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Money the root of all evil
by Robert Forshaw
I have been reading the replies to this question of limitations and opportunities of museums theatr and i have to say it is encouraging that we have so many people willing to fight passionatley for what we all do in some shape or form.
From my prospective money has to be the first limitation to anything we do. Although we are in a heritage centre, we are all employed by a local council, which gives me the budget to spend each year on our programme. Their focus is not on Museums Theatr its on effectively spending the money they have from government and from local population of Armagh wh have all paid tax to the council which goes into the big pot to be spent each year. So we have to run our Historical interpretation programme like a business. Year budget spends, monthly checks on spending, overtime limitations, stafffing wages etc all seem like a drag to me but it has to been done. And then we have to generate a pretty good total income from the programmes extra curricular activites, meaning our corporate entertainment aspects and external/outreach work has to pay its way. But despite all this hassle every year to fight for adequate funds to run the programme, we have proved to a certain degree that we are worth the money our council spend on us. With out our involvement in the education programme, there wouldn't be one, visitor surveys gave a resounding 75% would not have wanted to see the educational activity if there had been no historical interpretation. We are bringing in more money through things we do outside normally hours then the education programme in the centre. And because we are so heavily involved on all aspects of our towns tourism we have developed a reputation for our employers as doing something positive to raise the image of our town. All this through interpretation and theatre.
The truth is that although fighting for budget is a limitation it is also one of the major opportunities of museum theatre.
For us we are wanting to develop a special needs programme with in our centre to engage with those people and children who have disabilities and learning difficulties, its an area that we think museum theatre could greatly benefit others in learning through fun.