Your new Museum Development Midlands (MDM) team are busy collaborating to ensure our continued support for museums in the Midlands from April 2024.
Museum Development from now until April 2024
Until April 2024, the Museum Development teams in the East Midlands and West Midlands will continue operating as normal, providing advice and support to regional museums. In the lead up to our launch as Museum Development Midlands on 1 April, we’ll tell you more about the services you can expect.
We’re currently finalising the details of our delivery programme for 2024-25 and will update you in March. Please bear with us as we devote our attention to ensuring that we are ready for business as MDM from April 2024.
What is changing after April 2024?
From April 2024, the regional Museum Development teams in the Midlands will come together to form one area team covering the same geographical footprint. The MDM team will continue to have staff based throughout the two current regions, now working as one team. MDM is committed to retaining a close relationship with museums on the ground while gaining the advantages of working across the wider area.
MDM will be managed by a new partnership between Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust and Leicestershire County Council, the current hosts of the West Midlands Museum Development (WMMD) and Museum Development East Midlands (MDEM) programmes respectively.
Arts Council England will support the new MDM partnership with £570k per annum to deliver museum development activity in the Midlands from 1 April 2024 until 31 March 2027. This new partnership builds on the team’s experience of collaborative working across the Midlands since 2018.
Our support programme for museums in the Midlands responds to Arts Council England’s Strategy, Let’s Create, and addresses the four Investment Principles.
The 2024-25 programme will include:
- Providing one-to-one advice for regional museums
- Workforce training and skills development
- Developmental programmes
- Fundraising support
- Accreditation advice and mentor support
- Organisational health and governance advice
- Collections care advice
- Communications and signposting
- Supporting networks and partnerships
- Data collection, sharing insights and intelligence about the state of the sector and advocacy
- Sharing learning and good practice, celebrating museums’ achievements
- Small grants programme for Accredited museums
Our 2024-25 programme has been informed by your feedback during 2023. We will continue to adapt workforce development programming throughout 2024-26, responding to your needs including through the Museum Development Skills Needs Survey.
When will you hear more?
We’ll update you further in March. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns you would like to raise, please email the MDEM team or the WMMD team.
