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£4 million boost for museums across England - Egyptian coffins, long-dead Norwich criminals and extinct animals to be given a new lease of life
Thirty one museums and galleries in England will benefit from grants totalling £4 million, Culture Minister Margaret Hodge announced today.
Provided jointly by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Wolfson Foundation, the grants will help improve the quality of museum displays, and enhance the experience for visitors.
Spread across England, the funds go to an imaginative array of projects aimed to improve access and understanding of our cultural heritage.
This year's grants include:
* Egyptian coffins at
Ipswich Museum - Improving the display of the museum's
important Egyptian collections through the renovation of permanent
exhibition space, enabling the Coffin of Lady Tahathor from Thebes
to be displayed permanently. (50k grant)
* Criminals and hangings in Norwich Castle - New displays will focus on Norwich Castle's 500 years as the County jail, together with props and costumes to enable linked events, learning and audience development projects. The project will focus on people: the murderers hanged there; the petty thieves who were transported to Australia to make new lives; the prison governors and staff; and the prison reformers who fought for changes to the system. (70k grant)
* Extinct animals and climate change at Manchester Museum- A new gallery dedicated to contemporary environmental issues such as climate change, species extinction and environmental sustainability, providing new opportunities for visitors to engage with some of the most pressing challenges facing the world today. (97k grant)
Culture Minister Margaret Hodge said:
"This year, as before, the DCMS Wolfson Fund is providing support for museums and galleries from all regions of England, backing projects in national institutions, university collections and well-loved local museums and galleries.
I hope today's awards will help people all over Britain, particularly those with a disability, have improved access to the wonders of the old, new, beautiful and intriguing objects that are housed in England's museums and galleries. "
Paul Ramsbottom, Executive Secretary of the Wolfson Foundation said:
"The DCMS/Wolfson partnership has become an excellent example of what can be achieved when public funds are matched with private philanthropy. The awards announced today are a testimony to the quality and diversity of the country's museums and galleries. The Wolfson Foundation is delighted to be associated with these excellent projects."
This is the seventh year of the current DCMS/Wolfson Foundation Museums & Galleries Improvement Fund, which has awarded a total of £24 million to institutions around the country since it was set up in 2002.
Other awards include:
* Your History: Discovery Gallery at
the Imperial War Museum, London - Designed to give visitors
visible, one-stop access to the full range and depth of the
collections and to encourage interaction with them. As part of
'Your History' the 'Discovery Gallery' will
provide an interactive front of house public search facility,
supported by two public reading rooms. This will give visitors an
opportunity to access and engage with the collections and provide
a 'one-stop-shop' for all visitor enquiries to the
collections. (190k grant)
* A new Post Office for Blists Hill Victorian Town - One of 10 museums administered by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, Blists Hill recreates a typical small town based on settlements that existed throughout the East Shropshire Coalfield at the end of the Victorian era in order to provide insights into local and national issues during this pivotal period in British history. Buildings have been erected on the site, some moved brick by brick from original locations, others recreated using the Museum's extensive archive, and each has been fitted out to show a selection of trades, industries and professions. Many of the buildings are manned by staff in period costume who interpret the contents and demonstrate their functions. The post office will be based on records in the British Postal Museum and Archive of a 1904 post office at Shifnal and will include a stationer's shop, a working telegraph machine, a hands-on sorting office, and a museum illustrating the role of the Post Office in the community. (£126k grant)
* An Internet Gallery at the National Media Museum, Bradford - The gallery aims to capture, record and interpret the ongoing internet phenomenon and explore how it has changed the way we live. An Interactive Foyer element will enable visitors to start their journey of exploration into the internet, as they witness screen pods housed within the 5th floor Internet Gallery 'tumble' out of this space and suspend mid-air in the foyer, with one pod sited in the foyer displaying live information input by visitors during their time in the Gallery.
* A new gallery for Birmingham Museum and Art gallery - The largest single award this year of £300,000 goes to Birmingham Museum and Art gallery. Birmingham History from 1700 - 1830 will be the first gallery to be developed in the planned Birmingham History Galleries wing. Located in Gallery 40 of the Museum and Art, it will ultimately form part of a sequence of five inter-linked galleries telling the story of Birmingham from medieval times to present.
Notes to editors
* The DCMS/Wolfson Foundation Museums & Galleries Improvement Fund allocates £4 million annually to capital projects in national and regional museums and galleries.
* Museums and galleries eligible to bid from the fund include institutions sponsored by DCMS, designated collections in museums or universities, and museums with non-designated collections in regional hubs.
* For more information on the Wolfson fund please refer to: http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/Museums_galleries/wolfson.htm
* A summary of the successful institutions and projects is given below.
Institution Location Project Funding
Awarded
Ashmolean Oxford Western Art Galleries £230,000
Museum of Art improvements at the
and Ashmolean Archaeology
Roman Baths Bath Development Project at £90,000
Museum, Bath the Roman Baths Museum and North East
Somerset Council
Birmingham Birmingham Gallery of Birmingham £300,000
Museums & Art History from 1700-1830 at
Gallery the Birmingham Museum and
Art Gallery
Bowes Museum Barnard Creation of a new British £150,000
Castle Decorative Arts Gallery
at the Bowes Museum
Bristol's Bristol 'In the Loop' project at £150,000
Museums, the new Museum for
Galleries and Bristol Archives
Chatham Chatham Dockyard Railway: visitor £175,000
Historic interpretation and
Dockyard Trust collection care
facilities at the
Historic Dockyard
Colchester and Ipswich 'From the Mummy's Tomb': £50,000
Ipswich Museum a permanent Egyptian
Service Gallery at Ipswich Museum
Coventry Coventry '1980s to Now' Gallery at £150,000
Transport Coventry Transport Museum Museum
Harris Museum Preston Enhancing temporary £19,000
and Art exhibitions and
Gallery accessibility of displays
in the mezzanine gallery
at the Harris Museum and
Art Gallery
Imperial War London Installation of new 'Your £190,000
Museum History Discovery
Gallery' at the Imperial
War Museum, Lambeth
Ironbridge Telford Creation of a Post Office £126,000
Gorge Museum at Blists Hill Victorian
Trust Town at the Ironbridge
Gorge World Heritage Site
London London Improving public access £44,000
Transport to the collections at the
Museum Museum Depot at Acton and
the library at Covent
Garden
Manchester Manchester 'Natural Selection': £97,000
Museum reinterpreting the
natural history
collections at the
Manchester Museum
National London New 'Asian Seas' Gallery £134,000
Maritime at the National Maritime
Museum Museum
National Media Bradford Interactive Foyer: part £150,000
Museum of the Internet Gallery
(National Development Museum of
National Port Sunlight Lady Lever Art Gallery £50,000
Museums Science and Learning Base Liverpool Industry
Village
National Matlock 'Moving the Masses': £150,000
Tramway Museum Re-display and renovation
of the National Tramway
museum's Exhibition Hall
Norfolk Norwich 'Law makers and law £70,000
Museums & breakers: Norwich Castle
Archaeology Stories' at Norwich
Service Castle Museum and Art
Gallery
Nottingham Nottingham Costume Collection Access £10,000
City Museums Centre Development at
and Galleries Wollaton Park
Royal Hampshire Creation of 'Orienteur' £150,000
Armouries (Pathfinder) at Fort
Nelson
Royal Chatham Museum, Library and £75,000
Engineers Archive Transformation
Museum Project
Tank Museum Bovington 'At Close Quarters': New £200,000
Display Hall Exhibitions
at the Tank Museum
Tate St Ives Welcome to Tate St Ives £100,000
Tyne and Wear Newcastle 'Creative City' gallery £225,000
Museums upon Tyne at the Laing Art Gallery
Victoria & London 'Factory Ceramics' £250,000
Albert Museum Gallery at the Victoria &
Albert Museum
Wallace London 'A Fitting Arrival': £200,000
Collection improved visitor services
at the entrance of
Hertford House
Waterways Gloucester New temporary exhibition £20,000
Trust gallery at the National
Waterways Museum
Weald and Chichester New gallery for £65,000
Downland Open exhibition on traditional
Air Museum building crafts and
materials at the Weald
and Downland Open Air
Museum
Whitworth Art Manchester Creating a flexible space £150,000
Gallery for new media in the
South Gallery of the
Whitworth Art Gallery
Wolverhampton Wolverhampton Increasing access to the £30,000
Art Gallery works on paper collection
in the Collections
Resource Centre of the
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
York Museums York 'The Marvel of Medieval £200,000
Trust York' gallery at the
Yorkshire Museum
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