Clare Museum has received grant funding of €10,200 from the Heritage Council and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to increase community access to its collection and activities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The museum has received funding to purchase camera equipment for the digitisation of the museum collection and for the creation of videos and live streaming school workshops, public talks and other museum activities.
The funding will also be used to purchase a showcase for the display of some of the items in the Clare Embroidery Collection. The Clare Embroidery School was founded in 1895 by Florence Vere O’Brien at Newhall, Ennis, to provide skills for young girls which would enable them to earn an independent income, but public awareness of the collection has been low as it is currently in storage. The museum is presently closed to the public, but the showcase will help to provide an extra attraction to the exhibition when the country returns to Level 2 of the Plan for Living with Covid-19.
The funding will also provide an opportunity for Clare Museum to deliver socially distanced access to museum activities. In the coming weeks and months, the museum will be able to return to providing the workshops for schools and public talks for adult learners that came to a halt in March, but this time online.
John Rattigan, Museum Curator at Clare Museum, said: “This equipment will help the museum to be inclusive, providing access to collections and activities to those sheltering from Covid-19, whether they are at home, at school, university or elsewhere. All they will require is access to the internet.
“Clare Museum has a mission statement that includes providing access to its collections and activities online. Through the availability of the camera equipment, we will have the ability to reach an even wider audience than ever, free of the confines of the building.”
Whether through video, live streaming or photography, the museum’s collection and activities will be accessible to the people of Clare and to Clare people abroad, as well as all those with an interest in heritage, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.