#004 - March 2016
Dorset County Museum Volunteer Newsletter Dates for Your Diary: ARCHAEOLOGY UNEARTHED Fri 4 March 2016 7.30pm Fri 1 April 2016 7.30pm GEOLOGY REVEALED Wed 9 Mar 2016 7.30pm Wed 13 April 2016 7.30pm LUNCHTIME CONCERTS Thurs 10 Mar 2016 1-2pm Thurs 21 April 2016 1-2pm TRAVELLERS’ TALES Thurs 17 Mar 2016 ‘A Year in the Congo’ by David James AN EVENING WITH THE CURATOR Thurs 24 March 7.30pm ‘Speed to the West: A Nostalgic Journey’ HISTORY EXPLORED Fri 8 April 7.30pm ‘The Forgotten Conscripts: The Bevin Boys’ by Warwick H. Taylor MBE NATURE IN FOCUS Thurs 28 April 7.30pm ‘Bushmaster: Raymond Ditmars and the Hunt for the World’s Largest Viper’ by Dan Eatherley Look out for Dorset County Museum’s new Events Leaflet available from the shop now.
Welcome to Issue no.4 of DCMVOX... February saw the Museum hold it’s first Volunteer’s Coffee Morning. We were thrilled to see so many of you join us for tea, coffee and dinosaur and heart-shaped biscuits! We hope you enjoyed the morning as much as we did and we hope to see you all at our next one. February was certainly filled with a lot of fun activities, including our half-term Craft Academy and The Victorian Fayre. We would like to thank all those volunteers who helped with these events and made them so enjoyable for everyone. Also, please note the Volunteer Sign In Books have been moved to the cupboard in the Visitor Information Cart, opposite the ground floor toilets. Please could you ensure the books are kept tidy and in the cupboard because this is a space used by visitors. Moving the books has freed up space at the Front Desk for visitors to enter, pay and purchase shop goods with more ease and reduce the congestion around the tills. This will hugely benefit visitor experiences and first impressions of the Museum and assist our Visitor Services staff and volunteers. We would like to thank you all for your co-operation. What would you like to see in next month’s issue? Please email your suggestions to Gabriella Crouch on fundraising@dorsetcountymuseum.org by Mon 15 Feb 2016. Any suggestions welcome!
Opening Soon... ‘Speed to the West: A Nostalgic Journey’ Saturday 19 March 2016– 7 Jan 2017 in the Temporary Exhibition Space. Curated by Paul Atterbury & Richard Furness. Paul Atterbury: ‘This is a wonderful collection that is well worth coming to see, and I’m very pleased to be involved with this exhibition.’ Richard Furness: ‘This exhibition brings together posters spanning a century, and is rounded off with the latest GWR poster which demonstrates that the slogan ‘Speed to the West’ is still actively in use today. Visitors should have a lot to see and reminisce over. Do come and see us!’ Jon Murden: ‘I’m really excited about this exhibition. The posters and railway memorabilia we’re exhibiting are within living memory for many people, forming a direct link to the past.’
Collections Discovery Centre Update Where we are...
Many of you will be aware that we are currently conducting a number of surveys which will form important research for our Activity Plan. We ask that you are patient and supportive of this process and assist our volunteers who are enabling this process. In line with such surveys, Jane Alexander will be holding a Consultation Event on Fri 4 March from 10 a.m. in the Victorian Hall (please see reserve page for more information).
An Evening with the Curator ‘Speed to the West: A Nostalgic Journey’ by Richard Furness on Thursday 24 March 7.30pm
Where we’re heading... We will be holding interviews for an Exhibition Development Officer to join the Museum, and project team, as a full time member of staff later this month and will announce the successful candidate in due course. This upcoming month will see a large part of our in house team focusing on devising and implementing a communications strategy for the project. As a result, you will soon be seeing an updated online information page for the project and an improved visual presence around the Museum. Keep your eyes peeled!
MANY THANKS to all our volunteers – without you our Museum would not function as effectively as it does. Dorset County Museum, High West Street, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1XA Tel: 01305 262735 - www.dorsetcountymuseum.org
Visitor Quote of the Month: ‘Very interesting, staff extremely helpful’ ‘One of the best Museums I have been to so far!
Tea Room Exhibitions
with Gordon Bartlet, DCM Volunteer
1 Feb- 6 March 2016 ‘Art and Music Interlaced’ by Damian Clarke:
Damian Clarke will be exhibited a selection of his painted and ink drawings.
‘Music to the Museum’s Ears’
7 March– 5 June 2016 ‘Unknown Photographs of Dorset’ by Val Dicker:
Our Photographic Archive Team will present a collection of unidentified photographs from the Museum’s Dorset Photographic Archive. Can you help identify them?
Have you seen our Commemoration of the Dorset Yeomanry in the Victorian Gallery yet? Exhibiting until Friday 3 June 2016.
Consultation Event Jane Alexander, Activity Planning Consultant, would like to invite you to a Consultation Event being held on Friday 4 March from 10am
in the Victorian Hall
There will be opportunities to discuss how you feel about the Museum’s current building, the pros/cons of the current layout and the existing opportunities for engagement/activity. Also, your chance to say what you would like to see improved in the new Museum building and the activities you envisage us being able to deliver. As valued members of the Museum team, we hope you will all take this opportunity to share your experiences and suggestions on the exciting future of your Museum.
‘Vintage machinery and many varieties of music have always been a passion of mine, so mechanical music ticks both boxes and has lead to a collection of antique musical boxes and similar items. With this background it was sad to see a 19th century barrel organ lying silent in the County Museum, so I resolved to investigate its history and to see if it could be made to work again. Apart from once being in Puddletown church and then Bere Regis church much of the organ’s background was unknown. Delving into more detail uncovered a fascinating history from when it was built by John Gray of London in 1839 to when it was bought and subsequently donated to the museum in 1935 by Miss Agnes Debenham of the Debenhams Stores family. Between these events there were numerous personal triumphs and tragedies. It is hoped that details will appear in a paper prepared for the Museum’s Proceedings and now under editorial review. On the technical side the organ was very complete and original, but with damage to the operating mechanism and to many of the pipes. Making it play again required the combined efforts of myself and Mr John Budgen, a retired professional organ builder.’ To ensure that the organ does not languish into silence again, I will be coming to the museum as resident ‘organ grinder’ every Tuesday in March and April to give demonstrations, starting on Tuesday 1st March at 3.00 p.m. in Village Dorset Gallery. Anyone coming to these demonstrations will hear authentic 19 th century music exactly as it was heard by our ancestors.’
Victorian Fayre Success Dorset County Museum welcomed over 500 people through its doors to help celebrate the birthday of William Barnes, Dorset dialect poet, at the Victorian Fayre. The amazing event offered something for all the family. Marion Tait, Honorary Curator of the William Barnes Gallery and Archive and organiser of the event said, ‘The Victorian Fayre was a huge success.’ Marion thanked, ‘Alastair Chisholm for hosting the event in his own unique and much loved style, the William Barnes Society and Friends, who without them the event would not have taken place, and to all the volunteers for supporting the event.’ DON’T MISS: The refurbished William Barnes Gallery Opening on St George’s Day, 23 April 2016.
Welcome to our new volunteers…. Cathy Fowler as our Stone Conservator,
By Jill Minchin, Volunteer Co-ordinator & Trustee currently working at All Saints’ church. Four volunteers have joined us in February: We are looking forward to greeting Vivien Cripps who will be assisting Brenda (and making good use of) Sarah Schaedler, our German Intern, who will be with us for Turnock and her Library team, Kevin Dearling joins the Archaeology teams and four weeks beginning 29 February. She will assist Emma with school visits and Ali with Emma Talbot will be welcoming Martin Visitor Services; any time she has spare will Fitzgerald into her Education team, just in be taken up doing some translations into time to help with some of the thirteen school visits booked between now and mid- German of visitor information handouts and giving general admin assistance. March! We are also pleased to welcome
Please note that with regret we are currently unable to take on volunteers aged under 18; we just don’t have the staff available to mentor them or the time and space necessary to accommodate them. We also hope that any undergraduates asking for Summer 2016 placements will have the forethought to apply at the latest by the end of May; our recruitment procedures can take up to six weeks.
If you would like to receive this newsletter by email please send your contact details to Gabriella Crouch on fundraising@dorsetcountymuseum.org