Join our quest to keep curiosity and creativity alive during the current crisis, which has slashed our income.
Wiltshire Museum shares the story of our beautiful county. We're proud to be the home of Britain's best Bronze Age collection, including the breath-taking gold from the time of Stonehenge.
Our friendly learning team deliver inspiring and reflective activities and workshops that help us connect with our past, each other, as well as discovering new, or developing, talents and interests. Everyone is welcome: schools, families and people of all ages, needs, abilities and backgrounds
In 2020, our doors had to close due to Covid 19, but our virtual #MuseumConnect series on YouTube beamed a variety of creative activities into the homes of people isolating and home-schooling, shining a ray of light on dark days. We are now starting to run virtual lectures, workshops and work with school groups again, and it's great to be back, but loss of income threatens our ability to keep delivering our high quality learning programs.
Why do we need your help?
As an independent charity which usually raises 95% of our income ourselves, COVID 19 has slashed our revenue. We could not welcome visitors, school groups or host events. We did not receive any of the Government’s emergency funding, due to such high demand.
This threatens our ability to keep engaging with our communities and we need to spend money to adapt to the 'new normal'. We desperately need money to sustain our core activities, please help if you can.
Our Crowdfunder quest is to fund our learning team, to keep our schools, community projects and virtual links alive, at a time when this is needed more than ever. We don't want any pupil or individual to miss out on discovering fascinating museum objects. We also want to update our gallery interactives, making them Covid safe.
How does our enhance people's lives?
Museum learning is powerful. We know our work promotes wellness, happiness and feeling connected. Artefact based projects inspire learning and creativity and enhance people’s lives.
There’s not enough space to tell you everything here, but a few examples are below. We have:
* Created giant snakes, for the front of the Museum, with Wiltshire Young Carers when they enjoyed a sleepover.
* Giggled with parents, grandparents, carers and their under-fives at our Curious Kids workshops.
* Made discoveries with children as they excavated alongside members of our Archaeology Field Group.
* Supported children who struggle with academic success work out how something works much quicker than the child who is normally top of the class! They smile with pride. Hands on learning is great
* Listened to families with autistic children tell us how welcome they feel at our ‘real-life’ workshops.
* Sang with a woman in her 80’s as she remembered songs she sang to WW2 troops.
* Crafted pom-poms with women from Tidworth's Ghurkha community as we made banner to celebrates 'Votes for Women' in 2018.
What will we use Crowdfunder donations for?
Our most pressing need is to pay the core costs of our learning team. Materials for 'real world' workshops, new equipment for virtual recordings and handling resources are all needed.
Ali, our Education Officer, is delivering pre-history school sessions online; so that pupils do not miss out. Local schools will be able to borrow boxes full of exciting handling objects, including 10,000-year-old stone axes, a bronze age dagger blade, Roman oil lamps and coins, hands-on Victorian toys and much more. We need money to refurbish the boxes, keeping artefacts safe for the future.
All the items above will be £4,000 of our target total.
We also need to update our gallery interactives. Children love visiting as there is so much for them to do: grinding corn in the Iron Age quern, trying on replica costumes, making brass rubbings and creating a 'Foam Henge' from foam blocks.
We need to change these to be COVID safe. This will be £3,500 of our target total, to get items designed and made to a good quality.
Who we are and a little bit about us
Our Museum has been at the heart of the market town of Devizes since 1874. Generations of children have admired Horatio, our stuffed lion, and left sticky fingerprints on cases!
The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, which started the Museum, has over 1000 members.
We have always been driven by a passion for exploring our world, and education and creativity for people of all ages.
Members run today’s museum as Trustees, managing a small team of professional staff. Members are also at the heart of our invaluable volunteer group.
What do our visitors say on Trip Advisor?"A lovely little museum that is engaging for young children as well as older children and adults. Lots of interesting information and some fascinating exhibits.
The staff were so friendly and easily able to discuss information with all ages. Our children have asked to go back and we want to as well!"
Please donate, share this page widely and do what you can to help us during this crisis. We are really grateful for your support.
Thank you from all of us at Wiltshire Museum.