It’s that time of year again when we start thinking about decorating the buildings ready for the festive season. We use traditional greenery for many of the houses and shops so we are appealing for your help.
Do you have rampant ivy or holly that needs pruning? Do you have excess Christmas/ fir tree cuttings? Or do you have other evergreen materials you can spare?
If you have any of the above we would be grateful for donations of greenery. We are looking for people to bring greenery in on Monday 22nd & Tuesday 23rd November and continue the following week. We may also need additional greenery in December, to refresh the buildings.
If you are able to help, please can you put the greenery in bags or containers and leave outside the red barn doors for the Collections team to pick up.
During the festive period, once buildings are decorated, if you are working in historic buildings and you are looking for greenery to refresh your building please contact the Collections team.
If you have any questions about decorating the buildings for Christmas, please speak to the Collections team or email [email protected].
We’re so excited for Christmas to be back at the Museum this year! Our season of events has proven incredibly popular with Santa Hunts and Christmas nights selling out by the end of October. We now have only limited tickets left for our brand-new experience, An Enchanted Christmas. Please read on to find out more about this year’s Christmas Programme.
An Enchanted Christmas
Having had to postpone from 2020, we’re looking forward to finally hosting An Enchanted Christmas, our completely new pre-ticketed event aimed at families and those visitors who consider themselves young at heart.
On Sat 11th, Sun 12th, Sat 18th and Sun 19th December the Museum will be transformed for festive fun. Santa and his elves are busy preparing for Christmas, but the Rat King and his pesky partners are trying to sabotage the preparations! Visitors will have the chance to meet Christmassy characters, take part in activities and help the Nutcrackers save Christmas from the rats.
We’ve created a storybook to help our visitors understand the different zones and characters that they’ll encounter. This experience will encompass the whole site, so we’d ask all teams to take a look at the storybook and find out what’s in store for this event. Follow the link to our website to view the storybook by clicking here:
You can also watch our character video here: thanks so much to those that were involved with creating this film! This is a brand new event for us, which we think will attract new audiences to the Museum by providing something a unique experience that will enable families to enjoy the Museum in a different way.
Santa Hunts
Santa is making a welcome return to the Museum this Christmas, with a brand-new storyline for Santa Hunts for 2021.
Our jolly vintage bus will collect visitors and take them to Santa’s workshop, but Santa’s fallen asleep thanks to the magical Christmas dust! With the help of the Museum’s elves, visitors will explore the Museum to hunt down festive ingredients to help wake up jolly old Saint Nick.
Christmas Nights
Proving incredibly popular with visitors and selling out in record time, we’re pleased to be welcoming visitors back for a cosy Christmas night on Fri 3rd and Sat 4th December.
We’re inviting visitors to enjoy the atmosphere of Christmas on our gas-lit streets, explore decorated shops and houses and enjoy festive food and entertainment.
Unwrapping Christmas – daytime general admission
For our visitors that are simply looking to enjoy a festive step back in time during December, our general admission offer will be exploring a Black Country Christmas through time. From the traditional tales of a cosy Victorian winter through to a swinging 1960s Christmas, visitors can discover new stories and meet new historic characters this winter season.
If you have any questions about any of our Christmas events, please do speak to Tom Dipple in the programming team.
As part of our continual Programme of ensuring engagement and communication of the Museum’s operational and strategic activity, we will be holding briefings to update all colleagues on the Museum’s progress since reopening in May of this year and the plans for 2022, a critical year for the launch of the first of the Forging Ahead buildings. These briefings will take place on:
Wednesday 3 November 2021
Thursday 4 November 2021
Thursday 11 November 2021
All the briefings will be held in the WI and will commence at 9.15, finishing at 9.45. Many of you will already be scheduled by your line managers to attend one of these sessions, if you have not then please volunteer your name on the attached sign up sheet.
All contracted colleagues are mandated to attend these sessions. We would also strongly urge colleagues from both our volunteer and casual community to all attend.
You only need to attend one of the briefing sessions.
If you have any trouble signing up for the briefing because you do not have a BCLM email address then please speak to your line manager who will be able to add your name for you.
Join the BCSC and some fiendish friends for their second annual Halloween online event on Thursday 28 October at 7pm.
This time around, they’ll be looking at the Black Country’s links with science fiction and exploring some of the weird and wonderful aspects of the region’s science facts. Expect monsters, mummies, mutants and menacing machines as they’re joined by University of Wolverhampton’s Dr Nicola Allen and Dr Martin Khechara, alongside BCLM researchers Dr Jenny Gilbert and Nadia Awal.
From the virtual fireside, Nicola will set the science fiction scene and introduce the genre: its origins, development and characteristics. Jenny and Nadia will share some of their favourite Black Country sci-fi stories and Dr K will be exploring the science behind monsters, mutants and terrible triffids.
There will also be an interactive quiz that will test your skills in telling scientific fact from fiction.
Tickets for this online event are free and can be booked via the BCLM website here. Book now for a free, fun and informative night of spooky science!
Calling all staff and volunteers, we are delighted to announce that our Staff Social we be held on Monday 8th November from 6:00pm onwards in hall 2.
Please join us for a fun evening of entertainment, food and drink.
If you are interesting in attending please complete the Staff Social RSVP We will be ordering food and drink based on RSVPs so please complete the form and let us know if you have any dietary requirements. RSVP deadline 22nd October 2021
We are delighted to confirm the appointment of Paul Crofts as the Museum’s Chief Operating Officer. Paul formally joins on 18 October 21, but is visiting the Museum on a weekly basis to get an early understanding of how the Museum works and meet new colleagues ahead of his ‘official’ start date.
Paul brings a wealth of senior commercial and operational experience from the rail industry, where he currently holds the post of General Manager for Avanti and is responsible for all aspects of the customer experience. During the pandemic he has been instrumental in supporting Avanti’s recovery and sustainability strategy having worked closely with the Department for Transport and other key stakeholders. Paul’s experience mirrors the complexity of challenges here at BCLM and we look forward to him being part of our Leadership Team.
How heartening it was to see the crowds return over the summer holidays, and for the Museum to offer such an enthusiastic welcome. There will be anxious times ahead, I have no doubt, but considering what we have all come through, I think we can be very proud. So a big thank you from me to everyone for your resilience and the continued strong desire to do the best for the Museum and our visitors.
That display of doing what is best for the Museum was very much in evidence during our first Peaky Blinder evenings, when every aspect of our operation is tested to destruction! I came along on Saturday night and was mightily impressed by the programme, quality of service and when I sneakily listened-in on what visitors had to say. Those two evening events and the strength of our appeal is reflected in how well we have bounced back after reopening. Since 17 May, when we reopened, we have achieved 72% of pre-COVID attendance, and during the month of August this was an astounding 94%. That kind of resilience gives me a level of confidence in our future not thought possible this time last year.
We are hoping to arrange a staff event in late September to celebrate our future, and I very much hope you’ll be able to join colleagues.
With my appreciation and thanks.
Andrew
For an Express and Star report and pictures from last weekend’s Peaky Blinders Nights, click here
Visitors will experience a frenzy of fun as monsters and aliens invade the Museum for our spectacular Halloween Nights!
Alongside the familiar favourites like trick-or-treat and the costume parade. we’ll also have mighty tree creatures and a steambuster robot to entertain families as they roam the Museum after dark…
Last year’s cancelled event has been brought back to life and updated for 2021.
Santa and his elves are getting ready for the big day. The presents are being mined, the Christmas trees are being planted and the Sugarplum Fairies are busy making delicious treats. But mischief is afoot – the Rat King and his army are trying to ruin Christmas! Santa has called in the Nutcracker General and his friends to keep the Rat King and his pesky partners at bay. Visitors will have the chance to step into this magical world to help save Christmas!
Santa Hunts
Santa is making a welcome return to the Museum this Christmas, with a brand new storyline for Santa Hunts for 2021. (Sat 26/Sun 27 Nov, Sat 4/Sun 5/Mon 20/Tue 21/Wed 22/Thu 23/Fri 24 Dec)
With the help of Santa’s elves, visitors will explore the Museum to hunt down festive ingredients to help wake up jolly old Saint Nick from his slumber by seeking out the smells, sounds and tastes of Christmas to bring Santa back to his old festive self. Children will of course receive a gift and a special memento from the man himself.
Christmas evening event
We’re planning on hosting a Christmas evening event on Fri 3 and Sat 4 Dec. The programme is currently being developed and will launch for on-sale soon. We’ll update you ahead of the public launch.
Colleague special event tickets
As ever, colleague tickets will be available for our special events. Evening events and An Enchanted Christmas will have an allocation of tickets at a 50% for colleagues to purchase. These will be available from Fri 3 Sep via the Sales & Ticketing team. Please note that discount tickets are not offered for Santa Hunts.
Daytime programme – October half-term and Christmas holidays
We’re working on a sci-fi themed October half-term and developing ‘Unwrapping Christmas’ for daytimes during the Christmas season. Look out for an update on this soon!
On Tuesday 17 August, the Black Country Studies Centre hosts its next online talk in its series on the Festival of Britain and its relationship to the Black Country. For this talk, join artist Sian Macfarlane who will be discussing the Festival’s relationship to Walsall. If you’d like to join this free online talk, you can get tickets here.
Artsfest Online and the Black Country Studies Centre are pleased to present a series of events commemorating the 70 years anniversary of the Festival and its impact in the Black Country.
Date: Tuesday 17th August, 2021
Time: 7pm – 8pm
Venue: online event
‘We Are Illuminated’, undertaken with The New Art Gallery Walsall, was a project concerned with the leisure life of Walsall; the history of the cinemas, fairs, Walsall Illuminations, and carnival queens in the area, exploring Walsall centre, and surrounding locations to situate the archival research in the present day. In this research, Sian uncovered a script for a Walsall play, performed at the Festival of Britain, 1951. This lengthy and detailed document presented the history of Walsall in a series of tableau, exploring key moments in Walsall’s past. The enactment of this script, with local students, became a key part of the project. The work resulted in an exhibition within the gallery, of video and original artefacts, exploring this rich history.
In this talk Sian Macfarlane will outline the research into the Festival of Britain and Walsall that was undertaken as part of this project, and explore the ways in which this became a key element of creative work.
The event will be held online and a joining link will be sent shortly beforehand. It is free to attend. To find out more about Sian’s work and to book a free place on this talk, please click here.
