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New Museum Project At the end of 2007, the Museum reluctantly had to vacate the building in the High Street that had been its home since 1977. In the Spring of 2008, it moved into its current temporary portacabin accommodation in the Mill Road Car Park.
Plans for the New Museum The Museum secured planning permission in March 2009 for a new building on an ideal site by the river and close to the current Museum's temporary home. The new museum will be in the middle of tourist activity, and being on the flat river plain, it will be accessible to all. The Museum Society thanks Graham Whitehouse, our architect, who created the plans and steered us through the planning process, giving his time at no charge. You can see some of the architectural drawings of the proposed building below.
GWP Architects Ltd
The Design Concept for the New Museum The Museum has appointed Potter Associates, a professional museum design firm, to help us to develop the design concept for the new interpretation and displays. Jonothan Potter is an experienced and highly creative designer who will work closely with us to bring our vision for a dynamic new museum to life. It is very exciting to realize what a wonderful opportunity we have to use cutting edge design and modern technology. Jonothan has also been asked to produce a modern logo for our new museum. We need his input to help us to produce our first round bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund who require a detailed design development plan. His first task has been to produce a design brief and outline concept. Jonothan visited Arundel in June to get a feel for Arundel and its heritage, to meet with members to obtain their ideas and opinions, and run workshops with Committee members, He also met with Graham Whitehouse, our architect. At a second visit on Wednesday 15 July 2009, Jonothan gave two informal presentations of his ideas: in the morning to members of the Museum Society; and in same evening to a more general audience. The designs should project us as a much more modern museum, and provide those of all ages with a more lively and enjoyable experience from a visit to the new museum.
Potter Associates Heritage Lottery Fund Bid In August 2009, we submitted a round one bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund. This is a crucial stage in our project development. If we are successful it means that HLF consider that our project has merit, and we will get a grant to enable us to do more development work during 2010. This work will enable us to make a second round application to HLF for the big money. Our aim is to obtain £950,000 in total from this source. We believe that we have a well thought out project which should stand out from the crowd. We can only hope that HLF agree. Our bid will compete with all others from the South East Region. We will not know the outcome until December at the earliest. If we are successful it will mean a great deal more work to make the next application, which is again competitive. We have a promise of some funding from Arun District Council, but finding the rest will be challenging. We have to raise at least a further £500,000 from other sources in order to reach our required funding target which must be in place before we can ask HLF to provide their grant. If we are not successful with our Round One application we will have to re-think our project because HLF is the chief source of large grant aid. Whilst it is still just possible that we may find alternative funders to provide the missing million, we have to recognise that this would be difficult. Meanwhile, the work does not stop. Arundel’s New Museum Plans Take a Huge Step Forward
This means that we have been awarded a grant of £102,800 to develop our plans. A big thank you to those who spent time putting the first round grant application together. We can now progress to the second round of the HLF application process and have until the autumn to submit more detailed development plans and apply for up to £888,000 support for our £1,978,550 project. There is still a great deal of hard work to be done but we can now employ the professional help needed to bring the new building even nearer. Stuart McLeod, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund South East said 'This grant provides the opportunity for Arundel Museum to develop their proposals to offer high quality space and facilities so that local people and visitors alike can learn about the history of Arundel. We also hope it will be a huge boost for the volunteers that work so hard to keep the museum open'. The fact that HLF like our plans and think they are worth supporting means a great deal; it raises the profile of our project and will, we hope, encourage others to support it. Of course, we still have to raise the additional money required, and there will be some major fundraising efforts during the coming year. Please click here to read the Museum Society's January 2010 press release about the grant. Re-Branding Arundel Museum and the Society Coincidentally with the success of our first round bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund, Arundel Museum re-branded itself with a new logo. This can be seen on each page of our re-vamped website, which takes its new colour scheme from the logo. It can also be seen in such things as our newsletter and stationery. We believe it reflects a more modern approach with its crisp design. Please click here to read an explanation of the new logo provided by its designer, Jonothan Potter of Potter Associates. |
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