Wilberforce House Development
A community consultation event will be held this Saturday (23.06.07) to give members of the public the opportunity to say what they would like to see included in phase two of the Wilberforce House Museum development project.
Phase two will concentrate on the two Georgian Houses situated next door to Wilberforce House Museum. The aim is to develop these two buildings, which formerly housed a variety of collections, into an arts and crafts centre for the city.
With the addition of a glazed pavilion at the rear of the buildings, gift shop and Fairtrade café, phase two will join the new development at Wilberforce House Museum to the Georgian Houses in a more cohesive way and create a larger visitor attraction in the award winning Museums Quarter.
Cllr Kalvin Neal, Portfolio holder for Community said: “Community meetings are an important opportunity for local people to contribute to the development and improvement of the council’s cultural services. It gives us information, which we can feed into the planning of projects like this in their early stages and allow us to meet our customers’ needs.
“Phase two is significant because it will finally complete the refurbishment of Hulls existing museums quarter.”
Throughout the development of phase one, the museum team consistently consulted with two panels, one made up of people from Hull communities and the other leading slavery experts.
This consultation event will allow people to hear about the plans for phase two and help the team develop a museum about craft and design that Hull can be proud of.
Lydia Saul, Assistant Keeper of Social History at Wilberforce House Museum is organising the event, she said: “Community meetings are a great place to have your say about the future of the museums and for people to tell us what they are looking for when they visit.
“We hope that the meeting will encourage people to talk about what is important to them and create a dialogue between the community the museum represents and the staff who look after the collections and develop exhibitions.”
The hope is to include collections previously on display at Wilberforce House Museum such as Hull silver, clocks and hand-made furniture but also items that have not previously been on public display, including Hull ceramics, fashion and weapons..
Fund-raising for phase two, which is expected to cost £3.176 million is currently underway, Brian Hayton, Head of Cultural, Leisure and Sports Services explains the process, he said: “When the plans for the redevelopment of Wilberforce House Museum and the Georgian Houses were drawn up we decided to split it into two parts to allow the work on the original Wilberforce House building to be completed in time for the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in March 2007.
“We now want to develop the Georgian Houses to exhibit many of the artefacts which were removed from the old museum displays. Our aim is to show off Hull’s rich tradition of manufacturing luxury arts and crafts and to give modern craftworkers in the city a showcase for their wares.”
Brian continues: “Phase one has seen largely positive feedback and we hope to continue in this vein with phase two. The only way we can know what people want in any of our cultural services is if they attend our consultation events and let us know.
“The consultation process has to start as early in the process as possible as it is imperative this is a through and inclusive process for all. We have a long way to go before phase two is finally approved and then completed but with the support and ideas of the people of Hull we will create a museum like no other in the city.”
The event will be held at Wilberforce House Museum at 1pm. Refreshments will be provided. For more information please ring Lydia Saul on (01482) 613923
Published: 20/06/07
