Grant to study museusm promotion techniques
Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:49:00 BST
Journalism course leader Eileen Jones has been awarded a Collaborative Ventures Fund grant to study the impact of public relations in museum promotion.
She is working with a small museum in Ambleside in the Lake District, the Armitt, which, while holding several significant collections, currently has a low profile among locals and tourists.
Eileen has already achieved coverage in several regional magazines, and is now working on national media relations in the build-up to the museum’s centenary next year.
The Armitt’s collections include more than 400 water colours by Beatrix Potter in her role as a scientific artist, depicting fungi, fossils and Roman archaeology, and significant works by the Dada-inspired artist Kurt Schwitters, founder of the Merz movement.
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RCA students attending a drawing class on the hills above Ambleside during the war, from the Bohemians in Exile exhibition |
An exhibition running currently highlights the remarkable evacuation from Kensington of the entire population of the Royal College of Art – staff and students – to Ambleside for the duration of the Second World War. The eponymous Bohemians in Exile were billeted in two of the small town’s hotels, painted local people, and became a part of the local community, joining football teams and even the Home Guard.
The exhibition has been so successful that it is being retained to run until next spring when it will transfer to London. Exhibitions of work by several major artists are planned for the centenary celebrations.
