Reshaping Lancaster District’s Museums Offer: Consultancy Support Services

Lancaster City Council highly values its museums as part of the district’s unique heritage and culture, its visitor economy and its Place offer for those who live and work in the district. Nevertheless, it is recognised that the museums service needs to be improved and revitalised, creating an engaging audience focused offer whilst improving long term financial sustainability. To begin to address this, the City Council commissioned a major high level review of its museums and identified a number of options to develop the museums service for the future, building on the important contribution to the heritage and culture offer of the district.

Lancaster City Council currently has three museums all based in Lancaster city centre. Plans for Lancaster district are ambitious but both City and County Council face unprecedented fiscal challenges. Therefore, it is important to take active steps to improve the financial sustainability, value for money and positive impact of the museums offer, to safeguard and develop this as a part of the district’s visitor and community offer for the future.

Strengths of the service lie in the collections that are held; the prime location of the City Museum, in particular; and the district wide remit. Weaknesses include that permanent exhibitions are in urgent need of refreshment; physical access is poor; visitor numbers are low; collections storage is inadequate; and outreach and community involvement are not sufficiently taken up. The net annual operating costs of the current service must also be added as a significant weakness and potential risk to the museums service, given the Council’s pressing financial constraints. Nevertheless there are also opportunities that lie in the district’s growing visitor economy, Lancaster’s recently acquired status as one of England’s Heritage Cities, the uniqueness and value of the existing collections and the undeveloped potential for income.

On consideration of the report findings, the City Council committed to fully investigate a “Redesign of the museums service, taking a bolder, more challenging but strategic, long term approach towards use of cultural/ heritage assets, estates and collections; funding, investment and income; and management of museums in the modern, competitive world.”

The council is now looking for suitably qualified consultants to assist in assessing the feasibility of options arising from the high level review. To support the consultants appointed as a result of this commission, the Council will be able to provide property advice, market appraisal and business plan development support via services already procured.