York Museums Trust

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York Museums Trust
Founded26 February 2002 (2002-02-26)
Founder Robin Guthrie, Michael John Allen, David E Rayner, R E Rushforth
DissolvedN/A
TypeCharity
Registration no.1092466
Purpose"Our Mission is to cherish the collections, buildings and gardens entrusted to us, presenting and interpreting them as a stimulus for learning, a provocation to curiosity and a source of inspiration and enjoyment for all."
Location
OriginsCreated by City of York Council to manage the city's museums and galleries
Area served
Yorkshire
ServicesOperating York's city-owned museums and galleries
Key people
Chairman Sir John Lawton
Chief Executive Kathryn Blacker
Employees
101 (as of 1 November 2020) [1]
Volunteers
352 (2016) [2]
Website www.yorkmuseumstrust.org.uk OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

York Museums Trust (YMT) is the charity responsible for operating some key museums and galleries in York, England. The trust was founded in 2002 to run York's museums on behalf of the City of York Council. [3] [4] It has seen an increase in annual footfall of 254,000 to the venues since its foundation. [5] In both 2016 and 2017, it saw its annual visitors numbers reach 500,000 people. [6]

Contents

History and operations

Middleham Jewel Middleham Jewel, obverse - hi-res YORYM 1991 43.jpg
Middleham Jewel

Funding

The Trust is primarily funded through the City of York Council and the Arts Council. The Trust also derives substantial revenue from admission charges and other income sources. Total funding and income for 2013/14 is expected to be £5.85 million. [21] [22]

On 4 November 2022 the Arts Council announced its continued support of York Museums Trust as a National Portfolio Organisation as part of the 2023-2026 investment programme. [23]

YMT's annual report for the City of York Council in 2023 highlighted that the Trust expected to make a loss of approximately £300,000 in the financial year 2022/23 because of the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Cost of Living Crisis on visitor figures, donations, and secondary spending at its venues. [24]

Governance

York Museums Trust is led by a CEO, supported by directors and other senior staff. They are responsible to the Trustees.

Directors of York Museums Trust
NameDates in postRole
Janet Barnes 2002–2015CEO
Mary Kershaw 2003-2009Director of Collections
Reyahn King 2015–2022CEO
Kathryn Blacker 2022–CEO


Trustees of York Museums Trust as of November 2020 [25]
NameDate AppointedRole
James Grierson2014Chair
David Andrews2014
Philip Ashton2017
Dr Angela Dean 2017
Mary Haworth2015
Prof Dianne Willcocks 2017Senior Independent Trustee
Dr Miranda Lowe 2020
Scott Furlong2020
Andrew Scott 2020
Councillor Simon Daubeney
Councillor Danny Myers
Keith Nesbitt
Adeeba Malik

COVID-19 pandemic

Sites

The trust runs four cultural venues and a garden.

The Yorkshire Museum

This is the historic county museum displaying collections inherited from the Yorkshire Philosophical Society and acting as a regional collecting museum. [38]

York Museum Gardens

The Museum Gardens are a botanical garden containing the Yorkshire Museum and St Mary's Abbey. [39]

York Castle Museum

The Castle Museum is a social history museum housed in two former prison buildings. [40]

York's Art Gallery has a large collection of paintings and an internationally important collection of studio ceramics. [41] In 2012 the trust obtained £7 million of funding for major refurbishment of the gallery. [42] Over 1000 nationally important paintings held by the Trust have been made available online as part of a cooperative project with the BBC and the Public Catalogue Foundation. [43] [44]

York St Mary's

York St Mary's is a contemporary art space in the deconsecrated church of St Mary's, Castlegate. [45] The first use of the space was a joint exhibition by a number of artists, but since 2005 St Mary's has hosted installations by individuals, which are changed on a regular basis. The first of these commissions, inspired by the medieval building itself, was a textile work by Caroline Broadhead called Breathing Spaces. This was followed by Echo, a work by Susie MacMurray. In 2012, Laura Belem created The Temple of a Thousand Bells, which used individually-made clear glass bells in a composition combining bell chimes with a narrative describing how a temple sinks into the sea, silencing the music of a thousand bells. [46] [47]

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