Bath Museums Partnership

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In 2013 The Holburne, American Museum in Britain and Bath Preservation Trust (No.1 Royal Crescent, the Building of Bath Collection, Beckford’s Tower, Herschel Museum) received an Arts Council England grant for a project called ‘Developing Audiences for Bath Museums’, which aimed to develop a collaborative approach to marketing, interpretation, and community engagement.

The partnership wished to jointly tackle low engagement with Bath’s museums by some of Bath’s communities. Our objective was to engage and consult with groups in Bath & North East Somerset, and to explore, through pilot projects, how their needs could be met by the museums.

The project aimed to:
• Explore, through evaluated pilot projects, how the needs of community groups are best met by the partner museums collectively or individually, with a view to establishing long-term, embedded and meaningful relationships;
• Create a joint Forward Plan for community engagement rooted in genuine community need

Once the partners were finalised activities took place during summer and autumn 2014.

We worked with Sirona, Creativity Works, St Mungo’s, Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust on the Fresh Art at Hillview project to provide new art for the walls of the Hillview Lodge acute psychiatric unit at the Royal United Hospital. Participants worked with artists at the partner museums and museum staff and artists also worked with people who were resident at Hillview Lodge. The work created was displayed in an exhibition at the Building of Bath Museum and in the RUH main building.

Members of the Bath and Keynsham branches of Age UK worked with a ceramics artist at museum-based workshops designed to help relieve social isolation and build confidence and skills.

The Museum partners also worked with St Mungo’s, a charity, which supports people affected by mental health issues. Participants designed and printed T shirts to raise money to support their social enterprise group.

Families attending Bath Area Play Project’s after school club at Odd Down community centre visited the museums to connect with their collections through art, craft, drama and cooking activities.

Ways to sustain and fund these community relationships are currently being explored by the partner museums.