Aerospace Bristol receives £30,000 Art Fund grant for Aerospace Lives project
The digital project will allow people to explore the history of their area, what it used to be like and how it has developed, through archive images and personal stories
The platform will enhance the Aerospace Bristol visitor experience, using the museum’s archive materials to reveal new insights into the historic Filton site
Aerospace Lives will be a new interactive Web App platform for Aerospace Bristol.
The project will transform community stories and materials from the museum’s unique archive into a digital storytelling experience.
When complete, the platform will group digital content to specific areas of interest surrounding the museum site and within the museum’s external spaces.
It will include trails and heritage walking tours, allowing a range of audiences to engage with their local heritage like never before.
Aerospace Lives will allow people to explore the history of their local area
Amy Seadon, Learning & Community Engagement Manager, said: “Aerospace Lives is an exciting and important project for Aerospace Bristol. The project will enhance the visitor experience and enable us to expand upon our existing community engagement work through an innovative new online platform. The challenges presented by the Covid-19 crisis make it more important than ever to develop new initiatives and adapt to new ways of working, so we are thrilled to have received this vital funding through Art Fund’s Respond and Reimagine programme.”
Aerospace Bristol will deliver the project in partnership with this great adventure, strategic and creative consultants, exploring the power of digital thinking and storytelling for the cultural and experience sectors.
Pete Gardom, Director of This Great Adventure, said: “Responding to Covid-19 is a huge challenge for all museums, of any size. This project is a fantastic opportunity to support Aerospace Bristol as they respond to this unprecedented situation and engage their audiences in new ways, both at the museum and online. We’re delighted that the project’s Art Fund grant application was successful, and we’re excited to be working with teams at Aerospace Bristol to reveal the extraordinary stories of the people who have lived and worked here and the events of the last 100+ years hidden within their archive, much of which has never been seen before.”
Art Fund’s Respond and Reimagine grants offer flexible and responsive funding designed to meet immediate challenges connected to the Covid-19 crisis and reimagine future ways of working. In the first round, 18 grants were given, from a total of 114 applications. Developed in consultation with museums and galleries, the grants meet needs in four priority areas of collections, audiences, digital, and workforce. They may also cover costs to support reopening, as well as encouraging creative and innovative projects as organisations look to reopen with fundamentally different operating models. Respond and Reimagine Grants will provide £1.5m in 2020 to support museums, galleries, historic houses, libraries and archives, and non-venue-based visual arts organisations, and is part of Art Fund’s £2m package of funding to support museums through crisis. The deadline for the next round of Respond & Reimagine grants is 17 August 2020, and a final round will take place in the autumn.
Media enquiries:
Adam Jones, Aerospace Bristol, Marketing Manager
adam.jones@aerospacebristol.org // 07535 502 268
Notes to editors:
Aerospace Bristol
Aerospace Bristol is a family visitor attraction that tells the story of Bristol’s amazing aerospace achievements. Beginning in the earliest days of powered flight, it is a story that spans two World Wars, the Cold War, the space race, the supersonic Concorde and the cutting-edge technology of today’s aerospace industry. Visitors can step aboard Concorde Alpha Foxtrot - the last of the iconic supersonic passenger jets ever to fly - glimpse into the cockpit, and learn what it was like to fly at twice the speed of sound. The museum aims to inspire the next generation of engineers and there is something for all ages to enjoy. Younger visitors can follow Alfie Fox’s time-travelling trail, climb aboard the Little Pilots outdoor play area, and get hands-on with fantastic interactive exhibits that bring aerospace technology to life.
This Great Adventure
this great adventure are experts in bringing story making, experimentation and digital thinking together in cultural and heritage context. Digital thinking supports organisations to identify and engage with ‘digital’ opportunities engage visitors, tell stories, try something new, exploring new partnerships and business approaches. In collaboration with communities, museums, cultural and heritage organisations, this great adventure is seeking to develop new levels of accessibility through digital thinking approaches. Our goal is to build greater resilience and capacity with partner organisations across the cultural sector and reach out to new, underserviced audiences and communities.
Art Fund
Art Fund is the national fundraising charity for art. It provides millions of pounds every year to help museums to acquire and share works of art across the UK, further the professional development of their curators, and inspire more people to visit and enjoy their public programmes. Art Fund is independently funded, supported by the 159,000 members who buy the National Art Pass, who enjoy free entry to over 240 museums, galleries and historic places, 50% off major exhibitions, and receive Art Quarterly magazine. Art Fund also supports museums through its annual prize, Art Fund Museum of the Year, which was won by St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff, in 2019, and through a range of digital platforms.