As local and national government face difficult spending decisions it’s more important than ever that museums prove their worth. Work is continuing at the national and regional levels to advocate for continued investment via Renaissance. Evidence is being gathered to demonstrate how museums contribute to the well-being of local communities. This page outlines what’s being done by MLA and Renaissance East of England to safeguard regional museums. It also contains advice and information on how you can present robust evidence in a persuasive way.
National advocacy
MLA is promoting the achievements of regional museums to political audiences, including demonstrating the benefits of Renaissance funding. MLA, in consultation with the sector, has developed five core messages to help make the case for museums. All national, regional and local campaigning will demonstrate that regional museums are:
- Safeguarding, developing and making accessible collections of local, national and international significance
- Involving everyone in preserving, defining and exploring identity and heritage
- Contributing to regeneration, tourism and the economic success of English towns and cities
- Improving education, skills and learning for all
- Impacting on health and well-being
The MLA’s communications and research team are reviewing and developing existing evidence, mapping out target audiences and identifying advocacy activities. Key examples of great work in the sector are available at:
http://www.mla.gov.uk/what/raising_standards/best_practice
Regional advocacy
Renaissance East of England aims to support the sector as a whole in advocating for continued investment. We have been working on gathering evidence of the Renaissance programme’s impact in this region – this includes facts and figures about the sector which may be useful to you when putting the case for continued investment to local stakeholders and funders. The information has now been formulated into a series of 47 'evidence sheets' organised by local authority: if you are interested in seeing this evidence, either in whole or part, please contact Esther Morgan, Communications Officer, Renaissance East of England, esther.morgan@norfolk.gov.uk. For more examples of Renaissance impact, take a look at the Achievements and Activities section to find out more.
The latest edition of Renaissance News which has been sent to key stakeholders contains articles and statistics which link to the five core messages:
Renaissance News Issue 8
Evidence from the Benchmarking Survey 2009-10
The Benchmarking Survey is a means of gathering information about the sector from across the region. The survey is coordinated by the MDO network and the results collated and analysed by the Renaissance East of England Evaluation Officers.
The 2009-10 survey generated responses from 113 East of England museums, up on last year's total and equating to around a third of museums in the region. It’s produced some interesting results which support the argument that museums are making a valuable contribution to local communities:
- Visitors to these museums (which include some hub museums) reached almost 2.5m in 2009-10. Using a constant sample of 100 museums there was a 10.2% increase in visitors on the previous twelve months.
- Participation by adults in museum outreach activities continues to rise impressively: using a constant sample of 70 museums the figures show a 16.1% increase on 2008-09.
You can read a summary of the findings for 2009-10, plus the full Benchmarking Survey report here:
3-page Summary of Benchmarking Survey 2009-10 (PDF 30KB)
Full Benchmarking Survey Report 2009-10 (PDF 74KB)
You can compare these results with last year's figures:
Summary of Benchmarking Survey 2008-09 (PDF 196KB)
Making the case for your museum: presenting evidence persuasively
What’s special about what you do? – using case studies
One easy way of presenting what you do in an eye catching way is to produce a short case study. These can be used to support grant applications, promote your services to stakeholders such as local councillors, and keep staff and friends groups in touch with your museum's activities. A SHARE training day on presenting evidence to tell the story of your museum included ‘Top Tips for writing a case study’ and a template for capturing evidence about the work you do:
Top Tips for writing a case study
Information template for 'Telling the Story' of an event or activity
You can read Renaissance East of England case studies which demonstrate the five core messages in the Case Studies section of the site.
How do you fit in? – the bigger picture
Give weight to your evidence by linking it to a broader context, for instance using national statistics about tourism to support an argument about the value of museums in the local economy.
Proving that your organisation meets local community priorities is also important – one way of achieving this is to link what you do to a relevant National Indicator adopted by your county council. We’ve put together a pdf of useful links to regional and national evidence sources, including a link to an interactive map showing which NIs have been selected by area.
Useful links to the bigger picture
More resources will be added to this page soon. In the meantime, if you’d like more information on advocacy and the Renaissance campaign, please contact:
Esther Morgan, Communications Officer
Renaissance East of England
esther.morgan@norfolk.gov.uk
01603 493667