Museums in Leeds and Wakefield are among 11 across Yorkshire to share almost £2m of Arts Council funding for a variety of projects to improve the experience of visitors and make the most of their collections.
In Leeds, the Thackray Medical Museum, next to St James’s Hospital, will use the £71,000 grant to develop a touring exhibition using magic and medicine as the major theme.
It will combine the Museum’s mission of increasing public understanding of the history of medicine with the popular appeal of magic.
Alongside the temporary exhibition, the medical museum will set up a permanent visitor trail, exploring this theme with new interpretations of existing exhibits and education and various family learning activities.
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Additionally, the Hepworth Wakefield is to receive £100,000 to digitise its core collection (the Wakefield Permanent Art Collection) and the archive of the former Wakefield Art Gallery. The largest sum from the Arts Council , just over £1.2m, will go the Sheffield Museums which will use the windfall to help improve its programme and develop the business and increase income.
Barnsley Arts and Museums Service, meanwhile, gets £52,000, some of which will be used to look at creating a working bakery at Worsbrough Mill Museum.
In Calderdale, the museums service will receive £50,000 to build its existing volunteer programme.
Craven Museum and Gallery in Skipton will receive £50,000 which it will spent on producing a business plan and improve the gallery.
Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery will use a £120,000 grant to re-fit the shop and cafe and encourage new visitors to the venue.
A grant of £99,000 will enable bosses at Hull Museums to install a range of energy efficient display lights and improve touring exhibitons for its visitors.
Kirklees Museums and Galleries will use a £98,000 grant to make structural improvements to the popular Tolson Museum, Huddersfield.
The Laurence Sterne Trust, which receives £50,000, will mark the 300th anniversary of the birth of Sterne with a performance at York Minster.
In Goole, the Yorkshire Waterways Museum will use a £43,000 grant to champion green energy.
Cluny Macpherson, regional director for the Arts Council, told the Yorkshire Evening Post the grants would enable the museums to make the most of their “amazing collections” and to “find new ways for people to enjoy the assets on their doorstep”.
“We will also see museums on a stronger financial footing, so future generations will benefit too.”
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