Museums and heritage

Plans for a Welsh national football museum have received a £5.4m boost from the Welsh Government. 

The money will go towards the creation of the Museum of Two Halves in Wrexham, which last year became Wales' newest city.

The Football Association of Wales was formed in the city in 1876.

More recently, Wrexham AFC has been the talk of Welsh football after Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought the club in February 2021.

Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport Dawn Bowden said: "Wrexham is the birthplace of Welsh football so it's the ideal location to celebrate the sport's heritage."

The museum, which is set open by 2026, will display a wide range of Welsh football memorabilia, including some of the 2000-plus items currently held in Wrexham's museum archives.

Jonathan Gammond, project manager of the Museum of Two Halves, said the museum will be "about any football played in Wales or any football played by Welsh people outside Wales". 

He added: "All aspects of the game will be covered: amateurs, professionals, men and women, different nationalities and minorities – everyone who loves the game."

A plan to create a permanent home for the East End Women’s Museum in Barking town centre has been scrapped.

The trustees of the museum said that problems finalising the lease for the new building meant it was not able to accept some of the funding it had been awarded, making the project unviable.

“Despite exploring multiple avenues, it was not possible to agree a way of working that was acceptable to all stakeholders,” the museum said in statement.

The museum, which claims to be the only dedicated women’s museum in England, currently operates on a ‘pop-up’ basis, presenting temporary exhibitions at different venues.

It describes its mission as to "record, research, share and celebrate the stories of East London women past and present".

A spokesperson for the museum said they had not given up looking for a permanent space in the future.

They added: “We are beyond disappointed that we won’t be moving into the building in Barking.

"The board, our volunteers, supporters, and the project team have worked so hard to make this a reality. We are sad and frustrated we have got to this point.

“The support we have received and the work that has been completed to date means we know that more than ever, a museum like ours is needed to tell the stories of the great women in history.”

Northern Ireland is hoping to secure its first Cultural World Heritage site through a joint bid with the USA and Germany.

The proposal to UNESCO is for Gracehill in County Antrim, an 18th century settlement associated with the Moravian Church.

The picturesque village became Northern Ireland’s first conservation area in 1975.  

The other sites in the bid are settlements in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Herrnhut in Saxony, both of which also have strong links to the Moravian Church.

The nomination is being led by the USA in conjunction with the UK and German governments. 

Colum Boyle, Permanent Secretary, Department for Communities, said: “If successful in securing World Heritage Site status, Gracehill and the wider community will benefit culturally and economically from this important accolade that will further protect an important piece of history for future generations.”

The transnational nomination will be considered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee next year.

The Vagina Museum has received notice it must vacate its current premises by the end of the week.

In a statement released on Twitter, the museum said its last day open to the public will be tomorrow (1 February), before it will operate digitally while it searches for a new home.

The museum has been located in Bethnal Green since March 2022 through a property guardianship with creative hub ENTER. Both organisations have been asked to vacate the space by the end of the week.

“We’re sad about this development, but incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished in the ten months we’ve been at our Bethnal Green premises,” the statement said.

“We’ve welcomed more than 40,000 visitors through our doors and received so much love and positive feedback.”

Starting out as a pop-up museum in 2017, the Vagina Museum has been without a permanent home several times in its history.

It secured its first physical location in 2019 in Camden Market, before having to leave the premises in 2021 after its least was not renewed. 

It went six months without a permanent fixture before securing its current site. During that time, it issued a public call to help search for a new venue and it has requested the same from its followers now.

The museums’ statement on Twitter added: “We’re actively searching for a new home, and if you know of any vacant spaces (or have one yourself!) please don’t hesitate to reach out.” 

“In our home in Bethnal Green, we and ENTER demonstrated that we can transform an empty, unused building into a thriving heart of a community.

“We’ve made it through a pandemic and a period of temporary homelessness before. With you, together, we can make it through this too.”

A politician in Cork is calling on the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) to return an Irish religious relic thought to have been looted by British forces in the 17th Century.

Sean Sherlock, a Labour member of the Irish Parliament, said that he would like the V&A to return the artefact, known as the Mount Keefe Chalice.

Dating from the 16th Century, the chalice is likely to have been looted from a church during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in the 17th Century, CorkBeo reported.

The artefact was purchased for £400 by V&A officials in 1929, from an heiress living in Cork, who had purchased it from a dealer.

Sherlock called for a “formal dialogue” with the UK to establish a framework between museums in both countries and discuss the return of the artefact.

“I’d like to see a bilateral process between Ireland and the UK where artefacts and antiquities which are of Irish origin could be returned to us. There are probably thousands of artefacts of Irish origin which should be decolonised,” he said.

“I imagine many artefacts ended up in English possession because they were associated with our colonial past. I certainly would like to see the V&A return the chalice.”

A spokesperson for the V&A said that the museum’s archives don’t include any information suggesting that the chalice might have once been stolen or linking it to British military raids.

“We would welcome the opportunity to explore any new information that comes to light about V&A collections – the Chalice is available for loan to museums in Ireland, which could support further study,” the spokesperson told CorkBeo.