DERBY MUSEUMS ANNUAL REVIEW2015 – 2016

www.derbymuseums.org

A Philosopher giving that Lecture on the orrery in which a lamp is put in place of the sun, Joseph Wright of Derby, 1766.

Derby Mini Maker Faire 2015

“I love looking at Joseph Wright’s painting A Philosopher giving that Lecture on the orrery in which a lamp is put in place of the sun in the Museum and Art Gallery. First exhibited in 1766, at the height

of the British Enlightenment, it shows a group of children and adults listening attentively to a learned man explaining the wonders of the planet, and the universe. The people in this picture are curious, eager to learn and attentive to the teller.

Our museums, inspired by the human instinct to acquire, categorise and show off objects, help us to make sense of our place in the world.

Derby has unique cultural assets. The Silk Mill is the site of the world’s first factory and is in the Derwent Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Derby Museums has the finest collection of work by

Joseph Wright of Derby, the 18th century artist of Enlightenment and is ‘Designated’ by Arts Council England as a collection of national significance. It also has splendid collections of natural history, archaeology and industrial history. Derby’s identity was 300 years in the making, and the Enlightenment spirit of creativity and invention resonates today.

Like those makers of the Enlightenment we are harnessing a spirit of discovery, tolerance and optimism to help all our communities discover their place in the world.”

Tony Butler EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

INTRODUCTION

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The Friends of Derby Museums

Peter Smith – ChairPatricia Coleman – Vice ChairThe Duke of Devonshire KCVO, CBE, DL

Maxwell Craven MBERay FreemanRoger FrostCllr Hilary JonesJonathan Leach

David LingRoger MerchantProf Philip PlowdenNick RoperCllr John Whitby

Caroline McCombCllr Roy WebbHeather BroughtonDaisy GiulianoLinda Sullivan

Trustees 2015-16

THE FRIENDS OF DERBY MUSEUMSFounded in 1969, the Friends of Derby Museums work

closely with the Museums Trust. The Friends help the

museum by volunteering at events, supporting museum

staff with projects and by organising fundraising events.

Becoming a friend is a great way of meeting new

people and supporting Derby Museums. The Friends

enjoy a varied programme of talks and social events

throughout the year and visit museums and places

of interest around Derbyshire and beyond.

“Despite a very challenging financial climate I have been proud to see the continued success of Derby Museums. The chief achievement has been the successful stage one pass for HLF and Arts Council capital funding

to redevelop The Silk Mill. The project worth £16.4 million is a huge flip to Derby’s heritage. The plans which will see the creation of the UK’s first Museum of Making will bring the whole of building into use for the first time. It will be a first class attraction of which the city can be justly proud.

More people than ever are participating in heritage activity in our museums. Young and old alike have contributed ideas and time to make our museums more intriguing than ever. Whether it is working with collections, stewarding events, carrying out research or creating artistic installations, our community is making history with us.

We continue to develop new income streams as public funding is irrevocably squeezed.

A much greater variety of activity now takes place in our venues, including conferencing, ceremonial hires, parties and educational events.

We face major challenges, like every organisation funded by the public sector, to secure the support we need. However with the local community, Derby City Council, the Arts Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund behind us, we will continue to protect the city’s cultural heritage and deliver great learning experiences for everyone.”

Peter Smith CHAIR OF DERBY MUSEUMS

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ABOUT DERBY MUSEUMS AND OUR VALUES

Derby Musuems is a charity which runs three sites

The Museum and Art Gallery – the home of the renowned Joseph Wright of Derby Collection.

The Silk Mill – a UNESCO inscribed World Heritage site and site of the world’s first factory.

Pickford’s House – a beautiful Georgian town house and home to a family of the Enlightenment, The Pickfords.

The Museum and Art Gallery

The Silk Mill

Our Cause and Values

Together we make museums for the head, heart and hands. We do this by:

• Being independent

• Fostering a spirit of experimentation

• Pursuing mutual relationships

• Creating the conditions for well-being (helping people connect with others, keep learning, take notice of the world and give back to the community)

• Proving that we are doing it

Our Vision

The vision for Derby Museums is for people to

discover their place, in the world.

Pickford’s House

Arty Party at the Museum and Art Gallery4

What difference will this plan make to Derby Museums by 2018

• The Museum and Art Gallery will be refurbished to a high standard with all galleries improved and primed for the Joseph Wright retrospective in 2021/22.

• There will be a successful Heritage Lottery Funded project to redevelop The Silk Mill with construction work underway.

• There will be a firm sense of direction for Pickford’s House.

• Pickford’s House will welcome more visitors, fulfill its potential as a hire venue and generate income.

• There will be more visitors to all our sites, with the quality of their experience measurably improved.

• Museum Accreditation will be maintained, collections well cared for and more items on display and appreciated by the public.

• Derby Museums will be a happier place to work.

• Derby Museums will be a resilient business with more diverse income streams which enable risk to be spread.

• Derby Museums’ Human Centred Design approach will be established in all our work and used by other museums.

Our aims

• To redevelop The Silk Mill as a museum and visitor attraction of national and international significance.

• To develop Derby Museums as a resilient business combining enterprise and a strong sense of social purpose.

• Carry out the affordable programme of improvements to the Museum and Art Gallery and Pickford’s House.

• Develop a partnership to deliver a major international touring exhibition of the works of Joseph Wright of Derby for 2021.

Family Activities at The Silk Mill

The Silk Mill Workshop

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THE MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY –JOSEPH WRIGHT IN ITALY

“Wright’s artistic pilgrimage had a deeply formative

effect on the artist’s subsequent work, and provided

a rich seam of subjects and ideas for the paintings he

produced upon his return to Derby and the final twenty

years of his life. Some of these pictures are now in the

collection of Derby Museums, making this exhibition

an ideal opportunity to explore the context in which

such paintings were made; for whom, and why.

Joseph Wright in Italy was developed in partnership

with Nottingham Contemporary; Chatsworth House

Trust; and The Harley Foundation at Welbeck; with

support from Experience Nottinghamshire and Visit

Peak District and Derbyshire. This show was part of

a prestigious and successful programme of regional

exhibitions and events known as The Grand Tour.”

Lucy Bamford

Senior Keeper of Art

In Spring 2016 the Museum and

Art Gallery was briefly home to an

outstanding range of art and artefacts,

made or collected by Joseph Wright, and

his fellow Derbeians abroad, between

1750 and 1850. Gathered together

from public and private collections in

Derbyshire and further afield, including

Chatsworth and the British Museum,

many of these precious treasures had

never before been seen in Derby.

The Joseph Wright Gallery

Joseph Wright and the Lure of Italy exhibition

Joseph Wright and the Lure of Italy exhibition 6

“In summer 2016, following extensive conservation treatment,

we welcomed the return to Derby Museums of Joseph Wright’s

two only-known paintings of the Colosseum in Rome. The

‘companion’ pictures of the Colosseum by Daylight, and the

Colosseum by Moonlight, had been badly damaged and then

overpainted, leaving them unrecognisable. Thanks to funding

from the Pilgrim Trust, and the work of expert conservators,

the paintings have now been transformed to a state far closer

to Wright’s originals than ever before, making it possible to

display them alongside the artist’s other works as part of our

special exhibition, Joseph Wright and the Lure of Italy.”

Restoration of the Colosseum paintings

Installation of Joseph Wright and the Lure of Italy exhibition.

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THE MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY –ROYAL CROWN DERBYThe Royal Crown Derby bone china collection was redisplayed, from a passive backdrop into a beautiful sequence of objects that illustrate the story of Derbyshire bone china production over the last 300 years.

Andrea Hadley-Johnson Co-production and Engagement Manager

“Taking a coproduction approach enabled us to explore

WITH our visitors what might satisfy their heads, hearts

and hands. The display begins with a riot of white china

figures leading to an engaging sequence of objects placed on

bespoke stands, the objects have space to be admired and the

viewer space to be intrigued. Immediately we are observing

more active viewing and improved flow in the space.

Punctuating the historic collection are ten contemporary

interventions, these pieces show the resonance of the past

in contemporary practice and prompt new perspectives on

the historic objects. And finally, as a counterbalance, we’ve

added two amazing ‘mug shot walls’ containing 100’s of

photographs of favourite mugs sent in by our visitors.”

Activity in the Ceramics Gallery

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Alastair Willis Finds Liaison Officer for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire

“The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is a

national project across England and Wales

to identify and record objects found by the

public. The PAS also helps to administer

The Treasure Act 1996 and raise the

profile of local and national archaeology.

The PAS database is an important tool

for researchers and has significantly

increased our knowledge of the past.

The PAS is run from the British Museum, but I

am its local representatives, the Finds Liaison

Officer (FLO). We are hosted by regional

museums, councils or universities. I attend

metal detecting club meetings and host finds

days in museums across Derbyshire and

Nottinghamshire to enable local finders to

have their objects recorded. I am assisted by

a team of volunteers at the Museum and Art

Gallery and at the University of Nottingham

and have recently published a book called ‘50

Finds from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire’.”

A copper alloy Roman coin of Constantine the Great, minted in Trier in AD 327-328.

Derby Porcelain on display in the Ceramics Gallery

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THE MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY –A COMMON TREASURY The best Civic Museums are ones which

encourage their communities to discover

their place in the world.

A Common Treasury explored Derby’s collection from

its origins in the 19th century, when the museum’s

founders acquired art, antiquities, natural science

and archaeological objects from around the globe.

Works by Benjamin West, Jacob Epstein, John

Singer-Sargeant and LS Lowry, were shown alongside

Egyptian funerary ware, some of the earliest human

hand tools from Africa and ceremonial masks from

the Pacific Islands.

Back in 1881, when the museum opened, a report in the Derby Telegraph noted [The new Art Gallery] “should not provide a fashionable lounge where our exquistites alone may congregate to study and admire the beautiful, but to develop the artistic aspirations of all sorts and conditions.”

We hope to honour those intentions today.

Brick celebrating the construction of a building inn Babylon built by King Nebuchadnezzar the second in 605 – 562 BC

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A SELECTION OF EXHIBITIONS• Matisse - Drawing with Scissors: Late Works 1950-1954

A celebration of Matisse’s most vibrant works through

lithographic reproductions.

• Bud to Bloom – A selection of work from The Crafts

Council by leading makers inspired by the natural world.

• John Stobart – An Artistic Journey from Derby

Across the Atlantic

The Derby born artist is now in his 80s. The show was a

retrospective of his work.

• Kerri Pratt - Of A Place

Kerri won the 2014 Jonathan Vickers Award. This award

is open to emerging painters and the successful artist

receives a bursary of £18,000, plus a studio at Banks

Mill Derby, a contribution to the cost of materials, a

nine month period of support and mentoring, including

access to the University of Derby’s College of Arts and a

final exhibition at Derby Museums.

Closing Flower Form and Open Flower Form, 1971, Mary Rogers. Crafts Council Collection. Photo Nick Moss

Irongate, Derby, John Stobart, 1949

Head in the clouds, Kerri Pratt

Visitors at Matisse: Drawing with Scissors: Late Works 1950-1954 exhibition.

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PICKFORD’S HOUSE MUSEUM

Janine Derbyshire - Visitor Services Manager

“Today, when social media is so important to a

museum’s reputation, it is delightful to read the

words, ‘loved by all’, ‘brilliant gem’, ‘simply gorgeous’

and ‘Pickford’s Georgian perfection’ on the latest

online reviews about Pickford’s House Museum.

The visitor engagement within this 18th century townhouse,

has been greatly enhanced by the openness of period room

settings and its ‘live’ interpretation by way of costumed guided

tours. The intimate journeys around the building takes guests

‘beyond the velvet rope’ and into secret rooms not usually

seen by the public, ensuring everyone feels like a VIP!

Our Visitor Services team not only love dressing up, but also gain

a huge sense of pride from the wonderful feedback they receive.

One visitor shared: “ It’s great being able to share our knowledge

and passion of the house and for people to get up really close

to objects. It makes the experience extremely special.”

Over the last 12 months visitors from countries

such as Australia, Canada, Brazil and Argentina

have time-travelled back to the 18th century so

word of mouth is certainly spreading across the

globe about this fascinating family home.”

Pickford’s House GardenPickford’s House Kitchen12

Costumed Guided Tour at Pickford’s House

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THE SILK MILLTHE MUSEUM OF MAKINGThe Museum of Making is our exciting £16.4m project to redevelop The Silk Mill,

the site of the world’s first factory built in 1721, to create an inspirational new

museum. It will breathe life back into the building, revealing the whole building to

the public for the very first time. It has a truly innovative approach – to actively

involve the people of Derby in physically making the Museum itself, introducing

manufacturing once again to the site of the world’s first factory.

It will support the city’s strategy to promote civic pride, increase aspirations,

improve skills of the local workforce and develop a strong tourism and leisure

offer for residents and visitors alike.

Inspired by the Makers of the Past Telling the stories of Derby’s

heritage of making through our

significant collections of making

and social history. We aspire to

have 100% of collections

publically accessible.

Inspired by the Makers of TodayActive involvement of the

community in redesigning and

developing The Silk Mill spaces

through the citizen curator

approach piloted during the

Re:Make project.

Empowering the Makers of the Future Inspiring people to see themselves

as the next generation of

innovators, makers and creators

and aspire to careers in local

manufacturing companies, thus

helping to meet the recognised

skills gap.

The Museum of Making has three themes:

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Mantel Clock, 1806, George Vulliamy

During 2015-16 the ground floor of The Silk

Mill was open 2 days a week to the public.

This development work includes designing

the building and its exhibitions, testing out

events and activities, researching, cleaning

and recording our collections, developing

the business plan and fundraising.

This is a £16.4m project funded by the

HLF, Arts Council, Derby City Council and a

range of trusts, foundations, corporate and

individual donors and it will open in 2020.

Sharing stories at The Silk Mill

Working with collections on the Hub at The Silk Mill 15

DEVELOPING THE BUSINESSDerby Museums continues its enterprising

approach to diversifying income and

developing staff skills to create a more

resilient organisation. In 2015-16 we

continued to increase our earned income

by developing our fundraising, marketing,

retail, catering and commercial events.

Amy Simcox - Fundraising and Development Coordinator

This year has been a great year for

fundraising and we would like to thank

every person who has chosen to support

Derby Museums. Whether it is a pound

in the donation box, or a company

choosing to hire one of our spaces, we

would not be able to deliver everything

we do, without your support.

Buy a Bird at the Museum and Art Gallery

The Grand Tour exhibition launch16

BUY A BIRDThis year we launched our first individual giving scheme

‘Buy a Bird’ inspired by the bird collection in our new

nature gallery. For a minimum donation we offered people

the opportunity to ‘Buy a Bird’ in the name of their choice

to decorate the walls of the Museum and Art Gallery and

show their love for Derby Museums. So far we have sold

over 100 birds and raised over £6000 with many people

now renewing for a second year.

We held an event in June for our supporters

to celebrate the fundraising achievement.

We were amazed by the feedback we had from people

who had bought a bird for so many different reasons but

the love for Derby Museums was shared by everyone.

CONSOLILDATED INCOME AND EXPENDITURE YEAR TO MARCH 2016

INCOME

Arts Council England £399,000

Derby City Council £1,136,000

Donations £41,000

Income from Trading £139,000

Learning £20,000

Grants, Trusts & Foundations £340,000

Other £20,000

£2,095,000

EXPENDITURE

Commercial Trading Costs £103,000

Governance Cost £7,000

Staff Costs £1,181,000

Depreciation (non cash) £48,000

Premises £134,000

Supplies & Services £17,000

DCC Support Services £82,000

Marketing £49,000

Development £105,000

Exhibitions £25,000

Professional Fees £66,000

Learning £40,000

IT £30,000

Bank Charges £1,000

Training & Travel £34,000

Conservation £4,000

£1,926,000

‘I am pleased my small donation will go towards

raising money for the activity programmes. It is a great idea to raise

money by naming a bird’

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CORPORATE EVENTS2015/2016 has seen us widening our

corporate offer, to include venue hire,

corporate entertaining (including a

sell-out Christmas party night) corporate

volunteering and sponsorship opportunities.

We have redeveloped some of our

previously under used rooms, to create

even more unique spaces to hire and have

also launched our corporate partnership

scheme which allows companies work

with us for a year.

These changes coupled with a fantastic

customer focused service has seen an

increase in our corporate income by 150%.

We continue to work closely with our

corporate community to ensure we

can deliver what they need, and are

excited to work within such a supportive

business community.

Joseph Wright Cromford Paintings reveal at the Museum and Art Gallery

Wedding at The Silk Mill18

Nicola Raybone - Retail Supervisor

“The improvement to Pickford’s House

Shop has also given us the opportunity

to expand and grow our retail offering

at this site through new product ranges

resulting in a more diverse offering and

greater choice. The response from our

visitors both onsite and via social media

has been fantastic and we are already

seeing a positive impact financially. “VENUE HIREWe have continued to expand the

number and variety of events held at

The Silk Mill from craft fairs to comedy

events. This year saw us successfully host

our first wedding which has led to further

bookings and growing demand for Derby

Museums as a unique wedding venue.

RETAILOver the past year the retail offering has been

through a number of changes. One significant

development being the planning and delivery

of a brand new retail space at Pickford’s House.

The Brewhouse Shop has enhanced the visitor experience

dramatically, not only offering a wonderful spacious place to

pick up that all important souvenir but visitors can now exit

the house directly to the beautiful gardens through the shop.

Pickford’s House Christmas Shop

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MAKING HISTORY WITH OUR COMMUNITYDerby Museums puts public participation at its heart. Our museums

help people think feel and do.

• The Derby Makers helped to support young people learn about

electronics and coding in Code Club, facilitated visitors to access the

laser cutter in the workshops and manned their very popular

rope maker for Maker Faire.

• Nature Ambassadors engage with visitors about the natural

history collection in the notice nature feel joy gallery, explain

the co-production method to visitors when describing how the

gallery was produced and learn about the collections to develop

more in depth knowledge to pass on to visitors.

• Pickford’s House Ambassadors share their passion for our

beautiful Georgian town house with our visitors, bringing the

house to life with their insights into the history of the building

and its fascinating occupants.

• The exhibition Shellshock was created with Headway Derby, an

organisation which supports people with brain injuries, their

families and carers. Participants responded to World War One taking

inspiration from art, poetry, photographs and letters to create work

which resonates with their own experiences of head injury.

Derby Makers at Derby Mini Maker Faire

Work from Shellshock exhibition20

Daniel Martin - Curator of Making

“This year we launched a co-production

project to support the Eroica Britannia

vintage cycling festival at Bakewell with

the Velocipathy exhibition at Haddon

Hall. We partnered up with Bike It Derby,

a scheme run by Sustrans and Derby City

Council to help jobseekers in the city

access sustainable transport to be able to

get to and from work. During their time

with us they selected the objects, picked

out the key themes, learned how to use

3D software to design the exhibition,

learned how to use workshop equipment

including the laser cutter and CNC

machine, and built the exhibition from

scratch to their own designs. When

we say learned, we mean as much

from each other as from the museum

staff who, in turn, learned from the

jobseekers. The end result was a hugely

popular exhibition that spent a month

on display at Haddon Hall before

being re-installed at The Silk Mill. The

other outcome that is unique to the

co-production approach was a job.

Several of the jobseekers went on to

employment as a result of the project.”

Velocipathy exhibition at Haddon Hall

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LEARNING IN DERBY MUSEUMSDerby Museums provides relevant and meaningful

learning experiences - connecting people with

collections and enabling lifelong learning.

The celebration of making, informs the public programming

across the sites. Young Makers and Let’s Make at The Silk Mill

allows our audiences the chance to explore their curiosity

and develop their confidence and skills in a social and

historical environment.

We hosted TEDxDerby 2015 at The Silk Mill – a space for curious

minds to discuss the theme “Remade”. We co-produced the

Institute of Engineering’s Robot Triathlon 2015, supplementing

the competition with family friendly robotics activities designed

to engage younger audiences as part of British Science Week.

The fourth Derby Mini Maker Faire was another

highlight of the programme, doubling in size to include

a large Maker Showcase marquee, headlined by maker

Johnny White and his Human Ice and Fire Machine.

We held the first Future Museums Week – including

the first Future Museums Symposium. These events

brought researchers and critical thinkers to the Museum,

connecting audiences with contemporary debates.

The Museums at Night event was a live streamed

taxidermy demonstration providing a memorable

experience for our visitors.

From Family Fridays to Art Hubs, and Handling Nature

to Tots Make and Do there are so many ways for

families to creatively respond to our collections.

Young Maker at The Silk Mill

Adventures in the Stone Age school session at the Museum and Art Gallery22

SCHOOLSThe number of facilitated sessions

delivered has almost doubled on the

previous year, and several new sessions

were added to the programme.

Our projects have been delivered with,

schools, colleges and universities, and

with organisations including

Rolls-Royce, the Royal Aeronautical

Society, the Institution of Engineering and

Technology, Codasign Digital Workshops,

and the Derbyshire Education and

Business Partnership.

Derby Museums also regularly participate

in annual events such as The Big Bang Fair,

Kids in Museums - Takeover Day and Just

Imagine… Working Here.

Within developing the Museum of

Making, the education and learning

provision has been reinvented as the

Institute of STEAM. This puts the A of

the arts into STEM (Science, Technology,

Engineering and Mathematics) It better

expresses the breadth of cross-disciplinary

thinking and working that takes place in

the real world.

Derby Mini Maker Faire 2015

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VOLUNTEERINGGemma Hopkins - Co-production Volunteer and Programme Coordinator

“Volunteering in Derby Museums

is based on a mutual relationship.

People give their time freely to benefit

the museum, in return we provide a

supportive, fun environment where

volunteers can learn new things, make

friends and give back to the community.

Our volunteers give their time for a

broad spectrum of reasons, many

juggling volunteering with busy lives.

We have opportunities that offer

flexibility, including longer-term, regular

commitments, short-term project based

opportunities, remote volunteering

opportunities (where volunteers can give

their time from home) and even ‘micro

volunteering’ opportunities for those that

have just hours or even minutes to spare.

In early 2016 we trialled our first ‘remote’

volunteering role in support of the ‘Maker

Voices’ project. Volunteers were recruited

to transcribe interviews between Maker

in Residence, Daniel Lingham and local

Derbyshire Makers. Volunteers visited

The Silk Mill once to meet the team and

receive training on transcription software,

then carried out transcriptions from the

comfort of their own homes. Remote

volunteering could help us to broaden our

reach in terms of volunteers from further

afield (we could eventually have an

international team of volunteers!) but may

also be another way for us to offer truly

flexible volunteering opportunities.

We also held our very first corporate

volunteering experience when a team

from Premier Inn hotel came to The Silk

Mill to help us paint the space, care for

some of our objects share their ideas for

The Museum of Making.

Our volunteers are at the heart of the

museum. They are the Us in Museum.”

PwC volunteers at Pickford’s House

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Song Thrush specimens

As part of the notice nature feel joy

gallery, we commissioned ethical

taxidermist, Jazmine Miles-Long to

create a study of two Song Thrushes.

One shows the complete specimen

while the other is partially exposed

revealing the inner structure

created by the taxidermist.

John Whitehurst III apprentice notebook

This notebook formerly belonged to

the Derby clockmaker John Whitehurst

III and was subsequently used by one

of his apprentices. The notebook

contains descriptions and drawings of

clock movements, as well as recipes

for gilding and types of solder, giving

a fascinating insight into the world of

clock making in the 19th century.

Master Fane

We welcomed the loan of

George Romney’s portrait of

Master Thomas Fane and his

Dog. This portrait was shown

alongside Joseph Wright of

Derby’s painting of The Wood

Children at Pickford’s House, in a

special exhibition that explored

the Georgian experience

of childhood.

NEW ARRIVALS

Wooden Chalice and paten

This wooden chalice and

paten was carved from beams

of the old St Alkmund’s Church

demolished in 1844. These items

had originally belonged to a

family in Limerick and had found

their way into the collection of

the Representative Church Body

Library in Dublin before being

offered to Derby Museums.

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DERBY MUSEUMS IN NUMBERS

£168,282commercial sales

volunteer hourscash donations

8,214£26,345

3sites

6,748new objects

shown

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children visitors

295

£16.5m

300,000Years since The Silk Mill Age of The Silk Mill

Investment in Derby Silk Mill - Museum of Making

years age of the oldest object

visitors88,440

22,597

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The Strand | Derby | DE1 1BSwww.derbymuseums.org

@derbymuseums facebook.com/derbymuseums

OUR PRINCIPAL FUNDERS ARE:

Other supporters include Alan Evans Memorial Trust