Keswick Museum
Redevelopment Progress
and
Appeal for Matching Money
Party to Welcome Peter Crosthwaite and his Manuscript
After a few glitches the re-development of Keswick Museum is on track for closure in mid 2011 and re-opening in mid 2012.
It will be a fantastic attraction while retaining its Victorian character.
There will be:
New displays including a partnership with the Mountain Heritage Trust
A Cafe (also accessible from Fitz Park)
Toilets for the visitors
Community rooms and venues for hire
It will be open all year
round – the new heating system makes that practical.
The new environmental controls will allow Keswick Museum to host exhibitions
of national and international importance.
For the re-opening an exhibition on Peter Crosthwaite is planned which will include the recently purchased 1778 manuscript – effectively an autobiography, though written to vindicate him against some of the aspersions spread about his character and practices! It was bought in September 2010 with a grant for the Friends of National Libraries and funds from Friends of Keswick Museum. Peter Crosthwaite fiounded the first museum in Keswick.
Timetable:
Keswick Museum and Art Gallery Management Ltd plan to close the Museum around the end of June 2011 to allow everything inside to be decanted so that the contractors will be able to start work about September.
If all goes well the Museum should re-open in the summer of 2012.
Though the Heritage Lottery Fund has offered the majority of the money needed for the project, there is still the need to raise money in Keswick and elsewhere - anyone can help, no matter where they live, with sums large or small.
The Heritage Lottery Fund has offered |
£1,200,000 |
|
Allerdale Borough Council (who are the Trustees) has committed |
£290,000 |
|
The value of all the Volunteer work on the project counts as |
£32,000 |
|
Which leaves a funding gap of matching money needed |
£137,000 |
We have been set a target of getting £45,000 by the end of November 2010.
There will be several ways to make your donation - Cheque, Card, Paypal
Overseas donors may like to use PayPal – that facility is being set up.
For UK Taxpayers there will be the facility to recover the standard rate tax already paid on the donation under the Gift Aid scheme – that too is being set up.
Cheques (payable to KMAG) and the donation form should be sent to:
Pat Maskell
KMAG Appeal
Keswick Museum & Art Gallery
Station Road
Keswick
Cumbria CA12 4NF
Party
to Welcome the Peter Crosthwaite Manuscript and Launch the Appeal
This manuscript Memoir of Peter Crosthwaite,
1778, is incredibly important and tells the many adventures of an important
Keswick Character and the founder of the first museum in Keswick. It was bought
in September, with support from The Friends of the National Libraries and The
Friends of Keswick Museum.
Peter Crosthwaite, eighteenth-century adventurer, inventor, scientist and social
reformer, will be at Keswick Museum for an evening of stories and music at 7:30pm
on Saturday 30th October. He will regale audiences with stories
of his life including the time he fought pirates in the Bay of Cabay, India.
Peter Crosthwaite will also read stories by local children about his life, accompanied
by a Shadow Puppet Show, a Gamalan and the Musical Stones of Skiddaw.
Finally there will be music and singing
by Chris Stones and the Keswick Community Choir.
The night also marks the Launch of the Keswick Museum Appeal 2010.
All monies raised will go to the Appeal and be put into the enhancement fund
to save the building and collections for Keswick.
Entrance to the event is £10.00. Tickets can be bought from Keswick Museum,
Station Road, Keswick. The Museum is open daily from 23rd – 31st October
from 10am to 4pm or ring (017687) 73263 for more information.