Phase 2 Project is a GO!
Posted By Manager on June 21, 2012
We are very excited to announce confirmation of a successful grant application from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This £37,500 grant will enable the museum to continue the refurbishment of the exhibition rooms in this beautiful grade 1 listed building, and tops up the £60,000 needed.
The project was started back in 2008 with the £100,000 redisplay of the Parlour and Study being undertaken in 2009 with the help of HLF, Staffordshire Environmental Fund and local organisations Swinfen Broun and Conduit Lands Trusts. This second phase will complete the revamp with the final room, the Inventions Room, being brought up to date. Alison Wallis, manager of the museum, says “We’re so excited to have been granted the money once again. Since we completed the 2009 refurb the Inventions Room has looked very plain and in need of an update. We really hope this will make the subject more accessible to a wider range of visitors”.
The room will include more interactive models of Darwin’s inventions including a canal barge lift, flushing toilet, steering mechanism and the speaking machine seen in the museums introductory video presented by Adam Hart-Davis. Alison said “many visitors enquire about the speaking machine but since there is very little written down about this particular invention we’ve never had one in the House, however, we hope that by Christmas our visitors will be able to have a go at making the machine speak”.
The museum has chosen Vertigo Creative as the designers for the second time running in order to keep the style the same. Director, Rhodri Thomas, says “Everyone at Vertigo is looking forward to working with the good folks of the Erasmus Darwin House Museum again. When we were developing the displays in 2008, the trustees were very open to innovative ideas as well as being very well informed of new techniques being used in museums around the world. Together we created an exciting, educational environment that can compare to any larger, national institutions. I’m confident that with the Inventions Room project this year, we will reunite a winning team!”
Over the coming months staff at Erasmus Darwin House will be busy working on this project which includes three new temporary contract jobs, Project Manager, Education Assistant and Marketing Officer, who will help to bring the inventions of Darwin to life. They aim for the new room to be open some time during October so watch this space!
All vacancies are now closed to applications.
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