Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre shares funding success

Landing a £3,000 grant from the Joining Up The Humber Museums (JUTHM) partnership has meant new tackle for Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre (GFHC), new learning experiences for staff and volunteers and new shared resources for other museums and heritage sites across the Humber region.

The 23-year-old attraction at Alexandra Dock has used the Arts Council England funding on conservation grade costume display equipment and professional costume care training to improve its standards of collections care, which has helped it maintain its important accreditation standard. Throughout the process it offered free costume care training to local colleagues, and other heritage organisations can now apply to borrow mannequins and costume display equipment for their own exhibitions.

“The project has given us the chance to build and maintain positive working relationships with other museums and heritage sites in the area while improving the overall quality of our collections care through effective training and the purchase of high quality materials,” said Louise Bowen, Collections Assistant, Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre.

JUTHM spokesperson, Simon Green, assistant head of sports, leisure & heritage with Hull City Council, said: “It’s great the way Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre is working with other museums like this. The whole point of the Joining Up The Humber Museums Partnership is to share ideas, expertise and collections from across the Humber region and when you see museums making that happen you can’t help but think how lucky we are in this area to have such an amazing collection of forward-thinking museums and attractions.”

The new equipment is currently being used in GFHC’s eight-week WW1 exhibition 'Eleven, Eleven, Eleven', which reflects on the impact of war on the people of Grimsby and the surrounding areas, as well as the dangerous task of minesweeping and anti-submarine work that took place from the port in both World Wars. It runs until 4 January 2015, in the Murial Barker Gallery, and is the final part of the 'Unlocking the Collection' series, created from the Museum Service’s own collections.

Eleven, Eleven, Eleven is one of a series of commemorative World War I-themed exhibitions at local authority museums and attractions throughout the Humber region initiated by Joining Up The Humber Museums with Arts Council England funding. The series includes:

• When War Hit Home at Ferens Art Gallery (until 4 January 2015), which explores the effects of the First World War on Hull and its people;
• For King and Country at North Lincolnshire Museum (until 14 June 2015), which focuses on the experiences of local people both on the Front Line and back home in Britain.

For more information about the World War I themed exhibitions across the Humber region, and the work of Joining Up The Humber Museums please visit www.joiningupthehumber.co.uk

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Joining Up the Humber Museums (JUTHM) is supported by a £1 million grant from Arts Council England. The initiative runs until 2015, and will support commemorations of the centenary of the First World War in theHumber region. The money will be used to improve galleries and facilities across the three council's services in preparation for exhibitions in 2014 and beyond, including the opening up of Georgian Houses, part of Wilberforce House inHull.

There will also be funding made available to engage with a number of additional partners from the region who wish to engage with WWI centenary projects, including opportunities for volunteering, education and other outreach projects.

For further media information or photographs, please contact:

Sam Orange or Jay Commins

Pyper York Limited

Tel:         01904 500698

Email:    sam@pyperyork.co.uk or jay@pyperyork.co.uk