Agenda item

Report of the Strategic Director, Corporate Resources

The Committee received an update report on the work of Beamish Museum and Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums (TWAM).

The report is brought to the Committee to provide an update on how the financial contributions that the Council make are used and the benefits to Gateshead.

The Council provides financial contributions towards Beamish Museum and TWAM on an annual basis.  Beamish is provided with a cash contribution of £5,000 whereas two separate amounts support the management of Shipley Art Gallery which is used as required.  In 2018/19 this budget was £25,972.  The Council also provides TWAM with annual contribution to operate the gallery which was £174,770 in 2018/19 and will be £159,770 in 2019/20.

Beamish has confirmed that the number of schools in 2018 visiting the museum was 58, compared to 50 in the previous year.  This equates to £86 per school based on the £5000 per year subscription.

TWAM provides both an archives and museums service to Gateshead Council, specified via an SLA.  The archives service is part of a joint service provided to the five Tyne and Wear authorities and allows Gateshead Council both to fulfil its mandatory obligations in terms of archives and to provide for the care, preservation and interpretation and access to the documentary heritage of the borough.  The centralised storage and management of archives resources is in line with current government policy.

The financial contribution that Gateshead Council makes towards management of the Shipley Art Gallery is significantly multiplied by national funding brought in by TWAM.  In particular this consists of Arts Council England (ACE) National Portfolio Organisation Funding.

The Committee heard from Iain Watson, Director of Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums. 

Iain advised that TWAM provides both an archives and museum service to Gateshead Council, specified via an SLA.   The archives service is part of a joint service provided to the five Tyne and Wear authorities and allows Gateshead Council to fulfil both its mandatory obligations in terms of archives and to provide for the care, preservation, interpretation and access to the documentary heritage of the borough.  The centralised storage and management of archives resources is in line with current government policy.

As recommended by TWAM’s Governance Review a new trading company, TWAM Enterprises Ltd was established and began trading on 1 May 2018.  Councillor Douglas is the Strategic Board nominee to TWAM Enterprises and is therefore a Director of TWAM Enterprises Ltd.

Iain advised the Committee that almost 50% of schools (17 out of 36) visiting are from the Gateshead area.  The Gallery is developing relationships with schools located within walking distance from the gallery with repeat visits from nearby schools. 

Funding from Historic England has supported the free delivery of an Art and Heritage project with Oakfield Primary School.  The aim of the project explored how teachers can use art in the classroom to explore local heritage. 

In 2017/18 as part of the centenary the gallery delivered assemblies in 13 local schools, as a result of these networks further relationships have been built with Blaydon West and St Joseph’s School in Birtley.  Work is continuing with Whickham Parochial, Corpus Christi and Falla Park Primary.

Iain highlighted some events/ exhibitions which have taken place over the past year:

·         Julie Cope’s Grand Tour: The story of a life by Grayson Perry (5 May – 31 July 2018)

·         Newcastle University Architecture Exhibition in the lounge

·         Dry Run – Sunderland University glass and ceramics. (18 – 28 May 2018).

·         Laura Carlin Ceramics (8 September – 19 January 2019)

·         Gateshead Art Society 70th Anniversary Annual Exhibition (17 November – 22 December 2018)

·         Paintings from the Shipley Collection (9 Feb – 27 April)

The Gallery are planning to display more art works than ever before with a dense salon hang which will look beautiful.  ‘Pop up’ displays are also being planned from the collection selected and interpreted by community groups and schools programming in 2020.

The acceptance in lieu scheme run by Ace have just formally confirmed the gift of the John Cristian studio ceramics collection and next year there will be a proportion on display with a plan to rotate the collection.

Throughout 2018 and 2019 Tyne & Wear Archives have been delivery a project of catalogue digitisation by volunteers for the Coatsworth and Ellison family papers which predominately concern Gateshead and surrounding areas.  This project has been supported by the Carr-Ellison Family Charitable Trust.  Tyne & Wear Archive operates a public searchroom for the consultation of archive documents.  The searchroom is currently open 24 hours per week (Tuesday-Friday) and is visited by people researching family, house, local and business history from across the North-East, UK and Internationally.  In 2018/19 17% of all visitors from the North-East came from Gateshead.

Tyne and Wear Archives social media continues to be very popular with over 10,000 twitter followers and 33 million views on Flickr.

World Mental Health Day was attended by organisations from across Gateshead who support people with their mental health.  This is about making sure people can have good conversations and was organised by Gateshead Mental Health User Voice.

The first quarter of this year saw women from Change, Grow, Live Gateshead working with TWAM on Women of Tyneside and RICH recovery programme.  The project focussed on the theme of women’s health and wellbeing.  The group then worked with local singer-songwriter, Nicky Rushton, to reinterpret these items and stories and combine with their own opinions and experiences, to produce three songs.  One is focussed on the fictional story of “Peggy Pattinson”, inspired by an image of a women’s mugshot photograph.  In March the women attended Blank Studios to professionally record their songs, which will later be added into the TWAM collections as part of the Women’s Collection.  They will also perform alongside Kissed (a local all-female band, which Nicky is part of) as part of the project’s Festival of Women at the end of May.

TWAM works with a number of groups, Gateshead Arts Society have weekly therapy groups, the gallery has a strong band of volunteers and also have creative baby groups as they know that it is important that if people are engaged early there is a huge benefit for the rest of their lives.

In the Summer of 2018, during the Great Exhibition of the North, The Shipley Art Gallery hosted a cultivation event where staff, trustees, business partners and key stakeholders came together to celebrate.  This was a successful event, showcasing both the venue, the collections and facilities of The Shipley Art Gallery.

The Development Department will again be hosting a key event at The Shipley Art Gallery, which will be its inaugural Christmas Celebration event planned to thank and celebrate supporters, stakeholders, business partners and trustees in December 2019.

This year saw the first use of the Small Donations Gift Aid Scheme which has the potential to raise an additional £8000 through unclaimed Gift Aid on donations made on site at The Shipley Art Gallery.  To claim the full £8,000 allowance donations would need to increase to £32,000 and the Development Department are looking into ways of doing this to maximise the income generated through Gift Aid.

It was queried if it would be possible to find out if there are particular reasons why schools from the far west of the Borough are not engaging with trips to Beamish or to The Shipley, and to see if there was anything that Councillors could do to encourage schools to attend.

It was queried whether there was any links with College’s / Universities to support young people with entrepreneurial skills.  It was noted that on of the Trustees of the Charity, Charlotte, is a young trustees and works with  and age range in the 20s.  This was something that could be looked into further.  It is important to encourage young people.  The Gallery does have connections with Northumbria University and Gateshead College.

It was queried whether it was possible to give preferential rates to local artists.  It was noted that the Trading Company has been challenged to make a financial return and whilst as TWAM it is important to support local artists it is difficult to give preferential rates.

RESOLVED -  That the information contained within the report be noted.