The 24 Hour Museum, the national online guide to museums, galleries and heritage, have launched a new series of websites about English cities and their heritage. Commissioned by the Department of Culture Media and Sport initiative Culture Online, the 24 Hour Museum City Heritage Guides celebrate and explore the rich diversity of cultural heritage on offer in each city.
The ten cities selected as the subjects of 24 Hour Museum’s first City Heritage Guides are: Birmingham, Brighton & Hove, Bristol, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle & Gateshead and Norwich.
“English cities are rich with areas of cultural interest. City Heritage Guides will help communities discover treasures on their doorsteps. They will also provide a boost for tourism, showcasing the ‘hidden heritage’ of cities for visitors from both home and abroad.” Arts Minister Estelle Morris commented.
“Our job at 24 Hour Museum is to raise public awareness of the museum, gallery and heritage sector and to inspire people to visit and explore the wealth of fantastic resources they offer” says Loyd Grossman, chairman of the 24 Hour Museum. “This project allows us to really get behind regional heritage and present more in-depth local content.”
Each city heritage guide site contains:
News, reviews and special features about the city’s unique collections and heritage.
An easy-to-use, comprehensive database of the city’s museums, galleries and heritage sites with up-to-date listings and visitor information.
A dedicated By Kids For Kids section showcasing what’s available in local museums and galleries for children.
Local History – Stories, trails, reviews and authentic recommendations from local people who know the city best.
Exclusive promotions & special offers from museums, galleries within the cities.
Loyd Grossman and Culture Online Director, Jonathan Drori attended a special taster session at the UK Online Centre in Holborn Library to launch the project. This launch was part of a network of events in UK Online Centres in each city designed to give members of the public, particularly those without access to IT at home or work, an opportunity to contribute to the new websites.
An open invitation to participate is extended to individuals and groups within each featured city. “Material produced by community associations, voluntary groups, outreach workers and children in each of the ten featured cities really helps to bring the City Heritage Guides to life” explains Jon Pratty, 24 Hour Museum Editor.
24 Hour Museum have developed Storymaker, an easy-to-use online authoring system, to help groups and individuals write about the heritage, culture and history of their city. “Storymaker is free to use and can empower groups or individuals to present their heritage in their own words,” continues Jon Pratty, “and no specialist web-knowledge is needed to use it.”
Storymaker can be used by anyone to submit material to the City Heritage Guide on a one-off basis. However, with a free user name and password Storymaker can be used to create work over a period of time, to build up a bank of resources within a group, or to save work for other uses - for example on other websites too. Details of how to get started can be found on the website and at every stage there are simple step-by-step instructions to follow.
24 Hour Museum hope to secure funding in the near future to cover cities across the rest of the UK.
