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Category: Events

  • Pre-Christmas Outdoor-Only Opening: An Update for All Staff

    Pre-Christmas Outdoor-Only Opening: An Update for All Staff

    As you will be aware, due to Dudley being placed under Tier 3 restrictions we’re unable to proceed with our Christmas programme as originally intended – both for our Enchanted Christmas special event and our Unwrapping Christmas general admission visit.

    However, we want to play a role in supporting the health and wellbeing of our community in the run up to Christmas.  Therefore, as a heritage site, and line with current Tier 3 rules, we are able to open with an outdoor-only offer in December.

    How will outdoor-only opening work?

    On Sat 12, Sun 13, Sat 19, Sun 20, and then from Mon 21 to Wed 23 December inclusive, we will be able to welcome visitors who adhere to the Rule of Six to the Museum for an outdoor-only experience.

    Visitors will be welcome to visit and enjoy the Museum grounds and explore our outdoor site.  Opening in line with Tier 3 rules means:

    • There will be no visitor access to historic buildings, or any other indoor areas that are considered to be a visitor attraction
    • Indoor areas that can be accessed are limited to: Admissions, the Gift Shop, Catering on a takeaway only basis (including Hobb’s), and Toilets
    • The Bottle & Glass Inn will also remain closed as we are unable to offer a takeaway alcohol service on-site

    Visitors will be able to enter the Museum via a pre-booked ticket. Entry fees will be:

    • BCLM Members, UnChained Passholders, Business Partners can visit for free
    • Adults (16+) required to pay for entry can visit for £5 per adult
    • All children (15 yrs and under) will be admitted for free
    • All car parking charges are suspended during this period

    We believe the above offer makes visiting the Museum accessible, and good value for our local community at a time when many people may be looking for respite at this busy time of year. This limited-time visitor offer is designed to make the Museum a welcoming outside space where people can spend some time together in a Covid-safe manner.  It is not intended to be a like-for-like replacement of our full visitor programme. 

    We intend to send out public communications about the outdoor visit tomorrow and for bookings to open before the end of the week.

    How will staffing work for the outdoor only opening?

    Consequently, staffing during our open days will operate on a minimum basis in order to deliver an efficient admissions experience, the ability to operate a limited enterprise offer and, crucially, to ensure the safety of our visitors and colleagues on-site. 

    In addition to these core admissions and enterprise roles, we will deploy colleagues as uniformed stewards to help visitors to navigate the outdoor site.  The focus of the stewarding role will be on wayfinding and visitor safety, rather than storytelling related to the historic aspects of the site.  This means we will not deploy the costumed Historic Character role on outdoor-only days.  Nevertheless, there will be an opportunity for front-of-house staff – including members of the Historic Character team – to indicate their availability for stewarding shifts, should they wish to. Comms via PlanDay to follow.

    When will we be updated on arrangements for furlough and holiday?

    The People & Culture team are in the process of writing to all colleagues today with details of how furlough arrangements will work for each individual and the process for requesting annual leave over December and January.  Letters will be sent via email and physical post.  A member of your management team will contact you to agree a working pattern should you be required to work during this period and we will keep working patterns under continuous review. Should you have any questions arising from your letter, or if you have any other questions or concerns please email [email protected] and a member of the Museum team will respond.

    As well as being a time for joy, we know that Christmas can also be a difficult and emotionally-charged time of year.  This is likely to be particularly so for 2020, as everyone is faced with the consequences of the pandemic.  This is reminder that the Museum offers access to Employee Assistance Programme counselling service if you would like to talk to a trained counsellor about any worries you may be having concerning the impact of Coronavirus, whether work-related or not.

    When will the Museum close to visitors for 2020?  What’s happening about January shutdown?

    The Museum will close to visitors at 4pm on Wed 23 December and with a planned public re-opening on Sat 23 Jan 2021.  Further details on the Museum’s shutdown plans and training will be shared with all colleagues later this week.

    In the meantime, thank you to everyone for your hard work and continued perseverance.

  • Christmas Programme – important update

    Following the latest government announcement that the Black Country and surrounding areas are to be placed under ‘Tier 3’ restrictions, we are now unable to run our Christmas programme in the way that we had originally anticipated.

    Therefore, we’ve had to take the decision to cancel our Christmas programme – including both our ‘Enchanted Christmas’ event and the Unwrapping Christmas daytime offer.

    We know that many of you were looking forward to welcoming visitors to the Museum over the Christmas period.  Therefore, we’re looking at the possible ways that we can be here for our community in the lead up to Christmas with an alternative daytime opening that can operate under Tier 3 restrictions. 

    The Museum will now not re-open on Sat 5 Dec as originally planned, but we do intend to be open at some point later in the month. We’ll update colleagues with further details on this pre-Christmas opening plan as soon as possible.  Additionally, will write to all colleagues individually early next week to confirm the arrangements that will apply to furlough, pay, and holiday for December 2020.

  • Staff Tickets – An Enchanted Christmas

    If you would like to purchase staff tickets for An Enchanted Christmas, please see the below information about how to purchase.

    • Tickets will be available for this event from Thursday 22nd October. You will need to go to the Admissions desk between 9am – 9:30am on weekdays that the Museum is open, or purchase by phone 10am – 4pm each day 0121 520 8054. Please note that no tickets will be available for purchase at the weekends due to the allocation being handled by S&T.
    • Staff will receive 50% discount off the price of each event ticket.
    • Each member of staff may purchase up to four tickets (of any combination) per event (not per day) at the discounted rate, and may purchase a maximum of two additional tickets at the standard rate.
    • Staff are required to provide their name, home address and contact details to purchase tickets, as is standard of any customer. On the date of the event, any visitors holding staff tickets (including staff members themselves) must join the normal admissions queue for that event. Staff tickets do not provide fast track entry.
    • Staff cannot purchase tickets on the behalf of another staff member.
    • Staff tickets cannot be held or reserved without payment.

  • 2020 Christmas Programme

    The challenges presented by Covid-19 means we’ve had to think differently about our visitor offer for Christmas 2020.

    Learning from how we implemented the ‘Unlocking the Black Country’ programme and insights from visitor feedback have helped us to design a new Christmas programme that can operate in a Covid-safe way and which will appeal to our audience.

    Therefore, we wanted to share news of the Christmas programme with you – one that we hope will both excite visitors and be rewarding for staff to deliver.

    The Rule of Six and protocols around social distancing means that we won’t be running Santa Hunts this year. We know how enjoyable Santa Hunts can be for both staff and visitors, and that this will be disappointing news for some people. We’ve also decided not to hold our Christmas Nights event. This latter decision was made based on visitor feedback which showed a greater demand and level of comfort in visiting the Museum during the daytime and when people feel they can spend quality time together as a family.

    An Enchanted Christmas

    Therefore, we’ve developed a completely new pre-ticketed event aimed at families and those visitors who consider themselves young at heart.

    On Sat 12, Sun 13, Sat 19 and Sun 20 December between 10.00am-8.00pm, the Museum will be the backdrop to ‘An Enchanted Christmas’.

    With a storyline based on ‘The Nutcracker’ BCLM will be transformed into a festive land where visitors will be asked to join the Nutcracker Army to thwart the plans of the Rat King and his band of rogues and, thus, save Christmas!

    This is a new type of event for us, but it’s also one that we think will stand out versus events at other venues who may be taking a more ‘traditional’ approach this year. By differentiating our offer we intend to attract new audiences to the Museum.

    Unwrapping Christmas

    Visitor response to the Enchanted Christmas concept was extremely positive in market research, but we also want to make sure we’re serving the full spectrum of our audiences – particularly those for whom a visit to the Museum is about stepping back in time. Therefore, on December weekdays, and then on Sat 5/Sun 6 December, and from Mon 21 – Thu 24 December the visitor programme will be ‘Unwrapping Christmas’. This programme will adapt the zoned approach that was developed for Unlocking the Black Country and tell the story of Black Country Christmases through time, from the 1800s to the 1960s.

    We’ll share further details about the specific elements of the visitor offer in due course, but we hope this update gives you a flavour of the Christmas programme in the meantime.

  • Event programme change: Peaky Blinders Nights 2020 postponed

    Due to coronavirus (Covid-19) and current Government advice related to public events, the Museum has taken the decision to postpone our Peaky Blinders Nights originally scheduled to take place in September 2020.

    We know many of our visitors eagerly anticipate Peaky Blinders Nights, but we felt that it was the right decision to postpone for now and look at dates in 2021 when we hope the public health situation will be more favourable to hosting this type of large-scale event. 

    An update on postponing this year’s event will be made public a little later today.

    We’ll update colleagues as soon as we have a new dates for 2021, and with details of how the event will come back even stronger, ahead of releasing any messaging to the general public.

  • Christmas staff volunteering 2019

    We are looking for additional support from staff for our Christmas Evenings

    If you’d like to be involved, please complete the below form.

  • Greenery Appeal 2019

    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.  The Santa Hunts and ‘Christmas in the Home’ start on Saturday 23 November this year so we will start preparing key buildings from Monday 18 November and continue the following week.  We may also need additional greenery in December, to refresh the buildings.

    If you can bring in any materials you can deposit them outside the staff Guide Hut and the Collections team will collect them.

    During the festive period, once buildings are decorated, if you are looking for greenery to refresh your building we will store surplus greenery on the first floor of the Cast iron House.

    If you have any questions about decorating the buildings for Christmas you speak to the collections team or email  [email protected]

    Thank you.

  • Black History Month Event: When I came to England

    Join us on Thursday 24 October for a celebration of Black History, where you will have the opportunity to listen to Z. Nia Reynolds, author, cultural curator and filmmaker.

    Her book ‘When I came to England’ portrays an oral history anthology of life in Britain during the 1950s and 1960s told by those who came in search of life, love and lifestyle…a long way from home. Full of hope, humour and honesty, this gives a fascinating insight into post-war British society. This event will inform and support the collection of Migration stories as part of our major development project, BCLM: Forging Ahead.

    Following the interval, we will host an authentic fashion show featuring garments worn during the 50’s and the swinging 60s. This fashion show gives an insight about the lives of Black people arriving in Britain at that time. Samantha Prescott, Artistic Director and Founder of ‘Fashion, Talent & Black History Showcase’ will share an informative account of what it was like for migrant communities at the time.

    Time: 7.00-10.30 pm

    For more information, and to book your place, please contact: Glenis Williams, Community Engagement Manager [email protected]

  • Thank you for making Peaky Blinders Nights a roaring success

    Thank you for making Peaky Blinders Nights a roaring success

    We love Peaky Blinders.  However, I am very conscious that the evenings put stresses and strains on us and the site.  I want to acknowledge that and say how appreciative I am of everyone’s efforts – whatever your role at the Museum – to make the evenings such a roaring success for our loyal visitors and fans of the show. 

    It seems that the phenomenon is set to endure for a few years to come, and we’ll hopefully, continue to be regarded as the home of Peaky Blinders.  Although I know it will be a welcome break until the next time.

    Thank you again.

    Andrew

  • School’s out for Summer!

    BCLM Community Roadshow continues to travel far and wide and will be at the International Glass Festival on Saturday 24 August and Moseley Folk & Arts Festival from 30 August to 1 September.

    We’re still on the lookout for memories from local people about the Elephant and Castle Pub and Stanton’s Record and Music shop.

    Music and cultural festivals feature throughout our Community Roadshow programme reaching a broad spectrum of diverse communities. We look forward to having a presence at Moseley Folk & Arts Festival for the first time, where we will be sharing Black County skills in the heart of Moseley Village.

    If you wish to get involved, please contact Community Engagement Assistant [email protected] for more information.