Hi Chris,
I was going to leave this to the wisdom of others, but then I had a look at your website and spent the morning idly thinking about how I'd go at it. The things that ocurred to me are:
- Obviously the core of it is who are you trying to attract? Are you expecting thatching geeks to beat a path to your door, or is it more likely to be tourists and people who already live in the area? If the latter VisitEngland has done some interesting work getting tourist businesses and attractions to do marketing in a more joined up way – not your bit of the world but it might be worth looking up how they have approached this. Think of yourself as a day out: if someone coming 15 miles from Dundee is there a decent pub or teashop? Is the rest of the town nice? Can their five-year-old play on swings? Realistically many people won't become just for the museum so devote a page to considering yourself as a wider package. ( Anecdote: the weirdest museum I ever encountered was a strange collection of fairground organs entirely stranded in miles of desolate totally flat fenland. The sense of the surreal on encountering this place was probably in itself a selling point - even emptiness can be appealing.)
- I note you have thousands of things but I'm not sure that I'd start with the complicated databases as a priority. Instead I'd concentrate on your star objects. Don't lead your collections pages with dense text plus 'oh look we've got a milking stool' - very few people will read it. Find 10 objects that have got a really cracking story or interesting personality associated with them and lead with those. Culture 24 are good at this – have a look at their objects of the week for example eg. http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/art554921-harry-potter-deathly-hallows-motorbike-sidecar Also take a look at this recent BBC4 documentary on the history of cottages http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07c645b/dan-cruickshank-at-home-with-the-british-1-the-cottage - again, a really well framed bit of storytelling transforms a lovely old village into a really compelling piece of history - and some soot in the eaves of a house becomes riveting stuff once you realise its significance. No one is interested in a milking stool in itself, but they might be if you help them imagine the life around it. What stories do the things you have tell about people's changing lives and aspirations?
The good thing about this approach is that you can fairly quickly create something that makes your museum much more attractive without years of spade work re-evaluating thousands of objects. You may want that as a longer term aim, but do the exciting bits first!
- It would be quite a good idea to redevelop the website and if you've got a few thousand pounds there are some good one-man bands around who could do that within a fairly small budget.
- And basic but vital - get your social media showing up on your website, again network with similar attractions in your area, Interact with others don't just broadcast and use volunteer power to spread news of your existence.
Those are the first things that spring to mind – very interested to see what ideas other people come up with.
Best wishes
Kate
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