Article - Kim’s streets ahead (Museums Sheffield)

IT was in 1990, while working on a project researching the history of Sheffield industry, that Kim Streets met the then curator of Kelham Island Museum.


“I asked if they needed any volunteers,” she says. “I’d loved visiting these kinds of places since I was a kid so it was something I wanted to do.”

Twenty-two years later she has just been appointed the new boss of Museums Sheffield.

It means the young history graduate who walked nervously in through those Kelham Island gates is now responsible for the city’s biggest art and educational attractions including Millennium Gallery, Graves Gallery, Weston Park museum and Bishops House. She gets paid these days, it should be stressed.

“It’s been quite a journey,” she says.

Indeed. And today, it has led the 44-year-old to her new Surrey Street office (spacious, airy, views of Park Hill) where she wants to discuss the future.

Make no mistake, it’s a challenging one.

Museums Sheffield, a charitable trust formed in 1998 to oversee the running of the service, has been hit by huge funding cuts.

A decision by the Arts Council to refuse £4.2 million in grants over three years – instead pouring the money into York and Leeds – means 40 workers are being made redundant and touring exhibitions are being cut.

Kim, who replaced the outgoing Nick Dodd, describes a drop in footfall as inevitable – although by how much is unclear.

But, here is what this Pitsmoor mother-of-three wants to stress: where there are challenges they will be met, where there are problems solutions will be found and, in the long run, Museums Sheffield will be better for adapting.

Oh, and, if she’s allowed to dream, she sees a world where the Graves is sympathetically modernised with more gallery space, brand new IT suite and a roof-top restaurant.

“When I joined permanently in 1991 we had no money, a small team and the prospect of year-on-year cuts,” she says. “We are in a similar position today but then, as now, we managed to do great things with the resources we had.

“What we had back then was a commitment from staff; we had a vision and together with the city we made it happen. Now we must build on that passion, creativity and knowledge again.”

Practically, she says the service will become more efficient, with other funding streams being investigated and a greater emphasis being placed on exhibiting Sheffield’s own collection of more than one million artefacts. A suite of self-guided resources are being created to ease the reduction in staff.

“We need to rediscover our own collections,” she says. “Next year, for example, is the centenary of the invention of stainless steel and that is something we will celebrate using our own collection.”

And for the future?

“Making ourselves more financially resilient is a priority,” says Kim, who is originally from Selby but moved here to study at Sheffield Polytechnic in 1986.

Long term, she has also initiated top-level discussions on making the Graves Gallery more central to what the service offers.

“When it was faced with closure last year, the people of Sheffield showed how much they loved it,” says Kim. “Now we have to prove it was worth their support.

“I would like to see more gallery space attracting more visitors and showing more contemporary art. It’s a fantastic venue. I see no reason why there couldn’t be a top-floor restaurant. We will be ambitious.”

Kim Streets: she’s come a long way from being a volunteer. Now, as the boss, she has a whole new journey ahead of her.

Exceptional exhibitions: What makes Museums Sheffield great

China: Journey to the East (Weston Park, 2011-12): Three thousand years of Chinese culture were packed into Weston Park for this offering run in partnership with the British Museum. It the Museums Sheffield’s most popular exhibition ever.

Artist Rooms: Robert Mapplethorpe (Graves Gallery, 2011-12): Featuring one of the 20th century’s iconic photographers was a coup. Getting a complementary performance by his friend, legendary punk Patti Smith, was perhaps even better.

Restless Times: Art in Britain 1914 - 1945 (Millennium Gallery, 2010-11): Featuring a mix of Sheffield’s own collection and national loans, Restless Times aimed to capture the spirit of the turbulent war and inter-war years.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/kim-s-streets-ahead-1-4502051

News - Box full of memories (Sheffield Police Box)

FOR generations it was a building to be respected and feared: misbehave in town, mothers told their children, and an old-fashioned bobby would take you there for an old-fashioned clip round the ear.

For younger Sheffielders, meanwhile, it is the strangely fascinating unit that looks like the Dr Who Tardis and offers, by association, the faint scent of mystery.

And for city centre ambassadors, it is the cramped little room where they sometimes sat and ate lunch.

This is the Surrey Street Police Box – the only remaining unit of its kind in Sheffield city centre and one of less than 300 thought to be left across the entire country.

Now, a campaign has been launched to keep this unique piece of South Yorkshire street furniture in tact for generations to come.

Hallamshire Historic Building Society have applied to English Heritage to have the building – once blue but now green – listed. It would mean it could not be knocked down or materially altered.

“I think losing the old box would be as bad as losing the vulcan from the Town Hall,” says Howard Greaves, vice-chairman of the HHBS, solemnly. “It is absolutely a piece of Sheffield history and, while there’s no suggestion there are any plans to get rid of it at the moment, having it listed would really ensure it was safe.

“It really harks back to another age and, with so much changing so quickly, we have to be on our guard against losing anything like this which symbolises our past. Of course there would be an outcry if there were plans to get rid of it. It would be like the Tinsley Towers all over again.”

The antique dealer of Abbeydale Road thinks for a moment.

“Well, perhaps not quite like that – you can’t see the police box from the motorway, can you? – but people wouldn’t be happy. It’s part of the city’s fabric.”

The box was once not so unusual, being one of about 120 dotted across Sheffield.

It was opened in 1928 by Chief Constable Percy J Sillitoe, a no-nonsense London hard man whose policy of using ‘reasonable force’ against known gang members was considered less than reasonable by said gang members but which nonetheless persuaded many of them to turn their back on their crooked way of life.

Sillitoe was credited with cleaning the city’s reputation and later went on to become director general of MI5. The box, meanwhile, remained in use until the 1960s, as a base where police officers could write reports and call the station.

A specially installed phone on the outside could be used by members of the public to call police free of charge, while a blue electric lamp on top was lit up by the central station when commanding officers wanted to attract the attention of beat bobbies.

The boxes were decommissioned in the 1960s but many remained standing in Sheffield with about seven left today.

The Surrey Street unit became a base for city centre ambassadors in 2009.

“When you go inside it’s like stepping back into the 1960s,” says Guy Biggin, supervisor for the ambassadors. “It’s only tiny but the furnishings haven’t changed since then so it does feel like you’ve gone back in time.”

Now all eyes are on English Heritage to preserve this little time capsule.

“We’ve got our fingers crossed for a positive conclusion but Dr Who knows?” says Howard. “We can only hope now we’ve made our argument.”

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/box_full_of_memories_1_3591470