Spring is in the air, and museums and galleries in the South East are preparing for the world’s biggest celebration of arts, culture and entertainment. With events for all the family to enjoy taking place across the region throughout May there is every opportunity to go out and make the most of all your local galleries and museums have to offer.
The biggest celebration of its kind in the world, MGM2006 encourages visitors to meet, learn, connect and be inspired in museums and galleries in May. Hundreds of individual museums, galleries and heritage attractions will be running events on the month’s theme “Making Connections: Past, present and future”.
The month will get off to a great start when museum and gallery directors personally welcome visitors across the doorstep. Examples in the south-east include the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford offering a Victorian Welcome, and a weekend at Hitchin Museum and Art Gallery at which curators and a conservation professional will give advice on conservation and identification of your family treasures and collectibles.
The People’s Museum, to be aired on BBC TWO during Museums and Galleries Month, will give people to chance to choose which objects they would have in their own museum. This fascinating programme, hosted by Flog It presenter Paul Martin, travels across Britain to unearth the hidden or little known treasures tucked away in local and regional museums, galleries and stately homes. The result is an eclectic and surprising collection which will be shown on BBC TWO in the Spring. Following each show, viewers will be able to vote for an overall winner – announced at the end of the series - and put their favourite museum pieces into the virtual online ‘People’s Museum’. Filming has been taking place all over the south-east, including Canterbury Cathedral, Sandwich Guildhall Museum, Dover Castle, The Bodleian Library, Tenterden and District Museum, Chatham Historic Dockyard, the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum and Newhaven Fort.
The Campaign for Museums and the 24 Hour Museum are creating regional Hidden Treasures Trails to link to the programme and the BBC History website ‘The People’s Museum’. These trails will go live on 8 March at www.24hourmuseum.org.uk and will give people details about how they can go and see the objects they have seen on television.
Later on in the month, Museums at Night (Nuit des Musees) is taking place on the evening of Saturday 20 May – this French initiative encourages museums and galleries across Europe to join together by staging evening events for visitors. Museums at Night events will be taking place at the Museum of the History of Science and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford.
The weekend of 19th and 20th May also sees the first ever Focus on Art - art galleries and museums stage special events broadening the understanding of contemporary art, working with VAGA and engage.
On 25th May, the winner of the Gulbenkian Prize for Museums and Galleries will be announced; amongst those longlisted is the Roald Dahl Museum & Story Centre in Buckinghamshire.
Borders Bookstores will be supporting Museums and Galleries Month with a range of museum-related books on display in all their stores, and a competition in selected cities.
Other exciting events that are taking place in the south-east include:
· History of Transport days at Buckinghamshire Railway Centre
· Nautical fun at Chatham
· Tour Surrey – events, exhibitions and activities on the theme of Making Connections at a group of art galleries in Surrey
· 400 local people have been working with 3 artists to create their own piece of artwork for display at Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery
www.mgm.org.uk
For further information (press), please contact: Victoria Harris, Nicola Dodd or Truda Spruyt, Colman Getty PR: 020 7631 2666; email firstname@colmangettypr.co.uk
Notes to Editors:
1. Events: Information is now being entered on the MGM website, www.mgm.org.uk, and the growing list of events can be accessed by the public through this website or the related www.24hourmuseum.org.uk.
2. Museums and Galleries Month is organised by The Campaign for Museums, a registered charity, with support from Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) through the Renaissance in the Regions programme and Arts Council England. MGM is also supported by Borders, the 24 Hour Museum and museums, galleries and arts organisations throughout the UK.
3. Loyd Grossman, Chairman, The Campaign for Museums, and Virginia Tandy, Director Manchester Art Galleries, are Co-Chairs of MGM2006.
4. Renaissance is MLA's £100 million programme to transform regional museums. For the first time ever, investment from central government is helping regional museums across the country to raise their standards and deliver real results in support of education, learning, community development and economic regeneration.
5. The 24 Hour Museum www.24hourmuseum.org.uk is the UK’s National Virtual Museum and is a comprehensive online guide to the UK’s museums, libraries, archives, galleries and heritage sites.
