SHARE’s Environmentally Responsible Museums Project is funded by Heritage Fund and Arts Council England and needs to assess its overall impact on museums, their staff, and volunteers. To help us understand more about your experience of how you and your museum are working (or not working) in environmentally sustainable ways please complete our brief survey.

Your answers will help shape how SHARE can support you and your museum in becoming more environmentally responsible. The survey is open until 31 January 2023.

View the survey 

This project is kindly funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England.

Please contact Alex Gordon-Jones (a.gordonjones@norfolk.gov.uk) if you have any enquiries about the SERM project. 

SERM Cutting Carbon Programme

Applications open: Monday 6 November

Deadline: Midday 11 December

As part of the SHARE Environmentally Responsible Museum project, SHARE will fund and support two museums not yet engaging with environmental sustainability and responsibility to embed good sustainability practice into their aims and objectives, with a specific focus on cutting carbon emissions.

The programme will run from January to December 2024 and includes the following:

• Carbon Literacy training
• Writing an environment plan
• Detailed Energy Audit and recommendations
• Grant writing funding for sustainability projects
• Ongoing support, advice, and signposting from SHARE
• Small grant to progress your museum on its carbon reduction path.

To apply for the programme please complete the Expression of Interest. We recommend you discuss your application with your Museum Development Officer before applying.

This project is kindly funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England.

Please contact Alex Gordon-Jones, Environmental Project Officer if you have any enquiries or wish to further discuss the programme.

Expression of interest

Cutting Carbon Guidance Notes 2023-24

Do you need some quick advice about the conservation and care of a museum object or collection?  SHARE Museums East is offering free advice surgeries with preventative conservation specialists Spencer & Fry for Accredited and Working Towards Accreditation museums in the East of England. The surgeries can:

• provide advice about urgent problems (e.g., insect infestation)
• suggest appropriate solutions and remedial care options
• answer questions about environmental monitoring
• offer guidance on basic ‘good practice’ procedures
• advise museums on how to conduct an audit of their display areas and stores
• signpost you to appropriate funding and information sources

The surgeries can be via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or a phone call at a time convenient to yourself.  To request a surgery, please provide a brief summary of your issue or concern via this online survey. Once we have received your completed survey, a member of the SHARE team will review it and either SHARE Museums East or Spencer & Fry will contact you directly.  Please note, places are limited and priority will be given to Accredited and Working Towards Accreditation museums.

SHARE Museums East is partnering with the Collections Trust to offer a limited number of advice surgeries. Up to two members of your organisation can attend the online meeting, which will be hosted by Lindsay Duncan or Anna Rhodes, Outreach Officers, Collections Trust or Sarah Brown, Deputy Director. The meeting will last up to 1.5 hours on Zoom or Microsoft Teams and you will receive a follow-up summary of notes and recommendations based on your conversation.

To make the most of this opportunity, please submit a brief summary of what support you require via this online survey. Once we have received your completed survey, a member of the SHARE team will review it and confirm meeting details with you. This survey will close on 22nd December 2023.

Please note, places are limited. This offer is aimed at those who feel they are struggling with elements of a Spectrum procedure, for example issues with object numbering, inventory, or documentation planning. Collections Trust cannot proofread or assess documents for Accreditation but policies and plans can be supplied in advance of the advice surgery to provide useful context for discussion.

Contact Su Booth for more information.

Wider Reach 2023 – Creating an Audience Development Action Plan 

SHARE is offering free four-hour consultations with Pippa Smith to help museums

• identify who is missing from their current audience
• find out why they are not visiting
• draw up an audience map
• create an action plan for at least one audience segmentwith actions assigned to people and teams, dates for review and measures of success

Background research into your current audiences and the latest census profile for your area will be required. For guidance, consider attending the Wider Reach 2023 – visitor research 101 session on 28 September, repeated 7 November and 8 December. Visitor Research 101 is open to all museums, not just those working with Pippa on an Audience Development Plan.

Contact Su Booth for more information.

Visitor Insight East 2023 – FREE basic visitor survey for museums 

If you want to conduct a visitor survey but don’t know where to start, VIE could be for you. VIE is a simple survey designed to help you gather basic information about where your visitors come from, their age, what motivates them to visit and what they think about your museum. Evidence about your visitors is useful for funding applications, and activity and audience development planning.

VIE is available to print out in either A5 or A4 format. We will also send you a Smart Survey link so you can enter the details gathered on paper to generate a report. The Smart Survey link can also be used directly with visitors on a tablet. VIE does not collect any personal information so you can be confident it is GDPR compliant. Contact Su Booth for copies of the survey.