Barnsley Museums and Heritage Trust funding for a future Takeover Day

You may remember in December that we wrote about the fabulous Kids in Museums Takeover Day, when the running of Cannon Hall Museum was handed over to Year 5 pupils from Carlton Primary Academy. 

Facilitated by Fusion, Barnsley’s Cultural Education Partnership and Barnsley Museums Learning Team, pupils visited Cannon Hall at the start of November where they were trained by staff in the following roles: Front of House, Gallery Attendant, Gardener, Learning Assistant, Marketing, Communications and Evaluation.   

In preparation for the day, pupils worked in school on scripts they would need in their roles and created posters and social media posts to promote the event. Their teachers commented on the impressive levels of commitment and responsibility they showed as they practised their tasks for the day with the Learning Team and Fusion’s Co-ordinator.  

On Takeover Day the children spent time experiencing all of the roles, from welcoming visitors to sharing stories written in response to objects in Cannon Hall’s Ceramics Gallery. The children took over Barnsley Museum’s social media accounts and Museum Directors took turns showing VIP visitors round the Hall including the Young Mayor and colleagues from ACE, Children’s Services and BMBC’s Group Leader for Museums and Heritage as well as the Head of Culture and Visitor Economy.  

Takeover Day supports Fusion’s work to embed opportunities for children at primary level to explore Creative Careers across the partnership in order to raise aspiration, encourage progression and develop transferable skills through creativity.  Barnsley Museums and Heritage Trust is passionate about the work that Fusion does with the young people of the borough and were so impressed by what the pupils achieved on takeover day, they have agreed to provide funding to allow a different school to benefit from the experience this year. 

We are grateful to our supporters who help to make this amazing work happen. If you would like to help us do more, you can donate by visiting www.bmht.org