Looking to the Future Through an astute approach to commerciality and income generation, workforce development, sharing our achievements, and the strengthening ambition and role of Barnsley Museums and Heritage Trust, we look forward with confidence to the role we can play long into the future. We have continued with our resilience and sustainability strategy of focusing on supporting Barnsley Museums through our Charity, Barnsley Museums and Heritage Trust, by refreshing our earned income strategy and by continuing to invest in our venues and programmes by securing external investment. This year has seen Barnsley Museums and Heritage Trust go from strength to strength. It has attracted new funders, enabled the delivery of a wide variety of projects, welcomed a new Chair of Trustees, agreed a new three year business plan and attracted record levels of public donations at the museums. Funding previously received from the Foyle Foundation resulted in the support of ‘Museums on Tour’ this year, with the creation of innovative new handling boxes for families and school children throughout Barnsley. In addition, we were delighted to receive significant new funding from the Garfield Weston Foundation that has been used to support learning activities across the museum venues. Grants from Co-op Local
Fund, Awards for All, the Youth Social Action Fund, Shawlands Trust, Woodmansterne Art Conservation Fund, the Idlewild Trust and many more have contributed to a range of fantastic programmes. Cannon Hall was the focus for our first Crowdfunder, which, together with support from Barnsley Boost, provided funding for the installation of a tree sculpture to mark the beginnings of a new discovery trail. Our earned income strategy has focused on improving our retail offer and our wedding business, as we also launched a nationwide search with the BBC’s Countryfile for a new Miller for Worsbrough to further develop our organic stoneground flour business. We also opened our new Pet Crematorium at Cannon Hall in partnership with Barnsley Council’s Bereavement Services team. We have continued to invest heavily in our greatest asset this year – our team. From curatorial training for front of house assistants to resilience and leadership programmes, our team have developed their skills and as a result continue to contribute greatly to our success and organisational resilience. Advocacy and having the support of strong ambassadors is also key to our approach.
I am looking forward to the exciting challenge of leading the Trust as it builds upon its success to date and really starts to have an impact in supporting Barnsley Museums and their wonderful and important work.’’ Paul Jagger OBE, Chair of Barnsley Museums and Heritage Trust
Heritage and Our Economy Our museums and heritage sites are important and effective economic drivers. They are a permanent home to over 40 businesses and they support hundreds more each year. Our museums attract visitors to our region to spend money and play a vital role in challenging perceptions of our borough. Elsecar Heritage Centre is home to over thirty businesses and is a thriving place. Our packed programme of events in the Ironworks brings thousands of people to the site every weekend. Our other sites are homes to a range of enterprises from pop up vendors, to catering outlets to wedding businesses, supporting innovation and start ups. Barnsley Museums are committed to supporting local businesses, raising the profile of Barnsley and boosting our economy through day and overnight visits to our borough. Big events like the Flavours Food festival, the Man Engine spectacular, the Tour de Yorkshire and more have brought tens of thousands of visitors to Elsecar this year, and injected hundreds of thousands of pounds into the local economy. Together with our funders we continue to invest in our venues as places that contribute massively to the local economy. At Cannon Hall, thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we are continuing our programme of conservation in the parkland and gardens. Experience Barnsley and the Cooper Gallery are recognised as crucial to our town centre, and provide experiences and cultural offers
that make a real difference to where people choose to shop and spend time, be they local or from further afield. At the Cooper Gallery, thanks to funding from Arts Council England and others we are creating artist studio spaces, extending our café and creating an outdoor gallery. At Worsbrough Mill we are creating a bigger retail offer, exploring opportunities for a new artisan bakery on site, and working to extend covers in our busy café.
I’m proud to live and work in Barnsley and as I travel the country I am noticing a genuine change in the way people perceive us. We are seen as creative, as dynamic, as forwardthinking, as a place that’s determined to involve everyone in the joyful and fulfilling process of making and appreciating art, however you define that word. The arts make us healthier, mentally and physically, they make us resilient, they make us aware of each other and they make us celebrate the universal in the local. We are creative people in a creative place.” Ian McMillan, Poet
1,249,902 people have visited museums
831 2420
secondary school pupils engaged
local businesses supported
4
217 local history e-books loaned
into the Museum collections
25,141
primary school children in formal sessions
120
28,158
individual volunteers
artists worked with
29 work placements supported
economic impact value
9,970
1
community allotment created
hectares of new woodland and orchard planted
7 new loan boxes created
16,735 Volunteer hours given
2,740 new items added to our online catalogue
paintings conserved
06
£26.9M family participants in organised activities
S E V E N
Rembrandt painting on loan from the National Gallery
123
1,976
275
archaeological digs undertaken
supported
exhibitions and new displays
collections enquiries
social media followers
4 PAID 1 INTERNSHIPS
21
331
383 OBJECTS ACCESSIONED
1,200 community heritage activity participants
£690,000 external funding secured
24k tonnes of silt removed from Cannon Hall lakes
32 specialist wildlife recording days
Created by: Barnsley Museums Design by: Cafeteria thecafeteria.co.uk
Barnsley Making History
Sharing Collections
Barnsley Museums and our volunteers work to transform how our communities understand, engage with and get inspired by their heritage. We’re proud to support all the passionate people who work in partnership with us to do this now and into the future.
This year Barnsley Museums have been visited by Stormtroopers, bears, lobsters, astronauts, Rembrandt and more…! Our changing exhibitions have been incredibly popular over the last year. The people of Barnsley continue to come forward to share their objects, documents and memories to become part of our collections too.
Alongside the Experience Barnsley exhibition The Great War Ends, a varied programme was created to commemorate, engage and foster a sense of pride. Paul Reed, leading WW1 broadcaster ran a fascinating trilogy of lectures which offered a unique insight into the conflict. Paul wove local Barnsley stories into his talks, including the experiences of women and black soldiers, often omitted from the historic record. Rare permission was gained to show the last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth. An expert panel, including poet Ian McMillan, explored satire in the cultural expression of war. Rare and moving silent footage of Barnsley during the conflict was also shown. Working with a local artist, visitors to Experience Barnsley made felt poppies which were made into wreaths and presented at the War Memorial by local children descended from WW1 soldiers. Barnsley Archives popular outreach programme has included film shows, conservation workshops, family history surgeries, archives on tour events and hands on history days. Such was the popularity of our film shows that we produced a series of accompanying DVDs.
collecting participants’ stories including holidays, shopping, sport, home life, work life and memories of a lifetime. Feels like Home brings together refugees and asylum seekers who have come to Barnsley from many different countries. As well as learning English, the group are getting to know more about Barnsley, its heritage and stories, and sharing their own memories and experiences with us. In Elsecar, as part of our Great Place and Elsecar Heritage Action Zone projects, an archaeological excavation took place in Milton, Hoyland. The site was once Milton Ironworks, a significant but largely forgotten part of the local heritage. The excavation has added valuable archaeological information to the site but more importantly has allowed the local community including schools to connect with their heritage. The Dearne Valley Landscape Partnership has continued to contribute hugely to community engagement and environmental programme supporting works at Barnsley Main, Hoyland Lowe Stand and Worsbrough Mill. Goldthorpe Cuttings, once dubbed the worst fly tipped place in England, has now been transformed with our partners into a community space for school visits and events. An accessible path has been laid and wildlife features have been created along it, as well as a community orchard. A memorial to two boys who lost their lives on the site during the miners’ strike has been created with local artists.
Two new projects are helping us to collect diverse local stories. The Barnsley Cares programme consists of weekly workshops in care homes and with support groups,
Charity No. 1164496
I love this group. I can be myself when I come here. Thank you.”
Yet again Barnsley Museums have excelled themselves. Now consistently attracting in excess of 1.2 million visitors to the Council’s portfolio of museums, galleries and historic landscapes, a good proportion of these are from the local area and many more from across Yorkshire, the UK and even internationally. Our museums are treasured by local people and hold a special place in the hearts of generations of residents. The council is committed to providing free access to our museums and ensuring that no one is excluded from them as a place to enjoy, to learn and to be inspired. The council recognises the importance of our museums as places to do business and to make a significant contribution to the local economy. The economic impact of Barnsley Museums last year has been estimated at over £26M. This year was a significant first for us and we are very proud that Barnsley Museums have been recognised by Arts Council England as a National Portfolio Organisation. This has allowed us to increase our learning and volunteering offer and undertake targeted work to meet wider outcomes, such as improving health and well-being and educational attainment and simply ensuring that people have the opportunity to achieve their potential.
The council is committed to continuing to develop Barnsley Museums and we are grateful for the support of our funding partners Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund and to Barnsley Museums and Heritage Trust who have helped us to realise these ambitions. This year in particular there has been a focus on delivering the transformative Parks for People project at Cannon Hall which has included the major undertaking of dredging the extensive lakes and in the year to come major drainage, landscape and building renovations will be undertaken. Barnsley Museums have also undertaken extensive master planning at Elsecar and worked closely with Rotherham Council and Wentworth Woodhouse as part of the Great Place Programme. The Dearne Valley Landscape Partnership is in its final year and has made a huge impact on one of our most deprived areas. The programme has helped us raise the bar with our environmental projects. This year the council were also able to announce an important new joint venture with the National Trust to run Wentworth Castle Gardens and to work in partnership with Barnsley Museums and Northern College which will build on the unique skills of each organisation to connect with new audiences. In short, this year Barnsley Museums has gone from strength to strength. The fact that they continue to be innovative and creative and build strong and effective partnerships to deliver increasingly ambitious programmes is a testament to the leadership and teamwork shown by everyone. Councillor Roy Miller Cabinet Member for Place
Be Part of it! Volunteering with Barnsley Museums makes a real difference. Getting involved has a profound impact for everyone who works with us. Our volunteers are vital to what we do. Having a record high of over 16,000 hours of volunteer time and with over 270 unique individuals volunteering with us, Barnsley Museums has seen soaring growth in our volunteer participation in the last year. We have invested in infrastructure to support volunteers, conducted a major overview, rewritten and updated our policies and created our ‘Be part of…’ brand that shows volunteering with us as something bigger! The evidence is well known that volunteering has a positive effect on the health and wellbeing of those taking part and can have a positive impact on feelings of social isolation and struggling mental health. Our volunteering opportunities also offer skills development which ensures that people are achieving their full potential and that excellence can thrive throughout our service. Strong relationships with local colleges, schools, universities and other partners has allowed us to support placements of varying length and skill level. Looking forward the future is positive, our new partnership with the National Trust at Wentworth Castle Gardens will see us co-deliver staff training around working with volunteers and best practice.
Artists and Adventurers: Women Who Dared to Create at the Cooper Gallery, took as a starting point an exploration of the artworks made by women in our collection. A revealing insight in itself into the volume and nature of artworks by women, it was also an opportunity to explore the stories of individual women and encourage audiences to compare with opportunities today. In Vote 100: A Century of Change we invited local women artists to apply to be part of an exhibition to accompany Artists and
Barnsley Museums have been fantastic to work with and I’ve been particularly impressed with how proactive they’ve been to reach out to and engage with local schools. I would love to show Barnsley as an example of best practice for other potential tour venues.”
2019 began with a fantastic new adventure in a touring exhibition from the Royal Greenwich Observatory ‘Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018’. A sublime collection of photographs, this exhibition has sparked the imagination of many and perhaps inspired a few future astronauts! We’ve also been getting out and about collecting objects and stories to better reflect the diversity of our borough. New objects added to the collection include an Edwardian clock by Krakauer of Barnsley, a CEAG company torch and much more. The Archives and Local Studies Service has continued to grow and has become one of the busiest and most popular archives services in the North of England. We have put over 2000 new items onto our online catalogue and nearly 10,000 items can now be accessed, with ambitious plans to increase this in the coming years.
BARNSLEY MUSEUMS ANNUAL REVIEW 2018–2019
Nearly 100 new collections were received and made available during the year. Particular highlights include photographs of Barnsley Town Centre 1970s-80s; documents relating to the history of Barnsley Market; the papers of Private William Exley who was killed in action in 1916 and a fragile illustrated handbill from the opening night of the Barnsley Theatre Royal, dating back to 1898, which we were able to completely restore.
Alysia Calderwood, Project Manager for the Royal Observatory’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition and exhibition.
Irene, Participant in Barnsley Cares programme
Welcome to a year at Barnsley Museums
A Dutch Golden Age exhibition was visited by over 20,000 people at Cannon Hall Museum. Loans of paintings by Rembrandt and Jan Steen from the National Gallery, London, were displayed alongside 17th century paintings in Barnsley’s public collection.
Adventurers. This was partially to explore artists’ responses to the centenary, but also to bring more diversity to artworks displayed at the Gallery.
Case Study Stacey Mackenzie Curatorial Freelancer: Volunteering to Paid Work In February 2018, I joined the Experience Barnsley team as a MA student on placement from the University of Sheffield. I quickly became involved in research in preparation for the exhibition The Great War Ends. As well as this, I was given the opportunity to support an exhibition install. Instantaneously, I felt supported, trusted and valued within the collections team, and I looked forward to my placement day each week – for the first time I was experiencing the career that I have dreamed of ever since I can remember. By the end of my MA degree – and also my placement – I decided I wasn’t done with Experience Barnsley. I continued to work as a collections volunteer. During this time, I attended acquisition panel meetings and communicated frequently with members of staff across BMBC, which I did simply because I loved where I volunteered – I loved the professional atmosphere, I loved handling the amazing objects we hold, and I loved being part of the sector, albeit as a volunteer. I am now a Curatorial Freelancer. Barnsley Museums has enabled me to build up my experience – as well as my confidence, my professionalism, and my passion for history – so that I can thrive in this highly-competitive field of history and heritage, with support from colleagues that I am sure will never diminish.
Transforming the Lives of Young People Over 15,000 young people took part in led activities across our museums last year. They explored, discovered, learnt, were inspired and created special memories, for them and the people who care for them. Our family sessions have been as diverse as a cookery club in the Victorian Kitchen at Cannon Hall, sessions with practicing visual artists including virtual reality ceramics to watercolours, craft sessions and wellbeing activities in the beautiful surrounding of Cannon Hall Park and Worsbrough Mill. Action research has been a priority for us, to devise an innovative and exciting family offer for our sites. We developed a Forest School Pilot, a series of sessions with a Barnsley based nursery to explore nature and creativity at Cannon Hall park. We have now offered two drop in Forest School taster days for families with underfives at Cannon Hall, and a purpose built Forest School area. Working with an artist we have also developed a story telling trail for Worsborough Mill Country Park, which encourages families to create stories whilst taking part in a walk around the reservoir, using nature and their surroundings as inspiration.
Barnsley Museums have engaged with nearly 2500 primary school pupils across our venues. Pupils have taken part in a range of workshops covering different aspects of the Curriculum including History, Design and Technology, Art and Design, Science and English. Five bespoke workshops have been created at Cannon Hall, Experience Barnsley and Elsecar Heritage Centre, broadening our core offer to schools across Yorkshire. Five outreach loan boxes for schools have been created, to be launched in the 201920 academic year. These are bespoke to Barnsley Museums’ sites and each cover a different Curriculum element. This provides a valuable opportunity to connect with disengaged schools through outreach, and gives schools increased options to engage meaningfully with our collections. Barnsley Museums have also been working to embed Arts Award Discover into our core programme. Four opportunities for achieving Arts Award have been created across different sites, working with 120 pupils from previously disengaged schools during the pilot project, building and strengthening relationships for the future.
Getting Creative Across our museums and through innovative programmes spanning our borough, Barnsley Museums are bringing the communities of Barnsley and artists together in new and exciting ways. Barnsley Museums has developed an innovative and dynamic new programme of work designed to reach out across the borough, creating arts and heritage activities with people who may never have visited a museum or gallery before. The programme has been boosted this year by the ongoing success of Hear My Voice, Barnsley’s own festival of poetry, spear headed by poet laureate, Ian McMillan and funded by TUC Training Ltd. As part of our Great Place project based at Elsecar, we worked with local textile artist, Gemma Nemer, to decorate the village for the Tour de Yorkshire passing through. The artist took inspiration from old photographs of Elsecar when it was dressed for the King’s visit in 1912. Miles of bunting was created with local volunteers, as well as pom poms, swags, tassels, banners and other historically inspired decorations. During the weeks building up to the race, Elsecar became a hive of activity, cutting, stitching and making! Thanks to the many volunteers the village really was fit for a Royal Visit, or rather the visit of thousands of people to see the bike race as well as the art installation. The whole process and the day led to great community pride.
Other programmes this year have included working with renowned artists the Caravan Gallery to develop a ‘Pride of Place’ photography project in Wombwell, an artist in residence at Age UK Barnsley’s Men in Sheds project and a photographer working with DIAL to establish a photography group at The Community Shop. In partnership with the Snap Tin Café and with additional funding from XPO Logistics, The Forget-Me-Not dementia café runs weekly craft, cake and conversation sessions in Goldthorpe. Artists Hayley Youell, Andy Seward and James Lockey created ‘Of the River’, an audio visual response to the River Dearne artist commission as part of our Dearne Valley Landscape Partnership programme. As part of the same programme artist Louise Wright also produced an artwork called ‘Fragments’. The piece takes the form of a large scale printed textile installation and was created with collaboration from local school children from Wombwell Park Street Primary school. The children were awarded an Explore Level Arts Award for completed activities on this project.
You are a fantastic team and do a special job between you all. From day one, I felt at home, trusted and I can honestly say that in my whole work career, I have never felt happier going to work.”
The storytelling made the long walk around the mill really interesting. My son is autistic and not many things engage him, but this really did, from start to finish.”
I’d tried to take him to other things but he didn’t want to – because this group is in a café I was able to say we were just going out for a coffee and he was happy to come. We both enjoy it so much we come every week now.”
Shaun, Intern with Barnsley Museums
Parent, Nature Explorers Session
C (whose husband has dementia), Forget-Me-Not Café