South East Museums Development Programme: Cultural Partnerships Toolkit

“This document collates useful tools that have been tried and tested through the work of the Cultural Partnerships Officer role within the South East Museum Development Programme between 2012 and 2018. Supported by Arts Council England through Museum Development funding in its 2012 – 15 and 2015 – 18 programmes, this role has championed cross-cultural collaborative working and supported the significant change this requires.

In this programme of work, collaboration has not been an end in itself, but a means to achieving better outcomes in the real world: specifically to generate projects, relationships and ways of working that benefit museums across the South East in practical ways. Through activities supported by the CuItural Partnerships Officer role (successively played by Katerina Kremmida and Lucy Marder) museums have found new ways of fundraising, reinterpreted their collections in creative ways, built connections with new audiences and raised their profiles nationally and internationally, all through working in partnership.

Collaboration between organisations is often needed to address a complex challenge. This may be because the capabilities to resolve the issue aren’t found in a single organisation, or because the issue impacts on many organisations whose combined capacity can have a more powerful impact upon it.”

- South East Museums Development Programme