Picture of a line of chairs

FAQs

What is Renaissance?

Renaissance is the government-funded programme to transform regional museums in England. Following the report Renaissance in the Regions in 2001, the government agreed to invest £70 million into museums in the regions to enable them to build capacity and develop new ways of working.

Renaissance covers a range of activities:

Museum Hubs - a series of nine regional Hubs were established in England, with each Hub comprised of four or five museum services. The South East Hub is one of the nine.

Museum Development Fund - this fund is managed and delivered by the regional agencies and supports museums through providing advice and support, training programmes and grants schemes through the Museum Development Service.

Designation Challenge Fund - this fund supports museums which hold collections which have been identified as being of outstanding national and international importance within England's non-national museums.

Subject Specialist Networks - which are being established to share scholarship, collections and collections expertise, research and interpretation skills. National museums and museums with Designated collections will play a key role in these networks.

Collections Link - the national advisory service for collections management, managed by the MDA in partnership with the Institute of Conservation (ICON) and National Preservation Office (NPO).

See the Pocket Guide to Renaissance for more information.

Where does the money come from?

Renaissance is a Government-funded programme, through the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) implements and administers the programme and reports to DCMS on progress.

The Department of Education and Skills gave money to MLA for the period 2003 - 06 to be targeted specifically at developing a comprehensive service to school age children. This ringfenced money funded the programmes within the Hubs Education Programme Delivery Plans (EPDP) for 2003 - 06.

top

What is the difference between a Phase 1 Hub and a Phase 2 Hub?

The Renaissance in the Regions report called for £267million of Government funding over five years to implement the new structure. In the Spending Review of 2002, the Government allocated £70 million to the scheme. This did not enable every region to be allocated full Renaissance funding. Three Hubs were given funding equal to the amount recommended in the report Renaissance in the Regions and classed as Phase 1 Hubs. The remaining six Hubs were given smaller sums and classed as Phase 2 Hubs.

The three Phase 1 Hubs are the South West, West Midlands and the North East. 70% of the original funding went to fund the Phase 1 Hubs.

The Phase 2 Hubs are the South East, London, the East of England, East Midlands, the North West and Yorkshire. 30% of the original funding was split between the Phase 2 Hubs.

How has the money been allocated to the Hubs?

The allocation to individual Hubs within Phases 1 and 2 has been formulated in the same way. 40% of the total allocation has been shared equally by each Hub and the remaining 60% has been allocated according to the population and number of museums in the region the Hub sits in.  

What is the difference between the Hub and MLA South East, the Regional Agency?

MLA South East is the regional development agency for museums, libraries and archives in the South East. It provides strategic leadership and advocacy for the sector, provides development services, funding advice and a grants programme, while collecting and sharing data and evidence to support the sector. Visit www.mlasoutheast.org.uk for more information.

The South East Hub is formed of four partner services to lead in the delivery of Renaissance. The four Hub partners are well-established museum services, investing the Renaissance funding to build their capacities and infrastructures and trial new and innovative ways of working to share with the museum sector. The South East Hub has allocated £173,000 in 2006/07 and £530,000 in 2007/08 to  programmes specifically aimed at supporting non Hub museums in the region. The Hub Museums are improving their individual services as well as work alongside and support MLA South East in delivering the regional strategic priorities.

top

How can I find out more?

You can find out more in a number of ways:

Renaissance South East is linked to a wide variety of projects across the region. If you are a museum in the South East your Museum Development Officer will be able to provide you with a range of information that will tell you how to get involved in your sub-regional network, how to apply for a grant, how to benefit from free training and much more.

How is Renaissance funding museums that are not in the Hub?

Renaissance money is allocated by the South East Hub Business Plan to support non-Hub museums in a number of ways. MLA South East manages the Museum Development Fund, which supports the network of Museum Development Officers (MDOs) in the South East. The MDOs provide direct support to museums in the region through site visits and providing advice and information. See above for how to contact your local MDO.

Renaissance also covers the Designation Challenge Fund, which supports museums which hold Designated collections.

The South East Hub has also funded non-Hub museums directly through a wide range of initiatives, such as enabling MDO contracts to be extended, providing a small grants scheme, providing free access audits, free training programmes and employing professional photographers. For more information go to Museum Development Services and Sharing Skills.

Who is my Museum Development Officer?

Every Registered/Accredited museum in the South East has access to a Museum Development Officer. To find out who your MDO is click on the sub-region you are in:

top

Is Renaissance successful?

Renaissance is still a new programme. MLA is using a number of methods to measure the impact of Renaissance funding, such as Hub museums collecting data about visitor figures and evaluating the impact of the Museum Development Fund.

In terms of increasing visitor numbers, Hub museums are seeing an increase in the number of school children that are using their services - up 13% in the South East from 2003/04 to 2005/06.

Renaissance is about more than numbers of people through the door, it is about diversifying the profile of our users. This funding has enabled museums to experiment and trial new ways of working, often targeting traditional hard to reach audiences. The lessons learned from this work will benefit all museums and those in other sectors.

Renaissance is also supporting building capacity and expertise in the collections teams of museums and through using new technologies it aims to develop new ways of sharing information and knowledge about collections.

As Renaissance continues there will be a greater body of evidence to demonstrate the positive impact that the programme is having on museums across England.

What does the future hold for Renaissance?

The current funding runs until March 2008. The MLA Partnership and the Hubs are working together to demonstrate the benefit of Renaissance to date to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, in order to see the programme continued and extended.

MLA will be submitting the case for continued funding at the Spending Review in 2007.

top


detailed search


web design and technology by futurate