DERBY MUSEUMS
Recruitment Information Pack
August 2013
Thank you for your interest in working at
Derby Museums
Can YOU Make a Difference?
Are you ambitious, flexible, and full of ideas for yourself and your workplace?
Can you bring experience to Derby Museums that will support and enhance our exciting
programme of change?
Do you make a positive difference at work?
If the answer is yes to all these questions, you may be exactly what we are looking for!
We are a new charitable trust managing Derby's three museums with their extensive and world
renowned collections. Our change programme focuses first and foremost on transforming our
customers' experience of these significant collections. However, it is also re-energising our
organisational structures and systems to enhance our effectiveness while making the most of
commercial opportunities.
We are now creating new posts as well as appointing to vacant posts and are looking for
exceptional people with vision and drive who can help us develop and deliver this ambitious
agenda.
Does this sound exciting? If so, we look forward to hearing from you – let us know
how YOU can make a difference at Derby Museums!
This pack gives you more information about Derby Museums and the changes we are planning for
the future. However, if you have further questions about the post you are looking at, please
contact the person named on the job advert for an informal chat about the role.
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Derby Museums
The creation of a new organisation – built on established foundations
Derby has a living heritage of world class creativity. It is home to the most important collection by
artist Joseph Wright of Derby, uniquely illuminating the Age of Enlightenment and Industrial
Revolution. It is home to the Silk Mill, site of the world’s first factory and part of the Derwent
Valley Mills UNESCO World Heritage Site. Through the Midland Railway, Rolls-Royce and other
leading organisations, Derby has become a global powerhouse of advanced engineering. Derby is
a city of ideas, a city of making.
This is just part of Derby’s immense heritage significance. The city’s museums and collections are
now being re-aligned to spearhead a programme to inspire people through this living story of
creativity.
Context for the creation of the new Trust
The origins of Derby’s public museums go back to 1836, and the city’s Museums have been run by
the Borough or City Council since 1871. However, the local authority run model is no longer the
best way to realise the potential of these important buildings and collections. Therefore, following
a major strategic review in October 2010, the city’s Museums have undertaken a fundamental
change and development programme.
As part of this programme, Derby City Council has supported the establishment of an independent
charitable trust to manage and operate the museums. This Council support has also helped to
secure Arts Council backing which is essential to the successful establishment of Derby Museums
Trust. Launched on 1 October 2012, Derby Museums has been working in close partnership with
the Council, the Arts Council, and other major organisations to realise the value of the buildings
and collections and the significance of the Derby story.
Operation of the new Trust
The heritage assets managed by the new organisation are housed within the Museum and Art
Gallery, the Silk Mill, Pickford’s House Museum and numerous stores.
The programme associated with the new trust is about the power of the English provinces and is
intended to be of national significance, delivered from the city of Derby. This is a hugely exciting
initiative – it is recognised, however, that it is also a challenge.
Derby Museums operates with a revenue budget of around £1.5 million a year and employs
approximately 40 full time equivalent staff. In recent years, visitor numbers for the three
museums have reached a combined attendance of around 150,000 visitors per annum. However,
the vision, ambition and potential of Derby Museums is to achieve something of far greater impact
and significance.
The Transforming Derby Museums Programme
This Programme provides the all embracing strategic drive for the development of Derby
Museums. It contains a fundamental response to the changing funding climate; it aligns the city’s
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museums and heritage to the city’s strategic ambitions; it sets out an ambitious museum and
heritage development framework. The programme envisages the way in which the city’s heritage
can be unlocked to reveal, extend and promote a living legacy of world class creativity.
The programme identifies a chapter in Derby’s history as the moment where a world changing
creative legacy was born. This moment saw the alignment of the Industrial Revolution with the
European Enlightenment – the effects of which resonated within and beyond Derby and
Derbyshire’s Derwent Valley and helped shape the modern world.
The aspiration is to position this heritage as the foundation for developing the identity of the city.
The city’s creative legacy has the potential to attract and engage business, create a visitor
destination of distinction, connect communities and raise aspiration both within and beyond the
City.
Purpose, Vision and Values
The purpose, vision and values for Derby Museums are set out below.
The purpose of Derby Museums is to inspire people to become part of a living story of world class
creativity, innovation and making.
This is Derby’s own story: from a place of Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution, the city has
developed across three centuries – a modern and multi-cultural place, always at the forefront of
Britain’s identity as a nation of ideas, a nation of makers.
The vision for Derby Museums is to shape the way in which Derby is understood, the way that the
city projects itself, the way in which people from all places are inspired to see themselves as the
next generation of innovators, makers and creators.
As keeper of the Designated Joseph Wright art collection, and custodian of the Silk Mill - site of the
world’s first factory and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site - the agenda for Derby is local,
national and international. This requires an outlook and partnership approach to match. This is a
vision for a cultural organisation to unite artistic, scientific and industrial achievement.
Values
Integrity
We are honest with each other, our audiences and our assets.
Ownership
We take responsibility for, and answer to, our actions. We
understand that nobody is perfect and we won’t hide it when we’re
not.
Discovery
We share our knowledge and are enthusiastic learners, while also
encouraging and nurturing others to learn and explore their ideas.
Inspiration
We work with creativity and passion, and see our heritage and
stories as the inspiration for everything we do.
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Innovation
We are brave about trying new things and see experimentation with
ideas and technology as essential to developing our service.
Working Together
We proactively work with each other, our audiences, communities
and partners – seeing all as stakeholders in our service.
Main Aims
The Transforming Derby Museums Programme has five main aims. These are set out below - with
minor amendments from the original 2010 version, together with short commentary:
1. Instigate a plan for the overall re-development of the Silk Mill as the city’s major visitor
attraction
In order to achieve this, the Silk Mill Industrial Museum was mothballed in March 2011.
The Silk Mill has the remarkable claim to be the site of the world’s first factory, and is an
integral part of the UNESCO Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. A major focus of the
new Silk Mill concept is to use this inspirational facility to re-connect people into Britain’s
tradition for imagining and making real and useful things. The modern city economy – a
powerhouse of global advanced engineering – exemplifies these values and traditions. The Silk
Mill development returns to the origins of this local and global story to inspire people once
again. Work is currently underway to establish the various phases of the re-development
project that will result in the full re-opening of the Silk Mill.
2. Carry out an affordable rolling redevelopment programme for the City Museum and Art
Gallery
This is a landmark facility in the heart of the historic city centre, and a major realisation of
Derby’s nineteenth century civic pride. But the original projection of the building has become
hidden through a long term lack of single purpose and investment.
Whilst the current organisation focus for major development is on the Silk Mill, the Museum
and Art Gallery is experiencing a more modest, but still significant development. This has
included a £1.3 million programme of roof restoration, lift installation, toilet refurbishment and
gallery construction over the past eighteen months.
This building retains enormous cultural and regeneration potential and needs to be the subject
of further strategic dialogue between Derby City Council and the Trust.
3. Ensure community engagement is embedded in all aspects of Derby Museums’ work
Derby Museums has built a strong, productive relationship with schools and community groups,
especially over recent years. However, the challenge remains of how to embed community
involvement at the heart of this ambitious Transforming Museums programme.
This is a major cross-cutting theme for the new organisation, and will be the basis of a
significant focused review, which is planned to be developed and implemented over the coming
year.
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4. Continue to operate Pickford’s House Museum, whilst investigating building a partnership to
support the establishment of an international Joseph Wright Institute, located within this
museum
The Joseph Wright collection is a world class asset. This body of work has huge resonance for
Derby, Derbyshire, Britain and beyond. Showcasing insights across the great diversity of an
eighteenth century Enlightened mindset, the collection resonates today as Wright’s
international standing continues to grow.
At one level, the collection captures the moment when the Enlightenment pursuit of
knowledge spilled over to help create the world’s first industrial nation. In this way the work
resonates with themes of art, science and industry, and continues to provide a powerful
template for a twenty first century society.
This collection has been officially Designated as being of national and international significance.
Derby Museums now works with the guidance of its own steering group to realise the potential
of this collection. The steering group comprises Tate, the British Museum, the Paul Mellon
Centre for British Art (part of Yale University), and the Universities of Nottingham and Derby.
The driving agenda for Joseph Wright within Derby Museums is now being set with the
guidance of this partnership. The intention is to oversee a programme that will culminate in a
major retrospective exhibition of Wright.
This plan will take up to five years to realise, with the exhibition intended to be staged in major
international venues.
The full realisation of this vision would also see Derby itself providing the venue worthy of the
artist and of this exhibition.
Pickford’s House remains operating as the Trust’s third museum although it is not yet clear if
the building will play a significant role in the Joseph Wright agenda.
5. Establish Derby Museums as a new, independent cultural organisation, based on ambition,
entrepreneurialism, resilience and strategic relevance with local, national and international
partners
The budgets and staffing of Derby Museums were substantially re-structured in 2011 in
preparation for the new organisation. The Trust was launched on 1 October 2012, with the
existing staff employed by Derby City Council museums service transferred to the new Trust.
Early work for the Trust was to finalise a viable business plan as well as establish a brand for the
new organisation plus recruit trustees.
The involvement of trustees in all areas of the development of this new and exciting
organisation is a key factor in the positioning of Derby Museums as a significant player in the
development of the city and the wider cultural sector.
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