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Wakefield Museums and Castles
Freelancer opportunity: Museum Hubs evaluation
Tuesday, January 20, 2026Wakefield Museums & Castles is seeking a museum specialist to evaluate the impact of our Museum Hubs and to make recommendations for their future programming and management.
Full information on this page, or download a Word Doc copy of the brief.
About: Wakefield Museums & Castles
Wakefield Museums & Castles is a fully Accredited Museum service for the Wakefield district, in West Yorkshire. We are run by Wakefield Council and serve the residents of Wakefield, as well as visitors to our district. We have been an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation since 2018 and the ACE Investment Principles and Let’s Create strategy shape and guide our work.
We collect, safeguard, and share objects that document the social and cultural history of the Wakefield district from prehistory to present day. We currently care for over 113,000 objects and actively collect and dispose of objects to ensure our collection is sustainable and representative. We count two Scheduled Monuments – Pontefract Castle and Sandal Castle – as a key part of our collections. Our collections tell the local story of the district’s inhabitants but also cover nationally significant stories, including the Wars of the Roses; the English Civil Wars; coal mining; the production of rhubarb, liquorice and confectionary; and the manufacturing of sporting equipment at Dunlop Slazenger, one of the largest sports manufacturing sites in the world.
Our objects are celebrated and shared across our museum venues, at Castleford Museum, Pontefract Museum and Wakefield Museum; in Pontefract Castle Visitor Centre; in Museum Hubs and touring panels in non-museum venues; and online through digital activity. We welcome over 164,000 visitors to our sites a year, including over 9600 school children through our formal learning programme and almost 8000 children and adults at family activities. We engage with over 32,000 followers on social media.
About: Wakefield Council
Wakefield Council is the local authority for the Wakefield district, in West Yorkshire. The council serves around 325,000 people across the Wakefield district, including Wakefield, Castleford, Pontefract, Featherstone, Normanton, Knottingley and Hemsworth. Our administrative buildings are the Town Hall, County Hall and Wakefield One, in Wakefield City Centre.
Museum Hubs
One of the key aims of our Business Plan is to “deliver a programme of exhibitions, events, activities, resources, and digital content inspired by our collections and historic sites, maximising opportunities for co-production, working with local communities, artists, and partners”. To achieve this, we are constantly striving for creative ways to take our collections out into our community to reach more people.
Over the last seven years, we have been putting our collections into established community venues where there is an existing audience base likely to engage with heritage content, including our Museum Hubs. The Hubs are bitesize changing exhibitions located at the heart of our communities.
'Ah’ll race thee: Celebrating the Gawthorpe Coal Race' - display at Ossett Library Museum Hub
These vibrant displays aim to:
share our collections and stories with people who don’t usually visit our museums or castles sites.
gain the trust of a new audience by demonstrating our commitment to preserving and sharing their hyper-local heritage.
form meaningful relationships with local people and groups, by co-producing the displays with them.
The Hubs are strategically located in areas of low cultural engagement, including low engagement with our museum service. They are currently located in South Elmsall Library, Featherstone Library and Ossett Library. Previously, the Featherstone Hub was located in the Featherstone Rovers Rugby Club shop.
The Hubs consist of a display case to hold objects; graphic panels with interpretation; a screen for audio visual content; and interactive content such as activities or comment cards. The Hubs are always co-produced with community groups, organisations, or artists.
'Production Park: Where Live Industry Lives' display at South Elmsall Library Museum Hub
The brief
Wakefield Museums & Castles are seeking a museum specialist to evaluate the impact of our Museum Hubs and to make recommendations for their future programming and management.
We have been creating and installing Museum Hubs for eight years, with our first display in South Elmsall Library in 2017. However, we have yet to identify an effective way of evaluating their impact on local people and their effectiveness in achieving our aims.
Programming and curating the Museum Hubs displays requires significant resource from the Museums & Castles team and we would like to determine if this resource is being well-spent.
We would like to commission a specialist to:
Identify a suitable methodology for collecting data about our Museum Hubs. We expect the methodology to include both qualitative and quantitative approaches, such as venue staff interviews, and footfall analysis, but must include audience focus groups and engagement with local heritage groups and Library Friends. We welcome innovative methods that suit our community-focused context.
Carry out evaluation of the Hubs, using the agreed methodology, and record the data in an accessible and usable format.
Produce a report analysing the data and evaluating the effectiveness of the Hubs against our aims.
Research alternative delivery models as appropriate.
Understand resource implications, particularly around staff capacity to deliver and available budgets.
Provide recommendations for the future programming and management of the Hubs. This should include consideration of whether the Hubs are achieving their stated aims effectively, whether the Hubs are in the most effective locations and whether programming and management should remain with Wakefield Museums & Castles or be offered to community groups and organisations in the locality of the venues, or a hybrid of the two.
Additionally:
On the understanding that some community partners are keen to independently develop their own museum-type displays, develop best-practice guidance to enable them to take in and display objects.
The freelancer should answer the following questions:
Do the Museum Hubs achieve the aims that we have set out?
How do people engage with the Hubs – for example, do people interact with the AV and interactive elements?
What impact do the Hubs have on local communities, including co-production partners and audiences?
Is the impact of the Hubs proportional to the resource invested in them?
Are the Hubs located in the most effective venues or should other venues be considered?
How should the Hubs be programmed and managed moving forwards?
Research alternative delivery models as appropriate.
Outputs required
A summary of all the data collected about the Museum Hubs, in an accessible and usable format.
An evaluation report, which analyses the data collected, provides recommendations of the future programming and management of the Hubs, and answers the questions set out above.
Additionally:
A list of considerations for community partners that are interested developing their own museum-type displays (either existing or additional) in an accessible format that could be included as guidance on a webpage.
The Consultant
We are keen to appoint a consultant who can base their work on evidence. We are keen to know what has worked well / less well elsewhere but also determine what works for our communities. Any recommendations must be realistic and specific to our services.
Budget
The maximum available budget for this commission is £10,000.
This commission is part of Our Heritage Our Stories, a heritage project funded by Wakefield Council and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. With thanks to Lottery Players. All reports must include this written acknowledgement along with the NLHF and Wakefield Council logos. These will be supplied.
Timeline
The data and report providing recommendations should be completed by the end of June 2026.
Project management
The project will be overseen by the council’s Heritage Development Manager, Tegwen Roberts.
The consultant will be responsible for reporting at regular intervals and at key stages. The Final Report, which will become the copyright of the Client, should be produced in the following format:
A draft report for comment and approval
An agreed final report
An agreed executive summary
To apply
We welcome proposals from individuals or teams with experience in museum evaluation and community engagement.
Please supply the following
Details of proposed individuals involved in delivering the project, their relevant experience and their allocated roles.
A brief project proposal, including approach to the brief, project plan and timeline
Your proposed fee based on the above scope, with breakdown of costs.
Two examples/case studies which demonstrate similar experience
Contact details for two reference organisations where you have undertaken similar work in the last three years.
We anticipate that this work will cost less than £10,000 and will be completed by 30 June 2026.
To make the process as accessible as possible we are happy to consider applications in other formats, including by video or audio. If you would prefer to submit your application in an alternative format, please contact us to discuss.
To submit a proposal, please email us at museums@wakefield.gov.uk
The deadline for submissions is midday on Monday 9 February. We hope to invite shortlisted applicants for an online interview during the week commencing Monday 16 February.