Another week has passed since our last communication and I hope you and your friends and family are keeping well. Please do encourage your colleagues to read these updates each Wednesday as they will be the main communication from the Museum.
Our attention is now turning to re-opening the Museum and whilst we don’t know exactly when this will be or what will be expected of us, we can make some assumptions that allow us to plan ahead. Hopefully the government’s update this Sunday will allow us to do this with more clarity. In all of this pre-opening planning we will prioritise the health & safety of staff, doing everything possible to make you feel confident and safe to return to work. For visitors, we are considering ways to adapt our interpretive and operational approach to allow visitors to maintain social distancing and minimize touch, whilst not detracting from positive visitor experience. Of course it would be wrong for us to try and plan this on our own and so the Museum is participating in discussion with other organisations via the National Museum Directors Council Planning and Mobilisation Group and we are also receiving updates from other industry bodies including the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, which is contributing to our thinking.
The financial situation remains a challenge and whilst we’re pleased to have received the first payment from the Government’s Job Retention Scheme, there are still large monthly costs to be covered which will utilise all of the Museum’s reserves. Unfortunately some of the other support measures announced by the government are not suitable for the Museum – including the Business Loan Scheme; and whilst a number of lottery funders have announced emergency grants, organisations are not permitted to apply for more than one of these. However, please be assured that we are doing everything we can to access financial support that will allow us to get through this crisis. An application to Arts Council England’s Emergency Response Fund will be submitted next week for funding that will hopefully support us up to the end of September and we continue to lobby government for further long-term support via the Association of Independent Museums and DCMS.
We appreciate that this is a difficult and unsettling time for everyone and it is hard at this point for us to confirm anything with much certainty. The situation remains fluid, and the Board is being kept up-to-date on a weekly basis. What we do know is that there is much affection and love for this wonderful Museum and we are doing our utmost to navigate a way forward so that we can re-open our doors and welcome visitors once again. We continue to look for the positives in the situation – and having a large 26 acre site will hopefully mean we are in a better position than some to re-open and maintain social distancing.
As mentioned earlier, we hope that following the government’s next announcement we will begin to have a clearer picture on the timescale and plans for reopening, and in the meantime please take care and keep safe.
Andrew
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