Funding & Governance

Our Funding

SHARE Museums East is funded by Arts Council England (ACE). During 2018-23 ACE has awarded SHARE nearly £2.2m to deliver museum development services for the 166 Accredited Museums in the East of England.

SHARE funds Museum Development Officers in each of the region’s six counties, to help them deliver work which meets their own local objectives but which also fits with ACE’s strategy Let’s Create.

Governance

SHARE Museums East is hosted and delivered by Norfolk Museums Service, a service of Norfolk County Council.

The governing body of Norfolk Museums Service is the Norfolk Joint Museums Committee. The Committee provides governance and strategic oversight to the SHARE programme. Details of the Joint Museums Committee including meeting schedules, agendas and minutes can be found on the Norfolk County Council website.

SHARE Advisory Forum

The SHARE Advisory Forum is a panel set up to advise and inform the SHARE Programme, and is SHARE’s ‘critical friend’. It is made up of 12 nominated and elected members, with the aim of representing each county and the different types of museum found in the East of England. The Forum’s aims and objectives are:

  1. To provide a forum for consultation on the implementation and development of the SHARE Programme.
  2. To be broadly representative of the region’s museum sector workforce and wider population diversity.
  3. To gather and supply evidence on national, regional and local strategies, needs and priorities which could be incorporated into the SHARE Programme, including identifying organisational and workforce skills gaps and development needs.
  4. To explore opportunities for collaboration and contributions to the Programme.
  5. To provide a forum for advocating and promoting the SHARE Programme to colleagues, partners and the wider museums sector.

You can download the Forum’s Terms of Reference here.

Museums East of England

Museums East of England (MEE) is the representative group for large and medium-sized museums in the region, composed of senior managers from museums with a budget of at least £175k and a minimum of five paid staff. MEE is an independent group but SHARE convenes and administers its meetings. Its remit is:

  • To represent museums of all sizes in the East of England on regional and national platforms
  • To lead on raising the profile and developing the identity of the museums sector in the regions
  • To provide a professional forum for sharing issues and optimising benefit from local, regional and national initiatives, including dissemination of the regional leadership roles of MPMs / NPOs and strategic partners
  • To engage and liaise with ACE and HLF on behalf of the sector, and to provide a strategic forum for both organisations to communicate with the sector
  • To champion a collaborative approach to working across East of England museums
  • To champion and support the SHARE Museums East Museum Development Programme
  • To inform the development of SHARE Museums East, including identifying skills gaps and development needs within the sector
  • To assist the professional development of junior and middle-level staff through facilitating work shadowing opportunities

You can download MEE’s current Terms of Reference here.

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