Tag Archives: Community

Would you like to help shape the future work of Epping Forest District Museum?

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As part of the ground-breaking ‘No Borders’ project Epping Forest District Museum is looking for local residents to take part in two new museum focus groups this summer. The aim of these groups is to involve the local community in ensuring the work of the museum is accessible and relevant to all local people.

The No Borders project

‘No Borders’s is a partnership project between Epping Forest District Museum and two other local museums – Chelmsford Museum in Essex and Lowewood Museum in Hertfordshire. Supported by funding from Arts Council England, this project aims to support the three museums to develop sustainable, inspiring services for the future. Attracting new and more diverse audiences and increasing accessibility for all is an important part of this work. Commercial operations are being expanded, including retail, catering event services and venue hire. It is also planned for the museums to establish new, charitable Development Foundations to undertake fundraising in support of their work the museums.

The Focus Groups

One focus group will look at issues surrounding access to the museum’s services, including physical, sensory and intellectual access. If you are a resident of Epping Forest District living with health or impairment related matters or represent or work with residents with additional access needs and would like to help us improve access for all please do get in touch.

The second focus group is looking to bring together local residents who define themselves as being of Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background. This focus group will help the museum ensure its future exhibition and events programming and the objects collected reflect the diversity of local residents.

Both focus groups will take place at Epping Forest District Museum and will last 2 hours. Each focus group will be limited to 10 people. Before the meeting participants will be sent the current museum events programme and pre-visit information to review. This should not take more than 30 minutes. All participants will receive a £15 ‘Love2Shop’ voucher to thank them for their time.

Step-free access is available throughout the museum with a lift to the first and second floors. Toilets are located on the ground floor and second floor. A unisex accessible toilet is available on the ground floor.

There is a public car park 2 minutes’ walk from the museum. If you require disabled parking please contact us in advance by calling 01992 716882.

To find out more or to register your interest in taking part in the focus groups please contact the museum by emailing museum@eppingforestdc.gov.uk or calling 01992 716882. Please let us know which focus group you would like to attend, your preferred contact method and usual availability.

Update on our Heritage Lottery Fund Project

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Finally we can share with you some of the updates on our Heritage Lottery Fund Project and the redevelopment of the Museum!

A lot has been going on behind the scenes with the Museum project. Although the building work is yet to begin there are some very exciting updates that we wanted to share with you.

Before the building work can start all the plans and designs for the building, provided by Hawkins Brown, have to be finalised. One of the key missions of this project is to make the museum and its collection accessible to all and this is something that we have been working on with the architects.

The team and people involved with the project have been very excited to see the developments of the plans and it is fantastic for us to finally be able to share with you some of the updated plans and some proposed images of how the museum is going to look when we reopen!

Entrance to the Museum
Part of the project is the plan to reopen the original entrance on Sun Street. In this image you can see what would have been the original front door to the house and this will become the new main entrance to the museum.

Image showing the original entrance to the house that is now the museum

Tudor Gallery
Another key area for the project is a chance to interpret the Tudor part of the building. The house itself has a fascinating history and the team are very keen to share and expose the story of the building.

tudor gallery

Community and Education Room
Along with new galleries and a new entrance the museum will have a dedicated community and education space. The room will be able to fit a class of 30 children making a better visitor experience for school groups but the space will have open arts and craft storage to allow for creativity but also be equipped for lectures, talks and presentations providing a fantastic new space for the museum.

activity room

The Core Gallery
As you may already be aware the redevelopment of the museum will allow for on-site collections storage and a new gallery ‘The Core Gallery’ this space will feature key objects from the collection and give visitors the opportunity to see behind the scenes into the stores, and people at work caring for the collection.

Core gallery

Art Stores
Along with the new on-site storage there will be the chance for visitors to see into the stores through glass viewing areas. This will include views of the picture stores which will be on a new racking system. This is great because the team will be able to showcase some of the fantastic pieces of art in the museum’s collection even when they aren’t on display.

art stores

We would love to hear what you think via Facebook, Twitter, comments on the blog or through the contact us links on the menu above. We will have more updates for you soon!