We are urgently looking for a working miners lamp!
Please get in touch as long as you are happy for us to borrow, use and light the item to use as a film prop on Tuesday 13 Dec.
If you think that you can help us and have what we need, please pop it into the green box located at the Comms Team desks (located in Canalside office, next to Sales & Ticketing) with your name attached, or please deliver it to your Line Manager by Sunday 11 Dec.
Thank you for all your help!
It is with great sadness that we share the news that our colleague Chris Parson passed away on Wednesday, 23 November, surrounded by her family.
Chris, who had been diagnosed with cancer, had been a much-valued member of the Museum’s team as a Site Cleaner, a role she had held since 2016.
Throughout the last 18 months of her illness, Chris’s optimism and positivity were truly inspirational. Up until very recently, Chris had been holding on to the hope of returning to her role at the Museum, and even visited the Museum as recently as last month.
Chris was a fun character to be around and she will be very much missed by all those that had the privilege to know her.
Our thoughts are with Chris’s family at this difficult time, especially her daughter Emma, who had previously worked on the Museum’s reception desk in Rolfe Street.
Disability History Month, which runs this year from Wednesday 16th November to Friday 16th December, focuses on the history of the disability rights movement and commemorates the achievements of disabled people. For 2022, the Museum has explored examples of items linked to disability history and details the Curating for Change scheme, in a blog post written by Claudia Davies, our Curating for Change Fellow.
View and read the blog post on the website.
In these difficult times we want to extend an invitation for you to have access to the Museum’s Perkbox benefits portal. Through the portal you can access savings on purchases that you are already having to make as part of normal life.
-As an example, it allows you to make point of sale savings on weekly shops with some larger supermarket chains.
-It also offers opportunities to access for ‘free’ a range of wellbeing benefits at discounted rates.
-The objective of the portal is not to encourage you to spend, but for this to be a reference point of possible savings/discounts on purchases you were already planning on making.
-Additionally the Portal gives access to a range of health benefits as well access to the Museum Employee Assistance Scheme (EAP).
If you would like to have access to Perkbox and/or want to find out more about it, I will be holding surgeries on the following days. If these do not work for you, please email me on: [email protected].
Thursday 24 November 9-10.30 – Visitor Welcome Center
Wednesday 30 November 9-10.30 – People & Culture Office
Thursday 8 December 9-10.30 – Doo’s
Please note we have a limited amount of spaces which will be offered on a first come first serve basis.
Our Festive Shop Discount is back this year with 25% discount off all products, with the exception of Alcohol and Canal Art.
This offer is valid on each open day from 25th November to 24th of December*.
Please note that this offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other discount.
Staff purchase T&Cs apply, please make yourself aware of these prior to making your purchases.
If you have any questions, please contact Franc Marrocco: [email protected]
Happy Christmas shopping, bab!
Please note that the December pay date will be on Friday, 23 December 2022 for all staff. Staff who are hourly paid will be paid for the four weeks ending Sunday, 18 December 2022.
January 2023 pay will be paid on Friday, 27 January 2023. It is important to note that the gap between December and January pay will be just over 5 weeks.
A reminder that the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) scheme, which provides advice and tools on a number of matters including tools to manage finances, is available to all colleagues.
You can access the EAP service by calling 0800 756 0861 and quoting “Perkbox”. Alternatively, you have access to the support and resources available through the EAP and Perkbox.
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? To support the workshops on 15 Nov and 16 Nov where we will be making decorations for the site – we need masses of lovely fresh seasonal greenery. If you have a garden, an allotment or access to any lush Christmassy greenery – don’t get snipping just yet. We’d love you to bring in whatever you have from Fri 11 to Mon 14 Nov. If you have an allotment, it might be worth putting the call out to other plot holders – as we can never have too much!
There will be buckets for you to pop the stems in to keep them nice and fresh at the compound at the top of site and behind Hut 14. The fresher the better so if you can leave it as late as possible to cut them and put it in water straight after cutting, we can make sure our wreaths, garlands and table decorations are as fresh and perky as possible for the festive season.
The longest lasting and most festive of the greenery is beech, oak, rose hips, pine, old man’s beard, spruce, conifer, holly, ivy, fir, magnolia, hops and rosemary. We also welcome any pine cones or other festive finds. What a good excuse for a ramble in the woods.
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].
There is still an opportunity to sign up for our FREE Green Decoration Making Workshops and Making Sessions on 15 Nov and 16 Nov.
The Annual Review: 31 December 2021 is now available to view online.
It is with sadness that we must pass on the news that George Price, a long-serving volunteer at the Museum, recently died.
George had been helping out at the Museum for many years and he was a mine of information on old industrial processes. He helped preserve the Price Pearson beam engine, by keeping a careful eye on it in storage for many years, and this engine will be in pride of place in the new brickworks. George helped the Museum document over 100 photos of the taking down of this beam engine, so that we can understand the technical detail captured in the photography.
He also helped the Museum identify key pieces of equipment from Smith Edge Tools, again which had been in storage for many years and will form part of the new industrial quarter. In particular with George, if you had a mining query, he was the person to go to, because if he didn’t know, he would soon turn up at your desk armed with information.
Sadly George passed away, without any known family. His funeral arrangements are therefore being determined by Sandwell Council, who have advised it could be as late as January 2023, before this takes place. We will share the date as soon as we are made aware of it.
I’m delighted to let you know that we have received confirmation from Arts Council England (ACE) that our application for National Portfolio Organisation investment has been successful.
We will receive support across three years, which will help the Museum’s continuing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and help us to engage with more people as we open the rest of BCLM: Forging Ahead, ensuring that the Museum achieves its full potential as an expanded site and a vibrant destination to welcome visitors.
The funding will start 1 April 2023.
You can find out more about the new National Portfolio, including how else ACE is investing in our area, by visiting its website: www.artscouncil.org.uk/investment23
If you have any questions about the investment or what this means for you or the Museum, please direct them to your line manager in the first instance.
Andrew Lovett, Director and Chief Executive.
