There are only a couple of weeks to go before the guidance is formally launched, but in the meantime here are some headlines which are publicly available. Some MDOs, and their employers, will already be talking and meeting with their own Arts Council Relationship Manager, but some individual MDOs may not be getting the messages yet. As the turnaround is so quick the following might be of use to MDOs who are either directly part of the bidding process or feed into it..
Museum Development:
- The proposed launch of the scheme and guidance is in week beginning 23 January 2012 – with guidance and questions and answers information published.
- 7 February online application form opens
- 7 March – application deadline.
- Decisions announced by 27 April 2012.
Want to know who your MDO is? See our handy SW MDO map!
The main headlines are:
- £2m for 2012-13 and £3m for each year 2013-14 and 2014-15. There is some indicative financial modelling based on population, number of accredited museums, the geographical area and number of museums needing Museum Mentor support (formerly Curatorial Advisors). This will all be included within the guidance.
- The museum development will provide a national network of museum support, focussed on local need within the context of high level national strategic goals. It will primarily target those museums which are Accredited/working towards Accreditation. The support will be primarily delivered to museums not served by the Major Grant and Strategic strands of support. It will complement other strands of Renaissance activity and museum development services provided by other funding agencies.
- Delivery against all 5 goals – priority goal 3.
- 3 years of funding – each year separately funded. Doesn’t have to be the same amount each year.
- Overheads: There is no set percentage going to be placed on overheads, rather an analysis of cost centre charges and value for money.
- The bid must demonstrate local need and how the proposed programme will meet the needs. It will be possible to include a small grants scheme as part of the delivery, the need for specific delivery models will need to be evidenced.
- There will be no redundancy liabilities covered from 1 August 2012.
- There is no mechanistic formula for achieving a national network of Museum Development services. We do not want to deal with huge numbers of organisations so do not encourage county by county applications; neither do we envisage working with one organisation nationally running the programme, since the bids need to reflect local need (although we recognise that it would be theoretically possible to tailor local responsiveness within a larger bid). Regional bids are encouraged and will be prioritised but we invite bids from organisations wishing to cover any geographic area – for example if an applicant wishes to make the case for the effectiveness and efficiency of a larger area-based proposal. Given the opportunity of our wider remit, we encourage potential providers to include within their application scope for cross-cultural working (taking account of the shifting approach to cultural provision at a local authority level) and will give added consideration to applications which have done so.
Article from Museum Development Network blogsite: https://museumdevelopmentnetwork.wordpress.com/