Open Museum Annual Report

Farndon Fields Primary School borrowed five artworks ranging from Frederick Gore’s landscape oil painting ‘Provence in Silver’ to Anita Klein’s etching ‘In our Pyjamas’, whose work is based on human relationships, in particular that of her own family.  A teacher said, “It is wonderful to have real works of art for children to look at and inspire work.  Despite our huge problems with a negative budget we always find a little money to use this service.”  The schoolteacher said that teachers, parents and community users of the school also benefited from the loans.  In class they were used to stimulate language and discussion and as the basis for art and design activities.

The One Stop Shop at Lutterworth hosted an exhibition of Artworks in the summer as it has done for three years.  These exhibitions are sited so they are accessible to all users of the venue.

South Leicestershire CVS used the ‘Not What it Seems’ display to support its work with two separate groups. It was firstly used by a group of Mental Health service users to help inspire debate about the problems and issues faced by people experiencing mental health difficulties.

The display was used subsequently with a group of carers for people experiencing mental health difficulties to encourage them to talk about their experiences as carers as well as address issues that may be faced by the people they cared for.

Fleckney Historical Society has a display area in the new library.  In 2005 they borrowed a range of agricultural implements and related items as well as scale models of vernacular historic buildings for a six-month display.

Houghton-on-the-Hill primary school regularly borrows from resource Box and uses the objects in three ways.  Objects are used in class to support curriculum activities, are used around the school for general display purposes, and the head teacher selects an object each term around which he tells a story during school assemblies.