Renaissance East Midlands is working with museums to connect more and more people from the region's diverse communities with local museums and collections through community engagement and learning both in the buildings and online. To find out more about our online and digital work please follow the link on the right.
Open Spaces
Renaissance at Light Night
On evening of Friday 18th February the City Centre of Nottingham will once again be lit up with entertainment, music, installations projects and activities. As part of Light Night Renaissance East Midlands will be showcasing projects from their youth engagement and reaching new audiences via digital technologies strands, Open Spaces and MuBu. On the night these showcases from Museums across the region will include a chance to try site excavations, wicker sculpting, and the creation of replica Stone Age tools to film workshops and exhibition design. Join us in this celebration, meet the participants in these innovative projects and appreciate the products of their learning, skills and creativity.
Renaissance at Light Night (5.53 MB)
Community Engagement
Successful Museums of the Mind Projects
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Nottingham City Museums and Galleries have develed a specialised loans resource entitled ‘Suitably Sensory’ for use by older mental health patients based in Nottingham’s mental health hospital wards.
- In partnership with Bassetlaw MIND, Bassetlaw Museum have facilitated regular group meetings focusing on personal interpretations of museum objects which feature in a temporary exhibition planned and designed by group participants. Bassetlaw Museum has also been successful in gaining MuBu funding for the purpose of creating a video diary of their Museums of the Mind project.
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Wirksworth Heritage Centre have facilitated inter-generational work in the local community through the delivery of reminiscence and photography events, the results of which have formed an exhibition of portraiture.
- In partnership with Central Nottinghamshire MIND, Mansfield Museum have aided group members in the curation of a temporary exhibition using objects from the museum’s natural history collection.
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Chesterfield Museum and Art Gallery developed and piloted a series of themed loan boxes for use with those living with or at risk of dementia.
By working in partnership, museums, arts and community organisations can use existing and new research to map current and potential audiences; together they are able to use this information to develop plans to use collections to attract a more diverse audience, reflecting local, regional diversity, culture and identity. It is this knowledge which enables museums to be more relevant to their communities.
Current project work builds on the Cluster Group partnerships utilising the expertise gained through the understanding and knowing your audience programmes to engage wider audiences with their museums and collections. The Changemaker partnerships programme continues to work in close partnership with the Arts Council England, East Midlands and participating arts organisations.
Developed from ‘Delivering Diverse Community Learning’, the Changemaker Lead Services have dedicated officers to develop and deliver community engagement projects that increase access to collections and target priority groups. The Changemaker Partnership Plus programme continues to develop and deliver community engagement projects with museums that have excelled in the audience development programme supported by a Lead Service Partner.
In the future we hope to develop two more project areas; concentrating on young people NEETs and mental health, wellbeing and happiness.
Learning
The Renaissance East Midlands Learning Programme 2009-2011 delivers to five priority areas developed in consultation with key partners and stakeholders in response to local, regional and national priorities. The programme focuses on supporting museum learning provision for 0-24 years in the following areas:
- Raising aspiration and educational achievement
- Developing specialist provision for special educational needs
- Developing provision to address social, health and economic agendas
- Developing innovative provision to support curricula developments in schools, further and higher education establishments
- Strengthening provision for local communities
The Flagship Learning Providers Grants Programme provides funds to support museum delivery within these themes. Museum Learning Networks have been created to strengthen evaluation, share best practice, develop innovative delivery and increase the formation of partnerships with key stakeholders to nurture the sustainability of programmes. The development of the learning strand is further supported by the Cultural and Creative Ambassadors Project. Professional development is supported through action research projects focussing on an analysis of museum learning practice.
Ancestral and Literary Tourism
In 2008-09 MLA East Midlands and Renaissance East Midlands commissioned a study to investigate the potential for developing Ancestral and Literary Tourism offers in the region based on the collections and interests of the region’s museums, archives, libraries, historic properties and heritage sites.
Subsequently, a report was produced which highlighted ancestral and literary tourism as two distinctive types of cultural tourism that cross the boundaries between the tourism industry and the cultural sector. As such the report found that they both offer opportunities and challenges for the organisations and businesses seeking to develop and market products and services to a very sophisticated group of consumers. To find out more please view the Ancestral and Literary Tourism page.
Our Corby
Corby will be growing to accommodate another 16,000 homes in the next 12 years, adding further to its history of absorption and mixing of cultures. This project explores migration and identity through creative use of historic material. The historic material is being used to inspire the community’s memories and responses to change. To find out more please view the Our Corby page.
Flagships Visitor Attractions: The Flagship Visitor Attraction Programme provides targeted support for 10 museums classed as major visitor attractions and those which have the potential to become them. A network has been developed, providing appropriate types of support including ‘survive and thrive’ business health checks and development plans to help the museums to address identified needs. The network has developed strong external partnerships e.g. with Destination Management Partnerships, national museums and major museums in other regions and a specialist marketing campaign has been developed with East Midlands Tourism. The emphasis will not just be on mutual support and benefits, but also leadership and support for the whole museums community. For more information please contact katherine.wilson@leicester.gov.uk