Isle of Arran Heritage Museum
Isle of Arran Heritage Museum
ACTIVITY
The Isle of Arran's Heritage Museums archive and store room have reached the stage where they urgently need to expand to enable them to continue to recieve artefacts, identify and collect items which have a definable connection with the islands heritage and are pertinent to its preservation. The extension will provide this and improve public research facilties for locals and visitors alike as we will create three new study spaces along with increased storage space in the upper floor which will enable imrpoved access for a greater number of volunteers to work with the collection.
OUTCOMES
The project will take place during the museums closed season to avoid any disruption. The extension is a two storey addition to the museum building creating on the ground floor and environmentally controlled archive storage area along with a research facility. The project will also create much needed additional storage space on the upper floor of the artefact store enabling easier access for volunteers.
The extended store and archive will increase public access to collections whilst ensuring that the unique, indigenous artefacts are cared for in line with the standards expected of an accredited museum. It is an essential project that will enable the Museum to maximise, within the newly created definitive space, focus on the Collection’s care, with many new display and research opportunities.
At present it is only possible for two volunteers to work comfortably within the existing upper floor store, the extension would allow us the potential for several more volunteers to utilise this area.
The archive department is bursting at the seams with 3 volunteers in one office where inputting of data to the collections database is carried out, and the archive room itself with a controlled environment. This extension would allow us to create a separate research room for 3 members of the public together with a much needed additional archive storage within the controlled atmosphere.
The Arran Trust trustees thought that this was a great idea that would sustain valuable and desirable Arran heritage for locals and visitors alike.
