A Battersea Arts Centre and Gaby Porter Partnership
Application Pack
CREATIVE MUSEUMS APPLICATION PACK
Thank you for your interest in Creative Museums. This pack contains the application form to take
part in the programme which consists of three parts:
1. A series of questions to discover more about your purpose and values; your sense of place
and your community; and the pressing challenges or priorities you might address through
this programme.
2. A formal commitment from you that you are able to participate in this programme over the
two year period.
3. A formal commitment from the Chair of your governing body so that you are able to fully
participate in the programme if selected.
We have attached supplementary information in the appendices.
If you would like to submit your answers to section 1 via video content rather than via the written
page, then please contact the team using the details below to discuss further and arrange.
If you are a museum numbering over approx. 9 full time staff, but would like to stay in touch with
Creative Museums and its work as part of the associated Scratch Groups (see appendix 2 FAQs
points 4 and 8 for further information) then please register your interest with Sara Snook using the
contact details below.
Battersea Arts Centre is committed to equality of opportunity. In order to ensure we are meeting our
aims, please complete the Equal Opportunities section attached and return this form with your
application. This information is used solely for monitoring purposes and will not inform the selection
process in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.
Deadline for applications: Fri Sep 4th
Interview dates: Tues Sep 15th and Wed Sep 16th
First residency dates: Tues Nov 3rd, Wed Nov 4th, Thurs Nov 5th at Battersea Arts Centre
Contact: If you have questions or queries regarding any part of this application process, please do
not hesitate to contact Sara Snook creativemuseums@bac.org.uk 020 7326 8264
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Section 1: About You
Name of your Organisation
Organisation Address
Your Name
Job Title
Telephone
Ext
Number of full time staff employed in your museum
(please write no more than 150 words per response below)
1. What is your organisation’s mission? How do you bring that mission alive – ‘live your purpose’ - in your
programmes and in your working relationships?
2. What excites you about the Creative Museums programme?
3. Tell us about an aspect of your organisation that you are most proud of. What are your ambitions to take
this aspect of your work forward and/or build on what you have learnt from this in other areas of your
work?
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4. Tell us about a pressing challenge and/or priority for you that you are seeking to address in your
organisation? What are your first thoughts on how this might be achieved?
5. How would you describe the community around you, and your place in this community? (Please include
any statistics/research evidence that may help illustrate your answer.)
6. Who are your regular users/visitors and how are you reaching them, engaging them and enabling them
to participate? How do you think they want or expect to be reached/engaged and to participate?
7. Creative Museums upholds and respects The 9 Protected Characteristics of discrimination
https://www.gov.uk/discrimination-your-rights/types-of-discrimination. How does your current work and/or
the work you would like to explore as part of the programme relate to positive action with regard to these
principles?
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8. Who are you working most closely with - professional relationships and/or partnerships with other
organisations and/or other museums? How do your audiences and your organisation benefit from these
relationships/partnerships?
9. Tell us about any artistic/cultural event or exhibition that has inspired you – what most intrigued and
excited you?
10. How might the Scratch process (see appendix 3, page 11 for more information on Scratch) help you to
become more resilient going forward?
11. Is your governing body wholeheartedly behind this programme?
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In addition, if you would like to, please send the Creative Museums team a small amount of
literature/publicity or an emailed piece of video (made on a phone for example) – max 5 mins
in support of your application to demonstrate to us your space, programmes or animating
collections. Please send to:
Sara Snook
Creative Museums
Battersea Arts Centre
Lavender Hill
London SW11 5TN
creativemuseums@bac.org.uk
Section 2: Your Commitment
Your statement of commitment
I have read the Creative Museums Programme in the Appendix, and confirm that, if selected, I will:
 Attend interview on 15 September 2015 or 16 September 2015 (please delete one if not
available.)
 Participate in the 2.5 day introduction at Battersea Arts Centre on 3rd, 4th and 5th November
2015.
 Commit myself and colleagues to fully participate in and benefit from the programme as
described in the Appendix.
Signed: _________________________________
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Date:_______________________
Section 3: Your Governing Body’s Commitment
I have read the outline for the Creative Museums programme, and support this application.
If you choose our organisation and this applicant for Creative Museums, I will ensure that:
 The applicant is able to participate fully in the introductory event, peer learning exchanges
and further learning events as outlined in the programme in the Appendix.
 Work plans are created for the applicant and colleagues enable them to work with the
producer and artist, and to participate fully in the creative learning programme and Scratch
experiments.
 We draw on the learning from this programme to inform our future plans and programmes.
 With other participants, the applicant and/or colleagues share learning more widely through
conference presentations and a national conference as outlined in the Appendix.
Signed: _________________________________
(Chair of governing body)
Contact Phone Number
Email Address
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Date:_______________________
Appendix 1: The Programme – What’s Involved
Two year programme - Apr 2015 to Mar 2017 (working draft as of 23/6/15)
Timeframe
Activity
Apr 2015
Programme mobilization
May – Sep 2015
Set-up and selection process
Sep - Feb 2016
Set objectives for improving museum’s resilience
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Visits to each museum to agree initial objectives: this includes CM contract pack
setting out expectations of each museum including time, research framework and
objectives.
Coaching time for museums with project coach.
Museums matched to Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) producers
2.5 day session at BAC including:
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Mar 2016
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Opportunity for all participants to reflect on experience to date and the challenges
that are ahead.
Finalizing arrangements and contracting of artists for Step 3 of the programme.
Develop ideas to meet these objectives and skills for creative risk-taking
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Agree any other museum staff to be involved in the next stage of the programme.
Scratch Groups formed to benefit additionally from the learning.
Visit days to cohort’s museums and sharing challenges.
Outline plan for Scratch experiments – creating the planning space for these from
Apr 2016.
Document process and share online
Reflection and preparation

Apr - June 2016
Introduce the programme and introduce Producers to Museum Directors to each
other.
Understanding BAC’s model and approach. Looking at examples of new models.
Connect Museum Directors with BAC Producers to re-look at objectives. Explore
curatorial, business and operating model. Look at plan for team engagement in
Creative Exchange programme.
Begin to explore ideas for artist matches and the kind of skillset and person type
that could be useful.
1 day’s session to introduce museum teams to artists.
Adjustments to matches as necessary.
Artist visits to museums.
3 x day field visits for creative learning exchange between museums teams and
artists, exploring new ideas models and new possibilities.
Artist residencies at each of the museums.
Museum visits to artist spaces.
First meeting of Scratch Group.
Producer day with artists and museums to revisit outline ideas for Scratch
experiments and re-shape these with input from Step 2.
Document process and share online.
Appendix 1: The Programme – What’s Involved
Timeframe
Activity
June - Oct 2016
Scratch ideas towards a resilient model in a supportive environment
 Ideas development sessions between artists and museums, residency time with each
other.
2 days session at BAC including:
 Pitch and share session ideas to each other, offering feedback and provocations with
the idea of supporting one and other to take measured risks
 Museum sharing day, without artists to share challenges and ideas
 Development of budget and practical plan for Scratch experiments.
 Second Scratch Group gathering.
 CM presentation at AIM and UMG conferences – an opportunity for museums to raise
profile of their experiments and also attract attention towards the UBAC conference in
spring 2017.
 CM presentation at Museum’s Association autumn conference.
 Document process and share online.
Nov – Jan 2016
Shape an organisational plan on the basis of their discoveries
 Completing Scratch experiments, Museums will work with their teams to assess impact
of discoveries on museum’s three-year plan from Apr 2017 to Mar 2020.
 Work with BAC to look at organisational change plan on basis of the discoveries.
 Document process and share online.
Jan – Mar 2017
Share learning with the rest of the sector
 Creative Museums national conference sharing research findings in partnership with
UBAC, AIM, UMG, Scratch Groups.
 Finalizing online publication with formal sharing of programme’s research findings.
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Appendix 2: FAQ’s
1.
What are we looking for?
We see this programme as a journey that we’ll take together – Battersea Arts Centre is itself embracing a larger role, becoming
custodian of the Wandsworth Borough Collection in April 2016. So the selection is two-way: we will be embarking on a
programme together.
What matters most to us is that people want to participate ‘heart and soul’; and will stay the course. Leaders are at the heart of
this commitment, at both organisational and board level.
We want you to embrace creativity: that also means taking risks. We want you to utilise these creative approaches to address
strategic priorities and goals – more than one-off projects.
You can find out more about Battersea Arts Centre and our new mission at:
https://batterseaartscentre.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/a-new-mission-for-battersea-arts-centre-and-our-next-steps
2.
What costs are covered in Creative Museums?
What costs do we need to meet?
If you’re selected, the following costs will be met:
 The travel and accommodation costs for one person to attend the intensive residential events
 Travel costs for one person to visit two or three other venues for peer to peer learning
 The costs for a Creative Museums selected producer to work with you
 The costs for a Creative Museums agreed artist to work with you
 A small Scratch seed budget for experimentation, to be agreed in partnership with your producer
 In some cases, backfill costs to enable you or a colleague to participate: you will need to negotiate these with the CM producer
allocated to you.
Your ‘costs’ are your commitment to the programme and process; and to see this through.
3.
I understand that Creative Museums is an 18 month programme, how
much flexibility is there in the timeline; could it be adapted to meet our
existing timelines?
In order for the Creative Museums programme to best meet your needs, the process will be bespoke and in dialogue with you.
However, it is a time limited programme and so we would work with you to build an 18 month vision, in tune with the work you are
doing, and work with you to see how we could best affect and charge the work you have planned.
There will be anchor events, such as the 2.5 day November residential (Tuesday 4 th, Wednesday 5th, Thursday 6th November).
This is in order to honour peer learning within the cohort and to ensure everyone gets an opportunity to work together. Future
dates beyond the November residency will be decided in conversation with the selected museums to ensure that the timing of the
events is appropriate for you.
4.
We’re not a small museum. Can we apply?
This programme targets small museums so that those who may not have had the opportunity to work creatively before are able to
do so. Many smaller museums are seeking to bring fresh thinking to their role, increase their resilience, and build stronger links
with their local communities. We believe this programme can really help to address these issues.
ACE has asked us to give priority to applicants from museums employing 9 full time equivalent posts or less. We want to ensure a
strong mix of people, museums and audiences reached, so we are willing to explore how a museum with a slightly larger
workforce might take part. If you have a question about this, please contact us.
5.
We already have received some funding from the museum resilience
fund, are we eligible to apply?
Museums that are recipients of other Museum resilience fund grants can apply. However Major Partner Museums, already in
receipt of ACE funding, and national museums funded directly by DCMS are not eligible as benefiting partners, though they may
be contributing partners as part of the ‘Scratch Group’ (see FAQ 6).
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6.
In your information pack for Creative Museums, you talk about working
with producers – what is their role, how will they be recruited, how will we
be involved?
At Battersea Arts Centre, we see Producers as creative professionals who are able to combine artistic ambition with strategic
vision. Their 360 degree skills bring together sound project management; excellent administrative ability; strong financial and
fundraising awareness; dramaturgical instinct and an innate appreciation of the audience or participant’s point of view. They
carefully hold the creative space between all participating parties, convening the process to ensure that the most efficient,
successful and positive outcomes are achieved, which often enhance and relate to a number of important underlying strategic
organisational objectives.
At our initial event, we will bring together participants, producers at Battersea Arts Centre and independent producers and
artists we have worked with. They may have worked in our artist-teacher exchange programmes; our ‘Agency’ social enterprise
programme; within our regional producer networks; our producing team at Battersea Arts Centre. They may have helped to
shape our thinking and designs for our building project; or as part of our on-going organisational change. We will do some
‘match-making’ according to the focus of your work.
At Battersea Arts Centre, we have an ongoing development programme to nurture producing skills in our own organisation.
Through the Collaborative Touring Network and in a more recent partnership with Contact in Manchester, the approach is being
extended to develop independent producers across the UK. We understand the value of working with someone who is
reasonably close to you geographically, and will seek to partner you with local producers where we can.
We expect that there may be someone in your organisation who already has the orientation and potential to become a
producer: this may be you. A producer from our team would work with them to nurture these skills and ways of working.
If this isn’t the case, a producer from our team might work with you to fulfil this role and explore with you who/ how this might be
met within your plans for the future.
7.
You also talk about working with artists. How would they be selected,
how would we be involved?
Many of you already have some experience of working with artists – good and bad. What’s important is the sense of the larger
purpose that will be guiding you in your project. You’ll work with a producer to help you think about whether an artist might help
you to work towards your larger idea or purpose. If so, how might you work together?
We will introduce you to artists who we’ve worked with and who have brought valuable things to us, and helped us to transform
ourselves and our venue. You may introduce us to artists who you’ve had a similar relationship with. The choice will be a
shared decision.
8.
What’s the Scratch Group?
There’s been a lot of interest in this programme, and a desire for others to be involved in some way and learn from the process
– as well as to share their learning and experience.
We are also keen to strengthen relationships with cultural organisations which are close to Creative Museum participants and
venues – because our experience is that these learning networks and partnerships across art forms increase resilience and
support innovation.
So we’re suggesting that, in addition to the ‘inner circle’ of six participants, each participating museum might have a local cluster
of organisations who might act as one of their Scratch groups; and together, these clusters might act as an ‘outer circle’ for the
whole programme. We’re at an early stage in our thinking with this, and look forward to discussing with the selected participants
about how this might work to benefit all.
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Appendix 3: More About Scratch
Scratch
Battersea Arts Centre encourages people to use a process called Scratch to help develop new ideas or new ways
of doing things. Put simply, Scratch is about sharing an idea at an early stage of its development, ideally with
people who your idea is intended for when it is finished. You ask questions to these people about your idea and
you consider their feedback. This helps you work out how to take your idea on to the next stage. It’s an iterative
process that you can use again and again and, over time, ideas become stronger because they are informed by a
wide-range of response.
The feedback bit is an important part of the process. But Scratch is not about doing everything that people’s
feedback suggests or taking every piece of feedback at face value. It is about using the responses to your idea to
help you think about how people currently receive and understand your idea. The feedback doesn’t always have to
take the shape of answers to specific questions. For example, you can simply share your idea ‘live’ and by doing
this you can often tell what works and what doesn’t work. Having a creative approach to gathering feedback, in
different forms, can be a useful part of the process.
Scratch recognizes that when an idea does not fully succeed, or even when it crashes and burns, that there is
great learning to be gathered. This learning can make a future version of the idea stronger. It is also a great
learning process for the individual or group who are prepared to take the risk and ‘scratch’ something new. The
process can lead people to adapt their idea, to keep their idea but change the way it is delivered, or to change their
idea completely. We have noted that Scratch can also lead to people changing, over time, by becoming more
flexible and better able to adapt to change.
Scratch is used at Battersea Arts Centre by artists to make new theatre, by young people to develop
entrepreneurial ideas and by designers and architects to develop our building. We have even used it as a process
to reshape the management structure of our organisation and we are now using Scratch to work with museums.
Find out more about the different ways we use Scratch below.
Scratch for Shows
Artists develop new ideas for shows. And we invite audiences to experience unfinished shows, to offer ideas and
give feedback. You could be the first to experience the next big idea or to discover an exciting new artist. (We call
all performers artists.) All Scratch shows are Pay What You Can.
We have produced a host of successful shows through Scratch. Recent productions include Orpheus, Brand New
Ancients and The Paper Cinema's Odyssey. Previous shows developed here through Scratch have gone on to the
National Theatre and the West End, for example The Animals and Children took to the Streets, Jerry Springer the
Opera and Jackson’s Way.
View Scratch show listings
https://www.bac.org.uk/content/34775/see_whats_on/whats_on/new_show_templates/shows/scratch_shows
Scratch for Teachers and Young Entrepreneurs
We run a project called Artist Teacher Exchange, which pairs artists and teachers who can learn from each other’s
ideas and skills. The exchange allows artists and teachers to co-design and deliver work side-by-side. After a
period of Scratch which is divided into 3 phases: ‘Learning’, ‘Making’ and ‘Sharing’, the project culminates in a
school project which supports the national curriculum.
Battersea Arts Centre, Contact Theatre and People’s Place Project have piloted the use of Scratch methodology
with young people in disadvantaged areas of London and Manchester. The project called The Agency is based on
a successful project in Rio de Janeiro that engages cultural organisations in offering young people living in
disadvantaged neighbourhoods the possibility to realise their ideas and create projects that impact on the lives of
their own community.
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Scratch for Our Building
Our aim is to create a building that is truly responsive to the people it is designed for: visitors, audiences, artists
and staff. In 2007 we developed the concept of Playgrounding, with our architects, Haworth Tompkins (winners of
the RIBA Stirling Prize: Everyman Theatre, Liverpool 2014). Our Playground Projects are Scratch for our building,
treating our building like a playground for our collective imagination, bringing together architects with artists and
combining building work with our creative programme.
Through our Playground Projects we try things out on a small scale through temporary structures and solutions that
we can test for a while and learn about what works and what could be improved. This learning is then applied to
the more developed designs for the building.
Scratch for Our Organisation
We have used Scratch to reshape the way we work together. We previously had a departmental model of working
with seven traditionally structured departments, including Finance, Producing, Fundraising, Marketing etc. We felt
that the structure didn’t always enable us to move swiftly or creatively in response to an idea or business
opportunity. So working with our Executive Director at the time, Sarah Preece, we began to imagine how a project
working model could provide us with a more fluid approach.
Over the period of a year we scratched or tested elements of project-working across the organisation, recognizing
that not everything would work straight away. There were some real challenges during the change but the Scratch
approach helped us learn from mistakes and when things went wrong we adapted the model. Every activity in the
organisation is now part of one of around twenty projects, each made up of different members of teams from
across the organisation. The project working model is a much better fit for our organisations and it has helped us
respond much more quickly to a changing environment.
Scratch Online
We have paired artists with programmers to Scratch digital art online in a collaboration with The Space. We asked
artists we work with to submit proposals that would capture the essence of live performance on the internet and
would involve audience participation and interaction. We then ran a series of Scratch labs for artists to learn about
code and experiment with their ideas. One idea has been taken through to completion and will be live August 2015.
We want to use Scratch more in digital art. Over the next few months we will be Scratching ideas on a very small
scale with a view to creating more digital art next year.
Scratch is at the heart of our mission to inspire people to take creative risks to shape the future. It enables
a creative dialogue which helps develop new ideas. If you haven’t already, watch our video about Scratch
here http://youtu.be/yUFYgCQEiw8
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Appendix 4: Letters to prospective participants
Creative Museums letter from David Jubb
You may be reading this letter wondering if the Creative Museums programme is for you. I can’t answer that question for you – but I might be
able to offer some thoughts which help you answer the question for yourself.
About ten years ago, we deployed Scratch at Battersea Arts Centre as the central methodology we use to achieve our aims. Since then we
have grown the organisation: we have increased our turnover by around 85%; we have doubled the number of staff who work for the
organisation; we have doubled our audience; and we now work in partnership with individuals and organisations all over the UK and further
afield. We recently reimagined our core purpose to reflect the Scratch process: “to inspire people to take creative risks to shape the future”.
I am not suggesting that the growth and success of the organisation is simply down to using Scratch. There have been multiple factors which
have enabled the organisation to survive and thrive over the last ten years. But Scratch has been an essential ingredient. As a process it invites
people to become part of a process of change. As such, it has enabled us to develop, learn from our mistakes and grow stronger. It has helped
the organisation nurture talent and unlock potential in our staff team, in our partners and in the communities we work with.
Specifically, the process has helped us to place our learning and participatory programmes at the heart of what we do. This has improved our
relationship with the local community, it has strengthened our role in Battersea and Wandsworth while maintaining and developing our wider
profile and relationships. Over time, we have increased the breadth and depth of engagement with local residents and organisations through
different activities. The change has been, for the most part, low-cost and affordable and has enabled us to become more flexible and adaptable.
I think Scratch is great for organisations that are looking to change and want to find a shared approach or methodology to enable that change to
take root across the organisation. Looking back over the last ten years at Battersea Arts Centre, I can’t think of a more important part of the
change process than Scratch. In many ways it is simply a mind-set: let’s try it, let’s test it, let’s learn from it.
David Jubb
Artistic Director & CEO
Battersea Arts Centre
Creative Museums letter from Michael Day
I am writing this note of additional support as both the Chair of Battersea Arts Centre’s Board plus (in my day job) as CEO of Historic Royal
Palaces and a museum professional for over 40 years.
Museums have never faced greater challenges than today – to define new purpose and roles in an ever faster changing world, to compete for
people’s attention and loyalty, and with public funding for culture dwindling. Museums have to find new ways to play the long game – caring for
collections and sites – while building new audiences to sustain their futures. My guess is that future success for us all will depend on finding
new ways of making museums and connecting with people.
I was honoured three years ago to be invited to take on the chair of Battersea Arts Centre’s Board. Since then, I have witnessed at first hand
the way that Scratch works as a process and how it enables genuinely participative and fascinating ways to create new work. At Battersea, we
have made the bold step of uniting with Wandsworth Museum and together we will be using Scratch to integrate the Museum’s activities into our
organisation, incorporating history and collections into our public work. Meanwhile at Historic Royal Palaces, we are experimenting with the
same philosophy to develop future programming and interpretation.
Creative Museums is a wonderful opportunity for some museums to shape a new future. Arts Council England deserves great credit for
funding this initiative and I am sure that those organisations taking part will benefit enormously. I wholeheartedly commend the programme to
you.
Michael Day CVO
Chair
Battersea Arts Centre
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Equality Monitoring
Battersea Arts Centre is committed to equality of opportunity. In order to ensure we are meeting our
aims, please answer the questions below and return this form with your application. This
information is used solely for monitoring purposes and will not inform the selection process in
accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.
Gender
Please tick
Date of Birth
Male
Female
(dd/mm/yy):
Ethnic Origin
Please tick a box from the list below which best describes the ethnic group to which you belong:
White
Chinese
Asian or British Asian
Mixed or Dual Heritage
Black or British Black
Any other Ethnic Group
I do not wish to identify my ethnic group at this stage
Disability
Do you consider yourself to have a disability?
Yes
No
As defined by the Disability Discrimination Act, 1995, a disability is: “A physical or mental
impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out
normal day-to-day activities”.
If invited to interview, do you have any special requirements? If yes, please give details:
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