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Worthing Museum & Art Gallery : why it's closed, how it will reopen
SussexWorld
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07/03/2025
These are challenging but hugely exciting times for Worthing Museum & Art Gallery which has now closed to allow it to be connected to the Worthing Heat Network – a connection which will bring all sorts of key advantages as part of a greener future.
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00:00
Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Now, truly
00:07
exciting times in Worthing. The Worthing Museum and Art Gallery has closed temporarily, pending
00:13
some big, big works. It's been connected to the Worthing Heat Network, but just as significantly,
00:19
it's going to be really overhauled. New ways of retelling Worthing's fascinating story.
00:24
Lovely to speak to Amanda O'Reilly, who's CEO of Worthing Theatres and Museum, and also Gerry,
00:30
who is Head of Museums and Exhibitions. Now, Amanda, what's the difference going to be
00:35
when we get the museum back? How's it going to feel different, do you think?
00:40
It's going to really sparkle. We're making sure that we protect all of those favourite artefacts
00:47
and favourite elements of the museum that people love, but also our aim is to get many,
00:53
many more pieces of the collection on display, particularly in the costume collection and the
00:59
accessories. We have a nationally significant costume collection that's, I think, the third
01:04
largest in the country. So we have a very small percentage of it on display. So we want to have
01:10
more of that on display and also really celebrate it. Something that's very special about Worthing
01:14
Museum is that historic dress collection. We also have a very large permanent collection of
01:23
artwork, which hasn't been on display for many, many years. So we're endeavouring to dedicate some
01:29
space to that collection as well. But across the board, we're going to be reinterpreting
01:35
what we put on display and making sure that we're telling the story of those artefacts in a more
01:42
contemporary way. I mean, Gerry is really the expert.
01:45
Well, I was going to say, Gerry, to bring you in. I mean, clearly this is vast. It's a massive
01:50
undertaking. It's daunting. But at the same time, Gerry, it's exciting, isn't it?
01:54
It's a very exciting project. I mean, this opportunity, if we're back, is not something
02:00
where we want to be. I'm having to move all of the collections and being responsible for that move,
02:04
something we've not done before. So planning it has been a huge task. We've had very little notice.
02:10
So we're working on a very tight timeline. But having said all of that, I feel really
02:15
enthusiastic team that are just really raring to go and put more of the collections on display,
02:22
tell the stories of those collections and connect those stories across all of our collections,
02:28
so that all of our collections are speaking to each other and tell us clear narratives
02:33
through the building. So hopefully when you come back in, it will look different,
02:39
but we'll have a clear narrative of how you engage with the collections and move through the museum.
02:45
There's a real example of something that had to be done, but you are turning it massively to
02:49
your advantage because, Gerry, you were saying that the building hasn't had a great deal of
02:54
attention over the years, has it? It's had little bits here and there. We've
02:58
done a little bit of work. So this is part of our great plan to redevelop the museum. So this is
03:03
the next phase. Those regular visitors to us will have recognised that we opened the
03:09
Costume Research Centre in late 2019, and then we opened the new Costume Gallery as we reopened
03:16
coming out of Covid, which was a really exciting project to take forward. So this is another
03:21
opportunity that we're taking advantage of, and the archaeology will be redisplayed, as Amanda's
03:26
just mentioned, the costume, the historic dress, the historic dress accessories, which is always
03:33
not difficult to display, but having the space to display them and really tell those stories,
03:39
and then also working through the other collections, the social history, and all of those
03:44
objects that the public, we hope we don't lose anything. We know our public, we know that they
03:50
love some of the objects particularly, so we're hoping to retain, things may get moved around, but
03:56
we will hope to retain everything that the public love to see, and some new things that they can
04:01
really engage with. And Amanda, that's the key thing, isn't it? You want to reassure that people
04:05
are not going to come back, and this is a sparkling new museum effectively, but they're not going to
04:09
come back and say, where's this, where's that? Yeah, no, what we're aiming for is it to
04:15
look glorious, but also be really familiar. So all of those generations of families that have brought
04:21
their children to the museum, and then their grandchildren to the museum, when they come in
04:26
for that certain thing that they love to come and see, we want to make sure it's there. And we have
04:30
gone back to a number of previous consultations that we've done with the public to just check in
04:36
about what does our community want from the museum, and what are their priorities, and what's important
04:40
to them, and that is our guiding force through this process. So Gerry and I haven't sat in
04:46
a room and just concocted a plan that we think suits us. We really have paid attention to
04:52
all of the feedback that we get in the museum, and the curatorial team, who are incredible,
04:58
really know the public, and they watch, and they see where the public spend the majority of time.
05:04
And of course, we're going to be respectful to that. We're custodians of this building for our
05:09
community. So yeah, we'll make sure that everyone's happy. And as for the cost connecting to the heat
05:15
network, that's being taken care of by the council, but all the improvements you've got to fund
05:20
through applications, various trusts, etc, etc. And if people have particular skills in terms of
05:26
painting and decorating and carpentry, you would be interested in hearing, wouldn't we?
05:31
We'd love to hear from people, particularly painting and decorating, as you say,
05:38
carpentry, but also we know some of the businesses locally let their teams do a volunteer day,
05:45
and we've got some areas where we need to move shelving, or we need to deconstruct and
05:50
reconstruct some shelving in a different space. So those type of things, if there was any of the
05:56
building societies want to give us 10 of their staff for a day to do a task with us, that would
06:01
be wonderful. And they should get in contact with you. Yes, they can get in contact with me,
06:06
definitely. Yes, yeah. And we do have a great, if you go on the website now, there's a great page
06:12
for the museum, where people can sign up with their email address to keep in touch and have all
06:18
the updates. So we're going to do lots of behind the scenes footage and some deep dives into some
06:22
of the artefacts. So keeping connected with our community. And Gerry, it just occurs to me one
06:28
thing we haven't spoken about the advantage of being connected to the Worthing Heat Network.
06:33
What difference will that make? It's actually the system that's going in far exceeds the system that
06:39
we've currently got. So the part of the time that's been spent in installing the new system
06:46
into the building is being able to zone. So we'll be able to control the temperature in each of the
06:52
various spaces within the museum, which is something we can't do at the moment. We have
06:57
certain zoned areas, but the majority of the museum is just on one. The heating is either on or off.
07:02
So it'll be really great to be able to. And also longer term will give us the opportunity,
07:09
we'll have better control and be able to get better results because a lot of national museums
07:13
will loan objects out, but you have to reach certain criteria for that to happen. So we're
07:20
really hoping that we'll be able to reach that criteria and bring other, not just show our
07:24
collections better, but be able to bring bigger exhibitions and touring exhibitions to the town,
07:30
which will be really exciting. And Amanda, as far as you can see, reopening when?
07:36
We're saying winter 2025 because being honest, we need a little bit of wiggle room. This is a
07:44
huge, huge project. And we've already learned we're currently in the midst of the decant
07:49
and it's a much bigger job than I think we'd anticipated because we have to make sure that
07:56
every single artefact is safe. And then when we recap the museum, that's going to take time,
08:03
especially with the reinterpretation. So at the moment, we can't give a specific date because
08:08
what we need to do is we need to do it right. It might be a phased opening. So it might be that
08:16
when we can, we'll open over the weekends, but still giving the curators time to continue to
08:22
complete the project. So whilst we're closed for a number of months, we see phase one being an
08:26
18 month project. So also when people do come back, there may be some areas where we're saying
08:32
this is what we're going to do and we're still working on it. So because you can't rush this
08:38
work. The safety of the collections has to come first.
08:43
Well, good luck with everything. It sounds monumental, but it also sounds very exciting.
08:48
Thank you so much for telling me about it. Lovely to speak to you both. Thank you.
08:53
Thanks, Phil.
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