Agenda item

To consider the Curator’s quarterly report.

The Curator presented her report and highlighted the following:-

Since October 2021 the Museum had extended its public opening to pre-Covid opening hours, Wednesday to Sunday with Tuesdays reserved for sessions for school groups and any other large groups or activities.

There were ongoing problems with the building and utilities particularly the heating, this underlined the need to move forward with development plans.  She said that some work would need to be carried out in the interim. 

The Castle was open but there had not been any events over the winter.  Unfortunately, the wedding booking had fallen through but this had nothing to do with the suitability of the Castle as a venue.

There was a minor correction in the list of acquisitions, the watercolour should be named the ‘Sun Inn’ not the ‘Swan Inn’ 

Snaping the Stiletto continued to be successful in raising awareness of women’s role in the district.  The ‘Radical Women of Saffron Walden’ guided walk had been turned into a self-guided leaflet. 

Other projects including the CV Walden and Lost Language of Nature were progressing, with the possibility of extra money from the Essex Cultural Diversity project for an artist commission to be the subject of an exhibition later in the year.

For income and visitor numbers Carolyn talked through the following information.

Museum recovery from Covid pandemic

Income and Visitor comparison for Q3 before and after

Income Figures are gross and shown rounded to the nearest £ 

For Q4 2021/22, a ‘donation by card payment’ option is now available on the till and card reader at the Welcome Desk.

The Curator noted the following:-

Although the visitor numbers were lower the total gross income was slightly higher than pre-pandemic.  She said this was down to a number of factors including the Museum taking card payments, the re-display and marketing of the stock, the loan boxes and the activities programme including the popular ‘Halloween at Night’ event and in the last quarter there had been a talk at Museum Shop Sunday by the local author Rachel Morris regarding her book called ‘The Museum Makers’.

A donation can now be made by card at the point of sale.

The number of users for the last quarter had slightly exceeded the set target. 

The Chair said that the magazine published in Stansted called ‘The Link’ had started to digitalise its content, he wondered if there would be some interest in the history of that magazine. 

In response to a question from the Chair the Curator said that there would be meetings about the Queens Platinum Jubilee set up by Saffron Walden Town Council.  The Museum would be involved with a small display of royal associated items and an activity pack.  Two items were of particular interest, a sample embroidery from the Coronation dress worn by the Queen which belonged to a local resident who had been employed by Norman Hartnell.  The embroidery featured emblems of the commonwealth countries and a signed book by the author was also included.  Secondly a local family from Wimbish had donated a straw plait crown, made by a member of their family who had been a local thatcher at the start of the Queens reign. 

The Chair thought that the regional press would be interested in these items. 

The Chair asked whether the Curator would consider doing something on education in the district, particularly between the wars as he said it could be of interest to residents and was a way of linking into the schools.