Museum on the Move: bringing our story to Ipswich and Suffolk

Although Ipswich Museum is currently closed for redevelopment, the Museum team is working hard behind the scenes to continue interactions across Ipswich and at Christchurch Mansion. We are keen to offer opportunities for people to engage with the Museum’s collections and to share our exciting new plans for the Ipswich Museum redevelopment.

Our Museum on the Move project has a real focus on interacting with the people of Ipswich whilst the Museum is closed and creating new relationships with groups and individuals. The project will last throughout the redevelopment and will provide opportunities for us to bring the Museum to you!  

Jade-Marie O’Grady, our Community Engagement and Participation Officer, who has been working on bringing Ipswich Museum to external community hubs and public spaces in Ipswich, said:

‘I started my role at Ipswich Museum in October 2023 and am very excited to announce what we have coming up for Museum on the Move. I spent the first few months getting to know brilliant organisations and exploring possible connections that have a community and collaborative interest, with still so much more to explore. The ‘Museum on the Move’ programme began this year with pop-up stalls at St Albans Careers Fair, Cliff Lane Primary School, and Rendlesham Revealed at Ipswich County Hall. We have been really showing off objects people are able to handle themselves and get inspired by, with a drop-in or takeaway activity. It has also been an opportunity for us to talk to people and share information about our new themed spaces and layouts at the Museum.

Our pop-up stalls at St Albans Careers Fair and Cliff Lane Primary paid particular attention to our fossil handling collection, where the Mammoth molar and Megalodon teeth were true stars of the show. We were able to explain what palaeontologists do as a career, fossilisation and creating rubbings from a set of moulds.

Most recently we had the pleasure of partnering up with Global Rhythm Festival at Christchurch Park on the 13^th July, a festival of world and roots music. We brought along global instruments for people to explore from our collections, from thumb pianos and flutes to slit drums and gongs. We also had some crafts where families were able to create and design their own shakers.

Johann Don-Daniel, a Suffolk based artist and musician, worked alongside us to deliver a drop-in activity which allowed people to learn more about the act of listening to music. Johann created soundscapes for people to listen to and draw their own sound maps based on what they could hear.

We are now looking forward to bringing the instruments to Gainsborough Library on Saturday the 31^st August for their World Festival Day.’

For our next series of events, we have some very exciting activities taking place across Ipswich, themed specifically for certain locations and the interests of the people we are engaging with. Keep your eyes peeled!

If you would like Ipswich Museum to come to you, please contact us using this online form: Contact – Ipswich Museum