In September the Victor Hugo Centre was pleased to welcome Mark Bills, the former director of the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, who had recently stepped down after leading the rejuvenation and enlargement of the museum during the previous 10 years. There are many parallels between the process Mark went through over those 10 years and the process envisaged to create the Victor Hugo Centre. This is the talk that Mark gave to the Advisory Group and invited friends of the Centre.