Image: Birmingham Museums Citizens’ Jury members (Birmingham Museums)
The initiative saw 28 local people selected to directly guide the future of Birmingham Museums Trust
Birmingham Museums Trust has revealed the results of its first Citizens’ Jury meeting.
The initiative was announced last year, and will see members of the local public directly involved in deciding the future direction of Birmingham’s museums.
Community interest company Shared Future was commissioned to run the process, which took place for the first time last Autumn.
It saw 5,000 letters sent to households across the Birmingham Metropolitan Area, from which 28 participants were randomly selected.
The participants who made up the jury were aged from 18 to 79. They met for 30 hours across three evenings online and three full days in-person.
The jury heard from 12 ‘expert’ commentators, made 3 exhibition visits, and shared their own opinions and lived experience.
It was convened to answer the question: ‘What does Birmingham need and want from its
museums, now and in the future; and what should Birmingham Museums Trust do to make these things happen?’
After 30 hours, the jury produced 11 roles of the museum’ and 20 recommendations covering funding and marketing, community engagement and collaboration, exploring diverse perspectives, and new audiences, accessibility and inclusivity.
A joint statement from the jury said: “At the beginning of this process we didn’t know what to expect. Many of us haven’t been to a museum in a long time, we didn’t know what Birmingham Museums Trust was about, and what it could mean to us. We were not engaged and did not feel close to our museums.
“As a result of the process, we feel more pride in our museums and the city.
Our museums need to update how they are perceived in Birmingham and on a national stage. The re-opened Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery is much more appealing, we hope to see this continued across the other sites and that the Trust makes sure the people are aware of the amazing things it has to offer and the process it has gone through.
“The voice of the museum is to some extent, the voice of the people, and we want everyone to hear us a mile coming.”
11 museum roles an 20 recommendations
The jury’s 11 key roles included its most popular, that museums “should be spaces for a variety of experiences. They should enable experiences that are educational and improve knowledge and experiences that are fun and entertaining and offer escapism.”
Of the jury’s 20 recommendations, its most popular was better promotion of the museums and their activities.
The jury suggested challenging the City Council’s planning rules that prevent the museums from doing promotion at its entrances, building the museums’ social media strategy to include influencers and short form videos, and increase the level of physical promotion, such as out-of-home advertising.
“We recognise it is unrealistic to do all these at the same time – there should be a phased approach,” the jury said.
The full report of the initiative, which includes all of the jury’s responses and a detailed account of the process, is available here.