The museum used this as an opportunity for change and following a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s former Resilient Heritage Programme, began a programme of research, comparator studies, collection review and future feasibility in order to make the museum ‘fit for the future’.

Part of the ‘Fit for the Future’ programme was to assess the current business situation of WFM and they commissioned Tricolor to conduct an Options Appraisal on future business activities. The Options Appraisal provided a viable business model for the future, highlighting where income could be generated towards the operational needs, as a result of the substantial reduction in funding.

The deep financial challenges, the first task was to discover if there was a demand for the museum from the local community and understand the brand reputation of the museum, the barriers to access, the need within the town and how the museum could develop to complement this need. This was completed through thorough extensive face-to-face consultation and engagement, where we worked to get the opinions of all members of the community. This information was used to create short, medium and long-term recommendations for future for the museum.