To receive a short presentation on projects relating to Heritage, Museum and Arts followed by an opportunity to ask questions.
The Warminster and Villages Development Trust and Warminster Art Society will also update the board on its community arts project "Go Bustards".
Minutes:
Museums
Victoria Barlow, Manager Conservation and Heritage, explained that Wiltshire Council did not run any museum but worked in partnership with volunteers in 16 museums. A full time officer was available to help museum get appropriate accreditation. Volunteer were also offered support, training and conservation advice such as remedial conservation (to help prolong the life of the object); which could amount to over £2,000 if they were charged for the service. As a result the collections were some of the best preserved in the country. She brought the board’s attention to the 621 volunteers’ dedication, their work manning museums, cataloguing collections, etc amounted to over 38 000 hours per year.
Future projects included:
· All museums were being consulted to assess the services currently provided, find out the areas to target and improve where needed.
· A grant had been awarded to allow for work on the museums’ website (most museums have websites, some even have blogs!).
· A lot of work was also being done to ensure “sustainability” and succession planning as volunteering in museums could turn into a full time job.
Peter Tyas, Team Manager Arts and Archives, talked the board through the last 15 years of Arts in Warminster; an Art Scene to be proud of and a wealth of volunteers and amateur groups in Wiltshire were gladly highlighted!
In 2009 a single art service was created as part of Wiltshire Council, Peter Tyas had joined Wiltshire Council in 2010 and one of his main project had been a corporate strategy to be published later this year. Part of the team’s role was to be an “enabling service”; working to help partners deliver the activities through advice, training and brokerage. Emphasis was put on training thanks to the Community Arts Training Scheme and focused on two fronts: how to deliver arts to the community and how to build strong networks.
The Arts Council was now looking at a new National Strategy and was challenging the nation to justify why they should receive funding. Thankfully five organisations in Wiltshire had been granted regular funding (from eight bids). The Government had merged the Museums, Libraries and Archive council into the Arts Council, which has created a single national agency distributing funds to the broader cultural sector.
Four community groups had successfully applied for different projects to the Participatory Art Work Scheme:
· Wylie Valley Woman Institute;
· Tumblewood Community Project (banners);
· Warminster extended school (dance);
· Senior Guide Group (Visual Art Project)
The Arts Team was also involved with Rural Arts Wiltshire and always looking for new villages to take part. If you are interested in staging a RAW event in your village hall, school, pub, church or other venue, or if you would like to see the current list of events, please visit the Rural Arts Wiltshire website, email info@ruralartswiltshire.org.uk or telephone 01249 701628 / 712618.
Lesley Fudge, secretary of the Warminster Arts Society, informed the board of all the on-going projects in and around Warminster which can be found on the Society’s website: http://www.warminsterartsociety.com/index.html
The big project for this year was Go Bustards! - a flock of fibreglass sculptures to take up residence in Warminster and surrounding villages. This was very much a community project and sculptures would be available for businesses, schools, groups and organisations as well as individual members of the public. Despite the efforts of the society to bring the costs down each Bustard was estimated as £1,000 to cover the sculpture itself, transport, health and safety measures, public liability insurance, etc. The society therefore decided to start a fund raising project to support the groups who may not be able to afford a Bustard sculpture and “Percy, the people’s Bustard” was created (for a £1 donation you can sign your name on Percy), Percy would first live in the Warminster Library before moving around Warminster.
The flock of fibreglass Bustards would be launched at the Warminster Festival, then it should be possible to follow their trail on google map.
If you would like to know more or to get involved please contact Lesley Fudge on 01985 219330 or lesleyfudge@me.com.