Tyne & Wear Museums and Tyne & Wear Archives Service to merge
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Tyne & Wear Museums, the museum service managing 12 venues across Tyne & Wear, and Tyne & Wear Archives Service, the record office for Newcastle upon Tyne, Sunderland, Gateshead, South Tyneside and North Tyneside, are to merge from April 2009 to provide a single joint service across Tyne & Wear.
The two services are currently governed by separate joint local authority committees with Newcastle City Council as the lead authority for Museums and Gateshead Council for Archives.
The merger of the two services will bring together a wide range of expertise in collections management and interpretation, and will enable the further development of the resources held by the museums and archives. Both organisations already share headquarters at Discovery Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne.
It will also unite extremely important collections that have been designated as being of national importance.
Councillor John McElroy, chairman of the Tyne & Wear Archives Committee, says:
"This is a logical step which will ensure the best possible use of what is a valuable historic resource.
Museums are all about sharing and celebrating our history with the public - something we do rather well in Tyne and Wear. By amalgamating with the archives service, we can perhaps open the way for our written history to play a more prominent role in the telling of the story of our region."
Newcastle City Council executive member for culture, leisure and customer services councillor Pauline Allen says:
"This is a major step forward for these two excellent and vital services that do such a great job of looking after and showing off Tyne and Wear's rich heritage."
The new joint organisation intends to deliver quality services to the whole community through the existing network of museums and galleries.
Alec Coles, director of Tyne & Wear Museums, says:
"This is about improving public services, and whilst it is a significant event for both organisations, it is even more so for our users who can now expect a fully integrated approach. Both organisations are concerned with preserving our heritage and making it accessible to as many people as possible. We are looking forwards to working together and to learning from each other."
Liz Rees, chief archivist of Tyne & Wear Archives Service says:
"Archives haven’t benefited from the extra money that has been invested in museums in recent years. We now look forward to this opportunity to raise the profile of our service in partnership with our museum colleagues."