Post-it notes, big pens and paper

An early Tuesday morning meeting with Tracey Johnson, our Prosper business support advisor got off to a good start with a strong cup of tea. Tracey had been matched with us as we wanted some help to develop our marketing strategy.

Tracey already had some knowledge of Derby Museums so we were able to get straight into sharing our business plan's aims and objectives over the next four years.

We are in the process of redeveloping the Silk Mill as the Museum of Making, a £17m project, to create a new museum that will be uniquely co-produced by local people and will inspire the next generation of innovators, makers and artists.

We also have some significant revenue funding challenges and need to prioritise diversifying our income sources and raising funds for an endowment to help move towards a more sustainable future for our museums.

In true Derby Museums’ style we got to work with big pens, paper and Post-it notes and started to create an 'orbit diagram' to identify our priorities and the key steps on the way to achieving them. It was a great way to start to visualise this and Tracey left us to continue to work on this and discuss and share internally before we next meet.

Creative United’s Prosper is a business support programme designed specifically for arts organisations, museums and libraries. Masterclasses, workshops and webinars covering a range of topics are being held across the country and are open to all — find out more and book your place.

Image courtesy of Derby Museums.