Our YouTube channel surpasses 55,000 views
Two years after launching, our YouTube channel is closing in on generating crucial core funds for the museum. The channel, which now boasts over 55,000 views and nearly 650 subscribers, is coming ever closer to the 1,000 subscribers threshold which would enable our channel to monetise its content, using the funds to create more videos that share Britain’s mixed race history with a global audience.
Two years on from setting up our YouTube channel, we are on our way to being able to use the channel to bring crucial core funds into the museum.
The channel has now surpassed 55,000 views and has nearly 650 subscribers – a long way towards the YouTube milestone of 1,000 subscribers that would allow us to monetise the channel.
Dr Chamion Caballero, Director of The Mixed Museum, said: “While we have a good track record in obtaining funding to create one-off digital outputs - like our recent SussedBlackWoman digital resource - like all museums, we are finding it very challenging to raise funding to cover our core costs. However, the steady growth of our YouTube channel opens up the possibility of raising revenue from views. If we hit the YouTube Creator threshold, we may be able to fund some of our work from our viewers’ engagement with our channel, which would allow us to cover critical costs while educating a global audience about Britain’s mixed race history.”
The museum set up the channel two years ago to share videos of webinars from our ‘Brown Babies of World War Two’ exhibition. These have since been joined by recordings from our current project exploring the role of DNA testing in the lives of ‘brown babies’ and their families. We have also been able to share A Tremendous Ovation, our short film celebrating the life and work of Samuel Coleridge Taylor and his connection to the city of Brighton.
A global audience
The YouTube algorithm means that our videos are reaching audiences who might not typically come across TMM’s work. You might be surprised to learn that most of our YouTube viewers are based in North America. We love that so many Americans, Canadians and others around the world are engaging with our British-focused historical content.
Videos on the channel are grouped by playlist so that you can find content on a particular theme. In the wake of Channel 4’s Britain’s Secret War Babies documentary, our ‘Brown Babies of WW2’ playlist – featuring accounts of those born to Black American GIs and white British women during the Second World War – have become increasingly popular. Almost 34,000 people have watched the clip of Bill Wiley – who we interviewed in February 2023 – on DNA Family Secrets, which was kindly provided to us by Minnow Productions.
Meanwhile our own in-house videos of Ann Evans, who was placed in Holnicote House nursery in Somerset at just a few weeks old, and Dave Green, who was eventually reunited with his father, have now had over 3,000 and 2,500 views respectively. Our clip of Isabel Adonis – the first guest in our new In Conversation With series – reading from her new book ‘And’ which went on to win the Creative Non-Fiction Welsh Book of the Year 2023 title - has also resonated with a book-loving public, with almost 5,000 views since it was posted a year ago.
What's next?
New content to come soon on the platform will be interviews with members of our group of ‘brown baby’ family members, telling their personal stories about the impact DNA testing has had on their lives, as well as exclusive firsthand interview footage from Local Colour’s film Terry’s GI Dad, about Terry Harrison’s search for his Black American father.
“ The impact that our videos is having - including helping more ‘brown babies’ families find us and access important resources in their search for family - has increasingly been encouraging us to put more of our time into video production. We know from the feedback that we receive that being able to access Britain’s mixed race history in video form is important to our audiences, and so the potential of being able to support the museum’s work through our video outputs is really exciting,” says Chamion. “We look forward to sharing our new round of videos with you over the rest of the year, and encourage you to like, share and comment to help us meet our YouTube Creators goal.”
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Learn more
Visit our YouTube channel - and like, comment or subscribe to help us grow!
Visit our page reporting on the 'Brown Babies' of WW2 digital exhibition webinar - the impetus which kickstarted the YouTube channel.
Read our In Conversation With interview with Isabel Adonis.