Agenda item

A report from Tony Trehy, Head of Arts, Museums and Tourism, is attached.

Tony Trehy, Head of Arts, Museums and Tourism, submitted a report setting out an update in respect of the Centre since its opening in May 2014. The Bury Sculpture Centre was conceived as a cultural use for the Bury Library space vacated by changes in that Service. While it was given the separate identity of the Sculpture Centre, with its rationale drawn from Bury’s long term development of the Irwell Sculpture Trail, operationally, its identity is primarily a marketing tool. It operates entirely as an extension of the Art Museum spaces. All functions of staffing, programming, utilities/building operations are integrated with the existing Service arrangements for the Arts in Bury.

The physical changes to the library space were primarily reinstatement of architectural features especially the floor, decoration, gallery lighting and extension of security systems. This cost £75,000 from the Council’s capital programme and £26,000 from the Arts Council.

A Business Plan was prepared as part of the Arts Council bidding process and this can be made available to members on request, but the reality of operating the Centre means most sections of it are now out of date.

The report set out information in respect of the programme of exhibitions; finance; social media activity; and visitor numbers.

Questions and comments were invited from the Committee and the following issues were raised:

·         In response to a question concerning visitor numbers, the Head of Arts, Museums and Tourism explained it was difficult to give a breakdown between the Art Gallery and Sculpture Centre as a result of the numerous entrances to the building.

·         With regard to the cost of the initial exhibitions held it was explained that the only overspend related to the Contemporary Finnish Art, which was primarily due to a timing issue which resulted in a guest curator having to be used.

·         In response to a question relating to income generation, the Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Culture explained that it was difficult to quantify as the Centre was part of the overall cultural offer of the town centre. Operationally the centre only employs 4 front of house staff and has been successful in attracting international and external funding.

·         Councillors James, Briggs and Holt highlighted the international acclaim attributed to the centre and acknowledged it was still a relatively new facility in terms of income generation.

·         In response to a question concerning the measure of performance for the Sculpture Centre, the Head of Arts, Museums and Tourism explained that performance indicators were being developed.

·         In respect of visitor survey responses, the Head of Arts, Museums and Tourism acknowledged the relatively low number of responses. It was explained that plans to have touch screens for surveys were not practicable at the moment due to cost.

With regard to the planned exhibitions planned for 2016 it was confirmed that funding was largely in place. In response to a question from Councillor Gartside, the Head of Arts, Museums and Tourism confirmed that the only exhibition which would not be funded could be the Jake Dyer exhibition which could be a maximum cost of £10k. It was reported that should this be the case the cost would be managed within the overall budget