#011 - October 2016
Dorset County Museum Volunteer Newsletter Dates for Your Diary: OCTOBER
Welcome to Issue no.11 of DCMVOX…
Friday 7th ARCHAEOLOGY UNEARTHED 7.00pm for 7.30pm
Tomorrow’s Museum for Dorset—The Vision
Wednesday 12 GEOLOGY REVEALED 6.30pm for 7.00pm Nautilus: Beautiful Survivor—500 years of evolutionary history— Wolfgang Grulke LUNCHTIME CONCERT (1.00pm to 2.00pm) Thursday 20th Earth & Air & Rain— Richard Frewer & David Price LITERARY LIVES Thursday 20th— 7.00pm for 7.30pm TE Lawrence of Arabia & the Centenary of the Arab Revolt by Andrew Munro A chance to see the digitized slides from the Dorset Photographic Archive Collection
Main Exhibition: ‘Speed to the West: A Nostalgic Journey’ until 7 January 2017
The following in an extract from the Chairman’s report to the Annual General Meeting of the Society held on Tuesday 20th September.
If all goes well, the new museum will take visitors on a compelling journey through 200 million years of history. The ground floor gallery will be known as Natural Dorset and will be roughly where the Temporary Exhibition gallery is now. We will use our geology, palaeontology and natural history collections from the Jurassic Coast to tell the history of Dorset before the arrival of man and show how it paved the way for what was to come. The first floor will be called People’s Dorset and this will tell the story of Dorset from about 400,000 BC right up to the present day. It will begin with the archaeology collections, especially the Iron Age and Roman artefacts and then move through the centuries to the present using objects from the Social History and Costumes and Textiles collections. This will show how people drive events rather than being victims of history. The second floor will concentrate on Creative Dorset – its writers, sculptors, poets and artists. The exception will be Thomas Hardy who is already well established on the first floor and will remain there. The front of the museum will be opened up and our presence on the High Street will be much more visible. The Victorian Hall will stay as it is for now and be used as a meeting place and occasionally for special exhibits or exhibitions. John White’s Rectory at the back of the museum will be restored which should appeal to our American friends and will be the basis of the new learning centre. Peter Down, Chairman of the DNHAS Board of Trustees
Tomorrow’s Museum for Dorset Update ... Where we are….
Where we’re heading…
The first Tomorrow’s Museum for Dorset e-newsletter was sent out in September. You can sign up to receive these regular project updates at www.tomorrowsmuseumfordorset.org Interviews were held at the end of September to recruit an Exhibition Design Company to work alongside our Interpretation Team to develop the new gallery spaces. The successful candidate will be announced shortly. Please follow @tomorrowsmuseum on Instagram and visit www.tomorrowsmuseumfordorset.org for the latest developments
Our HLF Interim review was delayed by HLF until the beginning of October. All project team members will present their progress to our HLF Mentor and Case Officer. Feedback from this meeting will be circulated to you all in next month’s issue. The latest designs continue to be on display in the Victorian Gallery for visitors, volunteers and members to view and we welcome your thoughts.
Dorset County Museum, High West Street, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1XA Tel: 01305 262735 - www.dorsetcountymuseum.org
Visitor Quote of the Month: Fascinating—as before! We shall keep coming back until we have read it all, then we shall start again.
Blockbuster Autumn Book Sale! Friday 11th, Saturday 12th and Monday 14th November We are still open for offers of help with the Book sale. If you would like to join the team for this event, please contact Anna Butler—01305 262735 or secretary@dorsetcountymuseum.org. Tasks will include: Sorting and categorising books as they come in prior to the sale Moving the books into the Victorian Hall and arranging into predetermined groups for the sale on Thursday 10th November Staffing the sales desk over the three days of the sale Packing away and disposing of books at the end of the event on Tuesday 15th November Donations of good quality hard and paper-back books are welcome at any time up to Friday 5th November. Please note, however, that certain categories DO NOT sell. These include self-help/ improvement, out of date guides and maps, magazines, calendars, novelettes, most religious items, condensed books and poor-quality children’s books.
Volunteers Needed
Dorchester Literary Festival
Front of House and Tea room
‘Literary Passions & Country Pleasures’
19th—23rd October 2016 After the overwhelming success of the inaugural fesitval last year, this cultural event is back celebrating the rich literary life of Dorchester. It’s not too late to volunteer, Contact: ajohnson142@btinternet.com or helenmockridgepr@gmail.com See the website for more details: www.dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
Welcome to our new volunteers….
We continue to require cover for both front of house and the tea room. If you, or someone you know, is interested in having some shifts, please get in touch with: Jill Minchin on volunteering@dorsetcountymuseum.org
praise by some visitors and thanked for his work and help at the Roman Town We have had an active few months on House by them, to which we add our the Volunteer front; unfortunately Jathanks! We are sorry to lose Rick Saunmie Connolly had to withdraw from his ders from our Digitisation team as he internship, but Robert has been busy has moved to Scotland after quite a with several of our teams. His duties time digitising our photograph collechave ranged from helping Francesca tion. Radcliffe and John Hilton with photoWe have welcomed four accredited graphs and sampling Front of House life first hand to helping Ken with tasks volunteers onto our team in the last couple of months: Lorraine Tilbrook in The School House and working in has joined Charlotte Dreher in our new the basement with Brenda’s Library Natural History team, Natalie Wilson team. He will return to Birmingham University with a good insight into the works in the Tea Room during Friday lunchtimes and Leanne Atkin and Sabackroom work of a museum. rah Thomas have become part of our Terry Riggs has been singled out for
Digitisation team Currently six volunteer applicants are awaiting completion of accreditation before being formally attached to teams, and I am dealing with three new applications. Visitor Services (Front of House and Tea Room) and Maintenance are still hoping for new volunteers to join them so please spread the word that there are always vacancies. Jill Minchin, Volunteer Co-ordinator & Trustee
If you would like to receive this newsletter by email please send your contact details to Gabriella Crouch on development@dorsetcountymuseum.org