We’re delighted to announce that work on Forging Ahead will re-commence from w/c 17 August. Work on the project was put on hold in March due to the Covid pandemic, but we are now in the fortunate position where the work associated with the Pre-Contract Services Agreement can now begin again.
The most visible sign of work at the early stage of the project will be the construction of hoarding around Cast-Iron Houses as part of their re-location to make way for the new Visitor Centre.
We will publish a further update on the new schedule for the development in due course, but in the meantime we wanted to let you know that plans to bring the Museum’s story up to the 1960s now have renewed momentum.
As we head into the second weekend following reopening, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the fabulous feedback we’ve received from visitors since we’ve been able to welcome them back, and to share my personal thanks with you all for your efforts to bring the Museum to life following a long period of lockdown.
Throughout our 136 days of closure, I was heartened to see so many messages of affection and support for the Museum. Many of the people wishing us well told us what they missed most about BCLM – its stories, its people, being able to spend time reminiscing with their loved ones, and, dare I say it, the fish and chips.
This notwithstanding, I’ve been both surprised and delighted by the degree of positivity and enthusiasm visitors have displayed towards us since reopening. This reaction is a testament to working together successfully as one Museum team. Visitors have embraced the new programme and how it takes them to parts of the site that they may never have visited before; they love hearing new stories delivered passionately by historic characters; they love the variety of the food and drink offer; and they feel safe with the distancing measures in place and a highly visible cleaning team working hard to maintain hygiene standards.
All of these things and more have been mentioned by visitors – many in long and heartfelt social media reviews and emails to the Museum. I would encourage you to visit our social channels to see for yourself what people are saying about the work many of you have been doing to ensure the Museum succeeds.
The Museum has also hosted some notable visitors in its early stages of opening. In what may sound like the beginning of an old joke, an MP, a Minister, and a Bishop walked into the Museum… But, in all seriousness, over the past seven days we’ve seen Dudley North MP Marco Longhi – impressed from his visit on Saturday – returning on Wednesday having invited the Minister of State for Digital and Culture, Caroline Dinenage MP, to visit the Museum in order to show her first-hand what a remarkable community asset it is. The Rt Revd Martin Gorick, Bishop of Dudley, has also visited to show his support for the Museum. These visits are not just important for the media coverage they can generate, but they’re also an opportunity to put the Museum front-and-centre with decision-makers who have a real influence over the future of the cultural sector.
Despite the success of our reopening, these are still very uncertain times for many businesses and charities and, not least, the Museum. Our recent award from the Arts Council Emergency Response Fund and the strong demand for tickets means we’ve been able to begin trading again and generate much needed cashflow. However, visitor numbers for this August will likely be around fifty per cent of the level achieved in 2019 and, as an organisation which is more than 90% dependent upon visitor income, reopening does not yet mean recovery. The challenge of operating in a financially-sustainable way in the era of social distancing remains. Therefore, it would be wrong of me if I did not mention here there are likely to be some difficult decisions ahead.
The £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund – currently the only sector-specific government fund – is evidence of the Government’s recognition of the importance of the cultural sector to people’s lives and the need to support organisations during this moment of crisis. The Museum’s Leadership Team is currently looking at the best ways to apply for financial support from the Fund to enable us to operate effectively in the short term and give the organisation the best chance of survival in the long term. It is still too early to tell what the long-term impact of Covid will be on consumer confidence and its influence on how people will choose to visit the Museum in the future. Consequently, the future is uncertain. Nevertheless, the Leadership Team and I are working hard to protect the Museum, its people, and livelihoods as we navigate this ‘new normal’.
In this last of weekly comms updates, I wanted thank you all for your hard work and the way you have supported each other through these most difficult of times. A living museum is no such thing without its people – both colleagues and visitors. Our reopening has proved how vital the Museum is to the cultural life of the area, and as an agent of community cohesion. Therefore, I’m incredibly proud of the experience we’ve put together and the positive impact it’s made for our visitors and for the reputation of the Black Country more widely.
Thank you to everyone who made our soft launch preview possible on Tuesday 28 July. The feedback from visitors has been incredibly positive and a provides great boost of confidence ahead of full opening on Saturday.
We wanted to share some of the feedback with you:
The weather forecast for Saturday is looking positive, so with such positive feedback and sunny skies, we’re in a great position to welcome visitors back and to bring the Museum to life once again.
You’ll likely have seen from media coverage that this has been an important week for the cultural sector. The Government’s announcement of a £1.57bn funding package has been received positively by sector leaders given its size and scope. There will be much work to do over the coming days and weeks to understand how organisations can access the funds and how monies will be distributed. However, this is incredibly welcome news – particularly for performing arts venues, such as theatres, who still must remain closed due to restrictions around Covid-19.
ACE Emergency Response Fund
You may also have seen that, alongside other Midlands cultural organisations, BCLM has secured emergency funding from Arts Council England (ACE). A full intranet update on this is here. This support from ACE will play a crucial role in helping us to realise our plans for reopening, as well as contributing to some of the shortfall in income during our closure period.
Reopening Programme – Unlocking the Black Country
Last week, we promised an update on the reopening programme. The theme for reopening is ‘Unlocking the Black Country’.
There are two strands to this programme. Firstly, to ensure we are unlocking safely with measures in place for colleagues and visitors and, secondly, to unlock history in a way that engages visitors.
Detailed information around protective measures, risk assessments, and new protocols to protect colleagues on-site will be rolled out as part of the return-to-work process and staff training. There will also be public comms about safety measures to provide reassurance to visitors.
In the meantime, we wanted to provide some highlights on how we’re proposing to ‘unlock history’. One of the key concepts behind the programme is to take an ‘inside-out’ approach. This means that, wherever possible, we want to make more active use of the outdoor space offered by the site. Part of the plan is to make more use of the Museum’s vehicle collection to create greater outdoor spectacle and to adapt some of the shows originally developed for school audiences into demonstrations that will engage visitors of all ages.
We’ve been working on creating distinctive themed ‘zones’ around the Museum site to give visitors the sense of travelling through time and the chance to hear about different facets of the Black Country story. In all, there will be five zones:
1. ‘Marvellous Machines’ – Located at Newcomen and areas below terrace
“From the Newcomen to the internal combustion engine, discover the manufacturing heritage of the Black Country”
2. ‘Black Gold’ – Located at Mine/Colliery area
“The story of Black Country coal and how it fuelled the industrial revolution”
3. ‘Victory Park’ – Located at Folkes Park
“It’s 1945 and the end of war in Europe has just been announced. Come and celebrate and help us remember those we’ve lost”
‘4. Village Voices’ – Located at Canal Street and Station Road
“A village of hardship and strife, but also of people working together to improve their lot”
5. ‘Workshops of the World’ – Located at the canal arm, Anchor Forge, Rolling Mill, Chain Shop
“Hear the stories of the people who crossed borders to keep Black Country industry thriving”
The programme is based on much of the existing learning that Museum colleagues hold. Where there are adaptations and new ideas to be tested, full training will be given to colleagues where this is relevant. We will update people on the timetable and plan for training in due course.
Our Food and Drink and Enterprise offer is being designed in parallel to complement the visitor programme.
The above information is meant to provide a taster of the offer. Further details will be published soon. The programme has been designed encourage visitors to travel around the site in a more structured manner than they usually would, and to encourage them to spend time in each of the zones interacting with colleagues in a safe, socially-distanced manner.
Keeping in touch – wellbeing conversations
Line managers are in the process of contacting all colleagues to have a wellbeing call and check-in. By the end of this week, all colleagues should have received a call and an opportunity to talk to their manager. Please do questions you may have regarding reopening with your managers, or if you have any questions you’d like to ask in confidence – please do email [email protected] Following on from these initial conversations, managers will be back in touch to discuss specific plans for each individual colleague.
In the meantime, we hope that you and your loved ones stay safe and well.
The Prime Minister yesterday announced some important changes to relax the lockdown and, also, further steps towards opening up the economy. One of the most important parts of the announcement for the Museum was the confirmation that museums and galleries will be permitted to open again from Sat 4 July.
Whilst the announcement is undoubtedly positive news, permission to reopen does not resolve the challenges facing the museum sector – particularly for those organisations for which reopening will cost more than staying closed. Therefore, AIM (Association for Independent Museums) has published a joint statement along with the National Museum Directors’ Council and Museums’ Association calling for the Government to make a long-term financial investment in the sector to support its future resilience and sustainability. This high profile advocacy is designed to raise awareness of the issues facing museums and to keep the sector front-of-mind for policy-makers within Government. Please click here for the full joint statement.
As we’ve previously communicated, BCLM’s plan is to reopen in a phased approach from Sat 1 Aug in order to give us time to make our large 26-acre site safe and to develop a programme that engages visitors within a covid-secure environment. More details about the reopening plan and programme will be shared with colleagues as soon as possible. Both the reopening plan and programme design had already anticipated some of the measures announced by the Prime Minister. Consequently, we’re in a position to progress our plans without the need to make major changes.
It goes without saying that it’s the people working at the Museum who are the most important factor in delivering what visitors find so special about BCLM. Therefore, thank you to everyone who completed the staff survey. Almost 200 people participated in the survey ahead of today’s deadline for completion. The findings will be used at an overall level to inform the people plan for reopening.
When plans are finalised, managers will be in contact with team members to discuss the reopening and the role we can each play in successfully welcoming visitors back to the Museum over the coming months.
As businesses operating within the visitor economy now look at their strategies for reopening in line with the latest Government guidance, Black Country Chamber of Commerce are focusing their next ‘In Conversation with…’ webinar on the subject of the visitor economy. On Tue 30 Jun (2-3pm) a panel of industry leaders, including Museum Chief Executive Andrew Lovett, will be discussing the sector’s response to Covid-19 and how tourism and visitor attractions will meet the challenges ahead. To book a place on the webinar, click here.
With the easing of restrictions and the opening of outdoor spaces, zoos, and some shops, we’re now entering the early stages of life after lockdown. The ‘new normal’ may have become a somewhat overused phrase in past few months, but with social distancing measures likely to be in place for some time to come, businesses like ours – which bring people together over a shared experience – will be operating in a very different environment to that which was in place pre-lockdown.
A planned re-opening from Sat 1 Aug
From updates on the intranet and messages that have been publicly communicated, you’ll have seen we’re planning on a phased opening of the Museum from Sat 1 Aug. A small team of colleagues from across the Museum is now working to make that date a reality, with a programme and visitor offer designed to work in a Covid-secure environment.
Planning for a phased return-to-work
The Government’s Job Retention Scheme continues to provide a lifeline and changes from 1 July mean that we will have greater scope to deploy staff flexibly, using financial support from the scheme, in order to prepare for re-opening. Given we won’t be generating visitor income until August, being financially responsible in the short term in order to do everything we can to secure the Museum’s survival in the long term is a key consideration underpinning the re-opening plan.
Therefore, the Museum is looking at plans for a phased return to work for colleagues across the organisation. Managers will be in touch with each of you over the coming weeks to discuss what returning to work could look like for you in terms of return date and how we’ll need your help to run the Museum during these unprecedented times.
Team survey and consultation
As part of consulting with everyone about returning to work, you will have been invited to complete a survey asking for your views on the subject. Please do take the time to complete the survey, as the more responses we have, the more insightful the findings will be. You can complete the survey anonymously, or share your name if you’d like to be identified alongside your responses as a way of helping managers to understand your individual needs. An invite to the survey has been sent via PlanDay, or the email address the People Team hold on your record. Please do have a look for it and fill it in. The deadline for responses is Wed 24 Jun.
And, finally…
We just wanted to share with you the outpouring of public affection we’ve seen for the Museum following news about our planned re-opening. On Facebook alone, almost 68,000 people have seen our re-opening message and more than 6,000 of those have taken the time to share their messages of support with us. That BCLM has such a strong bond with its audience is testament to everyone’s hard work and their pride in delivering a meaningful visitor experience. Therefore, planning for re-opening is concentrated on creating a safe and welcoming environment for everyone where colleagues can do what they do best and immerse people in the remarkable story of the Black Country once again.
The following statement has been posted on the news page of the BCLM website and a status posted on Twitter to update visitors on our planned opening date in light of recent announcements (as of Wed 10 Jun) from other visitor attractions regarding their plans for opening.
“Following ongoing Government announcements regarding re-opening of open spaces, and now wildlife attractions, we are aware that some people may assume BCLM should now reopen too.
Unfortunately this is not possible. BCLM is an accredited museum, so in accordance with Government guidance we would have not looked to re-open any earlier than Step 3, currently 4 July 2020.
Whilst we are lucky to be situated on a 26-acre largely open air site, the nature of our Museum and visitor day out, lots of small properties and close interactions with historic characters and other staff, means we need to take more time to make sure we are safe place for staff and visitors; so we will remain closed until our planned phased re-opening on 1 August 2020.
We are very busy planning the reopening, which places great emphasis on the health and safety of both visitors and staff, and have been delighted by the very large and positive reaction to our visitor survey about these measures.
Once we do re-open, we will have new health and safety measures across the Museum including limiting visitor numbers. We need time to plan and install these new measures in order to ensure that we are prepared, so that we can open safely and we can stay open.
As a Museum that prides itself on being at the core of our community, and relying on visitor income for over 90% of our funding, being closed for nearly three months at this point means we must be measured in the way we begin to incur large costs again. The Government’s Job Retention Scheme has been a lifeline to us during this period and our planned reopening will allow us to create, once again, a fun day out for our visitors balanced with our fiscal responsibilities.
We completely understand the pressing needs of zoos to re-open more quickly than museums as their fixed costs have not reduced during the lockdown period due to their commitment to the welfare of their animals. Their need to create income again is particularly understandable.
Please respect our decision to remain closed at this time, and we look forward to welcoming you back to the Museum in August.
In the meantime, be safe, and keep connecting with us via our digital channels.”
The end of last week saw an update from the Chancellor regarding many of the policies that have been put in place in response to COVID-19, including the Job Retention Scheme. As you’ll all be aware this scheme has been a lifeline to many organisations, including our own, so we were pleased to see more flexibility being added (from July employers will be able to, where appropriate, start to invite teams back on a part time basis to the benefit of both organisations and employees) and the ongoing commitment to keep the scheme in place until October.
In order to meet the criteria for the changes in the coming months we have needed to swap around some of the members of the team who have been unfurloughed during April and May. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have been working hard behind the scenes to keep the Museum and our livestock safe and running in a strange but necessary way, who have been producing content for our audience, existing and new, to respond to and who have been the frontline to many queries we received be that from visitors or staff.
And we’d also like to thank those of you who are furloughed for your continued support and positive ideas and comments in response to the communications we’ve been sharing with you and when you’ve been engaging with the Museum. The most recent way has been with the well-being visits to the Museum which started this week: this idea (which came from a member of staff) has been really well received so please do make use of this if you’d like to – see details here if you missed it.
On Friday we sent our visitor survey to our database and also posted the links on social media and our website asking our visitors/supporters about their views on how we can best welcome them back to the Museum when we reopen – we are currently hopeful for an August reopening, subject to further Government guidance at the end of June. The response has been amazing – over 3000 individuals have taken the time to reply and share their views. We’ve also been heartened by the very positive comments on social media to the initiative. We haven’t forgotten about the staff survey we previously discussed so keep your eyes out for this in coming weeks.
On Sunday we all heard the good news from the Prime Minister that the country is continuing with its path to ‘unlocking’ with the positive announcement regarding retail shops allowed to re-open from the 15th June. Whilst this doesn’t directly affect us in terms of our Museum work it does show progress in the right direction.
Last week Abby and Kev met at the Museum and, while keeping to social distancing measures, filmed the first in a new series of films taking our audience remotely around different properties, as voted for by our social media followers.
I think we can all agree this video is a great success in many ways; not least that it’s had over 10,000 views since it went live on Friday and is already in top 10 of all organic videos we’ve posted. Well done team!
Last week also saw some important coverage for the Museum in The Times. Not only was Andrew quoted about the difficult time independent museums have been facing but Tristam Hunt, the director of the V&A, specifically mentioned BCLM and the amazing work we do to engage under-served audiences. BCLM ‘attracts the highest working class audience attendance of any museum in the country. It reaches the sort of audience which big state-backed schemes so often fail to attract. It educates. It includes. It brings local pride’. And it’s thanks to all of you that our peers can talk about us in such glowing terms.
Onto this week’s activity; which sees us issuing our visitor survey which will help understand their views on coming back to see us when we reopen and also an exciting project with Black Country Studies Centre and Wolverhampton University as more of the site is to be Matterport scanned. Matterport is a 3D Camera technology used to scan 4K virtual tours. They are able to capture a 99.99% accuracy scale scan of the space and will allow us to do many activities with the scans including giving our audience a feel for the museum again, while they can’t take step a foot inside. We partnered with them before to scan the Cast Iron Houses ahead of their take down for Forging Ahead so it a fantastic next step to be able to capture more the site.
And finally we have received great news from Jeni-May; Rudy James Shakespeare, was born on the 11th May, we wish all of them well.
It’s Wednesday, officially the hottest day of the year so far, and with the warmer weather the Museum has quite literally started to blossom.
In other news, we continue with the planning for re-opening. To aid this we will be asking for your thoughts on returning to work via a staff survey which will be sent out by email and planday in the next couple of weeks. Please do take this opportunity to tell us your thoughts, concerns and suggestions for how we can help you to feel confident and safe to return to work. We understand that this will be different for everyone and so we want hope to hear from as many people as possible. In addition we will also be sending out a survey to our visitors and members, to get a better understanding of their plans for re-visiting the Museum.
We submitted our application to Arts Council England’s Emergency Response Fund on Monday 18May. A decision is expected on 30 June, and if successful this will provide financial assistance through to end of September. We continue to look for longer term sources of income of which will aid us through the winter period.
Tom and Abby continue to produce some excellent content about the Museum to put on our social media sites. As a reminder, here are the ways you can access this:
History at Home. We have been producing interactive resources centred around current KS2 themes, including PowerPoints and videos on a range of topics. You may have seen this week that we have asked the public to vote for a building, and a short virtual tour of the winning building is being produced featuring our very own Kevin Cooksey. There will be a linked activity for kids to do at home. Resources can be found here: https://www.bclm.co.uk/history-at-home/history-at-home/1.htm
Black Country Studies Centre – Lockdown Learning. From bricks to poetry, you can find short videos and blog posts from the experts here: http://blackcountrystudiescentre.co.uk/news.
In other news, some small bits of maintenance work have managed to continue whilst allowing for social distancing. Two workmen from Martin Evans Construction have been on site all week and have finished off the new compost bays, one at the back of the Trap Shop and the other in the wooded walkway at the rear of the additional horse paddock. These replace the bays which were previously in the compound behind Old Birmingham Road.
We are another week into the lockdown, and we hope that the slight easing of restrictions has lifted your spirits somewhat. If you are struggling at all, please remember that you can email [email protected] or utilise the Employee Assistance Programme. In addition, some of you may have a seen that a new 24 hour advice line has been launched to help people in the Black Country cope with the uncertainty of the Covid-19 outbreak.The advice line managed by the Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council (WVSC) in conjunction with the Black Country Healthcare Partnership will provide critical emotional support for local residents. For more information about this new service visit WVSC website.
