Positive Social Change
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CMP Development
April 2022
We commenced filming of ‘To Whom Does This Belong’ during a collaborative research day for our Museum X / BVC partnership at Kresen Kernow.
We had our first Green Museums Get Together in Mid Cornwall; proceeded by two more sessions throughout spring in West and South East Cornwall, which collectively engaged 32 people from 28 organisations.
To build momentum and focus around two of our strategic and globally relevant topics, we formed our Environmental Responsibility & Inclusion Working Groups, made up of staff and Board members.
193 participants joined our online Engagement Network session focussing on Young Trustees.
Some of our team, alongside CMP Trustee Peter Lefort, represented the sector at the Boardroom 2030 event at Eden; focussing on and pledging to take practical climate action within the cultural and creative industries.
May 2022
With expert support from our Trustee Peter Lefort, we developed our 2022 Environmental Responsibility Policy & Action Plan.
The Inclusive Collections Network met at Lanhydrock, where 20 museum staff and volunteers were able to explore newly refurbished rooms, designed for children and young people.
We had a celebration event to mark the success of our climate-focussed Splanna! project which was funded through Cornwall Council as part of the G7 Cultural Legacy Programme and engaged over 70 young people at five museums across Cornwall.
The CMP and Carefree teams shared The Museum of Carefree Project with the Dulverton Trust #iwill panel during an online event.
After over a year of planning and preparation, we submitted the 2023-26 NPO bid, representing an uplift investment ask of £2.1m across a consortium of eight delivery partners.
We presented Immersive Technology in Rural Museums at Exeter University’s Immersive Technology Event in Plymouth to an audience of 200 technology professionals.
June 2022
In June, we completed our six-month collaborative Tresorys Kernow Project which saw culturally creative heritage-focussed activities take place across 10 highstreets and community hotspots throughout Cornwall, engaging over 22,000 audience members and participants.
We funded PK Porthcurno to attend Cornwall Pride in Newquay in alliance with the LGBTQIA+ community.
Our Head of Digital Innovation delivered 5 technical sessions at Wadebridge School with
Software Cornwall, prompting 15 students to reimagine the renovation of St Ives Museum’s shipwreck display.
Over 50 people from 53 organisations attended our 5th Museums Immersive Network which we ran in partnership with XpoNorth and gathered colleagues from museums, heritage and digital organisations to share their experiences of making the most of technology to enhance the experience of audiences. The event explored what types of technology are right for specific experiences, audiences, and locations; from large-scale digital experiences to potato-powered games.
We attended the Cultural Rights and Cultural Democracy Conference with Sian Powell from Wheal Martyn to explore regenerative tourism, language, and culture with colleagues from Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Brittany.
We headed to Port Sunlight Village Trust for the 2022 AIM Conference, alongside 290 museum staff, volunteers and Trustees from across the UK.
Our Head of Museums and Development Partnerships was voted onto the AIM Board.
Our new CEO, Tamzyn Smith, started in post. Her first priority was to commence a listening piece with CMP stakeholders including museums, partners and funders.
July 2022
To formally close the Tresorys Kernow project, led by CMP’s freelance Project Manager Tom Bennett, we were delighted to launch Cornwall’s Climate Story Film at a project celebration event at Pydar Pop-Up in Truro, joined by over 100 culture and heritage colleagues.
Our Head of Museums Development and Partnerships presented at the Only Connect Symposium in Falmouth, sharing learning from our reminiscence project collaboration with the National Gallery and Wadebridge Memory Café which brought a Dutch masterpiece painting to people with memory loss and their families.
August 2022
At the Museum of Cornish Life, 21 attendees to the Inclusive Collections Network heard from Dr Tehmina Goskar about her research into the presentation of the museum’s toy collection during her Headley Fellowship, funded by Art Fund.
CMP was invited by NLHF to contribute to the consultation of their new 10-year strategy.
September 2022
We facilitated a Carefree and Cornwall Council ‘all service’ away day at Royal Cornwall Museum, as part of the Museum of Carefree project.
We were awarded £44,800 per year (2022-26) from Cornwall Council to deliver cultural activity in support of the Creative Manifesto.
We were delighted to be awarded £18,750 per year (2022-26) from Cornwall Council to draw on our experience to develop an Inclusion and Diversity Action Plan for Cornwall’s Creative and Cultural Sectors supporting the delivering of Cornwall’s Creative Manifesto.
We were unsuccessful in our application to The Listening Fund for £40,000 to further develop young people’s climate justice workshops at Falmouth Art Gallery – however, this was an exciting opportunity for us to start reputation building with a new funder and demonstrate the value of museums in combatting climate change.
We attended Goodfest 2022 – a festival of creative conversations exploring how to inspire change through purposeful ideas and actions. The focus was to tackle the theme of triple A – Authenticity, Accessibility and Affordability.
We shared learning and success stories from Culture Card and the Museum of Carefree at the GEM Conference to over 150 museum engagement and learning colleagues.
We participated in the Bold Futures symposium, a consultation coordinated by the MA and the Liminal Space on collaborations between museums and science centres.
We attended The Inclusivity Project’s ‘Making Work Work for Everyone’ conference in Newquay, celebrating the achievements of the University of Exeter’s inclusion-focussed project as well as discovering new insights into best inclusive practice.
Our CEO completed their Listening Piece and presented the findings and plans for the next phase of CMP’s development.
Our Museums Partnership & Policy Manager completed her National Arts Strategy Fellowship which culminated with a week-long ‘NAS Homecoming’ residential in the USA.
October 2022
We started our development plans for the legacy of Culture Card during a co-production workshop with Carefree & Cornwall Council.
Sara Kassam, Sustainability Lead at the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Museum Association’s Climate Champion Trustee, joined the Engagement Network to provide narrative on Green Museums for an audience of 236 attendees.
We were unsuccessful in our £77,000 collaborative bid to the SBRI Healthcare Challenge fund which would have enabled a new partnership with the NHS Cornwall Foundation to explore the role of museum volunteering in social prescribing for young people with autism. This new partnership represents some ambitious opportunities for CMP and the museums sector but we also learnt about how we have to improve our advocacy for museums’ civic role when talking to funders outside of the cultural sector.
We attended Cornwall Council’s Creative Manifesto event at Kresen Kernow alongside culture colleagues from across Cornwall.
Our Innovation Team presented at Software Cornwall’s Tech Connect in Heartlands, Pool to 100 attendees, sharing best practice and demystifying opportunities for tech organisations to collaborate with museums.
The whole CMP team undertook Transgender Allyship training with Transparent Presence and Queer Kernow.
November 2022
To support the creation of the Museum of Carefree exhibition, we delivered 116 hours of coproduction workshops with 80 young people alongside Emma ‘Saffy’ Wilson and via Carefree, including children in care, care leavers, and unaccompanied children seeking asylum.
We ran three Environmental Policy Writing Workshops at the South East Museums Forum, King Edward Mine Museum and Bodmin Keep, based on learning from CMP’s Environmental Responsibility Working Group.
The Innovation team supported a digitisation programme at Wheal Martyn, running six 3D scanning workshops to 15 staff members and volunteers.
We were asked to join the SW Group for an Exeter University-led application to AHRC for conservation capacity building.
We were granted £27,000 from Ars Electronica for Phase 2 of our READ Project to produce a prototype for accessible and flexible museum interpretation, responding to the different needs of audiences.
We recognised the changing needs of the NPO partnership museums and working with Arts Council England we advocated for £1.86m to be ring-fenced for activity at seven museums in Cornwall over a three-year period. The newly established mc7 will bring together their buildings, collections and stories to drive creativity, collaboration and cultural awareness for residents and visitors alike.
CMP became one of 12 FailSpace champion organisations after participating in the Centre for Cultural Value’s development programme and we subsequently shared the FailSpace framework and process with the Fun Palaces Action Research Network.
We said goodbye and gave huge thanks to the Chair of our Board, Fiona Morris; Zoe Partington and Sara Matson took on the role as Interim Co-Chairs.
December 2022
Culture Card grew significantly with Cornwall Heritage Trust adding 10 sites and Leach Pottery also joining the scheme.
We were delighted to open the Museum of Carefree exhibition at Penlee House Gallery & Museum.
We took part in Open Studios at Krowji for the first time, offering a shared marketplace to sell shop items on the behalf of five museums.
The West Cornwall Museums Group was established with their first session being held at Hayle Heritage Centre with 12 attendees.
Our Museum Development Officer supported Grampound Heritage Centre on Christmas Eve with an emergency plan to save their building and collection after it was badly damaged during a car crash.
We were awarded £25,000 from SWMD to continue hosting Museum Development in Cornwall.
We were unsuccessful in our £25,000 application to the Centre for Cultural Value to take part in their Collaborate Fund which would have helped us to partnered with an academic researcher to explore the wellbeing of museum volunteers in Cornwall. We know this bid failed at the final hurdle after reaching the last round of decision making; this has reassured us to remain committed to research of this nature.
We attended and presented at the FailSpace Conference at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, to share our learning and contributions to the programme’s development
The CMP team enjoyed a dip at Penzance’s Jubilee Pool followed by a curry for our Christmas do!
In our efforts to embed greater understanding across the organisation, the whole team, CMP trustees and some museum staff undertook a Work with your Cycle – Menstrual Cycle Awareness in the Workplace workshop, run by Benow.
January 2023
Discovering 42 joined the Culture Card scheme.
Our final cohort of five Trainee Curators completed their traineeships at Cornish museums.
We provided bespoke support to teachers and students at Truro & Penwith College looking for work experience, to ensure greater access to meaningful and relevant experiences in the heritage sector.
We attended the Creative Careers Forum led by Screen Cornwall, alongside over 50 cultural colleagues where we heard from inspiring young people about starting a career in the creative and cultural sectors.
CMP joined Truro Cultural Compact’s Inclusive Cultures Working Group, established to drive collaborative inclusive practice within the cultural sector.
February 2023
The Museum of Carefree exhibition started its tour with an initial first move to New County Hall in Truro.
The Inclusive Collections Network met at Porthmeor Studios, where Queer Kernow delivered a seminar about LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and the 16 attendees also heard about the inspiring young people’s programme at the Studios.
We celebrated the achievements and brilliance of Cornwall’s museums at the 2023 Heritage Awards. This year we also added to the event with a Symposium providing greater opportunity for networking and to share more in-depth learning during breakout sessions and discussions.
We ran the first of our two ‘Wellbeing for Individuals’ sessions with Jemma Bell, wellbeing mentor and consultant, for 15 participants, in total 30 museum staff and volunteers were supported through these sessions.
We were awarded £25,000 from NLHF to work in partnership with Queer Kernow for Safe Access, an action research project to explore the wellbeing impact on people from marginalised backgrounds whilst undertaking research in museums.
March 2023
We launched the Safe Access action research project in partnership with Queer Kernow.
We ran a Google Business Listing Support Session for museums to ensure their accurate online visibility.
Our Innovation Officer attended the Queer Heritage Collections Network meeting in London with Queer Kernow.
We attended the Imagination Unleashed at HFC to deliver an in-depth hands-on workshop and demonstrate the techniques we have developed for digitising artifacts using photogrammetry.
Our Head of Digital and Innovation joined the Museums Computer Group Board, established to encourage, improve and influence best practice in the use of tech and digital within the museums and heritage sector.
The CMP team undertook Resilience training, exploring ways to identify and counteract burnout.
The end of the financial year marked the end of our ACE funded museum consortium NPO programme. With the closing of the programme, we said thank you and farewell to our NPO funded Digital Lead, Oliver Scott, who will be continuing his work as part of the team at Falmouth Art Gallery.