Tag: museums

The Great Engine House Project: London Museum of Water & Steam

The Great Engine House Project: London Museum of Water & Steam

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The London Museum of Water and Steam (LMWS) has launched a funding appeal for its ‘Great Engine House Project’. The Great Engine House is home to the Grand Junction 100 Inch and the 90 Inch beam engines which pumped clean water into the homes of millions of Londoners between 1838 and 1944. 

The Museum is based in a Georgian water pumping station in Brentford, West London, and is home to a large collection of steam engines. Described by DCMS as “the most important historic site of the water supply industry in Britain” the LMWS shares the history, science, and the stories behind London’s public water supply.

Now it needs public help to preserve this internationally important collection. The Museum has a funding and maintenance backlog due to the COVID lockdowns and lack of funds for expensive scaffolding. The Grade I listed Engine House and the two huge beam engines it contains have all suffered significant degredation over the last few years.

The ‘Great Engine House Project’ aims to return the engine house to a watertight state, remove damaging past repairs, conserve the engines and improve their environmental conditions, improve accessibility, remove any materials containing asbestos, and reduce carbon emissions from running the engines.

To donate follow this link: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/great-engine-house

Museum of Carpet New Exhibition ‘Frocks & Floors, Fibre & Fabrics’ Opens July 2024

Museum of Carpet New Exhibition ‘Frocks & Floors, Fibre & Fabrics’ Opens July 2024

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A new exhibition of costume and carpet tracing textile sustainability throughout the 20th century opens at the Museum of Carpet, Kidderminster, in July. Running from 3 July to 31 August, this exhibition is a partnership with Kidderminster College.

This is an opportunity to see beautiful vintage dresses and stunning complimentary carpet designs spanning the last century. The exhibition will look at how fibres and materials have influenced fashion and changed the way we live.

The Museum of Carpet is an independent museum, with no regular local or central government funding, and needs help to cover rising costs. For more information, visit the Donate tab on their website here: https://museumofcarpet.org/support-us/

The museum is open Wednesdays to Saturdays and the exhibition entry is included in your museum admission. Children have free entry to the museum.

Paradise Silk Mill Guided Tours & Increased Accessibility

Paradise Silk Mill Guided Tours & Increased Accessibility

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The grade II listed Paradise Silk Mill, Macclesfield, Cheshire, is now open following a programme of restoration. This means that the guided tours around the historic 19th century silk mill are also back up and running. Each tour is led by one of the museum’s expert guides sharing their own individual take on aspects of Mill life. Pre-booking is reommended but but you can get tickets on arrival.

The Silk Museum will also be developing and expanding its resources for creative engagement over the coming months, thanks to an award of £165k from the Arts Council England’s Capital Investment programme. The Museum will be able to transform the building’s accessibility, increase sustainability and lessen its overall environmental impact. A Jacquard Studio will be created, improving storage facilities, and creating better access to the remarkable collection of Pattern Books. The award will also increase creative opportunities for artists by supporting co-curated displays inspired by the museum’s collections, as well as allowing more work with community groups with special needs, visual impairment, and low cultural engagement.

Guided Tour Details:

When: Wednesdays to Saturdays at 11am, 12.30pm and 2.30pm BOOK HERE
Where: Come to the Silk Museum, Park Lane, Macclesfield, SK11 6TJ.
Cost: £11.50 per adult and £10.50 concessions

Museum Development English Regional Grants Now Open for Applications

Museum Development English Regional Grants Now Open for Applications

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In April 2024 the new Museum Development regions in England came into being, along with a new set of regional grants. The five English MD regions are now up and running delivering support to museums and heritage groups, including industrial heritage sites, though a variety of training, capacity building, networking, and grant support initiatives.

Details of the first round of grants for museums and heritage groups are as follows:

MD North Opern Grants: 1st round deadline, 7th June, with grants avalable up to £5,000 https://www.museumdevelopmentnorth.org.uk/find-funding/md-north-grants/open-grants/

MD South East: Collectiosn Care Grants (deadline 24th June) and Collections Review and Rationalisation Grants (deadline 1st July): https://mdse.org.uk/grants/mdse-grants/mdse-grants-collections/

MD Midlands: Open Grants and Workforce Development Grants will be open for applications from late May 2024 https://www.mdmidlands.org.uk/

MD South West: Talking Nature and Capacity Builder grants close on 17th June. https://southwestmuseums.org.uk/what-we-do/grants/

MD London grant schemes continue as before. https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/supporting-london-museums/development-grant-programmes

Coalport China Works, Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.

Thwaite Watermill Museum Under Threat from Local Authority Budget Cuts

Thwaite Watermill Museum Under Threat from Local Authority Budget Cuts

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Thwaite Watermill Museum, in Leeds, may be faced with closure. The museum of Leeds’ milling industry is set in a former mill on an island in the River Aire. The site is owned by the Canal and River Trust, and run by Leeds City Council museums and galleries. The lease on the site is currently due to end in 2030, but as part of proposed budget cuts Leeds City Council is considering a proposal to end the lease in 2025.

The CRT confirmed that if the lease ends, it would not be able to afford to take over the running of the museum. A spokesperson said: “We are sorry to hear this update. If the council terminates the lease and closes their museum, we will have to look for alternative viable options for the use of the property that will help safeguard its future. In this difficult economic climate, our charity is facing the same financial challenges with the day-in day-out task of looking after and keeping open our 2,000 miles of waterways, including the hundreds of centuries-old locks, bridges, tunnels and aqueducts here in Yorkshire. Unfortunately, we do not have the funding to take on the council’s running of the Thwaite Watermill museum.”

For further details see: https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/people/owner-confirms-thwaite-watermill-museum-to-permanently-close-if-lease-ended-by-leeds-city-council-4439898

Thwaite’s Watermill/ Image courtesy of Leeds City council, museums and galleries
AIM Free Training for Trustees of Volunteer Run-Museums, 2024

AIM Free Training for Trustees of Volunteer Run-Museums, 2024

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AIM’s latest Spark! programme is aimed at supporting trustees of volunteer-run museums to strengthen shared problem solving and build networks of support. If your trustees and Board want to improve their governance and operational activities, then this is the programme for you. Specifically, it aims to strengthen shared problem solving, building networks of support, and working together, through a series of online workshops, action learning sets and individual coaching sessions.

Participants will work through a series of online workshops, action learning sets and individual coaching sessions. This programme is designed for Trustees of volunteer-run museums, though those from museums with a small number of paid staff will also be considered. It is being developed for trustees who have spent some time in role, as opposed to new Trustees who should consider the AIM Trustee Induction workshop.

For more information on this new programme or to make an application, contact Margaret Harrison, AIM Head of Programmes on margaret@aim-museums.co.uk with the following information:

  1. Your name, role, and organisation
  2. The number of Trustees on your Board
  3. What you hope to get out of the programme with regard to your own and the Board’s governance effectiveness
  4. Describe your Board’s working relationship with your Director
  5. Outline your organisation’s key governance challenge over the last twelve months

Deadline for applications: Monday 8 January 2024.

Royal Society ‘Places of Science’ Grants Scheme for Small Museums Open Until November 19th 2023

Royal Society ‘Places of Science’ Grants Scheme for Small Museums Open Until November 19th 2023

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The ‘Places of Science’ grant scheme, run by the Royal Society, is now open for applications. Applications will close at 12pm on Friday 17 November 2023. The scheme provides grants of up to £3,500 to small museums, funding projects that tell the stories of science and scientists relevant to communities across the UK.

Through the ‘Places of Science’ grant scheme in 2022, 36 small museums across the United Kingdom have received up to £3,500 to run projects that tell stories of science to their local community. This included Industrial Heritage Network members Coldharbour Mill, Head of Steam in Darlington, and the Brunel Museum, as well as the Moira Furnace. The Royal Society is particularly interested in projects that:

  • explore the experiences of historically underrepresented people
  • are led by organisations that don’t normally feature scientific content
  • involve partners that can enhance the project’s outcomes, impact or quality
  • reach audiences who do not normally engage with science
  • enable possibilities for digital engagement, either as a main feature or as part of a contingency plan

For further details on how to apply follow this link: https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/places-of-science/?li_fat_id=13f5f414-63b0-4451-9f08-ed0c212c9d03

#AskACurator Returns as #AskAMuseum in September 2022

#AskACurator Returns as #AskAMuseum in September 2022

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The annual social media day #AskACurator, which began in 2010 as a way for the public to ask questions directly to museums, galleries and archives around the world, has been renamed #AskAMuseum. This is in order order to better represent all those working in museums.

The 2022 event will take place on Wednesday 14 September, coinciding with Heritage Open Days in the UK, across social media platforms. You can post your question on the day using the hashtag #AskAMusuem. You can also encourage people to send their questions as comments or replies. Answers will then be posted and insider knowledge shared!