WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS…
By Mary Godwin, Museum Director
…
With major changes to the support we receive from the Ministry of Defence on the horizon, the museum team is planning for a future in which we will need to be much more financially self-reliant. In order for the museum to stay at The Keep and thrive for the long-term we’re going to have to generate much more income and support from the organisations and people who value our unique heritage and who will be our partners on the journey to a secure future.
I’m really pleased to say that we’re already starting to make good progress in building strong partnerships on a number of fronts. We’re now a member of Cornwall Museums Partnership, a group of 7 leading museums in the County. The group has been awarded funding by Arts Council England for the years 2018 – 2021 and this will mean we’ll be able to put on new exhibitions and do more work with schools and the community. We’re also working in partnership with other attractions and organisations in Bodmin to raise the profile of the Town and encourage more visitors.
To mark the end of the First World War, we have a really exciting partnership project lined up for 2018 which will involve a local theatre company, the Bodmin and Wenford steam railway and our local secondary school Bodmin College among others – watch this space for more details in our next newsletter!
And to bring our Light Infantry collections to life, and increase our archive of material which tells the stories of the regiment, we’re planning a project in partnership with ex-Light Infantrymen. This will gather the memories of soldiers and officers, and incorporate them into the museum galleries, with new information panels and video screens. We’ve made an application for funding to the Armed Forces Community Covenant to help us make this project happen and hope to hear whether we’ve been successful within the next two months.
We’re also developing new ways to enable our individual supporters to help us secure our long-term future at The Keep, including a new Legacies and In Memoriam project which we’ll be launching this autumn and announcing in our next newsletter. If you have any suggestions about how we can involve our supporters in our future fundraising please do get in touch: director@bodminkeep.org.
By Mary Godwin, Museum Director
Read Mary’s previous article: ‘Bringing the Keep Back to Life‘ on our Blog.