Progress Update: transforming spaces and making preparations

Following a well-earned break over the Christmas period, work at Ipswich Museum is back in full swing. The last couple of months have seen significant progress made on the construction stage of the redevelopment project, with the new internal layout beginning to take shape. This includes transforming areas of the Museum previously used as offices which have not been seen by the public before. When the Museum reopens, visitors will find some familiar rooms and be able to discover completely new spaces.

Externally, the scaffold and full temporary roof have now been completed and covered with protective monoflex sheeting to guard from the elements. The temporary roof is expected to be in place for a couple of months. The roof has been stripped of tiles, felt and battens to allow for new counter battens to be installed. These will provide ventilation with new breathable membrane and new tile battens. The external brickwork has been steam cleaned to get it looking its best, a process which took around 6 weeks to complete. Brick and mortar repairs are now in progress. Some damaged or weathered bricks have been replaced, while others have been repaired with a coloured mortar to match the colour of the bricks.

Inside the Museum, more internal walls have been removed and new steel beams inserted to create large openings for visitors to navigate through the galleries and improve accessibility. A stud wall has been erected in one of the galleries to form a corridor providing access to new conservation rooms. The new public toilets will be located in the old basement area and work has begun to connect them to the sewage pipes. To allow for the installation of a new grey water pump, a deep pit has been excavated in the basement. Additionally, carpentry works and lime plaster repairs have also been taking place.

As well as the key construction phase of the redevelopment, the Ipswich Museums team have been working across many different areas to bring this project together.

Our team has been developing the content for each of the galleries in the Museum, including finalising the object lists for each gallery and refining the designs for the galleries such as the position of text panels. The team have also been writing the interpretive text for the galleries which will provide insight into the objects on display. The conservation team has been checking and, where necessary, cleaning and conserving items on the object list. Items needing specialist conservation from external conservators are also being identified so that the necessary conservation work can be carried out by specialists.

Some new volunteer roles have been developed to help with the project. These have included helping staff sort through and organise some paper resources, new collections volunteers supporting the full documentation of geology objects, and a number of new volunteers helping with our ongoing events and outreach work. We are hoping there will be further opportunities over the next few months and have contacted some potential volunteers already. Full details of roles that are available to volunteers are on our website.

Our Learning team have had a busy few months, holding an event for our Teacher Advisory Panel in October to talk about how Ipswich Museums can support their learners, preparing to launch a new Ancient Egyptians On-the-Road mobile workshop, and planning for a free Teacher CPD conference in February.

While the Museum is closed, we have been leading activities beyond the Museum’s walls, including taking the Museum on the Move project out to community hubs and spaces in Ipswich to engage people with some of the collections, reaching around 700+ participants so far. A session with Ipswich Community Media’s ‘Emulate Group’ for young men involved handling some of our global instruments followed by deep listening to the environment around us. We also hosted Nature is Our Home at Ipswich, Gainsborough and Chantry libraries as part of the Suffolk Libraries ‘Wild Reads Programme’ which saw families come together to explore Suffolk butterflies and biodiversity.

We have just started delivering The Fabric of Community with ACYCLE after school club, Achievers Supplementary School and BSC Multicultural Services. This project will contribute to the new communities gallery where each group are exploring objects, proverbs and sayings from different cultures which describe working together and strength in numbers. By the end of the programme, we will have three large fabric banners to hang in the communities gallery.

We’ll be sharing more updates on progress at Ipswich Museum over the coming months, revealing a behind the scenes look at this exciting project.