Schoolchildren take over at the Corinium Museum
More than 40 year five and six pupils from Chesterton Primary School swapped their classrooms for galleries after stepping into roles at the Corinium Museum in Cirencester, bringing fresh energy and ideas to the venue as part of national Takeover Day.
A total of 43 schoolchildren rolled up their sleeves and got involved in almost every aspect of running the museum during this special event. Held every November, Takeover Day sees museums, galleries, historic homes, archives, and heritage sites across England handed over to children and young people for a day of fresh ideas and creativity.
Rebecca Shellenberger, Corinium Museum’s Schools and Families Officer, said: “This year we were happy to give up the reins to Chesterton Primary. We trained the students in four areas of museum management – buildings management, front of house and the museum shop, PR/marketing, and collections.
“The children arrived with such great attitudes ready to learn and perform - I’ve been doing Takeover Day for the past eight or nine years, and I think this was the best yet. It’s so thrilling to see young people engage and develop enthusiasm and appreciation for our jobs.”
Dr Caroline Morris, Collections and Education Manager at the Corinium Museum, added: “It was wonderful to have the pupils from Chesterton Primary taking over the museum. We were really excited to hear what events they would like to see at the Corinium, what objects they were most interested in learning about and promoting, and their ideas for our museum shop.”
The Corinium Museum is passionate about including children and teenagers, from interactive games, play spaces, dressing up and other activities in galleries, to holiday family workshops, family trails, and school workshops. The museum is also setting up a Young Archaeology Club to encourage young people with an interest in archaeology to get some hands-on experience.
Charity Kids in Museums, supported by Arts Council England funding, launched Takeover Day in 2010 to help historic institutions give children meaningful roles in their organisations. Last year, more than 160 heritage organisations and 5,500 young people took part.
To find out more about Takeover Day – and who else is taking part – visit kidsinmuseums.org.uk/takeoverday
You can follow the conversation on social media by looking at the hashtag #TakeoverDay and following @KidsInMuseums.
ENDS
Contact Information
Cotswold District Council Communications Team
Notes to editors
Notes to Editor
Please credit all images to Cirencester Camera Club
About Corinium Museum
Corinium Museum is located at the heart of Cirencester, the ‘Capital of the Cotswolds’. The principal collection consists of the highly significant finds from the Roman town of Corinium. However, the museum today is much more than that, taking you on a journey through time and charting the development of the Cotswolds from its prehistoric landscape to the modern-day.
Freedom Leisure runs the Corinium Museum facility on behalf of Cotswold District Council.
About Kids in Museums
We are a charity dedicated to making museums open and welcoming to all children, young people and families. We support and champion family friendly organisations through wide-ranging initiatives, including the Family Friendly Museum Award and Takeover Day. We invite heritage organisations to sign up to our Manifesto, which sets out simple guidelines for making museums easy to reach for all ages. www.kidsinmuseums.org.uk
Find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
About Freedom Leisure
Freedom Leisure is one of the largest charitable and not-for-profit leisure trusts in the UK managing over 100 leisure and cultural facilities on behalf of partners across England and Wales. We are proud to be delivering high quality, value for money locally-focused leisure services that are sustainable and accessible to all and we are committed to their ongoing development. As a not-for-profit organisation all surpluses are reinvested in support of the objectives we share with our partners.
Improving lives through leisure
- Enabling communities to be more active more often, making the most of their leisure time
- To be a fun and rewarding place for our colleagues to work
- To support our partners with the provision of great community facilities
For all media enquiries please contact:
Samantha Fryer Ward [email protected] on 01285 655611