Orleans House Gallery was a close runner up, followed by Pitzhanger Manor and Rotherham Museums Service.

The winning project, ‘Discover Norton’, was a partnership project between Letchworth Museum and Art Gallery and The First Garden City Heritage Museum. Both museums in the town have a responsibility for collecting and representing communities in villages that border the town. They decided to use Museum and Galleries Month using the theme (Making Connections) to highlight the interesting history of one of these villages, Norton, and the vibrant nature of the community who live there.

The basis of the project was two exhibitions, one at each museum. Staff at Letchworth Museum & Art Gallery made an oral history film Norton 2006, a snapshot, interviewing local residents about the past and future. They also recorded the views of pupils at the village primary school and worked on a display with them. There were guided walks around the village during May and these were also used to recruit members for an archaeology project next Spring.

Samantha Clarkson, Letchworth Museums added:

“This project was carried out completely in house on standard operational budgets. By pooling resources the project had good marketing and media coverage. The ‘Norton 2006, a snapshot’ film was made by curatorial staff using a home video camera and editing software. This project demonstrates that large budgets are not always required to run successful events.”

The judging panel included four members of the MGM Strategy Group: Chris Bailey, Director of NI Museums Council, Liz Mackenzie, Vice President BAFM, Gordon Cummings, Director Fry Art Gallery, representing AIM and Richard Munro, Hub Manager, South West. Sharon Heal, Editor of Museums Journal also joined the judging panel.

“What distinguishes the ... two entries from Letchworth Museums and Orleans House Gallery is the degree to which each embraced the final element of the MGM theme – the future. Both projects resulted in a legacy beyond the memories of the participants. At Letchworh visitors were asked to present ideas about the future of Norton. At Orleans House the project resulted in a new artwork for the collection,” said Chris Bailey, member of the judging panel.

“Both should be commended for presenting projects that may be replicated elsewhere, the obvious beneficial impact upon participants and the importance placed upon robust evaluation.”

At the Orleans House Gallery, London Borough of Richmond, staff used Edouard Pingret’s coloured lithograph ‘King Louis Philippe visiting Orleans House in 1844’ as a point of departure for an art/performance/photography workshop, exploring the MGM theme of ‘Making Connections’ via an exploration of significant moments within the history of the site -past, present and imagined future.

Participating families produced a final photographic triptych which relates (in terms of subject matter and new media employed) to contemporary works in the collection by Emily Allchurch and David Mach. It is the first collaborative community work to be accessioned into the Borough Art Collection.

Ali Bennet, Orleans House Education Officer, added:

“The participants responded so enthusiastically to the multi-media approach and to the incorporation of performance in the creation of the artwork that we would certainly take this approach again. The success of the digitally manipulated images demonstrated what scope there is using new media to help engage event participants with historic collections.”

Rotherham Museums Service decided to make 2006 the year when they made Museums and Galleries Month work for them by delivering a comprehensive programme of activities and maximising the opportunities which the Month brings to raise the profile of the Service and bring in more visitors. 14 linked events took place from the Welcome Weekend onwards at Rotherham Art Gallery and Clifton Park Museum on the themes of local history and tea!

Steve Blackburn, Rother Museums Service concluded:

“We wanted 2006 to be the year that we treated the Month seriously. However, despite our best intentions we were worried about how to tie everything together and our capacity to deliver. Now that the Month is over, we can see that we have achieved something which we are extremely proud of, and it did not take a great deal more effort than we would have ended up expended on exhibitions and events during this period anyway. We would be glad to share this experience with other museums and encourage them to get more involved in the future.”

At Pitzhanger Manor, London Borough of Ealing, the aim of the MGM exhibition was to re-present part of the Martinware Collection of Victorian pottery, literally, within the gallery space, but also within the context of contemporary ceramics, to make connections between the work of leading edge ceramicists from Victorian times and those of today.

Helen Walker added:

“This exhibition provided the platform for activities aimed at a variety of audiences: including an exhibition tour, led by ceramicist Hans Stofer for European Night at the Museum. The evening brought together audiences for the Martinware Collection and Sir John Soane’s Pitzhanger and a contemporary art audience. For children we had a series of practical pottery workshops led by professional potter Chris Bramble.”

Despite the tight deadline to meet the Museums Journal deadline for July, there was a record number of entries.

“We are delighted that so many took the trouble to record their successful events for the MGM MJ Commendations. It was very difficult just to compile the shortlist and the judging panel had to work hard to narrow the field down to four”, said Ylva French, MGM Coordinator and Executive Director of the Campaign for Museums. “All the entries will appear during July on the MGM website in the case histories section. There are so many good ideas here and so much to inspire others for their MGM events in 2007 and 2008.”

Contact: Ylva French, The Campaign for Museums, tel 020 7233 6789, or email ylva@campaignformuseums.org.uk