The trustees
The work of trustees – those friends in high places charged with ensuring everything is above board in charitable institutions …
The work of trustees – those friends in high places charged with ensuring everything is above board in charitable institutions – has assumed a new importance in recent years as a greater emphasis is placed on museums being run more effectively and efficiently.
“The word on the street used to be ‘management’ but, in the light of the banking crisis and scandals that still embroil the likes of Tesco, everyone’s talking more seriously about ‘governance’,” says Adrian Babbidge of Egeria, a heritage consultancy that specialises in museum administration, finance and legal issues.
“Most of the problems experienced by organisations are rooted in inadequate leadership of one sort or another,” Babbidge says.
“There have been issues in the cultural sector and these, combined with austerity and its attendant budgetary restrictions, have led to a conscious drive for improvement in performance at the top.”
There was a time, he says, when serving as a museum trustee provided an individual with some of the social status accorded a local MBE or minor celebrity.
Often appointed because of who and what they knew, trustees traditionally plugged skills shortages in executive teams and used their retirement downtime to pitch in with practical advice and fundraising efforts.
“The motivations are different now and huge responsibility comes with the role,” Babbidge says. “You’re accountable to the outside world, to stakeholders and funders, donors and the public. It can be an enjoyable ride but not necessarily a risk-free one.”
Many years ago, when I was trying to lead the regeneration brief on Southwark council, I thought museums and the arts might be the way to make things happen.
Those were the days when local authorities were nowhere near as active in promoting culture as they are now, but I think my approach made me attractive to people in the arts world. I found myself invited to some eye-opening events.
As it turned out, we hit the jackpot when we helped bring Tate Modern to the north of the borough. I was also involved with the redevelopment of the Dulwich Picture Gallery and was asked to chair the old museums and libraries board in the days before the Greater London Authority.
I met Sam Mullins, the director of the London Transport Museum, and we hit it off immediately. I think he probably thought that as someone who knew how politics in the capital worked, I might be able to help out locally.
In the early days, we looked at a range of issues such as free admission for children and promoting citizenship, and I was called in to give a view on planning issues … probably because – forgive the expression – I knew where most of the bodies were buried.
I’ve also chaired health trusts and get a kick out of helping to make things more accessible and usable. I understand, to some extent, how the world works and I’m arrogant enough to think I can be part of change. I enjoy helping out and I don’t see a downside to any of it.
I didn’t have a good family life when I was a teenager and museums and galleries were places I could go and hide. It was a weird thing to do, perhaps, while my mates were at the cinema or getting up to nefarious activities.
But those spaces really helped me and I’m glad of the chance to give something back.
Among our trustees there are lawyers and accountants and, because of the nature of the collection and its funding, people from the local and national political worlds – we all come with useful connections to people and places.
My company, which has worked with the National Portrait Gallery, Tate and other institutions, was originally appointed to rebrand the redeveloped museum five years ago. What was a purely professional relationship at the outset changed when I fell in love with the place and the management team asked me to join the board.
I felt I could help it take advantage of tripling its floor space in a cool new building to tell some inspirational stories of people pushing for their rights.
I was born and brought up here, and I can provide access to the wider Manchester business community in terms of sponsorship and fundraising as we position the museum more energetically. It’s something I understand and I’m quite hands-on.
The museum is in a part of the city that’s changing dramatically and it’s important that it behaves in a more connected and relevant way.
I was invited to come on board to fill a vacancy left by a senior nurse from Guy’s and St Thomas’. It sounded interesting but I’d never done anything like it before so I did some research and realised that I could add value to the museum.
I’ve helped it with strategy and leadership issues, managing teams, maintaining reputations and raising revenue. There are clear synergies between being a museum trustee and dean of a faculty.
Little things count, too, such as recognising when people have performed their jobs well. A small team in a museum has to work hard for its money and rewarding outstanding efforts can make a huge difference. It’s the sort of thing that gets missed in the bigger picture of bringing in revenue.
It’s important for me to maintain the link between my day job and the work and life of the founder of nursing, particularly at a time when we’re being challenged about what nurses should and shouldn’t do, and where they should receive their education.
We should always remember where we came from and that those values and attitudes are just as important today as they were back then.
I encourage our students to make the connection between what happens in both a higher education institution and a caring profession and the exhibitions in the museum that tell the history of nursing and health.
I spend most of my day in meetings with academics, midwives and doctors, so it’s interesting to be able to tackle topics such as what the future of the museum might look like with people from different professions and backgrounds.
In a vast place like King’s, you have a huge history behind you, but you constantly have to look forward and try to function in a 21st-century environment. Museums are just the same.
We reached a pivotal moment in 2001 when we faced the potential closure of the museums. A campaign involving the council, the business community and private individuals raised enough money to keep the Jute Museum at Verdant Works open but the situation made us take a fresh look at how we operated as a body.
We came up with a flat structure – unique at the time, I believe – in which the non-executives of the operating company worked together as a unit to support the work of the executive team.
It’s a flexible approach that enables the executive team to make the best use of our time, knowledge and skills, and as a result it is now incredibly autonomous. We’re proud of the fact that we are 95% self-sufficient financially speaking, with just 5% of revenue coming from a city council grant.
As board members, we meet formally with the executive team every two months but there are always other activities happening in the background.
I may, for example, get involved with a couple of them in setting budgets or a small team involving someone on the board from a property background may meet to discuss restoration work.
We now have funding in place to restore the Verdant Works’ High Mill, a category A building constructed in 1833 for flax spinning and currently derelict.
But the big item on the agenda is the upgrade of the visitor centre for Captain Scott’s Royal Research Ship Discovery, which sits on the waterfront development next to the site of what will be the extraordinary V&A Museum of Design building.
We’re exploring possibilities with designers and planners as we’re going to have to raise our game considerably as the V&A takes shape.
Alongside the buildings, we are constantly looking at how to improve the customer experience in the digital age. Ten years ago, people used to come to the Verdant Works because their grannies worked there, but those generations have gone and we now have to rethink how we connect the community with their past.
Museums significantly contribute to the wellbeing and wealth creation of society, particularly through their links with the cultural industries and the education sector.
Having benefited from them throughout my career as a schoolteacher, a teacher trainer and a university researcher, I am happy to give something back as a trustee.
In the role, I draw on my knowledge as a historian, my understanding of the learning agenda both nationally and internationally, and my knowledge of the arts and heritage landscape locally and nationally.
As a senior manager in the higher education sector, I was, for example, able to be a critical friend during a recent review of the trust’s governance structures.
I have also worked with local and regional museums on access and learning projects, and have evaluated and monitored museum projects for the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). More recently, as a member of the West Midlands HLF Regional Committee, I have been involved in critical judgments regarding museum applications for funding.
The funding landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years and the aspirations and ambitions of the museum service have had to be reviewed accordingly.
We must always remember that in times of instability, museums play a critical role in offering local communities cultural solace and inspiration.
I came on board when the trust was formed in 2008. As a boy, I attended Luton Grammar School, my practice was in Luton and my daughters and grandchildren all live here so it was natural for me to want to support local arts and culture as they have brought pleasure to all of us.
My accountancy skills are useful in my work as a trustee. I sit on the finance sub-committee and am able to evaluate proposals for new initiatives and projects – from paid exhibitions to catering facilities.
But it is unfortunate that as a result of the financial restrictions, trustees have to spend much of their time reviewing the finances to enable the least-damaging cutbacks to be made rather than being able to work on enhancing the museum facilities and visitor experience.
Due to the economic climate, for example, the future of Wardown Park Museum became endangered and I’m particularly pleased to be a member of its redevelopment steering group.
I’ve been visiting it for nearly 70 years and I feel privileged to be in a position where I can play a part in keeping it open and enhancing it for future generations.
“The word on the street used to be ‘management’ but, in the light of the banking crisis and scandals that still embroil the likes of Tesco, everyone’s talking more seriously about ‘governance’,” says Adrian Babbidge of Egeria, a heritage consultancy that specialises in museum administration, finance and legal issues.
“Most of the problems experienced by organisations are rooted in inadequate leadership of one sort or another,” Babbidge says.
“There have been issues in the cultural sector and these, combined with austerity and its attendant budgetary restrictions, have led to a conscious drive for improvement in performance at the top.”
There was a time, he says, when serving as a museum trustee provided an individual with some of the social status accorded a local MBE or minor celebrity.
Often appointed because of who and what they knew, trustees traditionally plugged skills shortages in executive teams and used their retirement downtime to pitch in with practical advice and fundraising efforts.
“The motivations are different now and huge responsibility comes with the role,” Babbidge says. “You’re accountable to the outside world, to stakeholders and funders, donors and the public. It can be an enjoyable ride but not necessarily a risk-free one.”
Jeremy Fraser , former trustee, London Transport Museum; parish priest, Olympic Village, Stratford, London
Many years ago, when I was trying to lead the regeneration brief on Southwark council, I thought museums and the arts might be the way to make things happen.
Those were the days when local authorities were nowhere near as active in promoting culture as they are now, but I think my approach made me attractive to people in the arts world. I found myself invited to some eye-opening events.
As it turned out, we hit the jackpot when we helped bring Tate Modern to the north of the borough. I was also involved with the redevelopment of the Dulwich Picture Gallery and was asked to chair the old museums and libraries board in the days before the Greater London Authority.
I met Sam Mullins, the director of the London Transport Museum, and we hit it off immediately. I think he probably thought that as someone who knew how politics in the capital worked, I might be able to help out locally.
In the early days, we looked at a range of issues such as free admission for children and promoting citizenship, and I was called in to give a view on planning issues … probably because – forgive the expression – I knew where most of the bodies were buried.
I’ve also chaired health trusts and get a kick out of helping to make things more accessible and usable. I understand, to some extent, how the world works and I’m arrogant enough to think I can be part of change. I enjoy helping out and I don’t see a downside to any of it.
I didn’t have a good family life when I was a teenager and museums and galleries were places I could go and hide. It was a weird thing to do, perhaps, while my mates were at the cinema or getting up to nefarious activities.
But those spaces really helped me and I’m glad of the chance to give something back.
Martin Carr, trustee, People’s History Museum, Manchester; managing director, True North
Among our trustees there are lawyers and accountants and, because of the nature of the collection and its funding, people from the local and national political worlds – we all come with useful connections to people and places.
My company, which has worked with the National Portrait Gallery, Tate and other institutions, was originally appointed to rebrand the redeveloped museum five years ago. What was a purely professional relationship at the outset changed when I fell in love with the place and the management team asked me to join the board.
I felt I could help it take advantage of tripling its floor space in a cool new building to tell some inspirational stories of people pushing for their rights.
I was born and brought up here, and I can provide access to the wider Manchester business community in terms of sponsorship and fundraising as we position the museum more energetically. It’s something I understand and I’m quite hands-on.
The museum is in a part of the city that’s changing dramatically and it’s important that it behaves in a more connected and relevant way.
Helen McCutcheon, vice-chair, Florence Nightingale Museum, London; dean, Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery, King’s College, London
I was invited to come on board to fill a vacancy left by a senior nurse from Guy’s and St Thomas’. It sounded interesting but I’d never done anything like it before so I did some research and realised that I could add value to the museum.
I’ve helped it with strategy and leadership issues, managing teams, maintaining reputations and raising revenue. There are clear synergies between being a museum trustee and dean of a faculty.
Little things count, too, such as recognising when people have performed their jobs well. A small team in a museum has to work hard for its money and rewarding outstanding efforts can make a huge difference. It’s the sort of thing that gets missed in the bigger picture of bringing in revenue.
It’s important for me to maintain the link between my day job and the work and life of the founder of nursing, particularly at a time when we’re being challenged about what nurses should and shouldn’t do, and where they should receive their education.
We should always remember where we came from and that those values and attitudes are just as important today as they were back then.
I encourage our students to make the connection between what happens in both a higher education institution and a caring profession and the exhibitions in the museum that tell the history of nursing and health.
I spend most of my day in meetings with academics, midwives and doctors, so it’s interesting to be able to tackle topics such as what the future of the museum might look like with people from different professions and backgrounds.
In a vast place like King’s, you have a huge history behind you, but you constantly have to look forward and try to function in a 21st-century environment. Museums are just the same.
Dennis MacPhail, non-executive director, Dundee Industrial Heritage Limited; businessman and entrepreneur
We reached a pivotal moment in 2001 when we faced the potential closure of the museums. A campaign involving the council, the business community and private individuals raised enough money to keep the Jute Museum at Verdant Works open but the situation made us take a fresh look at how we operated as a body.
We came up with a flat structure – unique at the time, I believe – in which the non-executives of the operating company worked together as a unit to support the work of the executive team.
It’s a flexible approach that enables the executive team to make the best use of our time, knowledge and skills, and as a result it is now incredibly autonomous. We’re proud of the fact that we are 95% self-sufficient financially speaking, with just 5% of revenue coming from a city council grant.
As board members, we meet formally with the executive team every two months but there are always other activities happening in the background.
I may, for example, get involved with a couple of them in setting budgets or a small team involving someone on the board from a property background may meet to discuss restoration work.
We now have funding in place to restore the Verdant Works’ High Mill, a category A building constructed in 1833 for flax spinning and currently derelict.
But the big item on the agenda is the upgrade of the visitor centre for Captain Scott’s Royal Research Ship Discovery, which sits on the waterfront development next to the site of what will be the extraordinary V&A Museum of Design building.
We’re exploring possibilities with designers and planners as we’re going to have to raise our game considerably as the V&A takes shape.
Alongside the buildings, we are constantly looking at how to improve the customer experience in the digital age. Ten years ago, people used to come to the Verdant Works because their grannies worked there, but those generations have gone and we now have to rethink how we connect the community with their past.
Ian Grosvenor, board member, Birmingham Museums Trust; professor of Urban Educational History, University of Birmingham
Museums significantly contribute to the wellbeing and wealth creation of society, particularly through their links with the cultural industries and the education sector.
Having benefited from them throughout my career as a schoolteacher, a teacher trainer and a university researcher, I am happy to give something back as a trustee.
In the role, I draw on my knowledge as a historian, my understanding of the learning agenda both nationally and internationally, and my knowledge of the arts and heritage landscape locally and nationally.
As a senior manager in the higher education sector, I was, for example, able to be a critical friend during a recent review of the trust’s governance structures.
I have also worked with local and regional museums on access and learning projects, and have evaluated and monitored museum projects for the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). More recently, as a member of the West Midlands HLF Regional Committee, I have been involved in critical judgments regarding museum applications for funding.
The funding landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years and the aspirations and ambitions of the museum service have had to be reviewed accordingly.
We must always remember that in times of instability, museums play a critical role in offering local communities cultural solace and inspiration.
John Kingham, Trustee, Luton Culture; retired accountant
I came on board when the trust was formed in 2008. As a boy, I attended Luton Grammar School, my practice was in Luton and my daughters and grandchildren all live here so it was natural for me to want to support local arts and culture as they have brought pleasure to all of us.
My accountancy skills are useful in my work as a trustee. I sit on the finance sub-committee and am able to evaluate proposals for new initiatives and projects – from paid exhibitions to catering facilities.
But it is unfortunate that as a result of the financial restrictions, trustees have to spend much of their time reviewing the finances to enable the least-damaging cutbacks to be made rather than being able to work on enhancing the museum facilities and visitor experience.
Due to the economic climate, for example, the future of Wardown Park Museum became endangered and I’m particularly pleased to be a member of its redevelopment steering group.
I’ve been visiting it for nearly 70 years and I feel privileged to be in a position where I can play a part in keeping it open and enhancing it for future generations.