Brighton Toy and Model Museum wins Heritage Lottery Fund support
Brighton Toy and Model Museum has received £57,900 from the
Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for an exciting project, "Toys in the Community:
Valuing Memories of dolls, teddy bears and construction toys". Involving volunteers from the local community,
the 2 year project will collect memories from a range of people and use these
to create a website, book and touring exhibition which will visit local venues.
It will also run community outreach sessions to enable people to share their
memories of toys and handle examples of dolls, teddy bears and construction
toys from a range of time periods.
Volunteers involved in the project will be able to learn
new skills, including interviewing, photographic and videoing skills. They will
also help to curate the touring exhibition.
By
interviewing people of all ages and backgrounds, the project will help to
create links between different members of the local community through the
sharing of memories.
Commenting on the award, Museum Manager Tig Savage said: “We
are delighted to have this financial support from HLF. We are looking forward
to making our collections more accessible to people who may be unable to visit
us due to physical, financial or social reasons and to listening to our
contributors’ valued memories. It is my sincere hope that this will forge much
stronger links between the Brighton Toy and Model Museum and our community in
Brighton and Hove.”
Stuart McLeod, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund South East
England, said: “Toys from years past stir memories of childhood and community.
This project will capture these and in so doing add a new dimension to its
fascinating collection.”
Anyone
in the Brighton and Hove area who is interested in being involved in the
project, either as a volunteer or by being interviewed, is invited to the
museum on Wednesday 9th July between 5.30 and 7.30pm, or is welcome
to contact the museum on 01273 749494 or by emailing memories@brightontoymuseum.co.uk
About Brighton Toy and Model Museum
Brighton Toy and Model Museum is a treasure
trove of toys and models that extends over four thousand square feet of floor
space, through four of the Early Victorian arches supporting Brighton Railway
Station's forecourt. Founded in 1991, it has over ten thousand toys and models
in its catalogue, focusing on the first half of the twentieth century, and
including rare vintage model train collections and many period antique toys.
Its display area includes two large operational model railway layouts (in
00-gauge and gauge 0), and displays of period pieces from a range of classic
early manufacturers that includes Bing, Dinky, Hornby, Marklin, Meccano, Pelham
Puppets, and Steiff. The museum also includes individually-engineered pieces
such as the working quarter-scale traction engine and the Spitfire fighter
planes in the lobby, and a range of other working scale models throughout the
museum.
The museum's exhibits and displays undergo
constant review and change, the museum itself has recently undergone an
extensive world class, innovative lighting refit, with LED lamps now allowing
much brighter illumination throughout the museum while still protecting the
more sensitive dyes and paints of some of the older items.
The museum, a registered charity, is
supported by the collections’ trust – the trustees are made up of a handful of
dedicated collectors such as Anthony Capo Bianco, Hugo Marsh (SAS) and Barry
Potter. Without their support, such review and change would be very difficult.
A lottery grant in 2012 afforded a year-long
celebration and exhibition of the work of Frank Hornby and the museum is about
to embark on the next lottery project, reaching into their community for
memories, in the form of the Toys in the Community, oral history project.
Entrance to the first of four arches (which
also houses the museum shop and Tourist Information Point) is free, and the
museum's handy location beneath Brighton Station makes it a great stopping-off
point for visitors to Brighton to pick up maps and tourist information before
seeing the rest of the city.
About the Heritage Lottery Fund
Using money raised through the National
Lottery, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) aims to make a lasting difference for
heritage, people and communities across the UK and help build a resilient
heritage economy. From museums, parks and historic places to archaeology,
natural environment and cultural traditions, we invest in every part of our
diverse heritage. HLF has supported over 36,000 projects with more than £6bn
across the UK. www.hlf.org.uk.
