National Museums Liverpool

Who we are

NML comprises eight museums: International Slavery Museum, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Merseyside Maritime Museum, Museum of Liverpool, Sudley House, Border Force National Museum (funded by the Home Office), Walker Art Gallery, and World Museum.

Our Mission

To be the world’s leading example of an inclusive museum service.

Our values and beliefs:

• As an inclusive and democratic museum service, we aim to maximise social impact and educational benefit for all.
• Museums change lives, and are fundamentally educational in purpose.
• Museums foster ideas and dialogue, use collections to inspire people, and should not shy away from controversy.
• Museums are powerful advocates for good and active citizenship; agents of social change; and can be instrumental in developing awareness and understanding of, and campaigning for, social justice.

By living these values and making our collections more accessible and understandable to wider audiences, NML has grown in popularity over the past decade and a half.  Museums can and do change people, and we are most proud of the human impact of our work.

The day-to-day operations are managed by the Executive Team, headed up by the Accounting Officer and Interim Director, Louise Parnell. The Executive is supported by a Board of Trustees. 

As the only national museum service in England based wholly outside of London we have a unique role.  We operate nationally and internationally; we are the largest cultural institution in the North West; and we are the main museum service for Liverpool and the surrounding region.  We work hard to keep the museum service free and accessible to everyone, ensuring that our venues, exhibitions and education resources serve and represent the diverse needs of all our local communities.

NML annual visitor numbers have grown markedly, from 710,000 in 2001, to 3.5 million in 2013. Since then government funding has been cut with a consequent reduction in levels of activity.  Annual visitor numbers fell back to about 2.65 million in 2015; but have since risen and have exceeded 3 million again in 2016.

The collections of NML are extremely varied, ranging from archaeology to zoology, and include world-class art, history and science. Because of the importance of these collections, the UK Government nationalised the museum service in 1986.