HLF Application to Add an Education Centre …………..
What is this all about ??
An application is being made to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HFL) to obtain a grant towards the construction and fitting out of an Education Centre, at NASAM, attached to the existing hangar buildings. The Centre will be located where the Fire Engine is presently located and the Fire Engine moved to another location or to another museum.
Reason for the Application
The proposed grant and application were explained to the Museum Committee via a series of slides, some of which are shown in this post. In essence, however, what we propose to do with the money and with the people working on the project is:
- Build and fit out an extension to the Hangar, such that we can provide a purpose-built classroom and exhibition centre that is flexible enough to support different types of classroom / meeting layouts.
- Is heated, so that we can extend the window of visits to the museum by schools and groups.
- Recruit additional volunteers, so as to provide, trained ‘meet and greet’ staff who can guide the groups around the museum, speak in the education centre and act as hosts throughout the visit.
- Recruit volunteers for other parts of the museum as the opportunity arises.
- Develop new training materials, so as to offer STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics syllabus) as well as WWII materials for the schools.
Who and How
The planning of project and the initial submission for the monies is being organised and run by the Museum Chairman with the help of two members (Sylvia Rogers and Pete Scott), other Museum Volunteers being co-opted as required.
Provided the grant is approved we then intend to recruit a part-time employed person as the Museum Education Offering Development Officer. The person employed will be expected to develop the museum’s education offering in the STEM syllabus. This will be done in conjunction with schools in the Norfolk & Suffolk area. The person will also define what a typical day will be in terms of both programme and content for the different groups and different sizes as well as the objectives and content of each section of the programme. They will define how the sub-groups will move through the education centre and around the museum.
Costs and Resources
The monies for this development of the Centre and employment of the Museum Education Offering Development Officer will come from the HLF, whilst we in the Museum will provide the majority of the labour for the building and fitting out of the new centre as well as providing the simulators, models and contents which will come from existing museum stocks.
As for the plan and the progress
The initial enquiry has been made and answers to the HLF questions were sent back to HLF on the 27th July 2017. The submission of the full application will be made in the Autumn of this year and provided the money is available, the Education Centre is planned to be open in Q$ of 2018. There will be a run on part of the project into Q1 of 2019 when all should be complete.
Further updates will be given as we get the results of the application and hopefully as we make progress on the build.
Can’t wait to have this up and running; warmth in the winter what a bonus.