About National Museums Liverpool
National Museums Liverpool is a museums and galleries group comprising eight venues (including
the national museum of HM Revenue and Customs) with an ninth on the way. We attracted more than 2.7 million visitors in 2008 (download our Little Book of Big Highlights [pdf 6mb]).
Our venues are:
The Museum of Liverpool Life, which opened in 1993, closed in 2006 to allow building work to start on a new Museum of Liverpool, expected to open in 2011.
The Customs and Excise Museum, which opened in 1994, was replaced in May 2008 with a brand new gallery in the basement of Merseyside Maritime Museum, 'Seized: Revenue and Customs uncovered'.
National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside was established as a national museum in 1986 because of the outstanding quality of its collections. In 2003 we changed our name to National Museums Liverpool. Our origins go back to 1851 and the founding of Liverpool Museum.
Using all our assets - staff, collections and buildings - we enable millions of people, from all backgrounds, from the locality and from further afield, to enjoy the benefits of engagement with
a world-class museum service.
- We believe that museums are fundamentally educational in purpose.
- We believe that museums are places for ideas and dialogue that use collections to inspire people.
- We are a democratic museum service and we believe in the concept of social justice: we are funded by the whole of the public and in return we strive to provide an excellent service to the whole of the public.
- We believe in the power of museums to help promote good and active citizenship, and to act as agents of social change.
- We believe in seeking out new opportunities and innovative ways of working, so as to keep our public offer fresh, relevant, challenging and competitive.
National Museums Liverpool...
- is an exempt charity by virtue of Schedule 2 to the Charities Act 1993.
- holds in trust multi-disciplinary collections of world wide origin made up of more than one million objects and works of art. You can explore some of them here in our fun quiz, Top Treasures
- provides educational programmes and activities for school children, young people and adults, serving almost 480,000 students a year through formal learning initiatives alone
- opens to the public seven days a week 361 days a year
- is governed by a board of trustees. Learn more about our trustees
- receives an annual grant, currently £18.4m, from UK central government (through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
- generates income from a number of sources, employs 531 people and operates shops, cafés and conference services through NML Trading Ltd.
Each year National Museums Liverpool...
- welcomes more than 2.5 million visitors (2.7 million in 2008)
- handles more than 20,000 collection enquiries
- restores and conserves 3,000 objects and works of art
- provides more than 100 loans, involving up to 1,500 objects and works of art
- runs hundreds of courses, lectures, activities and events
- produces scholarly and popular publications
- organises major exhibitions
There's more on our aims, beliefs and achievements in our strategic plan.
