Whitby Museums Join Forces

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Tuesday, 15 December 2020 17:28

Six Whitby museums have decided to work together more closely by forming a working alliance under the title ‘Museums of Whitby’.

The six museums include the Captain Cook Memorial Museum, Whitby Museum, Whitby Abbey, Museum of Whitby Jet, RNLI Museum and Pannett Art Gallery.

The Chair of the new partnership is Rebecca Tucker, who is also the curator of the Museum of Whitby Jet, a volunteer at the Whitby Museum and is also a member of the Whitby Civic Society.

Rebecca said

“A key objective of our new group is to jointly market our six Whitby museums to a wide variety of local, regional and national audiences, and to promote a family friendly environment with attractions which are beyond ‘sand and sea’ for entertainment. We want to encourage and promote school visits since Whitby has pre-history and 2000 years of history with nearly every period represented. We also intend to form a strong and coherent lobby group for the Whitby museums and to support and promote each other through joint working and sharing expertise.”

“It is also really important that whenever possible we give positive support to the region’s tourism agencies and importantly, in the current uncertain visitor attraction climate, that we take advantage of and adapt to this post Covid-19 environment.”

“We have six amazingly varied museums in Whitby which so brilliantly reflect and interpret the rich heritage of our town, and we are thrilled to be working so closely together in this new partnership. We are already jointly working on many exciting new projects which will all help to realise and to strengthen our objectives.”

“We defined the six partners of our group under this definition of the Museums Association:

‘Museums enable people to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment. They are institutions that collect, safeguard and make accessible artefacts and specimens, which they hold in trust for society. This definition includes art galleries with collections of works of art, as well as museums with historical collections of objects’. We all have so many genuine artefacts held in our museums in trust for society which are so professionally managed by our many volunteer curators.”

Rebecca says the museums add another element to the attractiveness of Whitby to potential visitors.

Janet Deacon, Tourism & Corporate Manager for Scarborough Borough Council said

“This is fantastic news. Six of Whitby’s most amazing attractions are coming together to showcase the best of Whitby’s Heritage. We very much look forward to working closely with the new consortium to further heighten the profile of heritage and culture in Whitby to a regional, national and international audience”.

The formation of the new partnership has also been strongly supported by Museum Development Yorkshire which is funded by Arts Council England to support and advise accredited museums across the region.

Said Dieter Hopkin, Museum Development Officer,

“We have worked closely with a number of the key museums in this consortium over the years to enhance what they do. We welcome this initiative which will encourage heritage and cultural organisations in Whitby to collaborate to promote the diversity, wealth and breadth of what they offer to local residents and visitors to the town.”