REDDITCH Local History Museum has received a bumper £22,500 grant from national charity Art Fund_.
The cash is to be used on a new community-based outreach programme to improve public access to local history and to reach groups that wouldn’t normally get involved in local history.
“The demographics of groups we wish to target are age and ethnicity,” said museum trustee Derek Coombes.
“Age because getting younger people involved in local history improves the support for its retention and ethnicity because the migration of ethnic and minority groups into Redditch over the generations has significantly helped to create the multicultural community we have today.”
And once again trustees are appealing for volunteers to help them hit their targets.
“We have set ourselves a challenging range of activities to pursue including a memories recording programme, and a blogging and video streaming programme to reach younger generations,” said Derek.
“The development of a ‘virtual museum’ to give access to the archives online for those unable to visit our museum.
“A schools and youth engagement programme to get younger generations interested in local history and a project linking the museum with the wider community via talks, walks, events and inter-group activities.”
To meet this the museum is appealing for volunteers to help engage, plan, coordinate and deliver individual projects.
Trustees are also looking to expand its management team as the project grows.
“It’s an ambitious programme for 2022 for a small team. Please join us,” said Derek.
“Every new pair of hands, every new injection of experience, every suggestion of ‘have you thought about doing this way?’ will help us realise these ambitions.”
To get involved email: [email protected] or visit rlhm.online or call 07860 390745 or 07486 882181.
Redditch Local History Museum is located in Market Place in the town centre opposite St Stephen’s Church.
