Marsh Friends of the Year Award with BAFM
This Award recognises the work of Friends Groups in museums around the country. These groups support their museums through fundraising, voluntary work, helping to advocate for needed resources and helping them engage with their communities.
Pictured: Birmingham Museum
Friends of Oakwell Hall and Country Park, West Yorkshire and Friends of Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery 2024
Friends of Oakwell Hall and Country Park, West Yorkshire
The Friends Group have been involved with Oakwell Hall, an Elizabethan manor house, since its restoration in the 1980s and now assist with the protection, promotion, management and monitoring of the Hall and Country park for use by the public as a place of recreation, enjoyment and education. The Friends have helped with numerous practical improvements to the site and hold monthly work parties in the park to ensure that the grounds are looking their best and are accessible for all. They regularly publicise the Friends Group at events and on social media to encourage others to become members and have also raised much needed funds to support the museum’s activities. One of their most recent projects was to create a seating sculpture in the park which, as well as being a place for the public to use, was a commemoration to members of the Friends Group who had passes away. Both staff and the Friends worked on the project as a collaborative effort, and it brought them closer together. The Friends enable activities at the Hall to be undertaken which simply would not be possible otherwise and they have been the most consistent support to the site.
Friends of Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
The Friends Group was established in 1931 and supports the Birmingham Museums Trust by donating money and providing support through volunteering and working behind the scenes on specific projects and conservation. They currently contribute around £15,000 a year in donations to the museums and this has been instrumental in leveraging external funding from other grant makers, as they can see that there is consistent support from the local community for the museums’ activities. Birmingham City Council have faced serious financial difficulties in the past couple of years, which has impacted the work of the museums – including the closure of their flagship site. The Friends have been a solid support throughout this time, meeting regularly with senior managers to find out what more they can do to secure the future of the museums. Their demonstration of local support and offers of match funding helped to secure the reopening of the Trust’s flagship site. The Friends are a group of passionate individuals that champion the work of museums in Birmingham.