Grand plans are being drawn up to turn the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery into a world-class facility fit for the 21st Century...
FANCY learning about the history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia using an interactive map or discovering the roots of Stoke-on-Trent though an iPad?
How about learning more about the Staffordshire Hoard by having a play with a 3D touch table?
These are some of the ideas currently being explored as experts build their case for turning the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, in Hanley, into a modern, up-to-to-date and technologically savvy facility.
Museum bosses will next month ask city councillors for permission to proceed on a two stage application to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HFL) to develop the galleries with a focus on the Staffordshire Hoard.
The majority of the displays, especially on the ground floor, have not been substantially re-imagined since the early 1980s.
Museum staff hope their vision will be paid for by applying for a number of different funding streams. They are tentatively estimating the cost to be about £5 million.
The proposal is to develop a HLF application which will bring in funding to re-display the galleries using modern display techniques and technologies. The focus will be put on the Staffordshire Hoard, ceramics and the story of Stoke-on-Trent and the surrounding area.
Keith Bloor, the city council's strategic manager for museums, said: "There are various stages of modernisation in the galleries, partly because we managed to get some funding to do bits of it.
"However, if we were to step back we'd see overall it's quite passé and that's because most of the galleries were developed 30 years ago.
"At that time the museum was modern but what I – and the staff here – would like to do is transform the galleries and therefore the museum into a 21st Century museum.
"That means making it more engaging so that somebody, whatever their learning style or background, will be able to connect with the displays.
"New technology will have a role but also visitors to the museum will have an input in helping to develop how it's going to look.
"In the past we might have sat down and done some market research and met designers behind closed doors. But we very much want to engage people earlier in the process to get their ideas to help shape the museum."
Mr Bloor singles out the ground floor as an area where substantial investment is needed.
There has been some developments in natural histories and archeology over the years but they've been small scale.
The Mk XVI Spitfire, designed by Butt Lane-born Reginald Mitchell, is in need of restoration which is why last month a campaign to raise £50,000 was launched to ensure that the work would take place.
Mr Bloor said: "It's the ground floor where the investment needs to be. If you go through it now you'll see it's very discipline orientated.
"Natural history, local history and archeology – those are the principal themes. You'll see most of the pottery up on the first floor and those are the products. There's very little about the people behind that story.
"What we want to see is the museum telling the story of Stoke-on-Trent and the surrounding area.
"It's not just about the history of objects, it's also about the history of people and their communities.
"You should be able to get a feel of where Stoke-on-Trent originated – the geology, the coal, the clay, why the pottery industry started in the area, how's man's influence has changed the environment and how we're trying to change the environment to make it more liveable in.
"Museums are not just about history and the past they're also about the 'now' and the future. And in those galleries you could pose the question – what is the future for Stoke-on-Trent?"
Even if, as anticipated, councillors approve plans to bid for HLF money next month the project to overhaul the museum will take years.
Mr Bloor explained the museum would be bidding for a variety of other grants and securing match funding.
He added: "In terms of when you'd expect to start see some of these ideas developing – you're looking at from 2014 onwards.
"We are applying to lots of different funding pots."
Last month the museum suffered a setback after an application to Arts Council England for £4.4 million to pay for school workshops, touring exhibitions and other "added value" schemes was rejected.
The blow also meant staff will have to look elsewhere to find funding to build a £500,000 exhibition area for the Staffordshire Hoard.
The museum costs the council £2.16 million a year to run. It had 202,634 visits in 2009/10, with 50,000 of the visits attributed to the city acquiring part of the Staffordshire Hoard for display. This compares with 138,000 visitors the previous year.
In the redevelopment of the museum, the Staffordshire Hoard will play a central role, becoming the 'jewel in the crown'.
"The Hoard is a very central part of the reshaping of the museum," said Mr Bloor. "If you look at it from an international perspective the collections that are the world class are ceramics and the Staffordshire Hoard.
"So for an international audience, the tourism and the spend that tourists bring with them is very important. There's a very high expectation that whatever we do with the Staffordshire Hoard has got to be top notch and that's what we've tasked ourselves with delivering.
"We want to make it so that when you come into the museum it's obvious that the Hoard is the centrepiece.
"And what's great about this museum is that there's other Anglo-Saxon material that's in the stores and we have other treasures that add context to the Hoard display.
"So what we will be doing in our new fourth gallery is to sell the story of Mercia.
"You can overcook on technology and we don't want to alienate people who don't like too much technology so it will be a careful balance.
"This is a world class museum but we want it to become a world leader."
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