Case Study - Ask the Audience

Programme: Heritage Grants
Applicant: Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Grant awarded: £202,000
Project length: 3 years

Ask the Audience - printable (MS Word, 2.27MB)

Summary

Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (BM&AG) is the largest local authority museum service in England. It includes eight sites, with a museum and art gallery in the city centre, 6 historic sites, and a collections centre for stores. Ask the Audience was designed to develop new and wider audiences and increase community participation in the organisation. The project had 3 elements: outreach and in-reach sessions, a Community Action Panel (CAP), and a community-led exhibition.

Outreach and in-reach sessions were developed for a range of communities, including older people and toddlers. Project staff introduced community groups to BM&AG on their own patch and then supported them on a museum visit. Resources for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes were also produced to support more group visits. CAP was set up with 20 people from a diverse range of backgrounds.

Through monthly meetings they were consulted on new signage, created text labels for a permanent display, and made decisions about the exhibition. This focused on hair styling and identity, with an emphasis on Birmingham salons and the experiences of local communities. Audio points, films and text labels all featured the words of local people, and interactives enabled visitors to explore their style and contribute their own stories. Two new members of staff were recruited to deliver the project, and it was externally evaluated.

The aims of the project

This three-year project had three aims:

To widen BM&AG’s audience profile to reach more of Birmingham’s diverse population
To diversify provision and reflect the different experiences of local communities through an exhibition, events and interpretation
To change the culture of the organisation, ensuring audiences are at its heart

Benefits for heritage

People’s experiences were recorded through oral histories and written text, and short films were made demonstrating traditional hairdressing techniques
The exhibition featured new objects collected or loaned from local communities
The project engaged diverse groups and first time visitors, inspiring wider interest in heritage and museums. CAP members became strong advocates for BM&AG

Benefits for people

112 outreach and in-reach sessions were held with 62 community groups. This brought over 1,200 people into contact with BM&AG, the majority for the first time
350 ESOL students visited BM&AG with their tutors and developed their knowledge of the Museum and the English language through targeted learning resources
32 CAP members were supported to input on a wide range of museum issues over the three years, and built the skills to take a leading role in the exhibition development
26 young people created content for the exhibition through two community projects. They were excited and surprised that ‘we can be part of that in the museum’
108,000 people visited the exhibition, with 2,000 attending related events at the museum or local festivals. Surveys showed that 95% of visitors enjoyed the exhibition. ‘Really fun, great interactive stuff for kids, colourful and well designed’

Lessons learnt

While outreach and in-reach sessions are valuable in introducing people to museums, they only address some barriers and will not automatically lead to independent visits. It is also difficult to monitor how many people return
CAP required substantial management and planning. It was important to set ground rules, communicate what decisions could be made, and take their views seriously
CAP members became very capable and could input at complex levels, however they lost the perspective of ‘new audiences’ and it was important to consult others as the project progressed
Sustainability and the legacy of the project needed to be considered throughout. This included opportunities for people engaged in Ask the Audience to be further involved in BM&AG, and the continued use of project outputs

Long term benefits

CAP continues to draw in new members and influence change across BM&AG
The Audience Development post funded through the project has been retained
A broad range of BM&AG staff have increased their skills, confidence and support for undertaking more innovative work with audiences in the future
BM&AG is building on the approaches used to involve communities in the exhibition for a major redevelopment of permanent galleries exploring Birmingham’s history

The budget

Main Project Costs	£	Funding	£
Equipment / materials	51,000	Financial contribution	40,000
Staff and recruitment	116,716	HLF grant (83%)	202,000
Refreshments and rooms	6,984
Overheads	28,251
Training and travel	10,500
Evaluation	15,000
Contingency and inflation	13,464
		Total costs	242,000

Members of the Community Action Panel talking about objects

Sector

Collections

Activity

Participation