News Maidstone Museum collecting your memories
Maidstone Museum is collecting memories from those who work, live and play in the borough.
As part of its larger transformation project the Museum is asking people who went to school in Maidstone, enjoy the nightlife or chose the county town as their place of work for their thoughts to create a recent Social History account of the region.
With the help of £4,000 funding from the Arts Council, and in collaboration with the Maidstone Museum Foundation and Fremlin’s Walk, the Museum has opened its own ‘pop-up shop’ as an audience engagement point, where people can share their memories of time spent in and around Maidstone.
Victoria Barlow, Maidstone Museum Manager said:
“This is a really exciting time for the Museum. We are passionate about engaging with Maidstone residents, hearing their memories of the town and sharing their thoughts on the transformation plans. We want as many people as possible to be a part of this fabulous project!”
Staff will be engaging with local people to ask their opinions of the Museum and the transformation project, discussing with them what they would like to see there and whether they would like to see artefacts exhibited in themes or in chronological order. There are fun activities such as dressing up, Memory Bunting and a huge map of Maidstone to pin reminiscences to.
Maidstone Museum will be using the information and feed-back collected during the project to evaluate how things could be done differently and additionally to inform the Arts Council of the successes of the ‘pop up.’
People who visit the Museum Pop-up and take part in the memory collection before 30 December, will be given the opportunity to enter a prize-draw for four tickets to the Hazlitt Theatre Pantomime - Beauty and the Beast on New Year’s Eve, or could win a Private Tour of the Museum’s Observatory Tower.
The Museum ‘pop-up’ shop is situated on Fremlin’s Walk, Maidstone and is open at weekends until 5 January 2020, on Saturday between 10am – 3pm, and Sunday from 11am – 3pm.