Community Engagement Update - Cabinet of Curiosity
For our 2024-25 programme, the ‘Community Creates’ team is keen to build on the success of our first year, including the lessons learned by a new team with ambitious targets for audience development and participation.
Published: 11 June 2024
Doorstep Museums
Our Doorstep Museums at St. Barnabas Library in North Evington and the BRITE Centre in Braunstone were very popular, attracting 2,500 visitors over three days.
We have three more Doorstep Museums planned for this year during school holidays: Saturday 13th July at Pork Pie Library, Friday 2nd August at Hamilton Library and at another neighbourhood venue in October.
The theme for this year’s Doorstep Museums is ‘technology’ and we hope to offer some special performances alongside the Cabinet of Curiosity, Meet Leicester's Dinosaurs interactive app, craft activities and creative play. See the What's On section for more details.
Pop-up Museum at Beaumont Shopping Centre, February 2024
Pop-up Museums
Following on from our latest Pop-up Museum at the Haymarket Shopping Centre in May, we have planned a further Pop-up Museum for Saturday 15th February 2025 at Beaumont Shopping Centre.
These are great opportunities to share some objects and stories from the Museum's collection to a wide, diverse audience; our previous Pop-up Museum in Beaumont Leys saw about 1,000 people interacting directly with the Cabinet of Curiosity and another 10,000 pass by the display and watch our animatronic dinosaur performances!
Many of the local people we spoke to told us that they do not visit museums – for a variety of reasons - but that didn’t mean they weren’t interested in their heritage, their place and the history of their city.
Community Collaboration
We’ll also be focussing on our more ‘co-produced’ programme this year, collaborating with creatives, community groups and others to create three exhibitions in the People’s Space of Leicester Stories Gallery and supporting important Leicester events like Black History Month, Holocaust Memorial Day and International Women’s Day.
Add to this the Riverside Festival, Leicester Mela, Leicester Pride and the two-day Roman Festival next year and we hope to have another full programme of events and co-production that provides more opportunities for people in Leicester to access and enjoy the Museum's collections and stories, as well as tell their own stories.