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Chief Executive's Report

This last year has been a busy one for everyone at the Trust. Much time has been spent in preparing for projects that were launched in the early part of 2008. The work of the Trust encompasses a wide range of activities and responsibilities. Central to our work are the four main sites: York Castle Museum, York Art Gallery, Yorkshire Museum and Gardens and York St Mary's. We also care for the nationally important museum collections, which involves documentation, storage and conservation, and organise a learning programme for children and families. One initiative has been the launching of a Volunteers Scheme that has been a great success and we are planning to extend it over the coming years.

In addition we need to ensure that we are financially sustainable and the support we receive from the City of York Council as part of our core funding is crucial. Increasingly important is the funding from Renaissance in the Regions which has underpinned our educational and collection work since 2004. Given the positive outcome of the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review we are hopeful that this will continue in the years to come.

The Trust is financially stable and we are very happy to have been able to increase our reserves this year. However we recognise that we are operating in an increasingly competitive and demanding market and this year we invested in the Hospitium which has become the Trust's conference and venue hire business which will increase our income stream.

If we are to succeed in future years we will require further investment funding and capital investment for the museums and galleries in our care. Although we are able to generate some of this ourselves we will continue to seek funding from a wide variety of sources.