2025 AGM Chairman’s Statement from Michael Wade

Salisbury Museum is committed to welcoming, inspiring and entertaining our diverse audiences by telling the story of Salisbury and the surrounding area – which has been a cradle of human achievement for over half a million years.

The Museum acts as a catalyst to understanding and learning about English history, to appreciating what is so special and significant about this landscape, and the lives of people who shaped it – and who continue to do so.

Perhaps you will allow me to begin with a number of thanks and acknowledgements; first, of course, to my predecessor as chairman, Jon Turner, for his work and guardianship of the trustees. We have two long-serving Trustees retiring – John Perry and Simon Jackson – to whom we all wish to express our appreciation for their time and commitment to Salisbury Museum – you will be missed as Trustees although feel sure you will continue an ongoing association.

Salisbury Cathedral Chapter nominate an Observer for our Trustee meetings; the Museum has been fortunate to have Canon Ed Probert as that representative until his recent retirement – we look forward to welcoming his successor at some point and regard this as a very important relationship with the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury Cathedral and the Salisbury Museum.

Since I took over as your Chairman I have begun to work with Adrian Green and other trustees to refresh its membership, subject to your approval later in this meeting, as we shape a future group of trustees – my appreciation in advance  to Katie Blackwood, Lloyd Slater, Marcus Thorpe and Tom Wright. We will continue to build out this next group as we look forward to our developments.

David Edmonds will step down as Treasurer Trustee; Katie Blackwood will assume this role – and delighted to confirm David will continue to serve as a Trustee.

May I, at this point, mark our huge appreciation to our Director, Adrian Green, and his team; and, of course, to the many Volunteers here at the Museum who are fundamental to the success in delivering ‘the product’ and character of this special place.

For 2024, there are a number of key achievements to note:

• There is the completion of the ‘Past Forward’ project and opening of the new museum area on 13^th  July. Past Forward funders – especially the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Peter Bradshaw and Roger Wadey who have been most generous in their support.
• We have hosted a number of Exhibitions – especially: Fashioning Our World (10^th  February – 12 May) which looked at sustainable fashion – funded by the Museums Association Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund. Also, on Rex Whistler – The Artist and his Patrons (27^th  May – 29^th  September). And fascinating book by Nikki Frater ( available in the bookshop ).
• There have been some key events: the Festival of Archaeology over 27^th -28^th  July and Tom Holland delivering our annual fundraising lecture at the Methodist Church on 24^th  October entitled – From the Neolithic to the Novichok Attack.
• The museum passed its Visit England Visitor Attraction assessment with an overall score of 93%. The museum was described “as a true treasure trove for anyone fascinated by history, archaeology, and art… it perfectly blends local history and prominent exhibitions.”
• There have been a number of acquisitions during the year. These included exquisite engraved glass by Simon Whistler (gifted by his widow Maggie Faultless); and a Roman jewellery, tool and vessel hoard from Longbridge Deverill (The latter was acquired with grants from the ACE/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Headley Archaeological Acquisitions Fund). The Museum is, again, most grateful for these gifts.
• The museum secured a grant of £237,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund in the autumn for the Fashioning Our Future project which will include re-arranging the fashion stores and producing another exhibition based on the fashion collections.
• We had 30,542 visitors which was an excellent outcome despite being fully open for less than 6 months.

As we look ahead, there are some potentially hugely impactful projects we hope to begin working on over this coming year; to the south of the Museum there are a range of buildings in need of improvement and restoration. Adrian and the trustees have been considering how we might approach this and some significant strategic opportunities as a consequence of these changes.

We have been fortunate to have advice, once again, from Dmitri Martin; around you here this evening there are some display boards setting out some potential plans. In essence, it will be to restore the fabric of the buildings to the south area, to create some sympathetic modern structures, open up pedestrian access to Wyndham House behind us, and then enable some imaginative new gallery spaces both for permanent and temporary Exhibitions. Not least, an opportunity to display our amazing archive of Rex Whistler’s prolific works which we currently house in boxes here on site.

As these works take place, there is then scope to enable a far better and improved entrance approach to the Museum, perhaps glassing in the medieval archways, opening up a Reception Area to the left when entering the building. In turn, enabling an improved Shop area – and moving the Café to the present Exhibition area for a light and integrated culinary experience as the blocked windows are opened up once again.

I hope you will agree, this will become yet another exciting chapter for our Museum if we are able to deliver it.