Change to Museum opening hours, effective week commencing 7th September 2020

Dear Colleagues

Thank you all for your hard work and support in advance of our re-opening at the beginning of August and your enthusiasm for the programme and our COVID safety measures now we have visitors back onsite.

The feedback from our visitors has been overwhelmingly positive and many have commented that they have experienced parts of the Museum that they haven’t before, found our offer to be more engaging, our food and drink offer to be more plentiful and that the Museum has felt safe and well controlled. 

Despite this wonderful feedback, we do need to recognise that closure due to COVID-19 meant we lost 150,000 visitors and C.£3m in revenue.  BCLM is 94% funded by our visitors so with a continued reduction in attendance due to social distancing measures, the uncertainty around future visitors, especially schools and groups this Autumn and Winter, or our ability to hold events will continue to have a financial impact on the Museum

Our award from the Arts Council Emergency Response Fund was gratefully received in June and this week we have submit a bid for further support from the Government Cultural Recovery fund.  We will receive the outcome of our bid at the end of October. 

With these factors in mind, we have taken the difficult decision to reduce the Museum’s opening hours, effective from 7^th September 2020 as follows:

• W/C 7^th September: Open Thursday 10^th – Sunday 13^th, 10am – 4pm.  (Wednesday 9^th closed for a private booking)
• W/C 14^th September –25^th October: Open Wednesday – Sunday, 10am – 4pm.
• W/C 26^th October – 1^st November – October Half Term: Open Monday – Sunday, 10am – 4pm.

You will see that we are effectively bringing forward our winter opening hours to reflect our lower visitor numbers.

Those colleagues whose contracted days or hours will reduce as a result of the above, will have the difference “topped” up to 80% of their usual pay using the Government’s Job Retention flexible furlough scheme until the end of October when the scheme comes to an end and when we would usually expect to move to our low season hours.

If you have any queries about your personal situation or work patterns then please speak to you line managers who will work through these with you with support from People & Culture if required.

I appreciate this will be disappointing but not unexpected news and we mustn’t let it dampen our spirits.  Let’s continue to deliver a fantastic visitor experience and maintain momentum and energy as we move into Autumn.

Thank you again for your continued support.

All the best

Andrew