Client: Somerset County Council
As a visitor to museums, have you ever wondered where objects and collections are stored? The Community Heritage Access Centre is home to a range of artefacts related to archaeology, fine art, industrial items, firearms, documents, photographs and ceramics (with a focus on Yeovil and South Somerset).
Archive, heritage centres and museums are facing a challenging future with cuts to core funding streams, loss of experienced and highly skilled staff and volunteers and changing expectations of visitors. Planning Solutions was commissioned to work with the Community Heritage Access Centre to identify and evaluate approaches to increasing visitor numbers, enhancing the visitor experience and increasing income generation without impacting on the qualities that make the Community Heritage Access Centre a special place to visit. Our work included:
- A site visit and assessment of the visitor experience
- Consultation with staff
- Review of financial performance
- Assessment of visitor numbers and trends
- Analysis of the market place
- Reviewing operational data including visitor income and cost trends
- Identifying key income generating opportunities to help ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the Centre
A development action plan was prepared, which set out a clear number of actions, categorised under three thematic areas:
- Product development and the visitor experience
- Operational and financial considerations
- Marketing initiatives to broaden appeal and engage with new audiences
The individual actions were prioritised and the associated capital costs were identified. A key element of our work assessed opportunities in respect of income generation, to help ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the Centre.
As part of this project we also reviewed six museums across Somerset. From this emerged a number of common actions which were applicable to two or more of the participating sitess. These included:
- Sharing skills, resources and professional support
- Joint marketing initiatives, including customer research
- Joint buying and merchandising guides
- Volunteer management, organisation and recruitment
- Membership initiatives
We also managed a small grant fund to help pay for some project based initiatives. A key output was organising a ‘Museum Summit’ for participating sites to share our findings and key lessons from benchmarked examples of best practice.
How can we help?
If you manage a museum or heritage centre or archive and are seeking ways to identify and evaluate future opportunities, please feel free to call Richard Linington 023 9248 1999 or email richard@pslplan.co.uk