The Committee considered a report which sought approval and adoption of the Reading Museum Forward Plan 2025-2030, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report. The Forward Plan assessed the key achievements of Reading Museum over the period of the last Forward Plan 2020-2025.

The report also sought agreement to dispose of items from the Reading Museum Collection, as set out in paragraph 3.4 and listed in Appendix 2, that had been identified in accordance with Museum’s adopted Collection Development Policy 2022-2027. The Collection Development Policy accepted the principle that sound curatorial reasons must be established before consideration was given to the disposal of any items in the Museum’s collection. Therefore, disposals should be part of a regular process of collections review to ensure they continued to be relevant to meeting the wider strategic aims of the Museum. A review of collections during documentation and storage projects had identified items of either low quality, poor condition or duplicate mass-produced articles often with no significant provenance, or which would be more appropriately offered to another institution which could provide better care or access to users.

Resolved:

(1)        That the Reading Museum Forward Plan 2025-2030 including the service’s statement of purpose and key aims, as set out in Appendix 1 be approved and adopted to ensure the Museum met with the Accreditation standard for UK museums;

(2)        That it be noted that the Reading Museum Forward Plan 2025-2030 would be submitted to Arts Council England with the Museum’s next Accreditation return;

(3)        That the achievements the Museum had delivered to date be noted, as set out in paragraph 3.2 of the report, including:

·      welcoming annually over 18,500 school participants, over 107,000 visitors, and 3.3 million digital visits,

·       generating a total Economic Impact of £3.9m annually.

·       acclaimed exhibitions such as the Windrush partnership, Reading Festival and Reading Football Club;

·       ACE-funded Museums Partnership Reading outreach and environmental programmes for diverse audiences and the Museum of Sanctuary award;

(4)        That Reading Museum dispose of items from its collection identified in accordance with Museum’s adopted Collection Development Policy, as set out in paragraph 3.4 and Appendix 2 of the report.