Get ready, because the first round of 2025 Capacity Builder grants are launching soon! Capacity Builder grants are designed to support individuals, teams, or museum collaborations in accessing training and continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities. In this blog, explore how the Museum of Gloucester, Glastonbury Abbey, and the Roman Baths successfully used their Capacity Builder grants last year. Gain inspiration and ideas for how your museum could benefit from a Capacity Builder grant in 2025!
The Museum of Gloucester (MOG) is responsible for over 4,000 human remains. However, staff were concerned about the skills gap in the care of human remains. With their Capacity Builder grant they commissioned Osteologist and Archaeological Scientist, Dr Sophie Beckett, to deliver a bespoke training course on the identification, handling and ethical care of human remains. Dr Beckett was an engaging trainer who introduced elements of fun to keep up the momentum across the five days. Two of the skeletal remains from the collection at MOG were used as case studies meaning several errors with labelling and packing were immediately resolved.
By partnering with The Wilson, and offering spaces to other museums in the county, the training had a regional impact. For many people, it was the first opportunity they’d had to meet their regional colleagues, and they were able to create new and strengthen existing working relationships.
Increased knowledge and confidence have led to a renewed commitment to improving the care of the human remains. Learning about the latest innovations and research ongoing in this field has been shared with senior leaders and will feed into future business plans, strategies and priorities. New detailed procedures, based in best practise, will be widely shared and will feed into the review of the Gloucestershire Archaeological Archives Standards.
This training was essential to supporting The MOG’s National Lottery Heritage Fund funded project From Store to Store: Uncovering Gloucester’s Archaeological Treasures, where they will be opening a city centre based Discovery Centre to review and rationalise archaeology collections.
Following a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey in 2024, the team at Glastonbury Abbey identified training as an area of development for their volunteer team. Using their Capacity Builder grant they organised a volunteer team visit to Cleeve Abbey, another historical monastic site in Somerset, and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter.
The Cleeve Abbey visit provided the opportunity to learn from another mediaeval scheduled monument and gain insights into different ways of working. The volunteer teams had the opportunity to learn about different areas of operations such as programming, retail and facilities. The visit has built links between two monastic abbey ruin sites in Somerset, enabling the sharing of knowledge, skills, resources and ideas. This may foster an opportunity to share services and explore a long-term partnership.
The visit to Royal Albert Memorial Museum was to learn about and observe public engagement and public programming. The museum relies on a large team of volunteers to support these operational areas which provided peer insights into different ways of working. This visit included a tour of the museum and a slide presentation about their volunteer team and public engagement.
The onsite learning and training experience helped build confidence, skills and new ideas, which will contribute to enhancing Glastonbury Abbey’s organisational resilience in the long term. In addition, this investment in the volunteer workforce made members feel valued and by recognising their contributions to the abbey.
The Roman Baths’ new Clore Learning Centre is currently in its third year of working with school groups. The Learning and Participation team wanted to explore how they could maximise the potential of the space and deliver memorable learning opportunities to visiting school and family groups to The Roman Baths.
Our Capacity Builder grant funded attendance to the 2024 GEM conference in Bristol for James Petrucco, Workshop Leader at The Roman Baths. From the conference he gained new ideas from the sector, learnt about best practice, and heard about different museums’ educational offers ranging from formal teaching sessions and working with home educators.
Working with three other Workshop Leaders who work with visiting school and education groups, as well as our two Community Engagement Officers, James shared some of the key messages from the conference to The Roman Baths’ Learning and Participation team to help embed his learning. The Roman Baths site as a whole is looking to update its interpretation, so using knowledge gained from the conference will also feed into how this should be developed ensuring school, family and children appropriate activity can be developed.
Feeling inspired? It’s time to turn your ideas into action! Applications for round one on open Monday 28 April, closing Monday 19 May. Applications for round two open Monday 1 September, closing Monday 29 September. Further information can be found on our website.