## **Chairman’s Report 2021/22**
## AGM 10 June 2022
This is the second year in which the Essex Museum Development Officer post has been hosted by Colchester Borough Council, through Colchester and Ipswich Museums, with support from Museums Essex and SHARE Museums East. The postholder continues to be Beth Wilkey who has again made a major contribution to supporting the county’s museums this year. This hosting arrangement was due to finish at the end of the financial year 2022/2023 but, following an extension of Arts Council England funding to SHARE, will now remain in place until 31 March 2024.
The COVID-19 pandemic continued to affect the county’s museums for much of the period covered by this report. Although museums were able to reopen on 12 April 2021, various restrictions remained in place for many months and the surge in Omicron BA2 variant cases in February-March 2022 undoubtedly impacted visitor figures. As a result many museums in the county will have continued to face significant financial difficulties and several were successful in receiving SHARE/Art Fund recovery grants.
Beth Wilkey has continued to establish links with museums and heritage sites in Essex, visiting twenty-eight museums during the year to meet staff, see the venue and provide support as needed. Her work has included promoting diversity in museums and a number of Essex museums have participated in AIM’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion programme and SHARE training. Decolonisation has also been a theme in 2021/22 and Beth has provided support to Epping Forest District Museum, who are embarking on a decolonisation project through an ACE Project Grant, and organised a decolonisation and inclusive narratives training session for Essex museums with Inbal Livne from the Powell-Cotton Museum. Other areas of activity include volunteer and workforce development and support, with several Essex museums benefitting from an external consultant, accessibility, a training session in September 2021 on disability access led by Jo Gillam was attended by ten Essex museums, and organisational health checks, with ten Essex museums using the toolkit. Lastly, Beth has continued to support museums who are converting from being an unincorporated organisations to Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs) and it is good to record that five museums have made this transition during the year.
The Heritage Engagement and Learning Group met in October 2021 and January 2022.The October meeting looked at marketing and communications, and some formal training from Christina Lister was delivered. The January meeting was focused around supporting school groups to have successful museum visits, behaviour management and understanding children with additional needs.
The Essex Museum Development newsletter is supported by regular emails and social media activity to ensure that the county’s museums receive up to date information on the latest developments in the museum sector. The Museums Essex website at museums-essex.org contains sections on membership, individual members, the Grants Scheme, case studies and contacts. Further contributions from members are always welcome.
The eighth round of the Small Grants Scheme was concluded during the year with a grant to Jaywick Martello Tower and awards under a ninth round for collections care and management
related work were made to Maldon Museum in the Park, Mersea Island Museum, Braintree Museum, Thaxted Windmill and the Fry Art Gallery. The grant programme has continued to be managed by a Sub-Committee chaired by Philip Wise supported by Tony O’Connor (Epping Forest District Museum) and Caroline Pantling (Scouts Association) whose institutions are not eligible for grants whilst on the Sub-Committee. Museums Essex continues to believe these grants are an important benefit for its members and it is intended that a further round will be launched in the coming financial year.
Museums Essex will make representations on behalf of its members as the need arises. This year we wrote to Thurrock Council expressing concern about the future of Thurrock Museum and offered advice. An online meeting with a senior officer at the Council took place and we continue to observe the situation.
In 2021/22 we welcomed four new members: St Osyth Museum, Harwich Museum, Boxted Airfield Museum and Wivenhoe Museum, with the latter two re-joining after several years’ absence. This takes the current membership to forty-eight. We will continue to recruit new members as the opportunity arise and via regular campaigns.
During the year Museums Essex has for the first time become a member of the Association for Independent Museums and we look forward to the benefits of membership including reduced price attendance at the AIM annual conference.
I am very grateful to Beth Wilkey for providing administrative support to Museums Essex, including preparing the agendas, producing the minutes and technical support during our online meetings. This assistance is much appreciated and has ensured that things have run smoothly during the year.
I would also like to thank my fellow Trustees for their contribution to the work of the charity: Gordon Cummings, Tony O’Connor, Caroline Pantling, Nick Wickenden, Carolyn Wingfield, Polly Redman and Dr Sarah Demelo. I would particularly like to thank Tony O’Connor who is stepping down at this AGM for his many years of service as a trustee of Museums Essex and his contribution to museums in the region more generally, including as a past chair of Museums East of England. In addition I am grateful to Terry Joyce for his support in relation to our website. We are also very dependent upon the support of Jamie Everitt (SHARE Museums East) and Dr Frank Hargrave (Colchester and Ipswich Museums) to whom I am very grateful. Martin Gruselle has kindly undertaken the examination of the Accounts over several years.
Looking ahead to 2022, Museums Essex aims to continue to support and develop membership benefits through an affordable fee based on income; participate fully in the delivery mechanism for museum development in Essex including the funding of the Museum Development Officer post; continue to support the Heritage Engagement and Learning Group, provide advocacy for the heritage sector of Essex in partnership with SHARE Museums East; provide a Small Grants Scheme; enable free membership of the Harwell Disaster Recovery Service for small and mediumsized museums; create opportunities for networking and provide inspirational case studies of museum development at our meetings, whether virtual or at member museums.
Philip J Wise MA (Cantab) FSA MCIfA AMA Chair: Museums Essex
Museums Essex is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, registration number: 1152493 and a member of the Association for Independent Museums, membership number 4738
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Charity Name
MUSEUMS ESSEX
Receipts and payments accounts CC16a
For the period Period start date Period end date
from 06-Aprl-21 05-Apl-2022
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted Restricted
Total funds Last year
funds funds
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
Subscriptions £3,800 £3,800 £125
Interest £147 £147 £1,509
SHARE Training Grant £2,000 £2,000
Donations £500 £500
Sub total (Gross income for
£4,447 £2,000 £6,447 £1,634
AR)
A2 Asset and investment
sales, (see table).
Sub total
Total receipts £4,447 £2,000 £6,447 £1,634
A3 Payments
Training grant costs (£2,000) (£2,000) (£400)
Harwell (£834) (£834) (£810)
Training Scheme costs (£500) (£500)
Website costs (£272) (£272) (£12)
Smal Grants Round 8 (£1,500) (£1,500) (£400)
Small Grants Round 9 (£2,253) (£2,253)
Colchester Dstict Council - Salary
(£9,200)
contribution (£9,200)
Sub total (£10,806) (£5,753) (£16,559) (£1,622)
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
Sub total
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|**_Total payments_**||**(£10,806)**|||**(£5,753)**|||**(£16,559)**||**(£1,622)**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||||||||
|**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**||**(£6,359)**|||**(£3,753)**|||**(£10,112)**||**£12**|
|**A5 Transfers between funds**||**(£539)**|||**£539**||||||
|**A6 Cash funds last year end**||**£66,361**|||**£3,214**|||**£69,575**||**£69,563**|
|**_Cash funds this year end_**||**£59,463**||**£**|**-**
|||**£59,463**||**£69,575**|
||||||||||||
|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities**|||**at the**||**end of the period**||||||
|||||**Unrestricted funds**|**Unrestricted funds**||**Restricted**|**Restricted**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Categories**|**Details**|||||||**funds**|
||||||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**||
|**funds**|Co-operative Bank Current Account||||**£2,022**||||
||Virgin Money||||**£17,441**||||
||Hampshire Trust Bank||||**£40,000**||||
|||**_Total cash funds_**|||**£59,463**||||
**B1 Cash funds**
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(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
Restricted funds Endowment
funds
Details to nearest £ to nearest £
Current value
Cost (optional)
Details (optional)
Current value
Cost (optional)
Details (optional)
**----- End of picture text -----**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use**
## **B5 Liabilities**
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Amount due (optional) When due
Details (optional)
Date of
Signature
approval
G CUMMINGS 29/05/2022
**----- End of picture text -----**