Summer Project news: Update 13th September 2016

While others have been holidaying, at Project HQ we’ve enjoyed a busy few months and we are pleased to share all our latest Summer Project news below…

Onlookers admire a juggler’s balancing act at Gorum fair in the 1950s, found on Know Your Place Bristol (Public Relation photos info layer - BRO 40826.LEI.13.20)

Onlookers admire a juggler’s balancing act at Gorum fair in the 1950’s, found on Know Your Place Bristol (Public Relation photos info layer – BRO 40826.LEI.13.20)

 

Staff changes mean a temporary halt on building Know Your Place

Sadly for us, one of our team members working in Bristol City Council (BCC) is leaving shortly and the project will temporarily be without a key member of staff.

Due to the financial situation facing BCC – which you may have read about in the press – there is a freeze across the council on making new staff appointments. We are actively exploring ways to get staffing back in place quickly and are working closely with the Bristol team to limit the impact this will have on the project’s delivery timetable.

In the meantime, the technical build aspects of work on Know Your Place – including publishing Wiltshire and Gloucestershire KYP as intended this month – will be temporarily postponed.

We are keeping our momentum by continuing work as planned in all other areas of the project – including volunteer projects, preparation of historic data, and public events – and will give an update on expected dates for expanding Know Your Place as soon as we have further news to report.

Project Extension

Independently of the developments above, we are delighted to announce that the Heritage Lottery Fund has approved a request to extend our project until June 2017. This will enable the project to run for 24 months in total. We plan to put this extra time to good use, not only to overcome the delays above to complete our work, but also to raise awareness about the project and ensure we leave a strong legacy for our partners and all those heritage organisations, community groups, researchers and local people who we hope will continue to use and add to Know Your Place over the years to come. 

Exhibition Venues Announced

Work is well underway for our exhibition which will tour the West of England for six months from late-October 2016 to mid-April 2017. To make the biggest impact in a limited time, we have commissioned four exhibitions to tour simultaneously, so that we can visit 12 venues and reach a good proportion of the region.

Thank you to everyone who suggested potential venues back in the Spring. We are pleased to unveil nine of these, which include a mixture of community spaces and museums, tourist attractions and places of worship:

  • Clifton Suspension Bridge Visitor Centre
  • STEAM, Swindon
  • The Museum in the Park, Stroud
  • Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre Library
  • Radstock Museum
  • Town Hall, Weston Super Mare
  • Central Library, Taunton
  • Bishops Palace, Wells
  • Salisbury Cathedral

We have selected these based on their geographic spread, availability, our exhibition specifications (for space, wi-fi, opening, access and audiences), and most of all, by their enthusiasm to get involved with the project!

We will confirm the remaining venues and tour programme soon and hope to see you pop along to one of our locations.

Exhibition Partners

As you might have noticed if you’ve been following the project on social media, we’ve been tweeting and posting some of the amazing artefacts to be found in the region’s museum and archive collections. We are in discussions with 35 heritage organisations to identify collections and stories to represent the rich heritage of the West of England region in the exhibition.

So far, we’ve received exhibition material from:

  • Gloucestershire Archives
  • The Museum in the Park
  • Corinium Museum
  • Jet Age Museum
  • Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre
  • Chippenham Museum
  • STEAM
  • South West Heritage Trust
  • Community and Heritage Centre Yeovil
  • Museum of Bath at Work
  • Bath Records Office
  • Radstock Museum
  • Clifton Suspension Bridge Visitor Centre
  • North Somerset Libraries

Our thanks go to these and the many other organisations still working to prepare material for the exhibition. There are some wonderful stories coming through, and we’re confident that the exhibition will present a rich and fascinating picture of the region’s heritage.

User Survey for Know Your Place South Gloucestershire

In other Summer Project News: We are running a pop-up survey on the South Gloucestershire Know Your Place website during August and September, with some great feedback received so far which we’re sharing on our Twitter and Facebook feeds. Your responses help us see how we can improve the work that we do, so be sure to visit and fill it in next time you visit Know Your Place here.