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 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.”
Ends.
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.
Take care and keep safe.
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.
Take care and keep safe.
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 18 May. 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:
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.
Take care and keep safe.
Following the government announcement on Sunday, we now know that the Museum will remain closed until the end of June and the majority of staff will remain furloughed. Our hope at this point is that we would be able to open in-line with Step 3 of the plan (which lists hospitality, leisure and public places), the earliest date for which is 4th July. We know however that this will be conditional on each step of the plan having the desired effect of reducing the spread of the virus (and achieving the government’s five tests for easing lockdown), as well as BCLM being prepared and able to manage the health and safety requirements including social distancing and enhanced cleaning.
Some of you may have seen the announcement yesterday from the Chancellor Rishi Sunak, which confirmed that the government will extend the Job Retention Scheme until the end of October. This is welcome news and adds more clarity to our situation. There will be no changes to the scheme until end of July and from August through to October the scheme will have greater flexibility, allowing us to bring back furloughed workers on a part time basis if that is necessary to allow for a smooth transition to opening. Further information on the alterations to the scheme will be available at the end of May and we will of course keep you updated on these developments in due course. We will now look at different financial models to work out the best way of re-opening which allows us to make use of the financial support available.
Despite the uncertainty of a fixed opening date, we continue to work hard on planning for re-opening, so that when the time comes we are in the best possible position to welcome you and our visitors back to the Museum. Part of this involves working with other organisations such as those in the Heart of England Attractions Group (including Warwick Castle, Sea Life Centre and Lego Discovery Centre, RAF Museum Cosford and Ironbridge to name a few), on safety measures that we can put in place.
Later today we will publicly announce that we have made the decision to cancel the 1940s weekend which was scheduled for 11/12 July. Too much crucial planning time has been missed for this event to take place, even if the Museum were able to open. We have chosen not to reschedule for later in the year as we know this event works best in the summer and there is also no guarantee that the many of the re-enactors and entertainers would be available for a different date later in the year. We are asking all those who have purchased tickets to the 1940s evening event if they would like to donate the cost of their ticket to the Museum – as many arts organisations are also doing.
All other workshops, events and activities have been cancelled to the end of June – we will make a decision on whether events scheduled in July can go ahead based on when the Museum is able to re-open and that sufficient social distancing measures can be put in place. All school bookings have been cancelled to the end of the school year and group bookings up to the end of June.
The Museum’s board of trustees met last Thursday for the fourth time since we closed, and they continue to be updated on the situation on a weekly basis.
I’m thankful that we haven’t faced a serious issue with the health of staff, but I am aware that there are hidden pressures, not least on people’s mental health. Please don’t forget that if you have any queries or require any support that you can always email [email protected].
Take care and best wishes
Andrew
We’re now on week six of the Museum being closed to the public and as we mentioned in last week’s update, the Museum will continue to remain closed until the Government advises that it is safe for us to re-open. We hope that you are keeping safe and well and are finding ways to stay connected with family and friends in these challenging times.
In spite of the difficult times we all face, life does go on here at the Museum and our non-furloughed staff are working away to ensure that things tick over. Some have even begun to pick up new skills – Martyn from the Maintenance Team has taken on the job of resident lawn mower so that we don’t come back to a jungle!
And, as of this week, work has now been completed on the pathway to the new Canalside offices, and smart new railings and lighting have now been installed.
The Locksmith House continues to be diligently cared for by Andy Middlebrook who is dropping in a couple of times a week to check in.
You’ll notice that we are putting out more content and learning resources– so far we have explored themes of childhood, coal mining and the canal network. Keep an eye out next week for the highly topical ‘health and hygiene’ mini-documentary as well as on our Twitter page later on in the week when our researchers will be talking about their favourite objects for BBC’s #MuseumsatHome.
We know that many of you have kindly been working hard to support the NHS. We know how passionate our staff are, and it has not gone unnoticed. A particularly special thank you this week to Hayley and Janet, who between them have made scrubs, ear protectors, and more.
We will continue to update on a weekly basis so please ensure that you check back soon, and in the meantime, stay safe.
