Further information
Chief Executive's Report
Janet Barnes - Chief ExecutiveThe highlight of 2010 was the re-opening of the Yorkshire Museum after a major £2.2 million refurbishment. We were very keen that the people of York had the first look at the newly transformed Yorkshire Museum so, with Local Link magazine, we organised a 'Golden Ticket' day for local residents which was held before the official opening. This attracted over 2,300 city residents. The official opening, on Yorkshire Day, August 1, was led by Welcome to Yorkshire's Chief Executive Gary Verity, and we were pleased to welcome over 900 visitors during the afternoon.
We are very grateful to all our funders who made the project possible including local trusts and foundations, with major funding from the Monument Trust, Garfield Weston Foundation, Foyle Foundation, DCMS/Wolfson Fund, and City of York Council. Our Development Group, made up of local people, held its first major fundraising event, The Yorkshire Dinner in May 2010 and four of the region's top chefs, Andrew Pern, Stephanie Moon, James Mackenzie and Michael Hjort created a menu for one evening only, raising £17,500 for the Yorkshire Museum. The Development Group continue to meet and are currently working on plans to help fund our ambitions for York Art Gallery.
Over all four museums and galleries we welcomed 641,160 visitors compared to 531,135 visitors in the previous year, representing a 21% increase. This was largely due to the success of the reopening of Yorkshire Museum and the very popular David Hockney exhibition of Bigger Trees Near Warter, at York Art Gallery. However York Castle Museum remains our most popular museum and is consequently very important to York Museums Trust's overall financial stability.
Although we spend a lot of time and energy to ensure financial resilience in these changing times, it is the support that the City of York Council that provides a solid and reliable base for us to build on. Much of our time is necessarily spent in applying for funding from many sources and the Council's support is essential to our success in attracting funds to the city from many sources to enhance the museums and collections that we care for on behalf of the people of York. One of the most important funding streams is Renaissance in the Regions from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. This funding will be changing from 2012 so we wait to hear how this possible loss of funding will affect us. Certainly it will leave a large gap in our resources. We will need to be increasingly creative in how we deliver our services in the future.