Welsh Museums Day – a celebration at home for 2020
Diwrnod Amgueddfeydd Cymru – dathlu gartref yn 2020
May 12 is Welsh Museums Day - held annually by the Federation of Museums and Art Galleries of Wales with the Museums Association. This year, the celebrations of the rich diversity of museums across the country will be done on social media.
Through following the #WelshMuseums #Amgueddfeydd, museums across the country will share their stories, collections, and showcase some of the innovative work they do and the positive impacts they make in economic contribution, learning, education and skills development, community cohesion, health and wellbeing.
Museums play an important part in our communities – and have also felt the immediate impact of the pandemic and the restrictions which are in place. In order to support the sector during this difficult time, the Welsh Government has implemented the Covid-19 Resilience Fund, administered through The Welsh Museums Federation, which has awarded £100,451 to 17 organisations to date. Members of the Welsh Museums Federation have also accessed the Government grant scheme based on business rates rateable values – which has resulted in £360,000 of funding. Applications are also being processed for the Welsh Government’s Cultural Resilience Fund.
Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, Lord Elis-Thomas, said: “The Welsh Government is committed to doing everything possible to support the resilience, creativity and partnership which is being shown by the sector.
“Welsh Museums Day is an excellent showcase of this resilience and creativity - which we will enjoy this year from the safety of our own homes.
“I’m pleased that we’re able to work with partners to enable the sector to withstand this difficult time and to hopefully thrive again – and bring communities together once more when the emergency has passed.”
Victoria Rogers, President of the Federation of Museums and Art Galleries of Wales, said: “Welsh museums are truly a network of community resources and the #WelshMuseums day is a chance to demonstrate just how much value they bring to Wales and how crucial they are for their communities. Museums from across the country, local and national, will be using Twitter to showcase powerful and innovative examples of the positive impacts they make with and for their communities – both before and during the Corona virus pandemic.
“Museums inspire us to learn from our past, to understand our present and determine our future. Through online home-schooling resources, social media collections tours, streamed lectures and podcasts, Welsh museums have been supporting their communities during lockdown. And they will be crucial to supporting Wales in understanding the pandemic and its legacy too – several local museums across the country, as well as Amgueddfa Cymru, are already working with their communities to record their experiences and what they are doing, feeling and missing during the Covid-19 lockdown.”
Notes to editors
Notes to Editors:
Some general statistics about Welsh museums:
- Visiting a Welsh local museum increases feelings of wellbeing by between 14-28%
- There are over 100 Accredited museums across Wales - local authority, independent, military, university, voluntary and National
- Museums contribute at least £74 million to the Welsh economy
- Welsh Museums look after over 5,500,000 objects - the vast majority donated by the public to help tell the stories of Wales and preserve our community memor
Activities from members of the Welsh Museums Federation;
Homeschooling resources and activities for children and families:
Firing Line Museum have activities that are all themed around the museum and its collections:
http://www.cardiffcastlemuseum.org.uk/home-schooling-suggestions-49.php
Museum of Cardiff have created a new section on their website with activities for all ages – from family fun activity sheets, craft activities for early years to projects for 11-16 year olds looking at the theme of Protest: Ideas worth fighting for.
English: https://cardiffmuseum.com/learning-2/my-museum/
Cymraeg: https://cardiffmuseum.com/cy/dysgu/fy-amgueddfa-i/
Royal Mint Museum has worked with the Royal Mint to produce a series of ‘Coins in the Classroom’ educational packs with a variety of curriculum links related to Maths, Science, Art and Design and Geography. https://www.royalmint.com/kids
Storiel Museum in Bangor have a series of education sheets for key stage two and above, all based on their collections – from the Celts to Second World War
English: https://www.storiel.cymru/learn/
Cymraeg: https://www.storiel.cymru/cymru/dysgu/
Collection tours
Lots of local museums are using social media to do tours of their collections while their doors are shut:
Museum of Cardiff on twitter @TheCardiffStory
Monmouthshire Museums on twitter @Mon_Heritage
Tenby Museum on facebook https://www.facebook.com/tenbymuseumandartgallery
Cynon Valley Museum via their stories from the collection blog posts
http://cynonvalleymuseum.wales/stories-from-the-collection/
Wrexham Museums are using their collections to create daily quizzes for their facebook visitors – using mystery objects, puzzle places to identify old buildings in their historic photographs and a ‘beginners guide to the history of Wrexham’ feature.
https://www.facebook.com/WrexhamMuseums
Exhibitions
Cynon Valley Museum have created a new section on their website, collaborating with local artists to the Cynon Valley, or those who were due to have an exhibition at the Museum while they are closed, to create an online gallery of their work, providing an opportunity to promote their work and engage with visitors while they are at home http://cynonvalleymuseum.wales/exhibitions-at-home-by-cynon-valley-museum/
The Royal Mint Museum has an online exhibition on its microsite, exploring how the Royal Mint moved to Wales 50 years ago: https://rm50th.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/
Museum of Cardiff have created a new online exhibitions area on their website, with their first Victory Days exploring how Cardiffians celebrated the end of the war in Europe on VE Day. https://cardiffmuseum.com/online-exhibitions/
Collecting
Some museums are also working with their communities to collect personal experiences of the Covid-19 lockdown:
Tenby Museum https://www.facebook.com/tenbymuseumandartgallery/photos/a.287299278012554/2840026279406495/?type=3&theater
Museum of Cardiff is working with Cardiff Council’s Cardiff Commitment team on a new project Diff Diaries for the city’s young people to record their experiences of Covid-19