Further information
Chief Executive's Report
It is a pleasure to report that we have again increased the visitor numbers of both our free and paying visitors. Over all four museums and galleries we had 531,135 visitors representing a 9% increase from last year and this is with the Yorkshire Museum being closed for 5 months of the year.
The focus of our year has been the major refurbishment of the Yorkshire Museum and developing our partnership with the British Museum. The joint acquisition of the Vale of York Hoard gave a boost to the visitor numbers when it was displayed for the first time ever just before the museum closed. The display helped to raise the £30,000 which was our contribution to the purchase price of £1,082,000. We are very grateful for all the people who generously gave to the appeal.
When the Yorkshire Museum closed in November, and the collection put in store, we arranged with the British Museum to display 40 of our most important medieval objects to being exhibited in Treasures from Medieval York exhibition. This was the first time ever that another museums collection had been specifically featured at the British Museum and it attracted a huge amount of publicity and interest.
The Letting in the Light project cost just over £2 million and consequently the annual accounts for this year show a greater turnover than previous years. We were also very lucky to receive a generous donation for York Art Gallery which we will invest in a capital project in the next few years if we can raise matching funds. Those reading our accounts should take note that the large increase in reserves results mainly from these atypical sources of income given for specific purposes.
Our other important projects were at York Castle Museum where we opened the York Castle Prison experience in July interpreting for the first time the actual history of the building itself as an 18th century debtors prison and the Gallery of Pots at York Art Gallery. Both projects help stimulate visitors to keep coming to see what's new in our venues.
We were delighted that the previous year's refurbishment of the South Gallery at York Art Gallery received a York Design Award for the Conservation category. And we were also delighted to be awarded the Event of the Year for The Grand Tour in York at the White Rose Best Tourism Awards.
Our work is only possible because of the support we are given by the City of York Council and our other supporters. We are grateful for the ongoing support from the Arts Council Yorkshire whose yearly grant makes possible the exhibition programme at York Art Gallery and the artist's commissions at York St Mary's. The contribution from MLA's Renaissance in the Regions is increasingly crucial as it underpins much of the development of the learning and curatorial work that is vital in how we develop the public engagement programme.