IMPACT REPORT
WHO WE ARE
Bristol Museums Development Trust (BMDT) is an independent registered charity (registration number 1137777) which supports the work of Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives, the city’s civic cultural service.
There are seven sites across the city which play a significant role in enhancing the cultural life of Bristol’s residents and visitors alike. BMDT raises funds and awards grants towards the collections and activities across all the venues.
All unrestricted donations received are granted by the BMDT Board of Trustees to support the maintenance of this portfolio which houses over two million objects. This includes conservation, research, documentation, archiving and digitisation as well as new acquisitions, displays and community events and projects.
We know that museums, galleries and archives have the power to inspire creativity
Our funds are raised by supporter giving at welcome desks and donation boxes, donations on exhibition tickets, regular monthly direct debit gifts, online donations, larger individual gifts, gifts in Wills, membership of our Patron Circle as well as project support through external Trusts & Foundations grants. However you support us, we thank you.
We know that museums, galleries and archives have the power to inspire creativity, foster new ways of thinking about the world and help bring communities together. Now, more than ever before, the sector needs to become more sustainable with its funding model. Donations to our charity play a vital role in supporting this sustainability as statutory funding across the public sector is under increasing pressure.
While we are eternally grateful for the donations, grants and legacies that support specific projects we are committed to increasing general donations which enable us to support a greater breadth of work.
WHERE WE ARE
Bristol Museums’ forerunner, The Bristol Institution for the Advancement of Science, Literature, and the Arts, officially opened over 200 years ago on 6 January 1823. Today, Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives care for, display and interpret millions of scientific specimens, objects and works of art across seven sites.
Kings Weston Roman Villa
717,204
142,822 followers on social media platforms
Around
43,000 children visited last year on school trips
2,500 7,437 visitors across all sites over the past 12 months cups of tea drunk by our M Shed volunteers over the past year The museum newsletter has replica fossils sold this year across our shops
23,781 subscribers
Over 50 events are held annually across the museum sites
Volunteers donate over
8,000 hours per year
The most popular school workshop is
DISCOVER ANCIENT EGYPT
TRUSTEES
Bristol Museums Development Trust is governed by an experienced Board of Trustees. They hail from a variety of professional backgrounds and bring a wealth of experience to the board including finance, legal, marketing, education, digital, governance, and PR. All the Trustees have an avid interest in arts, culture and heritage and are passionate about supporting the civic museum service in Bristol.
To find out more about our individual Trustees please visit our website bristolmuseums.org.uk/ support/bristol-museumsdevelopment-trust/
I feel privileged to be closely involved in both the challenges and opportunities for a service I am deeply passionate about. It’s a joy to work alongside the talented museum team to ensure we can best serve the public in ever changing times.
Karen White Trustee
DIGITAL IMPACT
We recognise the key role digital innovation plays in public engagement and education. Our strategic goals include support for developing new ways of working and initiatives that have the potential to make significant impact on accessibility or engagement with cultural heritage.
In 2022, the Board approved a grant to begin prototyping new interactives and uses of technology to improve engagement with visitors. such as a 3D scanner and printer, as well as projection software. This has led to the recreation of items in the collection that are too fragile to go on display, as well as testing projection mapping for large scale interactives. The project has seen some tangible results. A 3D scan of a shoe in the museum collections was used to create a tactile object for an exhibition that visitors could touch and interact
with and 3D prints of a pangolin have been produced for a project in the World Wildlife gallery around the ecological crisis.
We also funded the development of an interactive Butterfly Wall as part of the ‘Think Global, Act Bristol’ exhibition. This Interactive allowed the public to help us digitally catalogue our collection of Lepidoptera: butterflies, moths and extinct species. Visitors could enter the handwritten data (found on the original photograph of the specimen) on a computer set up in the Gallery. The computer was accompanied by an interactive projection wall which played animations after an entry was submitted. The animation was based on the data entered by a member of the public and revealed to them what it represented: a butterfly, moth or a creature no longer with us.
Working alongside Bristol’s African Heritage community, we’ve strived to amplify lessheard voices, recognising that the fight against racism goes beyond symbolic gestures
Councillor Asher Craig, Deputy Mayor of Bristol and Chair of the Bristol Legacy Foundation
COLLECTIONS
Started more than 200 years ago as a collection of privately owned art works and objects, our collections have developed into a diverse and varied range of nearly 2 million objects. They continue to grow with relevant contemporary acquisitions. From art to archaeology, history to industry, the natural and the wider world, these collections are amongst the UK’s finest with many recognised as nationally and internationally important. Funds raised by BMDT support incredible projects to collect, care for and share these unique collections. Over the past 18 months BMDT has supported the following:
The newly designed re-display of Delftware in the Applied Art Gallery which is one of the largest and most significant collections in the UK. The ‘Digging for Delftware’ symposium attracted visitors from around the world.
The ‘Goldenhot Butterfly Queen’ by Stacy Lynn Waddell joined the contemporary art gallery in recognition of International Women’s Day in March 2023. The framing and transport of this significant piece was supported by a grant from BMDT.
BMDT received generous donor support to catalogue and digitise two donated Chinese textiles collections from southwest China–making the collections accessible online. The Miao, Dong and Gejia textile collections now form an important part of the Designated Chinese collections, showing the fine craft skills and artistic heritage of women in several of China’s 55 ethnic minority groups.
A BMDT grant of almost £20,000 supported a project to conserve the skull of a Temnodontosaurus, a type of marine reptile. This specimen may be the second significant discovery by palaeontologist Mary Anning and as such is of huge historical importance. It is also scientifically significant as large Temnodontosaurus skulls
preserved in 3D are rare. Its conservation revealed significant historical information and it is now on display at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery after decades hidden from the public.
The re-development of the Protest Display (including the Colston Statue) in M Shed, designed in line with recommendations from We Are Bristol History Commission and community partners. The Colston statue is displayed in its current state, laid on its side, behind a screen. Black Lives Matter protest placards are displayed alongside the statue, with additional contextual information about Colston, the statue and Bristol’s involvement in the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved Africans (TTEA).
To find new information about the specimen when working on it, especially regarding how these ancient animals interacted with one another, was the icing on the cake and one of the highlights of my career.
Nigel Larkin Palaeontological Conservator
WORKING EXHIBITS
These are the largest objects in the museum’s collection and include cranes, boats and steam trains. All of these are open to the public throughout the year.
The four cargo cranes outside M Shed are genuine icons of Bristol. They are a landmark on the city’s skyline, passed by millions every year, widely photographed and featured in many artworks representing the city. They are a link to the city’s 1950s trading heyday but only five now remain, including a 1878 Fairbairn steam crane, (a Scheduled Ancient Monument). Built by Stothert & Pitt in Bath, these four cranes are the last survivors of over 40 that were in operation in the City Docks during the 1950s. In 2022 they were given Grade II listed status by Historic England.
A public fundraising campaign by BMDT in 2022 supported the repainting of these cranes – ensuring they survive and operate for future generations.
The Working Exhibits also cares for a heritage steam railway and historic boats, enjoyed by nearly 15,000 visitors every summer. Fireboat Pyronaut was a crucial part of the docks’ fire-fighting service for about 40 years, putting out countless fires during the Bristol Blitz. Now in the museums ’care she is looked after by a team of loyal volunteers. Funds donated to BMDT will support vital conservation to her hull and ensure she will continue to wow crowds with her spectacular water display.
FUN FACT:
Bristol Museums Development also ran a successful campaign to support the conservation costs for the much-loved Lodekka Bus in M Shed. In July, during the first week of the school holidays, a specific welcome ask focused on this campaign resulting in £2,869 raised. We estimate over 10 million pairs of feet have boarded this bus since M Shed opened in 2011.
Working Exhibits team and volunteers were powered by 422 packets of biscuits in 2023!
BRISTOL ARCHIVES
Home to 800 years of Bristol’s history, Bristol Archives preserves records of the city for current and future generations. It offers visitors the ability to consult records free of charge and explore the history of the city through education sessions for community groups and schools and a public programme of workshops, talks, film shows and displays.
In 2022 BMDT facilitated two grants to Bristol Archives. The first, from The Foyle Foundation, supported a project to digitise the sound records held by the Archives. Helping to preserve rare, unique and at-risk audio items for the future and making them more accessible. It is estimated that nearly 1,000 audio items, including vital parts of the British Empire & Commonwealth Collection, have been digitised.
The second, from National Manuscripts Conservation Trust, supported the conservation of a volume of architectural plans for Bristol Buildings. The Archives hold 314 volumes, numbering an estimated 40,000 plans, and this project was an exploratory
one to test the best ways of preserving this rich repository of architectural knowledge. A specialist conservator was appointed to disbound the selected volume flatten the documents repair as needed, digitise, and then rehouse in archival-quality sleeves and boxes.
BMDT would like to thank the Trustees of The Foyle Foundation and the National Manuscript Conservation Trust for their support of these vital projects.
BUILDINGS & CONSERVATION
Within Bristol Museums’ building portfolio sits a Tudor lodge, a Georgian townhouse and country manor house, a purpose-built Art Gallery that survived bombing raids in WWII, the remains of a Roman Villa, and a Harbourside goods shed turned museum. Each of these buildings has its own operational and conservation needs. Sadly, the funds for such repairs have never been in shorter supply.
In 2021, Arts Council and DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) launched the Museum Estate & Development Fund (MEND). Bristol Museums applied for the first round and were successful in securing £754,850, which included
10% match funding (£75,485) provided by BMDT. This project which has already seen the ageing boilers at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery replaced with more efficient, modern alternatives.
The funding will also see the windows in the Conservation Studio and parts of the roof repaired. Although these projects are ‘behind the scenes’, restoring and caring for the fabric of the buildings is essential and ensures that they are fit to hold the museum collections and improves the visitor experience.
HOW WE ARE FUNDED
Arts Council England
Bristol City Council
Additional funding neededgenerated through income from donations, tickets, shop purchases, venue hire and so much more.
It costs £5.2 million to run these services each year. An increased demand on council funding, combined with national Government budget cuts means that Bristol City Council has had to make reductions to spending across many services, including museums & archives.
With this increased pressure for Bristol Museums to self-generate a higher percentage of the funding needed to meet core service costs, the funds raised and granted by Bristol Museums Development Trust are an even more vital and much needed source of additional income for innovative and additional projects. Once again, we thank all our valuable supporters for their donations to enable this support.
HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED
Bristol Museums Development Trust (BMDT) raises its funds through the generosity of Bristol Museums visitors and supporters. Every £ donated is used to support the museum service deliver innovative projects, drive community and schools’ engagement and care for the collections & buildings.
In recent years, on average £200,000 is disbursed each year by BMDT.
Donations on site through our welcome desk, donation boxes, contactless donation stations as well as voluntary donations on exhibition ticket sales all form the vital unrestricted funds from which the Trust can award grants. Similarly online donations by our direct debit givers as well as through our website, ticket sales and our online shop are all vital. Thank you.
Patron Circle
If you love visiting us and want to learn more through ‘behind the scenes’ tours led by our expert curators, we run an established ‘Patron Circle’. This membership scheme offers three different levels with membership starting from just £25 per month. Members get exclusive invitations to tours, attend our exhibition opening evenings and enjoy socialising with fellow museum enthusiasts. Thank you to all our Patrons.
Gifts in Wills
Gifts in Wills are an incredible way to leave a legacy for future generations. If Bristol Museums’ have brought you and your family joy and you have happy memories of visiting, please do consider leaving us a gift in your Will to help us support and preserve the service for a further 200 years. Thank you.
Individual Gifts
We thank our donors who generously donate to support a particular project, activity or collection. These funds can be restricted to a particular cause and can be instrumental in exciting projects being realised.
Corporate Support
For businesses, Bristol Museums run a tiered corporate membership scheme. Benefits include discounts on venue hire, behind the scenes tours, invitations to exhibition opening nights and exhibition tickets – perfect for client hospitality or employee engagement.
Volunteering
The gift of time is hugely valuable and appreciated by the whole team. An active team of 90 volunteers supports across the museums sites, donating just over 8000 hours a year.
Based on the average UK hourly rate of £17.40 that equates to a gift of £139,000 a year!
For more details on how you can get involved and support us please visit bristolmuseums.org.uk/support
Bristol Museums Development Trust
(Registered charity number 1137777)
If you would like to learn more about all the ways to support us, please visit bristolmuseums.org.uk/support
As a Patron I’ve learned so much and really appreciate the insight into how the museum operates. I feel closely linked to the museum now and invested in it. I’m singing the praises of the museum to anyone who will listen!
Antonia Reynolds, Patron (1823 Club)