What We're Doing Now

Chard Museum 50 Years and Beyond - Phase 2 (2022-2024)

Closely linked initiatives referred to as ‘Spaces’, ‘Stories’ and ‘Resilience’

Spaces funded by the Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) enabling us to work with a group of Heritage Architects and Specialists to explore what we might do with the Spaces we have:

• Assess the historic significance of the Museum buildings.

• Produce concept drawings, building layouts and budgets to enable presentation of a pre-planning application.

The work so far has involved a careful analysis of the listed buildings and their development, as well as understanding the wide range of existing exhibits and ambitions for potential Museum storylines. This research has fed into the development of design options, showing how to make best use of the whole museum site, alongside a more resilient energy strategy and associated budget costings. The resulting Feasibility Study will act as a guide for ongoing community engagement and roadmap for future development.

Stories funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) will enable us to fund a group of Heritage Professionals to find out what Stories the communities of Chard and district want us to be telling in the Museum Spaces and beyond:

• Deliver a series of interactive workshops and outreach activities that empower the local community to ‘create their Museum of the future’

• Review how the Museum works with schools, community organisations, and for example residential care facilities, to widen the opportunities to share understanding and the importance of heritage and culture in our community.

Resilience funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) is helping us:

• Understand Trustee strengths and areas for development, to ensure that they have the ability to become a more resilient and sustainable asset and develop a recruitment strategy to support succession planning.

• Review all aspects of Museum governance including Policy and Procedures and their implementation.