Micro Museums

Home , Coldean, Patcham, Portslade, Whitehawk

Reaching out to new audiences in the community

Title of the project: Micromuseums; taking museum collections out to the community

Institute conducting the project: Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove (RPM)

Funding: Renaissance

Timescale: 2006 - 2011

Project aims  To take museums out to the community and develop audiences  To increase and sustain user participation in museums  To improve the development, care and interpretation of the city’s collections

Target audience The local community in Brighton & Hove, both adults and children.

Project summary Four Micromuseums have already opened, and one more is imminent. The Micromuseums, based in community libraries and children’s centres, display and interpret items from RPM’s collections. Reflecting the wishes of local users, the items on display have largely related to the local history, natural history, archaeology or geology of the location.

Process To date, four Micromuseums have been established - at the Roundabout Children’s Centre in Whitehawk, and the community libraries in Portslade, Coldean and Patcham. The content for each Micromuseum was developed following front-end evaluation at the sites, including questionnaires and interviews with the staff and centre users. The evaluation clearly suggested that the displays should include local history, natural history, archaeology and geology. Some also wanted to feature toy collections.

It emerged that each centre had distinct stories which it wanted to tell, for example, at the Roundabout Children’s Centre, the most popular request was for objects and information regarding the Neolithic causewayed ‘camp’ on Whitehawk Hill. Local people were proud of the fact that it was the first monument in Brighton. (For more examples of how the objects on display relate to local history see Appendix 2)

Using this information, RPM staff were able to investigate which objects in the collections would best tell the stories, although the location of the displays and the environmental conditions had a bearing on which objects could be used. As well as objects, the Micromuseums incorporate images, literary quotes, oral history quotes, newspaper headlines, object labels and text panels. The Micromuseums also include material that RPM has borrowed from local societies and groups, such as Brighton & Hove Archaeological Society.

1 Each site also has touch screen interactives, which offer the opportunity to include a huge number of local history photographs, prints, postcards and other items, as well as film footage and oral history interviews. The touch scenes enable the sites to expand the breadth and depth of the stories they tell, as well as adding appeal for younger visitors who might engage less with traditional displays.

Each Micromuseum has taken about seven months to develop and deliver, and the cost for each has been about £10,000 to £13,000 (including £3,000 on interactives in each location), excluding staff costs.

Key achievements  The Micromuseums bring the RPM collections directly into the heart of the local communities.  They contribute directly to generating ‘a sense of place’, connecting people with their geography, history and community, as well as engaging them with their cultural heritage.  Over 300 objects and 500 photographs that were previously not on display are now accessible to the public.

Evaluation Evaluation has taken place at both Whitehawk and Portslade, using touch screen evaluation interactives or ‘Digivey1’. Early results suggest:

 Over 75% of people visiting the Micromuseums want to see more of these displays in other non-traditional locations throughout the city.  75% of respondents said that they will visit one of the city’s main museums as a direct result of seeing the Micromuseum within their community.  90% of respondents said that they had learnt something new as a result of seeing the Micromuseum.

Lessons learned  The Micromuseums team recommend that people shop around for IT, rather than simply using museum IT suppliers, especially if there is in-house support.  The project delivery time should be extended so that more work can be done with communities before the Micromuseum is put together. With the luxury of more time, the Micromuseums could be more imaginative.  Be prepared to select items that may suffer as a result of being displayed (in line with the MA Effective Collections programme).

How will this work be developed in the future? It is the intention that the Micromuseums will evolve over time, and the interactive element will be the key to engaging with the community, and responding to their views.

Contact Sarah Posey, Head of Collections & Interpretation, Royal Pavilion & Museums Tel: 01273 292759 Email: [email protected]

1 Digivey is a software program to create and manage interactive surveys, quizzes and assessments. http://digivey.com/ 2 Appendix 1: Images of the Micromuseum at Roundabout Children’s Centre, Whitehawk © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton

Appendix 2: Examples of objects on display in RPM’s Micromuseums

Cup and saucer from a tea set, which features the crest of Portslade. Some of the tea set is displayed at Portslade Library, as part of the Micromuseum. The crest of Portslade is no longer as apparent in the area because Portslade is now part of the city of Brighton & Hove. The associated label in the case explains what each part of Portslade’s crest represents.

Reconstructed Neolithic pottery bowl (large bowl on left) on display as part of the Micromuseum at the Roundabout Children’s Centre in Whitehawk. The bowl helps to explain what has been discovered about the early history of the people and landscape of Whitehawk.

One of three man trap’s on display as part of the Micromuseum at Coldean library. The man trap assists in illustrating the history of land use in the local area and how landowners protected their land.