Crawley Museum is to host a Crawley Town exhibition. A fundraiser for the museum was held at the Broadfield Stadium and chair of trustees Paul Castle and curator Polly Parson spoke about what other exhibitions are going on at the museum and what is coming up.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 I forget, if I don't get it at the end of it now, thank both Steve, particularly Steve,
00:07 because not only his service at the museum, but his books and arranging all this, and
00:14 of course Mick, because they have effectively curated this exhibition. I think it's fair
00:22 to say they've got quite a lot of pleasure out of it, but it's also a lot of work. So
00:28 thanks to them. And just to reiterate before I continue, Steve's books are available over
00:35 there in the corner, and I think we were asking, what was it, a minimum of £10? Because that
00:42 avoids us giving any change. So they are over there. If you haven't already had one, by
00:49 all means do go over and look, and hopefully buy it, and I'm sure Steve, as the author,
00:54 would sign it for you. But anyway, that's that. So I'll go on to the museum itself.
01:04 We're a little bit like the NHS in that it's free at the point of use, but unlike the NHS
01:11 we don't have the luxury of compulsory taxation, which would be handy. We are still partially
01:18 funded by Crawley Borough Council, and obviously we're grateful to them for that, but the funding
01:25 is being wound down, and now we're coming right towards the end of the funding. So I
01:32 would say we certainly have a need for funds, whether you would call it desperate or not,
01:40 we certainly need. Now, to that purpose, we have four green buckets around the room which
01:51 would accept cash donations, and for any of you who don't carry cash, or are so flush
01:58 that you want to donate tens of pounds, we have cart machines in the corner there by
02:05 the Crawley Museum sign. We also have Crawley Museum Board. I'm obviously hoping that you've
02:12 all been to the museum, but I know only too well from talking to people in town, some
02:17 even say to us, "Oh, does Crawley have a museum?" And the answer is, "Yes, we do."
02:23 So, yeah, please give generously if you can, and if you already have, thank you very much,
02:30 and I would urge you obviously to all come to the exhibition.
02:35 As soon as I don't have any questions from any of you about the museum, I will hand over
02:42 to our curator, Holly Parsons, who will talk to you not about this exhibition so much,
02:48 but about what else is at the museum.
02:51 That is the museum in town, and also Iffield Watermill, which is open seasonally over the
02:58 summer months. Jo, my colleague, was there yesterday. She says it's very cold. Don't
03:03 go there at the moment.
03:06 So, at the museum, we show Crawley history, dating from the present, and we go backwards
03:13 in time, all the way back to the Stone Age, including things like the Bronze Age sword
03:20 and the 1903 Retz 4 car.
03:24 As well as the permanent displays, we do a temporary exhibition programme. We have sits
03:29 a year, changing every two months. So, that's quite a lot of work for us and staff, but
03:35 it's great when people like Steve come and go, "Holly, I want to do this exhibition,"
03:39 and I go, "Excellent, great. Here's the date. Go and run with it," and he does.
03:45 So, that takes a lot of pressure off us to change every exhibition.
03:50 Next year, we are planning to hire in our second exhibition ever. So, this year, we
03:59 had a dinosaur skeleton, which the kids went wild for. It was half term. We had 400 people
04:06 in, in one day. I had to go home and lay down.
04:11 Next year, we are doing sci-fi film and TV costumes. So, a bit different again, but hopefully
04:19 it will spark some interest locally. Otherwise, we've got LGBT history. We've got the, I've
04:30 totally forgotten.
04:32 Nautical training courts.
04:34 Nautical training courts, thank you. And Crawley Art Society, diverse Crawley.
04:41 Crawley Irish.
04:44 Up for the water of the Irish population in Crawley. So, a nice diverse range of exhibitions
04:52 and it's the first time, four of the groups that are displaying this year haven't displayed
04:58 for us before. So, we're very excited about opening the doors to those new communities
05:04 within Crawley.
05:05 So, do come down and say hello. After this exhibition as well, we've always got something
05:10 new on. And over Christmas, we are doing Father Christmas visits on the weekends and on the
05:20 Victorian Christmas Day and the Football Family Funday. So, do come down.