Client Brief: what next
for the Museum Room at Ham?
Issuer:
Author:
Version:
Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell
2
Date:
June 2015
Table of Contents
1
What is the Opportunity or Issue? ................................................................... 2
1.1
2
3
Current Situation ................................................................................................ 2
What does the project seek to achieve? .......................................................... 2
2.1
Purpose ............................................................................................................ 2
2.2
Expected benefits ............................................................................................... 3
Further Context ............................................................................................ 4
3.1
Risks ................................................................................................................ 4
3.2
Dependencies or Constraints ............................................................................... 4
3.3
Funding sources ................................................................................................. 4
3.4
Resource requirements to produce a Business Case .............................................. 4
3.5
Timescales ........................................................................................................ 4
3.6
Roles & Responsibilities ...................................................................................... 5
Client Brief (template issued June 2013, due for review June 2014)
Page 1 of 5
1 What is the Opportunity or Issue?
1.1
Current Situation
The Museum room at Ham House was once Ham’s principal bedroom (pre 1679) and
was chamber of Thomas Vavasour and later, William Murray (Whipping Boy to Charles I).
His daughter, Elizabeth stayed there while she oversaw the remodelling and renovation
of Ham before moving to her new, grander chamber on the ground floor. Thereafter,
the Museum Room was known as ‘The Roome over ye Chappell’ and used as a guest
room.
The room is almost a relic itself - having changed very little in appearance since its
arrangement in 1971 by Peter Thornton (for the V&A). Some items have been on
continuous display for over 25 years and the overall effect is quite dismal. Yet behind
the green hessian and pine frames of the display lies a handsome room with a river view
from its bay window river chamber with a projecting bay, and a door into an intimate
closet with a hearth (represented as a ‘Discovery Room’ in 2005). For the visitors,
Ham’s Great Stair with its fine copies, baronial carving and intricate plasterwork, is
designed to draw people up to a crescendo of fine rooms. In this context, the Museum
and Discovery Rooms are rather a damp squib.
Condition surveys recommend urgent conservation and removal of tapestries currently
on display. This removal offers an unmissable opportunity to rethink its display by
revisiting and marshalling our source material.
What does the project seek to achieve?
1.2
Purpose:
As these rooms at a key point on Ham’s visitor route are decommissioned, this project
can elucidate what role the Museum Room and Discovery Room could play in the
choreography of the visitor route at Ham.
Could these rooms enrich the current story progression, or are they more of a turning
point in the visitor route, singing of Ham’s earlier courtly history? Can Story
Interventions help the property to decide what role these rooms could play in
interpreting the story of Ham and consider whether the Museum and Discovery Rooms
can stand alone and provide sufficient interest if other parts of the house are closed at
any one time?
We hope that by combining the thinking and multi-discipline experience of the two teams, we
will be able to embark on this new phase of the rooms’ history in an open and engaging way,
and that the collaboration will spark some creative suggestions around the many possibilities
Client Brief (template issued June 2013, due for review June 2014)
Page 2 of 5
that the rooms present. These suggestions may then form the basis for the continuation of plans
for the renewal of the rooms
1.3
Expected benefits
Knowledge and Debate
The opportunity to access up-to-date research knowledge from Oxford will be
invaluable in informing the decision about the future presentation of the Museum and
Discovery Rooms. It is anticipated that the Oxford team will bring expertise which will
complement that of Trust specialists, so enhancing the overall quality of decisionmaking for the property staff.
Open, well informed debate with the Story Intervention team offers a remarkable
opportunity to discuss display and interpretation.
Well marshalled, engaging and coherent content about the detail, décor and significance
of the Museum Room and Discovery Room will enable the Trust to devise high-quality,
informed interpretation and presentation thus increasing visitors’ enjoyment and
understanding of Ham. It will also ensure that their presentation is in keeping with Ham
House’s Spirit of Place (appended).
Profile and links
It will also increase the knowledge and understanding of Trust staff. It will further
enhance our archives, and provide an opportunity for further links between Oxford
University and Ham House
Emotional Impact
Insight from our Visitor Experience data tells us that Emotional Impact at Ham is low
despite high scores for ‘great story’. Properties with lower emotional impact scores
also report fewer repeat visitors – a real challenge to the sustainability of any property. It
is hoped that the outcome of the partnership between Oxford academics and the Trust
team will result in improved interpretation which in turn, will lead to an increased
Emotional Impact score
Conservation
Visitor numbers have almost tripled since the installation of the Museum Room, and, in
recent years, Ham has also increased its open days to 363 days a year. These changes
present significant conservation challenges and a visitor offer/route that might allow
more vulnerable rooms to be taken out of service for part of the year, or can help us
increase footfall in our shoulder months would be a boon.
Client Brief
Page 3 of 5
533562224, issued February 2012, due for review February 2013.
Stakeholder Engagement
Some archival material relating to the Museum and Discovery Rooms is help by our
donor family in the Buckminster Archives. Donor Family Relations have been
increasingly cordial in the last three years and this project a unique opportunity to
deepen them and discover new links.
2
Further Context
2.1
Risks
That our client brief is not precise enough in its scope, and that we lose the opportunity
to maximise the Oxford University input.
Equally, we don’t want to be too prescriptive and prevent wider thinking to stimulate
new approaches to our interpretation, so there will be a fine balance to sustain.
Several key and influential stakeholders were involved in the creation of the Museum
room – they will need to be informed and appropriately engaged to ensure the success
of any intervention, fleeting or more permanent.
2.2
Dependencies or Constraints
Small project funding is available for a small scale interpretation project in the current
financial year, and we will be well placed to prepare for more in-depth work in following
years.
2.3
Funding sources
No funding required, other than expenses for the Oxford University team, which will be
borne by the property
2.4
Resource requirements to produce a Business Case
There will be no business case outcome at this time.
2.5
Timescales
Initial output by summer 2015
Implementation phase from November 2015
Client Brief
Page 4 of 5
533562224, issued February 2012, due for review February 2013.
2.6
Roles & Responsibilities
Role
General
Manager
Name
Job Title
Naomi Campbell
Sponsor
Lead Curator
TBC
House Manager
Victoria Bradley or
Development Opportunity
Client
Project manager
Client Brief
Page 5 of 5
533562224, issued February 2012, due for review February 2013.