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THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER ANNUAL REPORT 2007-8 THE MANCHESTER MUSEUM INTRODUCTION 2007-8 saw the Museum undertake its most ambitious exhibition yet ‘Lindow Man: A Bog Body Mystery’, which focused on issues concerned with how we know the past, and with the ethics of display and human remains. At the same time, we focused efforts on improving the quality of our offer to visitors, particularly concentrating on schools. International interactions received particular attention and there was an increase in both the number of courses drawing on the Museum and on the number of students using us. There was a decline in the number of research activities using the Museum compared with the previous year, due to staff leave and re-focusing of priorities, and a decline in visitor numbers due to concentration on quality, and competition from other museums. Interaction with the Beacon for Public for public engagement was more limited than expected because of delays in recruitment (University of Manchester project manager took up post in August 2008). Overall, relationships with Estates and HR have improved, and the finances of the Museum are more transparent following a bottom-up budgeting process. PERFORMANCE AGAINST THE MANCHESTER MUSEUM STRATEGIC PLAN As with the previous year, the Museum developed a detailed Operational Plan for 2007-8, which was cross-referenced to the 2015 agenda and to the agendas of other funders such as AHRC and the Renaissance in the Regions scheme. The Plan was based around six strategic objectives, and progress against these objectives is summarised here. 1. Establish and maintain the Museum’s high regional, national and international standing as a university museum The collections of the Manchester Museum are of world class importance, containing thousands of type specimens (the specimens that are the basis for our understanding of biodiversity, both contemporary and fossil) and specimens of particular biogeographical and environmental history importance. They are consulted constantly by researchers from around the world, and staff are linked to global networks of colleagues in universities, museums and related organisations. In line with the recommendations in last year’s OPR report, the international dimension of the Museum’s work is particularly highlighted here. It is important to bear in mind that only one full-time member of Museum staff, and the four Museum Academic Joint Appointments (part-time in Museum and part-time in different schools) are on Academic grades. All other staff, including curators, are Academic-Related or Other.

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International research partnerships In numerical terms, staff were involved in research partnerships with 30 overseas institutions. They mostly take the form of individual research initiatives. The principal ones are: Piotr Bienkowski remains Principal Director, Wadi Arabah Project (Israel and Jordan), and is writing the final report on excavations at Umm al-Biyara, Jordan in partnership with academics from Université de Montpellier III, France; Peabody Museum, Yale University; White-Levy Program, Harvard University. Phil Manning’s research on dinosaur locomotion, amongst other subjects, includes international collaboration with projects in Europe and North America. Research partners include Yale (New Haven, USA), Stanford University (Stanford Linear Accelerator, USA), The Black Hills Institute (Hill City, USA), University of Oregon (Eugene, USA), Denver Museum of Natural History (Denver, USA), Amherst College (Amherst, USA), University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, USA), Marmarth Research Foundation (Marmarth, USA), The Mammoth Site (Hot Springs, USA), American Museum of Natural History (New York, USA), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain), The Natural History Museum (London), University of Cambridge (Earth Sciences), University of Liverpool (Earth and Ocean Sciences), Manchester Metropolitan University (Environmental and Geographical Sciences) and the Dinosaur Isle Museum (Isle of Wight). Over the past year, the museum has sought to develop its interest in promoting a main theme focused on ‘working towards a sustainable planet'. With regards to this, there has been major recognition in the world media of the museum's contribution to amphibian conservation through the work of Andrew Gray and colleagues, something that ties in globally with 'The Year of the Frog' worldwide campaign. In addition, several overseas partnerships have been initiated with conservation organisations in Latin and North America, including the Monteverde Conservation League, the Monteverde Tropical Science Centre and the Costa Rican Amphibian Research Centre. Work with international researchers in this area includes high profile academics, such as Dr Alan Pounds of Penn State University, a professional climatologist with a worldwide reputation, Federico Bolanos, University of Costa Rica, and Ron Gagliardo, Atlanta Botanical Gardens, together with up to 20 other international researchers. Related work nationally has seen close collaboration with the Zoological Society of Chester and Bristol Zoo, who are both currently jointly managing international amphibian conservation projects with the museum. The Museum also has an ongoing project with the Faculty of Life Sciences, Aalborg Zoo and Universities of Glasgow and Aarhus to study and preserve biodiversity in association with the indigenous community of San Jose de Payamino, Ecuador. At the invitation of the Greek Archaeological Service (National Archaeological Museum), John Prag continues to collaborate with them and with Bristol University, the RN-DS Partnership, and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, on the study and reconstruction of recently-rediscovered human remains from Mycenae. Dmitri Logunov, Curator of Entomology, continues with his ongoing project on the jumping spiders of Central Asia with Turku University (Finland).

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David Green continues with his work on the development of multifocus photography as a technique for producing high magnification high resolution images (with Volker Betz, Germany) Other international collaborations For the first time, the Museum and the Whitworth participated in the International Curatorial Training Programme which is co-ordinated by the British Museum. Two South African and two Egyptian curators spent a week at each institution and we hope that these contacts will lead to more formal partnerships in the future. Two museum staff worked with Cressida Fforde and Gary Papin from the eMob project in Australia. This project is aimed at making Australian Aboriginal communities aware of museum collections in the UK with objects of Aboriginal origin. Photographs and information will be taken back to the communities, who will then know which museums have objects relating to their tribe/mob.

Our volunteer programme – both ‘In Touch’ and student volunteering - has been recognised by a number of European museums and heritage sites. We have been invited to participate in a European Grundtvig Multilateral Project ‘Volunteers for Cultural Heritage’. The project runs from 2007-2009 and will develop and deliver a series of training programmes for individuals in charge of running innovative and established volunteer programmes.

International use of the museum and collections The Museum receives a large number of visits and enquiries from international scholars attracted by the significance of the collections and from museum professionals interested in our practice. The following examples give an idea of the range of activity:

• Dr Patricia Wallace, University of Canterbury, New Zealand visited to research some of the Maori textiles. She also gave a lecture called ‘Imaginary truth or truthful imagery: the artistic integrity of early images of Maori dress’.

• Professor Martha G. Anderson, School of Art and Design, Alfred University, New York, USA came to study the collection of J. A. Green

photographs of colonial Nigeria.

• Dr Rebe Taylor, School of Historical Studies, The Australian Centre, University of Melbourne, Australia, researched the Tasmanian Aboriginal photographs and notes of the anthropologist Ling Roth.

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• Dr Jill Brazier, the Italian Representative for the Society of Archer-Antiquaries made a study visit to the Archery Collection.

• Dr Ben Kankpeyeng, an archaeologist from the University of Ghana interested in conservation in British museums, visited the conservation laboratory and archaeology stores at the Museum

• Amongst the Egyptian collection, some examples of the international enquiries include analysis of the contents of wine jars for a

researcher at the Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal, a query from the Totenbuch Projekt, University of Bonn, details of the Tell Basta material in the collection from the Tell Basta/University of Berlin mission, and a query on Ancient Egyptian leather from Dr Andre Veldmeijer, PalArch Foundation Amsterdam; Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam

• In Palaeontology, enquiries were received from Natascha A. Waljaard, University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, Dr. Vladimir N.

Makarkin, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, and Rebecca Knoll, University of Minnesota

• The Museum received 286 International enquiries relating to its amphibian research collection and the species held within.

• The Museum received visits from the Austrian Akademie der Museologie which brought a delegation of museum professionals to discuss the Manchester Museum’s innovative practice, as did a group from the Swedish National Historical Museums, following a visit by Nick Merriman to speak at a conference in Sweden.

International conferences and seminars Museum staff contributed to sixteen international conferences and seminars in the course of 2007-8, nine of them at the invitation of the organisers because of their expertise. For example, Nick Merriman was invited to be the keynote speaker at a conference on ‘Public Archaeology’ held at the National Archaeological Museum in Stockholm on 13 November 2007. He was also invited to speak at a conference on museum learning in Madrid by the Spanish Ministry of Culture, and at an International Colloquium on Museums as agents of social change and development in Bogota, Colombia. Sam Alberti was invited to deliver the annual Handerson Lecture on ‘Collecting pathology—the ‘Valhalla of spoils’’, at Dittrick Medical History Centre, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, in April 2008. Piotr Bienkowski gave an invited lecture on the Museum’s approach to human remains at Humboldt University, Berlin, in July 2008. Phil Manning was invited to deliver a one-hour plenary lecture at the Canadian Paleontological Congress, Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada, in Sept 2007. In January 2008 he was invited to the USA to give lectures at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, at the

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National Geographic Society, Washington DC and at the American Museum of Natural History, New York. Keith Sugden gave the prestigious Emil Szauer Memorial Lecture to the Numismatic Society of Ireland in February 2008 Examples of other international conference presentations by museum staff are given in the Appendix. In addition, staff from the Museum and the Whitworth spent time developing a conference ‘University Museums and the Community’ to be hosted at the University in September 2008 for the International Council of Museums’ specialist international committee on university museums and collections (UMAC), the first time this conference was held in the UK. It attracted 120 delegates from 24 countries and gave us a good insight into practice at other university museums and galleries (see ‘Benchmarking’, below). International Loans This year there were a total of 53 loans out with 4004 objects. Of these, 10 were international with 1028 objects, including loans to the exhibition Reines D’Egypte in Monaco, a crossbow brooch to Hanover Museum, and mosses to the University of Murcia in Spain. Membership of International Bodies [NB figures are only given for bodies or positions which are by invitation rather than subscription] Nick Merriman continued as President of the Council for British Archaeology and was elected Chair of the University Museums Group UK, which is a body representing the interests of all university museums and galleries; three staff are Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London; one is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. One member of staff is on the Council of the British School at Athens, and the Council of the Society for Libyan Studies; another is on the Council of the Egypt Exploration Society. International media work As lead scientist on the Dinosaur Mummy project, our MAJA Phil Manning was the main presenter in the 60 minute, National Geographic Channel special ‘Dinosaur Autopsy’ transmitted on December 9th 2007, and shown as an Equinox Special on Channel 4 in Summer and Autumn 2008. One of our other MAJAs, Joyce Tyldesley, gave 17 interviews to newspapers and radio shows about her book on Cleopatra, including 4 in the USA. International benchmarking

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As part of our aim to be recognised by our peers as the leading university museum in terms of our practice, we have been developing a means of benchmarking our performance against that of other university museums across the world. As a first step, at our suggestion, university museums in the UK pooled their AHRC reporting data (see Appendix). Subsequently we have been developing a document which sets out seven distinctive features of international pre-eminence and then assesses where we are in relation to achieving them and what actions we have to take to improve. This internal assessment will be concluded early in 2009, after which we will invite an international group of peer reviewers to undertake a baseline assessment, with a second review at the end of 2010. We will also be undertaking a series of visits to other university museums in 2009 to assess our performance against theirs. Other Last year, Museum staff were members of the editorial board of five international peer reviewed journals, and were reviewers for seven. Staff were responsible for publishing three books, nine papers in peer reviewed journals, four papers in edited volumes, two papers in conference proceedings ten papers in non-peer reviewed journals and three online articles. Details of these are given in the Appendix. National and regional partnerships The Museum was involved in about 14 national and regional partnerships (defined as specific and sustained collaborative initiatives with at least one institutional partner). We continued, with the Whitworth Art Gallery, to play a key role as one of six North West museums/galleries forming the Renaissance Hub, which is aimed at increasing the capacity of the region’s museums through partnership working. The Museum also participates in the Manchester Museums Consortium, which encourages closer co-operation between the City’s museums. The Museum continued its ongoing partnership with the British Museum through its Partnerships UK programme. Prime amongst these was the loan of Lindow Man for a year. The Museum also hosted overseas curators for a week as part of a BM training programme, and began planning for an exhibition on treasures from China in 2010. From January, the Museum became the host for the Beacon for Public Engagement. This initiative is funded by HEFCE and aims to bring about a substantial change in the culture of academic institutions, encouraging and assisting staff and students to reach out, listen to and engage with the public. The Manchester Beacon is a collaboration between The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, The University of Salford, and the Museum of Science and Industry. Additional funding for two years has been secured for two years from NWDA via Manchester Knowledge Capital. Although the grant is awarded to the entire Beacon consortium, the Manchester Beacon is based at the Manchester Museum and the administration of the grant £1,185,241 HEFCE (over 4 yrs) and £239,110 from NWDA (over 2 yrs) is handled in the Museum. Due to delays in the appointment of the University of Manchester Beacon project manager, interaction between the Museum

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and the Beacon was limited this year. We did however work with the Beacon on a series of Ideas Cafes, Big Saturday events and on the Manchester Science Festival. 2. Ensure that the Museum is key to the teaching, learning and research programmes of the University The Museum continued to contribute to teaching, learning and research across all four Faculties, both through the use of Museum facilities by academic staff and students, and through the direct contribution of Museum staff to these activities. It was facilitated in this work by the Cultural Assets Academic Advisory Board (CAAAB) chaired by the Vice-President for Research, which provided guidance on enhancing the use of the Museum (and other cultural assets) for university work. An agreement was also developed on load transfer for museum staff who undertake teaching. Teaching & Learning In the course of the year, staff contributed to 27 undergraduate and 22 postgraduate courses. The role of the four Museum Academic Joint Appointments (MAJAs) in Museology, Archaeology, Egyptology and Palaeontology is to undertake teaching using the Museum’s collections in these areas, and they are supplemented by Museum curatorial and other staff. Examples of contributions are:

• The Curator of Mineralogy developed a new approach to teaching Engineering students using a self-guiding worksheet to access the displays.

• Students in Textile Design & Design Management (MMU) visited the Herbarium to use the collections as the basis for designs.

• The Curator of Botany contributed to teaching on an MSc Pollution field trip.

• Three staff were involved in the development of a new 2nd year FLS course: ‘Urban Biodiversity and Conservation’ and one taught on a

new 2nd and 3rd year course, ‘Evolution of Animals’.

• The Curator of Palaeontology has developed four new practical sessions for FLS students in the Museum’s Resource Centre and developed six student projects.

• The Curator of Living Cultures worked with the Department of Sociology and Department of Race and Gender, using the anthropology

collection to define cultures.

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• Two staff taught on the MA Ancient World seminar

• The Curator of Egypt & Sudan gave an introductory session on the collections for the MSc in Biomedical and Forensic Egyptology

(KNH-centre)

• We developed with the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences and with a local general practice a Community Student Selected Component on cultural, historical and social perspectives on the treatment of human remains and tissues, which links to third-year modules on Nutrition, Metabolism and Excretion, and Heart, Lungs and Blood.

Staff assist in field courses, particularly in FLS & SEAES (France, Mallorca, Costa Rica). In total, some 60 courses or modules drew on collections and/or staff, a figure which has quadrupled since Oct 2003. Our Curator of Mineralogy and Petrology, David Green, was awarded the Russell Medal by the Russell Society, in recognition of excellence in research and in making the collections and analytical facilities of the University accessible to mineralogists. Both Nick Merriman and Piotr Bienkowski have held a series of meetings with Heads of Schools and other academics to appraise them of the possibilities of the Museum in teaching and research. Research activities This year saw the first full year of operation of the Museum’s Resource Centre, a centralised point (akin to an object ‘reading room’) where material can be brought from store for study. Over the year, the Centre had 749 visitors, excluding college groups, but including University tutorial groups. In total, staff handled 37,399 research enquiries through a variety of sources, including email, phone, letter and visit. Some 40 PhD students used the Museum’s collections and/or staff expertise, and staff were involved in supervising 13 PhD students. 453 research activities and 185 publications drew on collections or staff expertise. Amongst the latter, for example, were 7 papers authored by overseas academics and one by a UK academic drawing on the Museum’s entomological collections. Four conferences were developed by Museum staff:

• Nature Behind Glass: an international conference exploring cultural analyses of natural history displays

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• Performance, Learning & Heritage, a conference summarising the results of an AHRC-funded project to investigate how learning is enhanced at heritage sites by the use of performance (with the Centre for Applied Theatre Research)

• Artists Working with Collections, a conference developed as part of the Museum’s Alchemy project (see below)

• Curating for the Future: a conference about the development of the role of the curator in museums

Staff themselves continued to undertake their own research projects, which are approved and supported via a Research Panel in the Museum which ensures that research meets Museum objectives. Examples of these include:

• A three year research project on infra-red reflection of Costa Rican amphibians undertaken by Andrew Gray (Curator of Herpetology) and Mark Dickinson (Physics)

• A catalogue of type specimens of mollusc in the Museum’s collection (Henry McGhie, Head of Natural Environments)

• A book on the life and collections of Henry Dresser, a major collector of ornithological specimens in the collection, and correspondent

with Darwin (Henry McGhie, Head of Natural Environments)

• A project to produce a complete inventory and analysis of the jumping spiders of Central Asia (Salticidae) with academics in Finland, Sweden, Russia and Kazakhstan (Dmitri Logunov, Curator of Entomology)

• A re-examination of the mineralization in the northern Lake District, especially as it relates to the fraudulent claims made by the Oxford

University mineralogist Arthur Kingsbury (David Green, Curator of Mineraology & Petrology, with colleagues from the Natural History Museum and the Hancock Museum, University of Newcastle)

3. Provide a first-class visitor experience through excellent services and innovative programmes Exhibitions and Galleries The following exhibitions and installations were held in the course of the year: Revealing Histories: Myths about Race opened on the 25 August 2007. This major installation features objects and images that were used in Museums and other media to support racist thought, counterbalanced with material that illustrates how individuals and organisations have

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worked to dispel these myths. It was created by a group of activists, collectors, academics, curators and archivists from inside and outside of the Museum. Tooth & Claw (12 November -- 24 Feb) – a provocative photographic exhibition exploring our relationship and understanding of the predators with which we share our environment. A trail through the Museum linked objects from our collection to the Tooth & Claw theme, and both December (Predator Day) and January’s (Polar Day) Big Saturday events referred to the exhibition. Our City 2 May – 24 July. This was an outreach exhibition in Gorton Library developed with Abbey Hey Primary School, and was opened by the Rt Hon. Sir Gerald Kaufman, MP for Gorton. The exhibition, and a ‘Collective Conversation’ with Gorton Local History Group and Abbey Hey Primary School are part of the Our City project (see below). Lindow Man: A Bog Body Mystery opened to the public on 19 April after a lengthy period of development. Using objects from the Museum collections, the British Museum, and loans from the public, Lindow Man is a challenging exhibition in both design and content. Developed through a consultation process, it highlights the Museum’s sensitive approach to the display of human remains. 500 people attended the private view. It also saw our most successful press launch attended by BBC NWT, Granada and Channel M, BBC online, MEN, metro and Radio Manchester with more coverage in national and international press. An extensive marketing campaign has seen print distributed throughout the North West and Midlands, adverts on trams, buses and outdoor media, an online campaign, together with a series of profitable partnerships leading to web coverage. Alchemy, the Museum’s artist research project, culminated in a series of events and exhibitions. In January, Nick Jordan & Jacob Cartwright opened MoNO (the Museum of Native Oak) which included objects from the collection, new drawings and a film by the artists, and work made by participants on the Bradgate Park field-trip. February saw the opening of Jamie Shovlin’s exhibition The Manchester Local Collection which showed the results of his attempt to 'establish one of the most visibly absent parts of the Manchester Museum's collections - a 'local' collection' throughout the Museum’s galleries. We held several screenings of Jordan Baseman’s new works, and a special event focussed around his film The Documentary Imperative was very well attended. The 14th March saw the launch of Ilana Halerpin’s exhibition Physical Geology, which mixes geological and palaeontological specimens with contemporary watercolours and historical artworks, and we installed Jacob Cartwright and Nick Jordan’s film about the now extinct Passenger Pigeon next to the Museum’s own specimen. The launch attracted over 200 people, and was accompanied by special screenings of Jordan Baseman’s work Joy on Toast in the herbarium. On the following Saturday we had the Big Alchemy Discussion, in which all the artists participated. Alchemy also hosted a conference on artists working with collections, funded by the NW Hub and attended by over 80 people. Preparation continued on the development of a new introductory gallery, ‘Our City’, which will tell the story of why objects from around the world, principally collected during the British Empire, came to Manchester and to the university’s museum, and why people from all around the world came to Manchester, principally in post-imperial times. The preparation for the gallery has involved strong input from community groups, and it will open in April 2009.

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At the same time, preparations have been underway for future temporary exhibitions and gallery developments. The next major temporary exhibition, on Charles Darwin and the influence of the idea of evolution, will open in October 2009 and will involve scientists from across the University. Initial preparations are also being made for the redevelopment of the Mammals Gallery in Oct 2010 into a new exhibition called ‘Sustainable Planet?’, which will highlight issues of biodiversity, climate change and sustainability, and a complete redisplay of the three galleries for archaeology and Ancient Egypt by Oct 2012. The temporary exhibition for 2010 will be a British Museum exhibition on treasures from China called ‘Journey to the East’. This will provide an excellent opportunity for us to engage with Manchester’s Chinese community and the Confucius Institute. During the year, the Museum, together with the Whitworth and the Manchester City Art Gallery, was awarded funding from the NWDA to make improvements that will attract, in particular, visitors from outside the region and internationally. In the Museum, these funds are being used for the Darwin exhibition, the Sustainable Planet? gallery, and for an artist in residence in the Museum’s tower who will assume the role of a modern-day hermit for a period of up to two months in June-July 2009. Preparations are also in hand for this project, including a partnership with the Manchester International Festival. Public programmes Alongside the exhibitions, the Museum had a very busy public programme during the course of the year, including strong involvement in the Manchester Science Festival in October 2007, in which there was good participation from University scientists. As ever, the monthly Big Saturdays, in which we explore popular themes with involvement from Museum and wider university staff, were highly successful. Themes this year included Ancient Egypt, Rainforests, Volcanoes, Predators, The Polar Regions, Extinctions, and Plants in Disguise. Amongst a wide range of other events attracting over 20,000 people in the course of the year, were activities around National Insect Week and National Archaeology Week, summer holiday activities linked with Lindow Man, a joint event with the University’s Confucius Institute for the Beijing Olympics, and a host of adult talks, including a walking tour of Lindow Moss. Following the record number of visitors last year, which was driven by the culmination of a series of high profile projects, numbers fell slightly in 2007-8 to nearly 225,000. The principal cause of this was the huge increase in visitors to Dr Who and Bodyworlds exhibitions at MOSI, where annual visitor numbers doubled to 800,000 on the back of a marketing spend of c. £400,000 (compared to our £40,000). MOSI’s core audience (families) is the same as ours and there is little doubt that this had an effect on our numbers. Other venues such as the Whitworth and City Art Gallery also increased their family-focused activity which will have affected our repeat visits. Nevertheless, the figures this year represent an increase on all previous years other than 2006-7. Community engagement

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The ‘In Touch’ volunteer programme, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, won a Nationwide Building Society Community & Heritage Award in the Regional Groups category in July and goes forward as a finalist for the National Awards in London later this year. Earlier in the summer we were also nominated by our colleagues at Jobcentre Plus for a Greater Manchester Employer Coalition Award and were short listed to the final three in the ‘Employer of the Year: Connecting to Communities’ category. The volunteers are all local long-term unemployed people and by July 08 103 individuals had been involved. As well as spending time in the Museum working front of house or with collections, they have access to a 10 week cultural heritage course that is delivered by Trafford College. At the end of the course all participants have the knowledge, skills and understanding to volunteer in the Museum and the opportunity to gain a nationally recognised Literacy qualification from Entry Level to Level 2. The project has also had a significant impact on their self-confidence, motivation and progress into employment. The Museum continues to run two Youth Boards (one for 8-13 year olds and one for 14-18 year olds), and the Young Archaeologists Club. The Community Advisory Panel continues to play an important role in helping us shape emerging projects and commenting on developing policy. Improving services to visitors During the year, the Museum developed a plan to improve services for visitors across the organisation. The Disability Equality Group (which includes external members from disability organisations) has developed an extensive action plan, which has already involved the development of a tactile map, a touch tour and an audio guide. The promenade play 'This Accursed Thing' which took place as part of the commemorations around the abolition of the Slave Trade Act, was audio described and signed. At the same time, the Museum established a data and evaluation team to commission, and study the implications of, audience research and ensure that it is taken into account when planning projects. A Community Engagement team was formed to coordinate outreach work across Museum. One pleasing result of this activity was that the Museum came second (‘Highly Commended’) in the Large Visitor Attraction of the Year category in the Manchester Tourism Awards. One of our Visitor Services Assistants, Gary Byrne (who came to us from the In Touch programme outlined below), was shortlisted for a Customer Service award. Digital access Our Web Developer has been providing further content for the website in accordance with University brand guidelines and has been increasing and improving the resources available online. In the course of the year, our website received 326,248 visits from 155 countries/territories, with a total of 800,400 page views. The website is beginning to integrate with Web 2.0 applications including YouTube and del.icio.us and we are beginning to identify an outline strategy for use of further resources. We have also continued work on a bank of images for Marketing purposes.

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The Museum continued to run the Collective Conversations project with funding from the North West Hub. We now have 241 films on YouTube, and there have been 70,617 viewings. The films are also incorporated into the Museum's collections management system. 4. Provide high quality educational opportunities for schools, colleges and lifelong learners, and excellent community engagement Early Years (0-5 yrs) The Museum continues to lead the Hub consortium of museums and galleries in developing a partnership with SureStart and local children's centres (Rusholme, Martenscroft and Gorton Mount). This has involved strategic collaboration with National Museums & Galleries on Merseyside and the South West Hub. This year, a specialist teacher was seconded to work with our Early Years Co-ordinator to devise and develop gallery and collections-based activities for this age group. A special exhibition, ‘Imagine Their Shadows’, was hosted by the Museum in August 2007 featuring images, text and film from a collaborative Early Years project with Horse and Bamboo Theatre Co, Rusholme Children's Centre, their creative collaborator and Places Matter! The exhibition was also displayed at the Children's Centre for parents. The project was presented at the Places Matter! Conference in Chester and workshops on it were held at a conference for private daycare settings in Trafford: Making a Positive Contribution. In April ‘Close Encounters with Culture, Museums and Galleries’ was published as part of the Early Years Foundation stage NW/ SW Hub joint project. It was distributed to all Early Years settings in Manchester and there was further distribution amongst museums in Salford, Trafford, Stockport, Liverpool, Preston and Carlisle, as well as to regional and national stakeholders. Primary A key aim of the new Primary strategy is to build more sustainable relationships with schools and to reach out to new audiences through follow-up work at school, involving carers and the local school community. To this end, the Primary programme was redeveloped during 2007-8, with three new ‘Gallery Explorer’ sessions developed on Ancient Egypt, Arts Inspiration, and Variety of Life and six new ‘Project Workshops’ on Dinosaurs, Bones & Skeletons, Rocks & Minerals, Ancient Egypt, Roman Archaeology and Greeks. These have proved very popular with teachers and many have been fully booked. The revised programme has caught the attention of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council,

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which commissioned the ‘Freshminds' research group to observe our approach, particularly the emphasis on personalised learning. 18,989 primary school pupils took part in sessions. An important part of the Primary programme is the outreach work to schools themselves. Our Schools Outreach Coordinator (Primary) has been able to reach large numbers of children and their families by delivering school assemblies where parents of the children are also invited. Activities included Victorian Collecting interactive drama sessions, Ancient Egypt sessions, and Living Things on either Arctic or Rainforest topics. A range of resources have also been developed to support outreach sessions. Another outreach project, Dig Manchester, came to the end of its 3-year funding by the Heritage Lottery Fund this year. It again involved schools and families within ODPM Neighbourhood Renewal priority areas in the city (Wythenshawe and Northenden) in undertaking archaeological excavations within their local area. By the time it finished at the end of March, it had involved 2,380 pupils from 36 local schools, together with many thousands of visitors on open days. Secondary & Post-16 In total, 5366 students from secondary schools and FE colleges attended sessions at the Museum. Real World Science, the Museum's award-nominated science programme for schools and colleges (KS3-KS5) run by our Widening Participation team, has been developed in partnership with University faculties, the Natural History Museum, Oxford University Museum of Natural History, the Hancock Museum (Tyne and Wear), and King's College London. The programme was presented in November 2007 at a national conference at the Natural History Museum. The team have worked this year on a six month feasibility survey to diversify the programme from Biological Sciences to include a Real Earth Science stream, which will be offered next year. We ran a successful series of A-level study days for 120 students in January 08, in collaboration with FLS and Nowgen, and involving speakers from FLS, MHS and also the School of Law. Existing workshops offered by Secondary Learning (humanities) were evaluated and re-marketed at KS3/4. Two brand new workshops were devised: 'Myth, Media and Modern Times' and 'Tooth and Claw'. A new A-level Geology session was developed, in conjunction with the Curator of Palaeontology. The Lead Educator (Humanities) worked with the Faculty of Humanities, Museum curators and local teachers and advisers to redevelop the Museum's Arts and Humanities sessions to increase uptake from schools and colleges from disadvantaged areas and to increase access to

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collections. These included a very successful implementation of Lindow Man programming for secondary and post 16 students, with sessions on Lindow Man: The Verdict, Debate Day and Forensic Science: A bog body mystery. Open Minds Coordinated by Julia Nelson at the Museum, this Aimhigher study support project entered its third and final year, working with 53 Key Stage 3 and Post-16 students to provide them with research skills and study support in a cross curricular context. Students were introduced to museums as a gateway to universities and their learning experiences were transformed through access to museum collections and curators. This year they researched, wrote and performed a theatre piece on the theme of ‘Revealing Histories - Remembering the Slave Trade’, working with Gallery Oldham, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Whitworth Art Gallery, the People's History Museum, Manchester Cathedral and John Rylands Library, Deansgate. Alchemy En-quire Action Research Project The En-quire programme (September 2006 to March 2008) explored the research question 'what is the role of museum-based arts education in supporting education?'. It was funded by DCMS and DCSF as part of the Strategic Commissioning Museums and Galleries Education Programme and partners included Creative Partnerships, Artists & Education, Manchester Metropolitan University, Bolton Museum and Archive Service and The Harris Museum and Gallery, Preston. This project involved the input of a number of curatorial staff, including living cultures, botany, geology and entomology. Educational Resources Development A crucial element in our aim to provide a comprehensive service to schools and colleges is the provision of pre- and post-visit resources, including web-based materials, to support enquiry-based learning across the age range and to help teachers embed the Museum visit into project work back at school. Educational Resources Developer, Menaka Rambukwella, researched, prepared and evaluated new materials to complement the revised programme. 5. Establish an integrated and innovative approach to the management and use of the collection As in previous years, much curatorial time this year has been spent developing greater access to our extensive collections by inputting them onto our collections management database and making these records publicly accessible via the Web. Nearly 460,000 additional items were documented during the course of the year, and over 100,000 records created, which now means that a third of the c. 4.25 million items in the collection is documented to modern standards, and more than 25% is available online.

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The whole of the Palaeontology collection has now been bulk accessioned, and Anthropology is also nearing completion. The Curator of Egypt and Sudan is working with volunteers to document object locations in the Egyptology collection and uploading images, as well as adding and correcting database information as a result of working with researchers. The transfer of the Mummy Tissue Bank to the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology is in progress. In botany, major work was on the moss collection and the transfer of the British Pteridiological Society archive (ferns); in entomology the documentation of the CH Schill collection of butterflies was completed, and in Palaeontology, the imaging of the 3000 type and figured fossils was finished and the entire collections put on-line. The recuration of the invertebrates in the zoology spirit collection was completed and in geology, the complete database of the mineral collection was transferred to the collection management system. After just over a year of operation, the Resource Centre has become popular as a means for students, academics and members of the public to access the collections. Anyone can make a request, in advance, to view material, which is then brought from the stores for them to study. The Centre is also the main point for the reception of public enquiries, and the place that people can bring material into the Museum for identification. Together with the Whitworth Art Gallery, the Museum chairs the north-west region Collections for the Future steering group. During the last year this group allocated £300,000 of Renaissance in the Regions money in regional curatorial development and collections care, dividing the money into three distinctive strands: three posts, two challenge funds, and a series of best practice events, training and skills development. The Museum continued to host the Roman Heritage post, carrying-out peer reviews of Roman collections held by regional museums and giving advice on the development and use of this material. 6. Manage and develop the resources, facilities and workforce to deliver our objectives Organisational development Over the course of the year, we undertook some intensive work to review the Museum’s mission, vision and values, as well as its core themes. We have now determined that the focus of all of our work is around two over-arching themes:

• Promoting understanding between cultures • Developing a sustainable world

A two-sided ‘manifesto’ was produced for staff which summarises this work.

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Following the departure of Bernadette Lynch under ERVS, a major development this quarter was the merger of Collections and ALI teams into a team called Audiences, Collections and Exhibitions, under the leadership of Piotr Bienkowski. Facilitated by Pete Brown (Head of Learning & Interpretation) and Jan Hennessy (a workforce development consultant), collections staff together with six learning, audience development and public programmes colleagues, engaged in the Curating for the Future Workforce Development Programme. Each participant took part in 10.5 days of development activities between November 2007 and March 2008 aimed at promoting cross-disciplinary working. We also initiated the ‘Rising Stars’ programme, aimed at providing development opportunities for staff below management level who wish to develop their careers further. Applications from women, who are underrepresented at management level, were particularly encouraged and we were pleased to receive 17 expressions of interest, far beyond expectation. With some additional resources from the Renaissance Hub, all 17 were able to begin a development programme. In total, some 70% of staff participated in CPD activity in the course of the year. A good deal of time was spent this year in the preparation of Action Plans for Cultural Diversity and Disability Equality, as our contribution to the University’s overall action plans for these areas. Both are now key features of our Operational Plan for 2008-9. A Gender working group has been established to develop an action plan in this area, which will be submitted in Spring 2009. Funding and Development

AHRC remains the biggest funder of the Museum, and lobbying was undertaken during the year to ensure that this funding is protected when it reverts to HEFCE in 2009.

We continued to diversify our funding streams, with our Head of Development assisting considerably in this. In 2007-8, the Museum was awarded grants totalling £1,127,065, to be spent in the period 2007-11, from sources such as DCMS, NWDA, Wolfson, Heritage Lottery Fund, Wellcome Trust and Foyle Foundation. All of this was done in close liaison with DARO, which co-ordinates a University-wide development forum.

Of these grants, £622,002 was spent in the year 2007-8. This was supplemented by £130,000 of earned income from shop, café, corporate hire and donations, meaning that the Museum raised over £750,000 of its own income in the course of the year.

In preparation for our long-term programme of gallery refurbishment, the Director and the Head of Development undertook a campaign of cultivation of potential donors and ‘door-openers’ by introducing them to the work of the Museum.

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Finance Museum managers were all involved in the development of a bottom-up budget for 2008-9 which for the first time means that we have a realistic picture of our true costs. The Museum recorded a deficit of £136,000 at the end of the year. Full details of this are given below. Essentially the deficit occurred because some income from grants and corporate hire which had been budgeted for did not materialise, because of unanticipated but essential expenditure (such as works arising from the change in café operator) and because of historic miscoding of grants which had to be reconciled. We had been expecting in 2007-8 to be reimbursed for 3 years’ backlog of VAT payments (university museums have been permitted to do this since 2004). However delays in reaching agreement on a formula with HM Revenues & Customs meant that this will not happen until 2009. We propose that this repayment of VAT is used to clear the Museum’s deficit. Sustainability initiatives The Museum initiated a project, together with the Whitworth Art Gallery and John Rylands University Library, in partnership with Global Action Plan, to work on reducing these organisations’ carbon footprint. A series of ‘environment champions’ have been appointed in each venue, and have undertaken initial audits of energy consumption and waste management. This has led in turn to a 12 month action plan to reduce energy and waste which is being taken forward vigorously in each organisation. This has been seen as a model of good practice in the university and in the city.

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THE MANCHESTER MUSEUM PUBLIC AND ACADEMIC ENGAGEMENT KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Public Engagement Annual increases in, and broadening of, participation in educational programmes and public visits to the

Manchester Museum 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 %

change

Comment (include target where appropriate)

a) Annual number of visits

192,989 206,476 253,474 224,852 -11% Large numbers in 2006-7 due to culmination of series of projects. Fall this year due principally to huge increase in visitors to Dr Who and Bodyworlds exhibitions at MOSI, which had huge marketing spend. Other venues such as Whitworth and City Art Gallery have increased their family-focused activity. However figures this year are increase on all previous years other than 2006-7.

b) Contacts with school age children

35,987 41,334 51,239 44,393 -13% Strategically planned reduction in order to improve quality of visits. Schools spend more time preparing, spend longer at the museum and have more follow-up at school

c) Number of contacts with people from priority groups

60,099 63,867 69,241 67,455 -2.5% Minor reduction

d) Beacon for Public Engagement

The Beacon is at this stage unable to provide benchmarking figures as a University of Manchester project manager only came into post in August 2008

Comment

Customer Satisfaction Annual increase in levels of satisfaction in users of the Museum 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 %

change Comment (include target where appropriate)

e) Results of annual user satisfaction surveys

98% satisfied

99% satisfied

100% satisfied

Measure changed by NW Hub: 97% rate visit excellent or good

N/A

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92% very or quite likely to revisit 99% very or quite likely to recommend to others

Academic Engagement Annual increase in levels of teaching and research use of the Museum 2004-05 2005-

06 2006-07

2007-08 % change

Comment (include target where appropriate)

f) Number of research activities drawing on collections including contribution to publications, seminars, partnerships, PhD supervision etc

587 423 751 638 -15% 453 research activities & 185 publications drew on collections or expertise. The reduction in the previous year has come about because one of our MAJAs was on maternity leave and one on sabbatical, and we have now included all collections staff in project/exhibition/gallery/web teams, with a priority to produce public outputs. This has inevitably affected other activities.

g) Number of teaching courses drawing on collections/staff

35 52 55 60 +9.1% Some additional courses added, for example in MHS

h) Number of students involved in research and teaching activities

Not collected

1,783

2,742

2,863 +4.4% Modest rise due to increase in student numbers on some courses, and inclusion of Egyptology certificate students.

International Interaction 2007-08 Comment i) Number of overseas institutions

30 See details in section 4. Need to define ‘interaction’

j) Number of overseas academics

N/A Not collected as no definition of ‘interaction’ and data only requested recently.

k) Number of overseas students

N/A Ditto

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THE MANCHESTER MUSEUM: MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Performance Indicator Achievement 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 (as appropriate)

Comment (include target where appropriate)

HR l) Number and proportion of people being reviewed annually under the Performance and Development Review (PDR) scheme

2005/06: 81 (100%); 2006/07: 79 (100%); 2007/08: 82 (100%)

m) Equality and Diversity: staff profile and recruitment by gender and ethnicity, disability profile, age profile Include figures for core and freelance staff separately

See separate appendix

Communication n) Evidence of pervasive, meaningful engagement of staff at all levels in strategic planning and decision-making

There are all-staff briefing meetings each week, together with monthly staff presentations and Director’s briefings. The latter are a particular opportunity for all staff to have an input into strategy and decision-making. Team meetings are a vehicle for staff communication and feedback. All projects are developed through ‘diagonal slice’ teams involving colleagues at all levels, with input, where appropriate, from the Museum’s Community Advisory Panel. The second annual staff survey was conducted, which showed big improvements in staff feeling that their performance had improved, that they received regular feedback, that they were well managed and serve users well, that the Museum communicates well with them and that they would recommend it as a place to work. However, there was a clear feeling that poor performance still had to be addressed, and there was a reduction in overall job satisfaction.

Financial Management o) Confirmation of managing within budget

There was a deficit of £136,000 incurred this year and a full explanation of this is given with the financial statement. It is proposed that this deficit be covered by the retrospective reclaim of VAT which will occur in 2008-9.

p) Detailed financial statement, including breakdown of income sources and external grants generated

See below

q) Details of new grants awarded in 2007-08

See below

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Manchester Museum management accounts 31 July 2008 Cumulative Actual Budget Variance £m £m £m

HEFCE Income 1.46 0.08 1.38 Income Endowment Income 0.03 0.03 0.00 0.29 Increase in earmarked grant income Other Income 1.30 2.57 -1.28 -0.04 Reduction in commercial income (loss of CACHE events-corporate hire, changeover of café operators )

Investment Income 0.00 0.00 0.00 -0.02 Approx £9.5k of CFTA gone through as allocation not income.

2.79 2.68 0.11 -0.12 Reduction in other sundry income (no MLA funding etc)

0.11

Pay -2.45 -2.39 -0.06

Pay Non-Pay -1.34 -1.15 -0.19 0.06 Vacancy savings Internal Allocations 0.00 0.00 0.00 -0.08 Earmarked grants posts not budgeted but covered by increase in earmarked grant income Total non-pay including allocations -1.34 -1.15 -0.19 -0.04 Visitor services staff core overtime not budgeted -0.01 Other small pay increases (HERA etc)

Total Expenditure -3.79 -3.54 -0.25 -0.06

Contribution before exceptionals -1.00 -0.86 -0.14

Non-Pay

Exceptionals 0.00 0.00 0.00 -0.31 Earmarked grants non-pay expenditure 0.13 Utilities not being recharged

Contribution after exceptionals -1.00 -0.86 -0.14 -0.02 Data switches not budgeted for (£8000 transferred to endowment account)

-0.03 Shop cost of sales increase on budget (see summary note on shop) Contribution from University 0.87 0.87 0.00 -0.01 Advertising banners not budgeted -0.02 Cost of Cafe refurbishment due to new operators (see summary note on Cafe)

-0.14 0.00 -0.14 0.07 Other core non-pay savings

-0.19

Allocations Although this figure is negligible, it is actually made up of

0.02 Wolfson disallowable expenditure (VAT, design costs etc)

0.08 -0.10 Above written off to museum reserve account

0.00