Maurice Dobson Museum

Year | 2015

Location | Darfield,South Yorkshire

Clients | Geoffrey Hutchinson and Elsie Hutchinson

The Maurice Dobson Museum and Heritage Centre is a volunteer run museum that also acts as a community hub with a café, shop and activity space. The project involved working alongside the main stakeholders associated with the museum in order to provide a series of outcomes that will help to ensure the museums longevity and future success.

We were initially asked to focus on developing a design for an extension of the museum. The current property suffers from having no space in which larger groups can gather and a lack of adequate storage and kitchen space. However, we quickly understood that simply providing plans and visualisations would not be enough to ensure the museums longevity. We identified a series of deliverables that would be of use in the immediate, the medium and the long term.

For the immediate phase, we outlined what should be done to enhance the museums publicity and carried out a rebranding exercise. I the medium term we investigated the possibility of an extension and the funding options available to facilitate this, engaging with the community to understand what facilities would be of most use. In the long term phase we aimed to record for posterity the knowledge of the client, volunteers and local community.

We produced a publicity pack for the museum, a feasibility study for an extension to the museum, the beginnings of a video archive, a model and a travel case for the use of current and future volunteers, allowing them to take a small piece of the museum with them when visiting large groups.

We established a list of tasks that we recommend volunteers and other identified stakeholders take on in order to ensure the longevity of the Maurice Dobson museum & Heritage Centre.   Our input will help the museum to continue its journey and serve the community for generations to come.