Decision details

The Committee considered a report by the Museum Manager (circulated previously) regarding the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon Collections Development Policy.

The Museum Manager highlighted the following:

·       The Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon was an Accredited Museum. Museum Accreditation was a national scheme for maintaining and improving the quality of museums and is managed by Arts Council England.

·       Arts Council England required a number of policies and procedures to be in place.

·       The Collections Development Policy was required to follow a certain format and include specific wording as required by Arts Council England.

·       Although the Barnstaple and North Devon Museum Development Trust and its membership organisation the Friends of the Museum have a role in raising funds for and securing items for the collection, any donations received by this route were subject to the same decision-making process as any other donation to the Museum.

·       There had been no changes to the specific wording required by Arts Council England since the last policy approved in 2015; however the collecting and disposal priorities had been reviewed to limit further expansion of the collections. This was outlined in sections 4.1 – 4.13 of the policy.

·       The museum was embarking on a programme of collections rationalisation to free up space in the stores. The likely disposals arising from this will be of unaccessioned items (excavated pottery, items in the handling collection and uncollected loans). Further rationalisation will require a formal disposal process as outlined in the policy sections 5.1 – 5.3.

In response to questions, the Museum Manager advised the following:

·       The likely disposal of unaccessioned items included excavated pottery from the Barnstaple library site.  There were approximately 2,000 boxes. The Museum Development Trust was working with Devon County Council and the Arts Council England and it was anticipated that the number of boxes held would reduce by 95%.

RESOLVED that the Collections Development Policy 2021- 2026 for the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon be adopted.