The Hastings Council Museum Committee convened to discuss the museum's recent activities and future plans, focusing on visitor engagement, collections management, and community outreach. The committee unanimously agreed to accept the Museum Update Report and the Collections Report, recommending their approval by the Cabinet. These reports covered a range of topics, including visitor statistics, exhibitions, acquisitions, and disposals.

Museum Update Report

The committee voted to accept the Museum Update Report and recommend its approval by the Cabinet. The report highlighted strong visitor numbers and successful events and schools programmes. Key projects mentioned were Plants Make Place and Fixing Our Broken Planet, both exploring climate themes.

The Plants Make Place project explores the relationship between plants, place, and climate change, involving local schoolchildren in creative and educational activities. A key resource in the project is the Connold Archive, a collection of glass plate negatives taken around 1900 by Edward Connold, a Hastings grocer. These images of local plants and shells serve as both artistic and scientific records of the area's natural history over a century ago.

The dinosaur gallery has reopened, and upcoming events at the museum include a community market and Trans Pride. Two new curatorial trainees have joined, and the museum is now host to two beehives.

As part of its National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) work¹, the museum is engaging underrepresented communities through initiatives like the Community Panel, Refugee Buddy Project, Queer History Collective (exhibition planned for April 2026), The World According to Ore and the reinterpretation of the Natural History Gallery. Outreach activities include supermarket pop-ups, and plans for location-based storytelling.

Current exhibitions include Agatha Christie: Queen of Crime, Another Sussex by Figment Arts, and How to Read a Book, which explores neurodiversity, language, writing and memory. Volunteers remain essential to the success of the museum, with some conservation work now visible to visitors. Recent improvements at the museum include building repairs and a shop upgrade to offer refreshments to improve visitor experience and encourage visitors to stay for longer.

Richard Street, a member of the Museum Association, asked if the VE Day 80 exhibition will make clear that VE Day was not the end of the Second World War and that fighting continued until the Japanese surrendered on VJ Day. The Museum and Collections Manager, Katherine Buckland, said that she believes the display does make this clear but will amend it if necessary.

Steve Peak noted how much the vegetation had changed throughout Hastings over his lifetime, with some areas changing from open spaces to covered in trees and bushes. He suggested that photos of now and then could be used to demonstrate to school children how those areas and the vegetation has changed in Hastings. Katherine Buckland said she had already started discussing which photographs could be used for outreach events and will take the suggestion into consideration.

Councillor Amanda Jobson, Ageing Champion, asked if more posters and advertisements could be put up locally to promote the museum and local culture. Katherine Buckland said that generic museum posters are up in some of the digital bus stop sites, but this can be looked at further.

Councillor Tony Collins, Charity Committee Chair, asked if a faith based exhibition had been considered, as the local interfaith forum is very active and there is a lot of faith based history in the town going back centuries. Katherine Buckland replied that there are monthly programming meetings to discuss proposals, and this could be added to the list for consideration. Steve Peak noted that the 200th anniversary of the founding of St Leonards was coming up in March 2028, and asked that an exhibition on this topic be considered.

Collections Report

The committee voted to accept the Collections Report and recommend its approval by the Cabinet. The Museum and Collections Manager introduced the report to update the committee on collections care, access, acquisitions, loans, and objects being considered for disposal.

The museum has begun rehousing the Connold glass plate negatives and will soon audit and digitise a 1970s–80s slide collection by Barry Funnell, thanks to funding from the Museums Association. Work continues auditing items in the Upper Durbar Hall and items stored at The Keep², with the location of over 450 paintings and photographs now confirmed following regular officer visits to The Keep. An up-to date inventory of all items held at The Keep is being created alongside a review of the condition of items in the inventory.

The local studies room remains well-used, with discussions underway to improve access, potentially through digitisation or in-gallery displays. Recent acquisitions include a marble clock gifted to an engineer by Thomas Brassey and an archive on the Hastings Town Band. Some items, like damaged farming tools and a deteriorated school honours board, are proposed for disposal.

The museum also has one item on loan to Chatsworth and is working to verify items loaned to the Fishermen's Museum.

Councillor Trevor Webb said that the cabinet should raise any concerns regarding items at The Keep with East Sussex County Council as a matter of priority. Katherine Buckland replied that The Keep have been helpful in providing access to items to update the inventory, however, it is a process that takes some time. Steve Peak added that The Keep originally promised to provide a copy of the inventory of items held on behalf of Hastings.

Community Panel Update

Lorna Hamilton-Brown, Lead Panel Member of the HMAG Community Panel, expressed an interest in how the panel will collaborate with the committee to ensure that work isn't duplicated. The panel represents a wide range of communities, including queer, disabled, and economically marginalised groups and will bring new perspectives.

Lorna praised outreach initiatives that bring museum experiences into the community, and explained that the panel have discussed how to make the study room more accessible. It was also noted that many of the panel were unaware of the Hastings Museum Association, but the panel want to increase awareness of the association locally and help promote it.

Councillor Paul Barnett suggested extending an invite to other members of the panel to attend future committee meetings and asked if details of the panel members could be shared with the committee. Katherine Buckland confirmed that information about the panel will be on the museum website soon.

Museum Association Update

Richard Street gave an update on behalf of the Museum Association.

There has been an increase in membership applications and it was suggested at a previous meeting that a display could be setup in the museum to raise awareness of the association and its long history.

Recent events included a popular Robert Tressell walk, and a well-attended talk on Fairlight in wartime. Upcoming events include a public talk on pets in World War 2 by Dr Hilda Kean on June 28, and a members-only walk in Alexandra Park in July.

More events are planned, with details available on the association website and Facebook page.