A report seeking approval for the Reading Museum Forward Plan 2020-2025 (Appendix 1).

The Executive Director of Economic Growth and Neighbourhood Services submitted a report that sought approval for the Reading Museum Forward Plan 2020-2025 which was attached to the report at Appendix 1.

The report explained that the regular review of the Forward Plan was both good practice and a key requirement of the Museum Accreditation Scheme, under which Reading Museum had Full Accreditation status (Accredited No. 978) from the Arts Council England (ACE).  Museums participating in the Scheme had to demonstrate effective forward planning approved by their governing body.  Museums in the Scheme were periodically invited to provide evidence that they continued to comply with the Accreditation Standard through a returns process.  Adoption of the Forward Plan and its submission with the return was a key piece of evidence required by the Scheme.

The report set out the key achievements since the last plan had been agreed, which included:

·        Reading Museum had been awarded Full Accreditation status in October 2017;

·        In April 2018 Reading Museum and The Museum of English Rural Life, as Museums Partnership Reading (MPR), had been awarded £1.25m from ACE National Portfolio 2018-2023;

·        Over 20,000 people had attended the reopening of Reading Abbey Quarter in June 2018 after successful delivery of the £3.15m Reading Abbey Revealed project – conservation, interpretation and community engagement led by the museum team and supported by National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) and Historic England;

·        September 2018 had marked the successful move and reopening of the popular Victorian Schoolroom at the restored Abbey Gateway, over 15,000 school children had visited the Museum in 2018-19;

·        Investing in Volunteers status had been re-awarded in February 2019;

·        Museum on Wheels – The museum’s hands-on outreach programme had reached 22,608 people across the Borough in 2018-19;

·        Official opening of the final part of the new Story of Reading Gallery and Welcome Gallery in May 2019, followed by the new Museum Shop in August 2019;

·        Awarded ‘Best use of Heritage in Placemaking’ for the Reading Abbey Revealed project- Planning Awards 2020.  The judges had been particularly impressed with the use of community participation in consultations to ensure a broad spectrum of people could participate and enjoy a new ‘sense of place’ within the Abbey Quarter;

·        The online exhibition Enigma of Arrival: The Politics and Poetics of Caribbean Migration to Britain, partnership with Barbados Museum and the University of the West Indies had been launched in June 2020.  This critically acclaimed project had featured in ACE’s national round-up, and received a virtual visit from the Faith Minister, Lord Greenhalgh (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government);

·        Voted ‘Best Family Museum’ by users of the Little Ankle Biters website for Berks, Bucks and Oxon in July 2020.

The report also stated that the new Museum Forward Plan had the following key themes:

·      Work in partnership, particularly with the Museum Partnership Reading, to actively engage Reading’s diverse communities with our collections and services;

·      Provide learning and training opportunities that inspired children, young people and teachers;

·      Champion pride in Reading’s heritage through promotion of the Abbey Quarter and improved access to collections, especially at the new off-site store and digitally;

·      Maximise opportunities to generate environmentally sustainable income and fundraising by working with partners and RBC colleagues.

Resolved:

(1)      That the Reading Museum Forward Plan 2020-2025 including the service’s statement of purpose and key aims, set out in Appendix 1 attached to the report, be approved;

(2)      That the Forward Plan by Reading Museum to ensure it met with the Accreditation standard for UK museums be adopted and submitted with the Museum’s next Accreditation return;

(3)      That the achievements that the Museum had delivered to date be noted.