Museums and heritage

Derbyshire County Council has pledged to offer continued support to Buxton Museum after it was forced to close for maintenance work.

The BBC reports that Buxton Museum and Art Gallery shut at short notice at the start of June when dry rot was found in the building, with no timeframe given for how long remedial work will take.

But after a visit to the museum Derbyshire County Council Leader Barry Lewis said there is an "absolute commitment" to the service.

"Closing the museum and art gallery was a great disappointment but necessary so that this vital investigation work can be carried out," he said.

"However, there is an absolute commitment to supporting the museum and securing the long-term future of its collections."

Eight members of staff are currently working to move exhibits to storage before being moved to other roles.

During the closure the council is encouraging visitors to continue to enjoy the museum via the Wonders of the Peak website and by taking a virtual museum tour.

A formerly run-down World War Two building at Bletchley Park has opened as a new museum learning centre, part of a £13million redevelopment of the historic site.

The centre is in Block E, originally built in 1943 as part of Bletchley’s wartime intelligence gathering operation.

The restored and refurbished building in Bletchley, Milton Keynes is dedicated to ‘formal and informal learning programmes’.

Lily Dean, Learning Manager for the Bletchley Park Trust, the independent charity that runs the site, said it would be a "state-of-the-art learning centre".

She added: “This facility will enable more students to visit us, supporting their studies in STEM subjects, and helping us to share the amazing feats of human ingenuity that took place at Bletchley Park with more learners than ever before.”  

Block E features eight learning spaces designed to host more than 13 tailored workshops.

The completion of the new learning centre is the concluding phase of a redevelopment project that has also seen the creation of a new permanent exhibition, 'The Intelligence Factory', and a Collection Centre housing more than 420,000 items relating to Bletchley Park's wartime work.

Researchers will delve into Portsmouth’s heritage, culture and collections with funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for nine PhD studentships.

Portsmouth City Council was awarded the fully-funded PhD studentships as part of the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships programme.  

Researchers from the University of Portsmouth, along with other Higher Education institutions, will work with the city’s museums and archive team to design and co-supervise research projects based on the city’s historic collections, heritage and culture.

“This is a real coup for the city as the programme typically supports national organisations – it shows the strength and depth of our heritage and collections,” said Counsellor Steve Pitt, the Leader of Portsmouth City Council with responsibility for culture.

“This programme will help us uncover new perspectives on the city’s past and help us to share our story and heritage in new and exciting ways.”

Professor Anne Murphy, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Portsmouth, said the researchers’ discoveries “will open up Portsmouth’s amazing heritage and culture to new perspectives and audiences in and beyond the city”.

The council is inviting expressions of interest from Higher Education institutions who would like to collaborate on research proposals, with the first projects projected to begin in October 2024.
 

The Vagina Museum has exceeded a fundraising target to allow it move into a new premises situated between two railway arches in East London.

According to an online crowdfunder, over 2,400 donations have helped the museum surpass its £85,000 target.

The organisation's director, Florence Schechter, had said the museum would face permanent closure if the target was not reached.

The museum has been homeless since January after being given less than a week to vacate the premises it held for less than a year, causing the museum to operate digitally in the interim.

In an update shared on Twitter, the museum thanked all donors, adding that is had been "really touch and go": "If we didn't reach the target, we would have had to wind up".

"We're busily preparing design and fit-out work for our new home. And we're planning new exhibitions as well as levelling up our permanent exhibition," the statement added.

The fundraiser will remain open until early June, with additional proceeds going towards the musuem "opening its doors in an even stronger and more secure position".

Several museums in Wales have received funding in the latest round of the Welsh Government's Cultural Transformation Capital Programme.

Among those to benefit from the £1.7m funding pot is Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery in Merthyr Tydfil.

It has been awarded £146,480 to develop an off-site storage space that will enable the relocation of its art store and provide better access to its collection.

Other recipients include Narberth Museum in Pembrokeshire which has been awarded £120,534 to improve efficiency, while Abergavenny Castle will use its £110,000 to improve energy efficiency.

Rhondda Heritage Park in Rhondda Cynon Taf has received £135,000 towards new interactive history digital displays.

Deputy Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Dawn Bowden, said that support provided by local museums, archives and libraries "is essential to helping communities in Wales thrive, now more than ever". 

She added: "This round of funding is supporting a wide variety of initiatives, from transforming spaces to be better used by their communities, enabling greater access and participation, whilst also supporting the health and wellbeing of users, to preserving collections for future generations."

Since the programme was extended in 2017 to include museums and archives, more than £9m has been provided to organisations across Wales.

An exhibition touring network will be established to develop and tour exhibitions across a dozen sites in England after securing funding from Arts Council England (ACE) and Art Fund.

The Museums and Galleries Network for Exhibition Touring (MAGNET) brings together 12 partners across England, plus the Touring Exhibitions Group (TEG), to co-develop new exhibitions which will tour between partner venues.

It has been awarded a £336,000 Touring Projects grant from ACE to enable it to develop and tour three new exhibitions, opening in 2025. 

Meanwhile, £75,000 from Art Fund will help fund a three-year full-time MAGNET Coordinator post, to ensure smooth running of the network. 

The new network aims to allow exhibitions to be seen by many more people, as well as addressing the unsustainability of "single use" exhibitions. The three-year funding deal will also see MAGNET develop a sustainable business model to allow future touring to other partner venues and the creation of further exhibitions.

Nick Merriman, Chief Executive of the Horniman Museum and Gardens and MAGNET lead, said: "There is now real momentum and a nationwide movement to support touring exhibitions. 

"We know that, by pooling our resources, we can offer high-quality, co-curated exhibitions that make the collections of the whole network accessible to the public in a meaningful way. 

"Thanks to Arts Council England and Art Fund we can now continue MAGNET’s reach beyond the walls and vaults of any one museum and into local communities around the country."

The Royal College of Surgeons is reopening its museum following a £100m redevelopment.

The Hunterian Museum – named after 18th Century surgeon John Hunter – has been closed for five years during building work.

While the museum’s Grade II* listed façade has been kept, the rest of the site has been rebuilt.

The building in London’s Lincoln’s Inn Fields holds Hunter's own collection – purchased by the government in 1799 – as well as more recent collections including teeth, bones, ancient remains, and surgical and medical tools.

One particularly controversial item in Hunter's collection – the skeleton of Charles Byrne, known as the ‘Irish Giant’ – will not be put back on display when the museum reopens on 16 May.

Hunter purchased Byrne’s corpse despite the Irishman requesting to be buried at sea.

The museum's trustees made the decision to remove the skeleton from public display after a vocal campaign.

Speaking to The Arts Newspaper about the museum's reopening, Dawn Kemp, director of Museums and Archives at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: “It’s not just about surgery. It’s about helping people gain an understanding of the human body."