships that will lead to creative solutions. I truly believe that the museum will be recast as a much more open and receptive body with a human face.

So with the new year come opportunities, ideas please people. What have you ever wanted to see or do in the museum? Have you ever expressed frustration or disappointment at some aspect of the museum or its shop? Which bits of the museum do you like best and want to stay as it is?

Please let us know, we need to put together a list of wishes, hopes and ambitions, however mad your idea, put it in an email or in a letter and send it to:

FoHBM Newsletter, 1 Mickleburgh Hill, Herne Bay, CT6 6AA or email: MuseumFriends@HerneBayMatters.com

David Cross, Secretary

January 2011

What's happening?

After the flurry of activity and consultation that the City Council indulged in during the latter part of the Summer we still await the results of their cogitation. At the last consultation meeting we enquired when we might see the results of this process, probably late September came the optimistic reply. By this time we had hoped to get a glimpse of the Council's plans concerning the future of the whole Museum Service and Herne Bay in particular.

I have had an interim answer to the question, the 'what is happening and what is going to happen' question. This comes from Peter Davies. Peter is museum trained and an ex-colleague of mine, now working in the Dept of Culture at Military Road. I quote from his letter:

"The Council are currently working on their Star Chamber deliveries over the coming weeks, and as such all communication of budgetry type stuff is embargoed because of the obvious political nature of the information.What I will say is that we have been working hard - and I do mean this with sincerity - on a presumption not to close for all museums.This will mean that other options will need to be considered and these will have a sharp focus on the 'worth' of the museums to visitors from outside of the district.

We feel confident we can mitigate the harsher savings climate of last year with a much more levelled and community-responsive set of recommendations for meeting last years and future savings targets."

So there you have it, I think this still means that the museum will stay open, but not as we know it. The future shape we can only guess at and in all probability that guess would be wrong. Whatever change is proposed, I am sure it's going to mean a greater level of community involvement, which is why we need to concentrate on increasing the membership and building a solid support organisation.

David Cross, secretary

October 2010

Use it or lose it

One of the reasons that Herne Bay Museum was vulnerable to closure was that of all the museums in the Council’s service, its visitor figures were the least impressive. They had in fact been dropping for the last couple of years. One of the things we can do as a group is to help reverse this trend.

The community needs to be more involved in its museum and the Friends can help by acting as a conduit for ideas and initiatives. As we get bigger we can become the voice of the town with some hope of being heard. Write to the newsletter or the website with your ideas, moans and grumbles. Don’t forget to put in the things you like or want more of, and don't forget to visit. Pop in when passing, add a click to the counter, and urge others to do the same.