Projects > Holst Museum, Cheltenham

Grant towards a discovery space at the museum

Posted: 30th November 1999

Funding: £8,000
Scheme Type: Normal Grants
Project Type: Community Buildings
Area:

Holst Museum, 4 Clarence Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL52 2AY

How do you turn a practical task - the storage of 3,000 items in a museum collection - into a creative opportunity? When the Holst Birthplace Museum faced the challenge of re-housing a large archive of material transferred from Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, it did not want the items to be just packed away and forgotten about.

Instead it set about developing an open-archive, The Holst Discovery Space, where visitors could find out about the items in storage through page-turning software and pull-out drawers in the room's bespoke steel archive cabinets.

The Gloucestershire Environmental Trust was one of the supporters of this vision, giving £8,000 towards the £64,000 target. The total amount, which was raised in May 2012, has not only paid for conservation standard cabinets and digital software, but also for education and community projects, such as the Inspired by Holst workshop with Cheltenham secondary schools, and a performance with Gloucester Hindu Cultural Association based on Holst's Indian operas. The new facility is scheduled to open to the public in September 2013.

Website: www.holstmuseum.org.uk