Job Vacancies

Could you advise the Cromwell Museum on Audience Development for the Future?

The Cromwell Museum Trust is seeking to appoint an Audience Development Consultant with proven experience of working with museums and/or heritage organisations, to help research and develop a new audience development strategy for the museum.

Aims:

The Cromwell Museum has been through a successful period of change over the last decade, from becoming an independent museum, undergoing major refurbishment, to successfully raising its audiences to the highest levels in over 25 years. It is now in the process of starting a major expansion project beyond its existing premises. The Cromwell Museum Trust is therefore seeking to procure the services of an Audience Development Consultant who will carry out a comprehensive audience development review for the museum. This will have the following elements:

• Producing a thorough review of the Museum’s existing and potential audiences; identifying key segments which successfully engage and those which can be developed. This is to widen engagement and participation in the Museum’s programmes.
• Looking at the potential for expanding these audiences as part of the justification to stakeholders and funders for an expansion of the existing Museum.
• Identifying key audience segments for support to guide our marketing and communications and fundraising strategies.
• Creating an Audience Development Strategy with Museum staff for short, medium, and long-term objectives for increasing and diversifying audiences to the Museum, and a focused plan for developing the audience to increase financial sustainability and community engagement.

Business Objectives:

Developing and widening audience participation will contribute to the successful achievement of the charitable aims of the museum and ensure that the museum and the heritage it represents stays relevant and engaging for present and future generations of visitors.

A sophisticated and targeted audience development approach for support will enable financial sustainability by building a supporter base of enthusiastically engaged individuals.

To assist with this objective, we are seeking to expand the Museum beyond its current tiny size to improve and expand our displays, accommodate more visitors, provide better visitor facilities, and help diversify our income streams. Part of this study will be to look at potential audiences to justify this expansion.

Deliverables:

By 1 March 2025, the Audience Development Consultant will have provided the Museum’s Curator with a review of the museum’s current users and non-users; what realistic targets for growth might be with an expanded museum, and a comprehensive activity action plan aimed at widening audience participation in the short, medium and long terms.

The plan should incorporate:

• Identifying groups/segments who currently visit the museum, and those who do not.
• Identifying which visitor groups/audience segments can be encouraged to use the museum more regularly, and which new audiences brought in to use our services.
• Prioritizing target groups/segments, proposing actions to encourage visits from specific target audiences who are under-represented in our current audience. with short, medium, and long-term goals in mind.
• Looking at the potential for growth in audiences for an expanded Cromwell Museum as part of our development project and helping inform this project by giving us a clearer understanding of who might come to visit, what their needs might be, and how we might go about meeting these needs effectively. This will be used as part of the justification to external funders and stakeholders for the museum’s expansion.

Measurement

The museum will have a Strategy with achievable objectives and an activity plan with KPIs aimed at increasing audience participation in the short, medium, and long term to drive visitor engagement and the charity forward. It will also have a realistic proposal for growth to help justify the expansion project.

Price

The fee for the proposed work has been set at a total of £6000 inclusive of VAT, all expenses and any expenditure on any stakeholder or public events. We envisage this work to incorporate desk research, consultation with internal and external stakeholders, public consultation in person and online. This will be in collaboration with the Museum’s Curator and its Learning and Community Officer.

Funding for this project is from a grant from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, delivered in association with Huntingdonshire District Council.

Timeline and Applications

Anyone wishing to apply to be considered for this contract should submit a CV setting out their previous experience in this area, and a letter of application explaining clearly what they would bring to this project and how they would go about delivering it.

These should be submitted by 5pm on Monday 1 July 2024. Interviews for potential candidates will be held on Friday 19 July.

Applications for this contract should be submitted to the Museum’s Curator, Stuart Orme, by email to sorme@cromwellmuseum.com. Any queries, or requests for an informal chat regarding this opportunity, should be directed by this email address.