£97k museum grant will open Poole's history for all

£97k museum grant will open Poole's history for all £97k museum grant will open Poole's history for all

POOLE’S Museum has been awarded a £97,000 grant from Arts Council England, which will help it develop a new long term project involving community volunteers.

Borough of Poole’s museum service will be able to carry out improvements to the way the collections are stored and accessed, allowing curators and volunteers to work together researching and recording artefacts and related stories.

This will allow greater public access, both digitally in the museum and online. Visitors will be able to use the new free wi-fi to discover a wealth of stories, films and images about a range of items on display.

By linking into the new Poole Trail, new interactive way for visitors and residents to experience the heritage and environment of Poole Quay, Old Town and Harbourside Park, people will be connected to the actual places where the town’s history took place.

Developing a group of skilled volunteers to carry out this project will be essential to its success. Museum manager Michael Spender said: “It will enable the participation of local people in the management of these important publicly-owned collections, working with museum professionals.

“The aim is also to help people build their skills through volunteering and to increase the capability of the museum service to provide high quality services in the future.”

Some volunteers are likely to be drawn from the successful Culture Volunteers Poole programme, a group of 260 volunteers, co-ordinated at the museum, along with new recruits from the community.

Cllr Judy Butt, cabinet portfolio holder for public engagement and participation said: “This grant is fantastic and we are very grateful to Arts Council England for recognising Poole Museum Service.

“Our volunteers do a splendid job and their role is vital in the continuing success of Poole Museum.

“Both residents in, and visitors to Poole come to our museum to increase their knowledge of our town’s history and I know this project will help to enrich that.”

The grant comes from a pot of £7million.

Comments(3)

Morrigan says...
3:37pm Mon 8 Oct 12

Good news for Poole if the museum does use it as they intend to - although last time I went there a couple of years ago it had very little on show about Poole at all - and the upper floor was filled with plastic tomato shaped ketchup bottles, plastic vending machine cups, plastic picnic cutlery and other tacky bits of 1960's plastic ...... hardly telling the story if Poole is it ?

muscliffman says...
4:35pm Mon 8 Oct 12

Is this for real "cabinet portfolio holder for public engagement and participation"?
Why do Councillors nearly everywhere, some regarded by their voters as out of touch, arrogant (and some a lot worse), have to attach this self-important grandoise nonesense to themselves - as though to prove it?
£97,000 will be handy though, I bet the Civic Centre fat-cats and their pension fund are dribbling already as they work out how to grab it directly or indirectly before it reaches any good cause.
Volunteers - check just who you are carrying in the style to which they have become accustomed before giving your own valuable good time to any 'cause'.

billd766 says...
2:07am Tue 9 Oct 12

I remember Poole museum when it was in the same building as the library at the top of North Street by the Gas showrooms. It was a pokey little place then.

click2find

About cookies

We want you to enjoy your visit to our website. That's why we use cookies to enhance your experience. By staying on our website you agree to our use of cookies. Find out more about the cookies we use.

I agree