With a full time staff of five, supported by 21 volunteers, the Museum of Barnstaple & North Devon decided to create a research and community project based on local Arts and Crafts furniture manufacturer (and the town's largest employer), Shapland & Petter, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2004. The move was prompted by the acquisition of the company's design archive from successor company Leaderflush Shapland.

The exhibition, which is bringing

together oral history, digitisation and design research, has gained an unstoppable momentum in the region, says Development Manager, Alison Mills. The museum has received a steady stream of people wanting to get involved in the project, with many contributing their own artefacts and memories. Members of the local community - secondary school children, retired employees, unemployed people, present workers and their families - have joined together to explore, record and create in their own ways the story of Shapland & Petter. First-hand experiences of Shapland & Petter's past and current employees and their families have been captured in sound, video and text and fifteen new volunteers have joined the Museum to work specifically on the project.

The project will culminate in a major exhibition in May and June 2005, when visitors will have the opportunity to see for themselves the Barnstaple company's importance to the Arts and Crafts design movement. And there will be a permanent digitised archive to demonstrate the range and quality of the company's work, and the production values which still inform the present-day workforce.

The Museum attracted around 60,000 visitors last year; the Shapland & Petter project which was funded mainly by the Heritage Lottery Fund, cost £100.000.
Staff intend to use the project as a model for future activities based on other local industries.

Next  

Top