Case Studies

The AIM Pilgrim Trust audit has helped staff prioritise their work and the findings will directly feed into the collections management plan being written this year.

The report and auditor’s visit have confirmed that we had serious problems with fluctuation of temperature and humidity in the storeroom.

The audit process brought into focus the ongoing concerns about deterioration of materials over time and how to mitigate this through careful planning and awareness of how different materials deteriorate at a different pace.

The focus of the audit was for Fairfax House to receive guidance on how best to care for and preserve those items from the Museum’s historic collections which are held in storage.

Central this project has been the rehousing of the wide array of artefacts, ranging from delicate two-thousand-year-old ironwork to exquisite bronze armour and equally fascinating organic remains in state-of-the-art cases with state-of-the-art environmental monitoring. All this is a quantum leap for a small organisation like ours and in this we have been generously supported by the AIM Pilgrim Trust grant.

Menai Heritage accessioned the medallion to be a future attractive item in the display about Stephenson’s Tubular Railway Bridge, but conservation of the head and its wooden surround was a priority.

The Signature Quilt is one of the key objects in the museum’s collection and an important part of the history of Pickering, providing 255 names, all female, of those who were involved with the Sunday school in 1888.

Powell-Cotton Museum is undertaking an ambitious programme of projects, ‘Re-imagining the Museum.’ Inbal Livne, Head of Collections and Engagement, tells us what they’ve learnt so far and the lessons they can share with other AIM members looking to reinterpret their collections and work with communities and groups in new ways. 

Attending GEM’s Heritage Interpretation Online course has transformed our approach to interpretation. It has changed the way in which I would naturally approach the creation of new interpretation and changed my perception of this being an academic practice to more of an art form.