Sidmouth and Bridport Museums Open Doors Susan Eddisford Community Museums Officer, Devon [email protected].

Sidmouth and Bridport Museums

Open Doors

Susan EddisfordCommunity Museums Officer, Devon

[email protected]

Aims

• To enable Bridport and Sidmouth Museums to develop sustainable, alternative economic models allowing them to offer free admission to all visitors

• To further raise the strategic profile of museums along the Jurassic Coast

Funding

£9,000 for

• Marketing

• Retailing

• Income generation

• Project management (Sidmouth)

£10,000

• Guarantee against loss

Marketing

Retailing

Consultant advice on:

• Shopfittings

• Display

• Stock

• Pricing

Retailing

Income generation

Consultant recommended

• Donations box

• Signs

• Gift Aid

• Sponsorship

Results: Sidmouth Museum visitors

2008 2009

April 473 1647

May 575 1477

June 505 1528

July 848 2314

August 828 3429

September 427 1828

October 499 1098

Total 4,155 13,321

Results: Sidmouth Museum income

Ticket sales 08 Shop sales 08 Donations 08 Shop sales 09 Donations 09

April 373 203 0 404 454

May 367 172 212 472 592

June 397 189 57 291 665

July 673 303 121 392 563

August 556 406 131 743 929

September 640 208 212 386 727

October 363 232 199 387 701

Total £3,369 £1804 £932 £3,075 £4,631

Open Doors

“The support we’ve received made a huge difference because it’s given us a kick start to do things we were thinking about but didn’t know how to do or didn’t have the money for. Some of the things John Prescott, the retailing consultant, suggested were just WOW impact, such as the signage and what we buy for the shop – it made me braver. being a small museums we couldn’t implement everything but we moved along such a lot last year.”

Christine Bull, volunteer shop manager, Sidmouth Museum

Legacy

• Enthused volunteers

• Raised profile with trustees

• Interest from other museums

• Continuing success