Version 11 Second Round Application For Heritage Grants

Second Round Application For Heritage Grants

Notes on Completion What is your project title? Gallery

You should read the help notes when filling in this application form. Keep your answers as brief as possible. Unless specified we do not have a word limit. However, as a guide, we would not expect your answers to any of the seven sections to be more than 1,000 words (about two sides of typed A4).

We support projects that relate to the national, regional or local heritage of the UK.

To receive a grant your project must: · Help people to learn about their own and other people's heritage.

Your project must also do either or both of the following: · Conserve the UK's diverse heritage for present and future generations to experience and enjoy.

· Help more people, and a wider range of people, to take an active part in and make decisions about heritage.

Once your application is complete you should print out the declaration, ask the appropriate person to sign it, and send it, along with hard copies of any supporting documents you cannot send electronically, to your regional or country HLF office.

The official date we receive your application is when we have received your correct supporting documents and correctly signed declaration after submission of this online form. We will not assess your application if you have not: · Answered all the questions.

· Provided the correct supporting documents (do not send more than we ask for).

· Included the correct signature on the declaration.

Reference number HG-11-06377 Date we received your form 28 Aug 2014

1 Version 11 Second Round Application For Heritage Grants Section Two - The Heritage 2a What is the heritage your project focuses upon? Bolton has one of the most significant collections of ancient Egyptian material in the UK; probably the largest held by any local authority-run service. The collection is notable not only for its size (around 12,000 items) and range - from jewellery and everyday items right up to mummies and granite columns from ancient temples - but the fact that it spans over 12,000 years of Egyptian history from Prehistory to the Arab Conquest. This makes it a collection of international importance.

Egyptian linen has been renowned since antiquity for its quality and a core element of the collection are ancient textiles. This includes the oldest known fragment of woven cotton ever discovered - over 7,000 years old. The most spectacular examples of textiles in the ’s collection date to the Coptic period, from about 300AD onwards, and reflect cultural changes such as the spread of Christianity in and the importation of silk from Asia.

This collection is ultimately a legacy of the textile industry in Bolton. Famously the place where the spinning mule was invented in the 1780s, within 100 years Bolton had become internationally known as a centre for spinning and weaving of fine quality cotton. By the later 19th century much of this raw cotton came from the Valley; a trade important enough to see King Faud of Egypt visit Bolton in person in 1927.

One of the largest and most successful local mill companies was the firm of Barlow and Jones, founded by James Barlow of Edgworth. Annie Barlow (1863-1941), James’ daughter, became interested in Ancient Egypt while accompanying her brother on a trade visit. She began to support the Egypt Exploration Society (EES), a group set up to promote interest in the monuments of Egypt. She was soon appointed as "Local Secretary" for Bolton, responsible for raising funds for the EES. The Egypt Exploration gave objects to institutions or collectors who had funded their work. Annie Barlow asked for her share of the finds to be given to the Chadwick Museum, the Victorian forerunner of today’s Bolton Museum.

Bolton Museum was a major supporter of the Egypt Exploration Society for the next century, and a large proportion of our Egyptian collection derives from EES excavations. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Museum also directly supported the excavations of in Egypt and Palestine.

The first two curators of the Chadwick Museum, William Midgley (curator 1883-1906) and his son Thomas Midgley (curator 1906-1934), were specialists in the study of ancient textiles. In some cases, they provided excavators with an assessment of the textiles found at a particular site in return for a share of the finds. As a town whose prosperity depended on the textile trade, Bolton was especially interested in collecting samples of textiles. These could be displayed to illustrate the history of spinning and weaving, and also studied by local designers trying to improve their products.

Linked with the service’s significant collection of 19th and 20th century pattern books, design samples and textiles, the broad textile collection today represents an outstanding resource; ranging from the oldest identified piece of woven cotton in the world through the earliest known sample of Lancashire-spun cotton to the latest in cutting-edge 'smart' materials developed at the .

2b Why is your heritage important and who is it important to? This collection has three key significances:

1) Local identity - Generations of local people have grown up visiting Bolton Museum (and its Victorian predecessor, the Chadwick Museum) and the Egyptian displays have consistently been a core favourite and this has become part of local identity. The story of how the collections came to be in the town are also closely woven into the fabric of the history of the Borough.

2) Regional educational resource & visitor attraction - The quality of the collections within the dedicated Ancient Egypt gallery space makes the museum a key Bolton attraction, particularly to schools and for families. Visitor analysis indicates 40% of museum visitors come from outside the Borough and feedback (relating both to general visits and specifically about the gallery) indicates that the Egyptian collection is a key draw and closely associated with the public image of the service as a whole.

3) International academic study - Despite the limitations of access and lack of a public database, the

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collection is already a valued resource for study. This ranges from serious academics to the more casual interest of amateur Egyptian enthusiasts, many of whom are members of one of the numerous Egyptology clubs and societies in the North West.

As well as the nature of the objects themselves, crucially the vast majority of the collection was formally excavated. This means that (in contrast to collections such as the Whitworth in Manchester) the collection represents a rich resource of reliably datable evidence. For example, in the last study to identify a date for the famous Turin shroud, a sample was taken from a textile in the Bolton collection as a control.

For decades the collection has been somewhat overshadowed by a geographic proximity to the Manchester University and National , Liverpool collections (it was mainly in these grounds that it was narrowly turned down for Designated status in the late 1990s), exacerbated by a relative lack of profile and ease of access. However, in recent years there has been a growing understanding from academics and public alike that the collection has been significantly under-appreciated. This is reflected in the growing number of serious academic research enquiries from around the world and also by the use of the collection as the basis of a major award-winning international touring exhibition since 2011.

6 Version 11 Second Round Application For Heritage Grants 2c How do you manage your heritage today? The Egyptian collection is part of a larger Bolton museum collection of around 400,000 objects. Responsibility for the care and management of this collection is shared by members of the collections access team and Conservator, with the Team Leader: Museums Development taking a lead in setting policies and procedures and overseeing projects. The Team Leader: Museums Development is managed by a senior manager of collections and access who is part of the service senior management team under the Head of Service.

As a result of budget challenges and service reorganisation, the officers of the collections access team have a more generic and less subject specialist function than at any time since 1974. However, because of the particular significance of the Egyptian collection, the service has retained a curator of Egyptology post. This officer deals with day-to-day enquiries, academic research requests (including destructive sampling requests) and associated management of the often complex documentation. At present they are also leading on the curatorship of the international touring exhibition with a commercial partner.

The curator works with other staff (for example officers devising and delivering education sessions) and manages volunteers when appropriate. In recent months this has included an international museum exchange organised by the French government.

There are various challenges relating to the Egyptian collection:

Documentation - The outstanding issue for the collection is the lack of a complete database (including images). The collection has been built up over 125 years and has gone through two world wars, a closure of the original museum and numerous staff changes. Inevitably the collections have suffered in terms of retaining their association with their original provenance. Since the mid 1970s the service has employed a sequence of three professional Egyptologists who have undertaken a great deal of work to reassociate the collections with their original accession records and facilitate relevant academic research. Unfortunately this work is still largely limited to paper records of various kinds. As a result, the use of the collection has reached a natural limit, making it difficult for other officers or the public to understand or engage with the collection.

Only 5,000 of the c.12,000 objects are currently on the museum database and many of these lack images or accurate location or provenance data. This makes it very hard for researchers or casual enquirers to explore the collection or even to know what Bolton holds; for example identifying all material held from a particular archaeological site. At present researchers often only find their way to Bolton via paper records held by original distributing archaeological organisations like the E.E.S. or limited secondary published papers. This lack of presence for Bolton is notable issue, with visiting researchers regularly surprised by the quality and quantity of material held by the service.

The completion of a complete, publicly accessible database would solve these challenges and remove significant obstacles in how the collection can be used for exhibitions, displays and events (for example, enabling users to co-curate) and significantly improve the management of its storage, care and conservation.

Conservation - Aside from their intrinsic age, Bolton's Egyptian collections have been collected, studied and partly displayed over a period of more than a century, often in conditions that were less than ideal. While material like pottery is robust enough, other parts of the collections such as the textiles (for which Bolton is particularly renowned) have suffered and will require investment in cleaning, repair or remounting; something partially assessed in a series of conservation reports. This will ensure their long-term care and place the material in the best position to be both redisplayed and otherwise accessed.

2d How do people get involved with and learn about your heritage now? The main way of accessing the collection at present is via the gallery. Up to a 1,000 objects are shown within the Egyptology gallery in the central museum on Le Mans Crescent, Bolton. These displays were originally created in 1959/60 after the old Victorian museum in Queen's Park, Bolton was emptied and demolished. The gallery had previously been used for botany and the new displays were inserted in the old wall cases based on a chronological theme. Some new interpretation was added in the 1980s, but the gallery remains largely as it was created in 1960.

The objects are arranged by chronology, ranging from prehistoric Egypt to the Arab period (with some themes within this e.g. jewellery). The displays have some basic interpretation via printed panels and labels. There is some film footage on show of an excavation in Egypt from which Bolton received objects.

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The space is also used as a main teaching area during school visits. These Egyptian learning sessions have recently been supported by a set of digital resources via the museum website (www.boltonlams.org and www.crescentactivitybank.co.uk)

The website also has some basic information about the collection with a limited selection of images and lists of all excavation sites represented plus guidance on how researchers can make appointments to study the collections. There is no public accessible database of the collection, only an in-house system which currently is only around 20% computerised.

The museum also runs occasional family events with an Egyptian theme, plus curatorial talks and gallery and store tours.

The rest of the collections are kept in separate storage in a separate building. These are stored and used primarily by academic researchers. Such researchers usually know what material they are interested in via academic publications that cite Bolton material or else through original archaeological distribution lists.

The stored collections will also get drawn upon as a resource when creating new projects or events, but the lack of complete in-house database with images means that such use is restricted by the natural bottle-neck of relying upon the working knowledge of the curator of Egyptology.

Around 250 objects are also currently used in a major international touring exhibition The objects are due to return to Bolton in late 2015.

8 Version 11 Second Round Application For Heritage Grants Section Three - Your Project 3a What is your project? (up to 200 words) Our project will create meaningful and emotive connections to the stories our collections tell. The project has four core aims:

• To create a radical bespoke gallery space which will for the first time properly showcase and effectively interpret the Ancient Egyptian collections. The space will be designed so that visitors experience the gallery in an emotive and experiential way. • To combine this with an unprecedented new level of physical and digital access to the whole collection in order to unlock its potential as a resource for both academic study and creative inspiration. • To use the above developments as an opportunity to create and deliver a significantly improved associated formal learning programme for schools and adults. • To use the new gallery as a catalyst for establishing new relationships with local people, particularly those in hard to reach communities who have not previously engaged with the museum. This would be particularly focused upon creating a sustained volunteer programme designed to help people engage with the collections and the key ideas and themes of the gallery, while also encouraging skills of informal learning, literacy and socialisation amongst families and adults.

3b What will your project do? CAPITAL AND EXHIBITION WORKS

The current Egyptology gallery is tired and its restricted space does not allow for display of the vast amount of significant collections. It fails to present the outstanding collections that it can house in any effective way, making it particularly challenging for families or schools to engage and offering an underwhelming visitor experience.

This project will create a bespoke and radically more effective space. A new Egyptology gallery will be built above the void on the library roof, this space will be accessible via the current Wildlife on Your Door Step exhibition, which will be re-designed and incorporated into the new Egyptology gallery.

The increased exhibit area allows us to expand the sensory approach favoured by users, creating a wider range of spatial experiences and lighting conditions. In this new arrangement, greater integration of objects with the narrative and the themes is possible and more objects can be displayed at any one time. With more space available at the entrance, school groups and programmed children’s activities can have a base dedicated to them here from which to be briefed, explore the exhibition and the rest of the museum and return to.

This work will increase the display area, creating distinct coherent themed areas that promote the view that people in ancient Egypt loved their life so much they wanted it to go on forever and were prepared to go to great lengths to make sure they lived for eternity.

What was the Wildlife on Your Doorstep gallery space will cover the following themes:

Meet the Egyptians: connect with them as real people- the displays will include portraits of ancient Egyptians from all walks of life giving everyone an ancient Egyptian to whom they can relate. Land of plenty: the setting - the historical chronology, geography, landscape and natural resources of ancient Egypt. Living in style: a designed world - technologically advanced people created highly sophisticated designs for architecture, storage, products and technology.

A world of ideas: the ancient Egyptian world view, the structure of society, maintaining order, religion, writing, art and fashion.

The exhibition will be dominated by the unique attraction of an exact recreation of the tomb of Thutmosis III. A transition area to the new space will introduce this attraction by showcasing the themes of preparing to live forever and the magic of the tomb.

The walls and ceiling of this tomb in the Valley of the Kings are covered with images from the Egyptian book of the dead which portray the journey, death and rebirth of the Egyptian sun god, providing a unique insight

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into Egyptian beliefs and understanding of the world. Bolton has been working in partnership with Danish exhibition company United Exhibits Group (UEG) on a highly successful touring exhibition in the far East and this life-size tomb has featured as a centre-piece. It was created when UEG were given exclusive access to laser-scan the original tomb in the Valley of the Kings and then use this data to build up a millimetre-perfect copy. The tomb is built using polystyrene covered by plaster-coated paper on to which image of the internal painting and decoration has been printed, with hand painted additions. The end result is far more than simply a replica, but is a re-creation unique in the world and unlikely to ever be repeated. Experienced Egyptologists who are familiar with the original tomb have commented on how much the space looks and feels the same.

At the end of the tour Bolton has been given the option by our partner to purchase the tomb at less than cost price as a way of ensuring it has a long-term . The result will be a unique attraction unmatched in the UK that would offer a powerful visitor experience and unique learning opportunities for schools and adults.

No less important than the tomb will be Bolton's own special collections perhaps augmented with one or two key loans from national collections. These will feature in and around the tomb (for example Bolton's two mummies), but particularly in distinctly themed areas off the entrance. In contrast to the dark and atmospheric transition and tomb area, the traditional gallery space will be about light and life. Using sustainable and changeable showcases the rich Bolton collections relating to everyday life in Egypt will be brought to the fore. Also critical in the interpretation will be the story of how the collections came to Bolton and how this helps tell the story of the development of the Borough.

The new gallery will feature a range of imaginative interpretative techniques that will encourage visitors to explore, learn and make their own contributions; making connections through space and time. With schools, families and non-traditional museum audiences as core targets, the gallery design will be accessible and hands-on and not assume prior knowledge. However, it will also not underestimate the intelligence of the audience, aspiring to present rich and lively ideas.

The gallery will make effective use of digital technology to allow visitors to both enjoy fun activities and challenges, but also explore the collections in greater depth. This will be guided by a digital strategy that will be drawn up in-house as part of the community consultation (see also 'digitisation of collection' section).

Intertwined with the creation of this new gallery creation are further elements of physical transformation. In order to ensure that the new Egyptian gallery fulfils its full potential, it is important that a positive visitor experience begins on entering the building. As the Egyptology gallery is moving geographically in the building it is important to signpost visitors to the new gallery space. To this end it is proposed that the museum portico gallery is reorganised, moving the current reception desk to create space for the gallery to begin the portico area. Here the story Egyptology collections, its originators and how it connects to the other collections we care for will be told in partnership through co-curation.

The current Egypt gallery will become a prestigious temporary exhibition space and this in turn would allow the current temporary exhibition gallery to be turned into a second art and costume gallery space. This would more than double the gallery space available for a key part of the museum collections, returning space originally designed to hang art to this purpose. This is particularly important at a time when there are increasingly vocal questions asked about the amount of local authority-owned art held in storage through a lack of opportunity to display. The service is already undertaking a reorganisation of the storage areas that will see the return of oil paintings to the central museum building from an off-site store, thus making more frequent changes of display much easier.

LEARNING & PARTICIPATION

These physical transformations will open up a wide range of new opportunities for learning, literacy and family interaction. The first area will be the development of a radically improved formal learning programme. The detailed gallery design will be undertaken in consultation with schools, ensuring that the space delivers key cross - curricula themes in an effective way. In particular, there will be an emphasis on hands-on activity and pupil-led discovery; something not possible in the current one room gallery space. Whilst the work is being complete and outreach programme for schools will be in place so that children do not lose access to a museum led session.

Ancient Egypt generates an almost universal fascination and the new gallery project is an ideal vehicle for

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making connections with key communities within the Borough who currently are not users of the service. A dedicated project officer would lead on creating a programme of innovative and exciting activities that will take the collections out to hard to reach groups and (in line with key Council objectives) also encouraged such communities to help develop and subsequently make use of the new town centre gallery. This work will explore various core themes, including how comparing and contrasting our lives with people of the past can give a sense of perspective and personal identity, ethics around human remains and the development of community heritage.

Central to this strand will be the recruitment of a new volunteer team that will make this work a sustainable part of the service. As well as delivering activities out in the borough, it is intended this team would work closely with the curatorial and visitor services teams to become a permanent presence in the new gallery space, particularly at weekends and during holidays. They will help visitors to engage with the displays and would also play role in using social media to promote the collections and the gallery, helping to raise awareness and encourage visits. By being drawn from the local community, it is hoped that the team will play a big part in helping to ensure that the gallery is a comfortable space owned and well used by the people of Bolton. In return, the volunteers will be supported in a structured way to gain new transferable skills such as customer care

DIGITISATION OF COLLECTION

Underpinning the whole project will be the creation of a full digital database of the Egyptian collection, including images. Time will be invested in the development stage to fully digitise and catalogue the Egyptian collection in order to allow the subsequent elements of the project to work.

Having created this resource, the digital database would be used not only for internal collections management but made publicly accessible. It would be accessible both through gallery interactives and study stations, but also online; a lasting digital legacy of both local and international significance. Bolton will purchase eMuseum software to enable this, making the transition of files from the in house documentation system smooth and accessible to all staff, volunteers and the public. This software is flexible and can be designed to fit in with Bolton’s website so that it is an embedded resource. eMuseum will also support collections and visitor services staff to answer Egyptology collection enquires more effectively and efficiently. The software uses open source technology which means that it will develop and evolve over time with little cost, making the resource sustainable. Volunteers and members of the community will be able to use the online collection to co-curate exhibitions and displays, both on and offsite.

CONSERVATION

Alongside this work will be a programme of conservation to clean, repair or remount the collection. In particular, the ancient textiles require work to undo unsuitable older conservation and stabilise their condition. This will ensure their long-term care and place the material in the best position to be both redisplayed and otherwise accessed.

As part of this strand of the project, practical opportunities will be offered to conservation students to develop skills and gain experience with undertaking conservation assessments and supervised work with in-house conservator and external contractors.

MARKETING & PROMOTION

None of this work will be effective if people do not know about it, so an integral element of the project will be a dedicated marketing strand. This will use conventional marketing practice alongside targeted social media output to raise interest and enthusiasm for the project. The aim is to reach not only people who have never visited the museum, but the category of people who were visitors as children but have not returned for decades.

Bolton will introduce the new gallery to its audiences through a programme of special previews with the event content targeted to specific groups. Bolton will hold a press, stakeholder, family and schools preview separately.

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3c How have you arrived at this project? This project is a key priority of the service and of the wider Bolton Council. The current gallery is the outstandingly undeveloped in the central museum, and is a showcase for the most significant part of the Bolton collection.

Aside from this general service aspiration, the project has been devised drawing upon a series of specific drivers, some of which are time-sensitive and therefore give a clear impetus to undertake the work now rather than at a later date:

1) The key priorities of Bolton Council: a) The economic development of Bolton is a key priority for the Council and its strategic partners at this time of economic difficulty. There is a particular focus upon drawing visitors into Bolton town centre and Chief Officers and the Bolton Town Centre partnership have embraced the redevelopment of the Egyptian gallery as a significant permanent addition to the town centre offer, complementing the redevelopment of the nearby Bolton Market. The recent international tour of a selection of objects from the Egyptian collection to the Far East (seen by over a million people in Taiwan alone) has dramatically demonstrated the potential of this collection to act as a significant draw for a wide range of people when displayed and marketed effectively. The inclusion of the unique tomb feature has been particularly identified as a key part of the redeveloped offer. It is for this reason that Council has committed extremely limited capital funds to undertake required changes to the roof structure as part of this project.

In addition, the two other regional centres with major Egyptian collections (Liverpool World Museum and ) have both undertaken complete refurbishments of their Egyptian gallery spaces, leaving Bolton increasingly the poor relation. In a competitive market for visitors, this is a damaging position to be in. However good the other gallery spaces, Egypt (along with the aquarium) is undoubtedly the major draw for visitors outside the borough and so to leave the gallery undeveloped for much longer will damage the overall Bolton museum brand.

b) Narrowing the social and economic gap - The project is also particularly designed to deliver on targets related to priorities around educational attainment and social aspiration. Using the uniqueness of the collections to develop interesting and engaging activities, new learning opportunities and a sustainable volunteering programme. Particular emphasis will be placed upon the communities within the borough who are most in need, as identified in the Bolton Strategic Vision.

c) Community cohesion - related to these objectives is the desire to contribute to the programme of initiatives relating to encouraging community cohesion within the Borough. The collections at the heart of this project are from Egypt and and offer clear opportunities to express and promote the heritage of Bolton's long international links. The clear and explicit promotion of these international links (also reflected in a smaller collection of Peruvian material, another Bolton trade partner) have a long contributed to developing an understanding about other cultures which is reflected in the diverse cohesive society that is Bolton today.

2) Public consultation - the Egypt gallery has long been identified as in need of extensive remodelling. The display space is extremely limited and currently public access to much of the collections is restricted to some website information and occasional public tours.

Ongoing consultation has been carried out with users via touchscreens and comments cards for some years and these reveal a common disappointment with the general drabness of the space and the lack of gallery facilities that modern visitors increasingly expect. This has been particularly exacerbated by the redevelopment of the local history gallery in 2010 which has left the Egyptian space looking even worse by comparison

3) Schools & families consultation - Children and their families are a priority group for Bolton Museum, from both in the borough and further afield. Not only is education a central purpose of the service, but pupils visiting often return for subsequent visits with parents and grandparents and are also an important section of the shop users. The current lack of child friendly interpretation and learning interactives is an active barrier.

The Regional Standpoint Programme benchmarks museums which collect data through standpoint machines. Between October 2011 to March 2012, 446 responses were collected through Bolton

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standpoint machines situated throughout the museum. Only 2% of responses were from family and community focussed groups despite this audience profile making up 10% of the North West population which indicates that significant development work needs to done in this area.

Young people often come with their parents after a visit to a museum workshop – in fact on the Standpoint feedback 17% of respondents reported this as an influence on their visit (the highest percentage of all 9 museums benchmarked). What is difficult at the moment due to the lack of child friendly interpretation and learning interactives is an element of the whole family enjoying and learning together. The project would target families who are non-users as well as families who visit and provide a ‘learning together’ experience using inspirational collections and innovative ways of embedding learning throughout the interpretation.

Jayne Tramontana Curriculum Leader Family Learning has said in support of the project application “The enhancement of this gallery holds so much potential to take it beyond a visually stimulating space to a multi-sensory learning experience. The opportunity for our learners to interact more with the artefacts, feel part of ancient Egypt and contribute their own images or constructions to the gallery would be fantastic. A key aim of Family Learning at the museum is to support learners to feel like the museum is a place for them, a part of their culture and somewhere that as families they want to keep returning to. I feel that the transformation of the Egyptology gallery would be a huge asset in meeting this aim ‘somewhere amazing and interactive’ that they would want to come back and explore by themselves after completing their course. We would definitely expand our provision to make the most of an improved gallery.”

Particular consultation has been carried out with schools, both teachers and pupils. These have focused upon overall impressions of the current gallery, limitations of the space and current education offer plus favourite objects and themes. This has indicated teachers and pupils find the current displays hard to engage with, with dull displays and dense interpretation. Despite this, the quality of the objects are still a major potential draw, but with increased competition expected from the new Manchester Museum gallery, it is likely that Bolton will find it hard to retain and develop school visits.

4) 'Mature Explorers' in the Greater Manchester Standpoint benchmarking report were another unrepresented group visiting the Museum. Only 3% of respondents were in this category compared with 10% in the North West population. Although there is a monthly lunchtime talk in the Museum and a Friends of Bolton Museum group (which is predominately older people) at present there are relatively few opportunities for this age group to participate in activities related to the Egyptian Gallery.

5) Volunteer requests - the service receives more requests for volunteering opportunities to work with the Egyptian collections than any other. This, combined with staff experience of the power of public interaction with the Egyptian collections from individuals and groups ranging from young offenders to young families, supports the belief that the Egyptian collections have an almost unique power to reach all.

6) A key catalyst for undertaking the project at this time is that the service has the much-welcome offer of a significant financial donation from a private benefactor. This six figure sum would more than cover the match funding required, but is a time limited offer. Any significant deferral in undertaking the project is likely to see the donation withdrawn.

7) Another motivation for undertaking the project at this time is that the Service currently employs an experienced and fully qualified Egyptologist as part of the core staff. Any project to redisplay and and reorganise the Egyptian gallery would be far easier and better done with such a crucial officer in the team.

More broadly, the service has undergone significant challenge and change in recent years, but has the prospect of relative stability for the next three years. Now is the right time to undertake a project like this while the service still has the capacity based around a dedicated, experienced and skilful team.

8) The Library and Museum Service has a Museum Interpretation Policy (formally endorsed Feb.2007) which lays out the key interpretative storylines for museum displays and exhibitions. This is intended to give structure and focus in forward planning, especially in defining and defending the continued use and development of the collections. This project has been devised with reference to this policy and draws upon two elements in particular: Section L states: "what art and other collections were gathered by local collectors (including the council) over the previous 150 years. Why did they collect such material and what does this say about their aspirations for themselves and Bolton". In addition, Section M asks: "How were the lives of ancient

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people, particularly from Egypt, both similar and very different to our own and what insight does this offer in understanding ourselves". The redevelopment of the gallery will allow the proper realisation of these objectives.

9) This project hinges upon an ambitious capital element to reorganise the space. These ideas have been worked up to a detailed level with a team of professional architects. Their work has both provided informed costs and helped shape the detail of what is possible.

10) Because of the Grade II listed status of the Le Mans Crescent building, English Heritage have been consulted at a regional level concerning the outline building proposals.

14 Version 11 Second Round Application For Heritage Grants Section Four - Project Outcomes 4a What difference will your project make to your heritage? In parallel to this gallery transformation, the collections will also benefit from a step change in the way in which the whole can be accessed and explored. The complete physical conservation and digital cataloguing of the collection will make the collection fit for use in the long term. This will be underpinned by the creation of a dedicated care and research facility physically linked to the gallery which will offer an unprecedented level of long-term care and physical access.

By making these physical changes to the way the collection is presented and organised, it is anticipated that there will be an increase in the research use of the collection. This in turn leads to more information being gathered about the material Bolton holds, information that can be fed through to further improving the ways in the collection is used.

4b What difference will your project make for people? This project has been designed to create specific significant outcomes:

1) Visitor attraction - the new gallery, with its unique feature of the tomb recreation, will create a major visitor attraction for Bolton town centre. This will constitute a significant economic contribution to the Borough, drawing people from outside the area into the town. In addition, the digitisation of the collection will increase the level of research visits, bringing further people into the Borough. Since April 2012 the museum has begun to open on Sundays and Bank Holidays, thus opening up further opportunities for families to visit.

A particular group who will be appealed to are families from the wealthier wards of Bolton who tend not to use the town centre but instead make use of out of town retail parks or Manchester city. With new Egyptian galleries in Liverpool and Manchester it is important that Bolton not only matches, but exceeds these attractions to help bring in this highly mobile group.

Other parts of the Bolton community and neighbouring authorities with less access to transport are known to not travel far from home, and so will not make use of cultural facilities in Manchester or further afield. The new gallery will therefore create a high quality gallery which will be accessible to this less mobile audience. Some of these people already make use of the central library and aquarium, but the challenge is to draw them upstairs to the museum, thus adding to the holistic offer of the central library and museum building and adding depth to the cultural and learning opportunities.

For others who currently make no use of the town centre facilities (and indeed may only rarely leave their own community spaces for any reason), the new gallery with its popular theme and promise of unique, free, experience, will draw them in as new users; also encouraging them to make use of other services offered within the same building such as the library. For example, people visiting the Egyptian gallery will be able to immediately borrow books or search the internet for further information in a way that even big city museums cannot match.

The project will encourage more people who, through different abilities and sensory needs, have barriers to engaging with the collections for pleasure and learning. This would be achieved by staff and volunteers who have a proven background working within these areas using events and activities as an engagement tool to get a real understanding of how the Egyptian gallery can remove barriers and what can be actively done to increase the accessibility of the space and collections, for social and learning outcomes.

Bolton Library and Museum Services already has a working partnership with BADGE (Bolton Active Disability Group for Everyone) who have advised on the layout of a new library within the service.

Adults with learning disabilities have carried out an audit of Bolton’s libraries and associated services and this would be extended to the proposed gallery. The project would involve the New Openings advocacy group run by and for people with learning disabilities carrying out a similar audit of the existing facilities within the Egyptian gallery and making recommendations on what could be done to improve it.

2) Learning - The project provides extensive opportunities to make a significant leap forward in the way that the service offers educational opportunities. Formal learning for schools and adult groups will be extensively enhanced by the creation of a new gallery that is specifically designed to facilitate both teaching and self-led

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discovery. Objects, themes and new ideas will be much better presented and the space will be far better physically organised. Importantly, the gallery will directly link with the digital learning resources being developed by the service via our Crescent Activity Bank.

The new gallery will also work far better for adult groups, with the associated online collection being an enhancement for groups. Various educational and community organisations such as the Workers Educational Association (WEA), Bolton College and Active Ageing use the community rooms or spaces within the library to run activities. The WEA has for several years run courses in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). Some of the sessions involve visiting the Museum but the interpretation within the present Egyptian gallery is not accessible for people whose language is not English. Visual, tactile and interactive media and interpretation will enable people from minority ethnic communities to discover Bolton’s long history of international links and desire to learn about different cultures and traditions. The Egyptology Community Engagement Officer would work with students to help them produce resources around the new gallery which would be incorporated into introductory sessions to the gallery.

More broadly, the project is also intended to significantly increase the opportunity for informal learning. By representing the collections and using much better interpretative approaches, it is intended that even the most casual of visitors will increase their dwell time, read more and have far greater encouragement and support to think and contribute. This has particular relevance for families, where inter-generational interaction will be specifically encouraged. The volunteers based in the galleries will be specifically supportive in helping visitors get the most from some opportunities as well as taking the collections out into the community.

The project will develop a model of working together to lead to the Family Learning Team of Bolton College delivering core Family Learning courses in the Egyptian Gallery. Whilst developing this model, the Egyptology Community Engagement Officer would be consulting and involving the participants, both parents/carers and children and family learning professionals with the aim of directly influencing the interpretation and displays of the collections.

As part of the of the project there would be a showcase of the creative outputs of the families involved and there would be a special Egyptian themed celebration of their achievement. Subsequently the young people would be invited to become members of the Young Egyptologist Club and hold regular activities for the families to return to.

3) Pride & community cohesion - This project is designed to not only encourage extra numbers of visitors, but to broaden people's understanding and appreciation of what the collections represent.

Bolton's Egypt gallery is a part of many local people's childhood and, as such, the gallery is seen often as comfortable and familiar, but also as dated and unexciting. More recently, the success of the international touring exhibition built around part of the Bolton Egyptian collection has received significant local press attention (and a national award) and has begun to encourage a greater understanding that it has more just local significance. By building a gallery and associated study space and digital catalogue, the collection will finally reflect this significance properly. As a major attraction and community resource this will make a significant contribution to the town's own sense of pride, particularly important at a time of severe economic and social stress.

In addition, the collection is important not only as ancient history, but also for what it represents about the borough's own more recent industrial heritage. In particular, it powerfully reflects how Bolton was the centre of an international trade network that for a century brought high quality Nile Valley cotton from Egypt and Sudan and sent fine quality cotton goods out across the world - "we spin for the world, the world spins for us" as one powerful local trade motto of the early 20th century put it.

The new gallery will make these connections more explicit, connecting with the local history gallery which discusses the physical and social changes industrialisation (and deindustrialisation) had. It will bring home the important global connections through time and space and encourage visitors to discover more about Britain's often difficult imperial legacy. This is an important space to have within the modern diverse community and will make an important contribution to building a stronger Bolton family today.

Bolton Museum is located on the first floor of the Crescent building with Bolton Central Library on the ground floor and the Aquarium and community rooms located in the basement. The Central Library has free internet

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facilities and this attracts a significant number of people from hard to reach communities: asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants who use the free e-mail facilities to keep in contact with families and friends; job seekers who use the computer facilities to produce and send job applications to potential employers, and young people who use the internet for leisure as well as educational purposes. Digital content about the Egyptian Gallery accessed via the Museum website and social media is particularly likely to appeal to these target groups. In visiting and learning about the heritage of Bolton, such visitors will be encouraged to develop a sense of place and connection to the area.

4) Creativity - The Egyptian collections are full of wonderful hand-made objects. The service has made some limited use of such material in creative art projects, but the new gallery will open up a wide range of new possibilities. Not only will far more material be on display, but the collections will be fully searchable via the digital database and far more easily physically accessed for individual or project work. The ancient textiles have particular potential as sources for inspiration for creative industries and as part of the development phase the service will explore these options in more detail with Bolton University and other partners.

5) Volunteering - The project will offer specific benefits for the volunteers who are recruited, supporting them to gain new skills and experience - from conservation to public tours.

In 2009, Bolton Museum was the North West Regional winner of the Marsh Volunteers for Learning Award with a visitor volunteer programme that offered young people with a learning disability the unique chance to do voluntary work at the museum. Working with Mencap and Bolton V Volunteering scheme, the museum trained the volunteers to run the object handling trolley on a Saturday afternoon. Young people studying health and social care were also recruited and trained to act as volunteer supporters.The layout and interpretation of the Egyptian gallery meant that it was not possible to undertake a similar volunteer programme in that area. This project will transform the gallery and enable people with learning disabilities to volunteer and work in this space.

4c1 What are the main groups of people who will benefit from your project? The project will provide a step-change for numerous key groups:

Museum visitors - in particular, families and adult visitors, will benefit from a transformed museum experience. This includes people from both inside and outside the borough, regular museum visitors and those that are traditionally non-users. The particular focus of the community work strand will be to encourage groups from within the borough who have not used the museum for many years, if ever, to develop an ownership of the new gallery and collection it presents.

The new interpretation in the gallery will also be designed to enable a much better offer to be made to specific elements within this broad group. For example, the provision of tactile and other alternate interpretative methods will, for the first time, enable visitors with visual and other disabilities to gain a much rounder visitor experience and new volunteer opportunities.

In addition, people for whom English is not a first language or have low levels of literacy will benefit from inclusion of new visual and interactive media.

Schools - formal education groups are core users of the current space and will benefit from a significantly enhanced learning experience.

Academics and enthusiasts - the fully digitised collections and associated collection research resources will break the long-standing bottleneck surrounding public access to the collections, enabling much easier research and study.

Bolton town centre businesses - Bolton Museum is a key asset of Bolton town centre and the transformation of the Egyptian gallery into a major visitor attraction will be welcomed as a powerful new draw into the town centre, bringing new footfall to local businesses and supporting central and local government initiatives in this area.

17 Version 11 Second Round Application For Heritage Grants If your project will specifically benefit a particular group or groups of people, tell us which groups by ticking all relevant boxes below.

If your project aims to benefit a wide range of people and is not specifically targeted at any particular group, tick this box only.

Ethnicity

Religious belief

Age

Sex

Marital Status

Sexual orientation

People with disabilities (physical or mental problems which have a significant and long-term negative effects on a person's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities) People with dependants (for example, children or elderly relatives) People living in households with incomes below the national average, or people living in the most deprived local-authority wards in , Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

4c2 Visits Yes Do you have a heritage site that attracts visitors?

How many visits have you had in the last 12 months? 274981 How many visits do you expect you will have in the 12 months after your project finishes? 310000

18 Version 11 Second Round Application For Heritage Grants 4c3 Volunteers How many volunteers do you expect will work on your project from start to finish? 72 4c4 Training How many people will receive training through your project? 28

What skills will they be trained in? Tick all boxes that apply. Construction Conservation – land, habitats and buildings Conservation – buildings Conservation – collections (including oral history) Delivering learning and interpretation Getting people to take part, including consulting communities and managing volunteers

4d How will you maintain the benefits of your project in the long term? The creation of the new database and conservation work will be a permanent legacy, allowing all future uses of the Egyptian collection for study, display and creative cultural projects to be radically easier. This infrastructure investment will enable the collection to be used by the service whatever staffing structure is in place in coming years.

The new gallery will also be a sustainable investment, offering a core framework that interprets the collection and tells key stories such as the global connections. In addition, it will create a flexible space that will allow the displays to be changed and new elements highlighted; a key element in helping to encourage return visits.

The volunteer strand and associated community activity programme proposed for this project is designed to help develop the content and community interest and ownership for the gallery. In the longer term, it is intended that the structured volunteer programme will become a core element of service activity. Managed by the collection access and operation teams. this will be based upon the gallery volunteer team and deliver a structured programme of community events .

This will have a long term impact upon the service, building a permanent volunteer programme into the core of the museum service in contrast to the current rather ad hoc volunteering opportunities currently delivered.

The new museum website will fully document the project and its delivery, as well as providing a platform for recruitment of new volunteers and access to the digital resources.

4e How will your project affect the environment?

If you are requesting a grant of £2 million or more, you need to complete the following carbon Footprint Reporter. Once you have completed the Footprint Reporter, please generate a PDF copy and attach it to your application form. The following url will launch the Footprint Reporter:

Carbon Footprint Reporter

Bolton Museum has an excellent track record with sustainable construction and collections care; the staff are highly aware of sustainable practise and will work to ensure that the environment is protected at every stage. The museum in Le Mans Crescent is currently extremely energy inefficient as the lack of insulation and large glass roofs result in a lot of heat exchange. The new gallery will cover and insulate one of the largest areas of heat exchange. The whole of Le Mans crescent is heated with a centrally controlled wet system of radiators, the new gallery will not use this system. Part of the new gallery which will be sited in the old area of the building where hopefully the added insulation should lower the fossil fuel consumption required to heat the whole space. The Mechanical and Engineering systems team are working to broad spectrum acceptable temperature and

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humidity levels with the focus being on slow rates of change, this approach reduces the energy required to maintain acceptable conditions. Collections will be offered tight controls and more stable conditions by the use of individual cases as required. Bolton Museum has a Sustainability statement, this policy statement sits within the wider Bolton Council’s policy on Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change and all contractors and partners will be required to work within it. Whole life costing Statement from Bradshaw Gass & Hope: As the project has developed it has been assessed utilising best practice principals in line with those set down in the OGC publication ‘Whole Life Costing and Cost Management’. This will be achieved through the use of an Asset Management Plan spreadsheet identifying the principle capital and in use costs for the project over a set number of years. The principle costs that will be taken into account are: - Construction Purchase Facilities Operations Disposal The Project Team will research the optimum solution for the project and consider not just the most efficient building cost at construction stage, but also the operational costs of the buildings as incurred by the building end user. Through all reasonable consultations, we will determine the day to day impact on the building’s operational uses from the Client. We will consider the future operation and maintenance of the project when developing the final design proposals to provide a preferred solution for both capital costs and ongoing revenue costs. The development of a life cycle maintenance plan is an essential part of the whole life cost management and comprises of analysis of the design, building life expectancies, output specification, payment and contractual requirements of the project to produce a plan that ensure the built asset is maintained throughout the anticipated design life to required levels. The long term operating and life cycle costs have been central to the development of our scheme in terms of the design, specification and detailing of the new facilities and plant requirements. Throughout the design process, considerable effort has been directed at the works, energy, cleaning and other operating costs. Energy usage within the buildings is another factor that we have taken into consideration and we have assessed the impact of long term energy use and whether it is worthwhile specifying an item that results in energy savings. Energy efficiency & Renewable energy Statement from the Bradshaw Gass & Hope Mechanical and Engineering systems consultancy team, JRB Environmental Ltd: All aspects of Sustainability and Energy Efficiency are being considered and where appropriate will be incorporated into the project. A Preliminary Sustainability Report has been produced to consider elements of Renewable Energy that could feasibly be incorporated into the project. Some aspects will not be feasible due to the nature of the structure and Listing of the building. Technologies considered include the following: Small Scale Hydro Electricity: Not possible due to Town Centre location of building. Bio Mass Boilers: Not feasible due to area of project being part of/within a much larger building with central plant Solar Panels: Not considered due to project not having any sanitary appliances or requirements for domestic hot water. Photovoltaic Panels: Could be considered further and be incorporated as part of further roof refurbishment. It is proposed to incorporated circuits within the electrical distribution to facilitate future connection of a Photovoltaic installation. Ground Source Heat Pumps: Not considered practical in view of Town Centre location. Wind Power: Not considered practical in view of Listed Building status and Town Centre location. Air Source Heat Pump: It is proposed to incorporate this technology as part of the heating & cooling principles to the new Galleries. Rainwater/Grey water Harvesting: Not considered due to project not having any water use to sanitary appliances. Building materials Statement from Bradshaw Gass & Hope: In addition to Renewable Energy the overall reduction in building CO2 emissions is considered to be of prime importance, this will be minimised by ensuring that all elements of the new structures and fabric will exceed

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the requirements of the Building Regulations Part L2 and the majority of new lighting will be LED fittings. Thermal insulation levels to the fabric of the new structure will all exceed the requirements of the Building Regulations. Construction waste Statement from Bradshaw Gass & Hope: It will be the intent of the project to provide a framework within which the recycling of site waste, the re-use of materials and the appropriate disposal to landfill of waste that cannot be re-used or recycled is seen as a key performance indicator. Key to ensuring this key performance indicator is achieved and site waste management is adequately considered is through the creation of a site waste management plan (SWMP) in line with current UK construction legislation and initiatives such as the Considerate Contractor scheme, WRAP and the BRE SmartWaste initiative.

Construction documentation will include requirements for contractors to provide on-site recycling facilities and targets to achieve the following waste recovery targets: -

• Construction – 70-80% • Refurbishment/strip-out – 70-80% • Demolition – 80-90%

These targets have been based on the waste recovery benchmarks published by WRAP. It will be a requirement of the Contractor to develop the SWMP for the project and to record levels of waste and re-use. This will be included within the tender preliminaries documentation setting out how the contractor is to manage the project. Water The new build does not include the addition of any new wet pipework or water points. The increased visitor numbers after the development will increase the use of toilet facilities in the building the majority of the facilities have been refurbished within the last 5 years so are efficient and will be able to cope with increase in visitor numbers. Soil (including peat) Not applicable as the build is above and within the existing building and will not affect ground level.

Timber Forestry Commission approved or reclaimed timber will be used at all times. Biodiversity Minimal disturbance, the build is in an urban area, above and within the existing building and will not affect ground level. At roof level there is no evidence of bat habitation. Visitor transport The museum is located in the town centre of Bolton where there are excellent public transport links with the bus and train stations within a short walking distance. Bolton is on the main Preston to Manchester rail line making Bolton directly accessible from locations such as Blackpool, the Lake District and Scotland. Bolton is also directly linked to Blackburn and Clitheroe, and Southport via Wigan. The Manchester to Preston line via Bolton and the Bolton to Wigan line will shortly benefit from electrification as part of major investment in the rail network in the north. The Council in partnership with Transport for Greater Manchester is also investing £38m in a new Bus Station in Bolton town centre adjacent to the rail station that will improve integration of transport modes and provide a high quality public transport facility from 2015. In addition, a new cycle hub will be provided as part of this development that will cater for up to 100 bicycles, making cycling an attractive option to visitors to Bolton town centre and linking with a network of on and off road cycle routes throughout the borough of Bolton. There is a good offer of car parking facilities across the town centre that is competitively priced. Disabled parking is available on street in front of the museum and in the adjacent NCP multi storey car park. The NCP multi storey car parks also offer electric charging points for electric vehicles. Public transport journey planning is available via Greater Manchester Transport department.

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