Belonging in Crawley

Crawley Museum is delighted to be delivering a new project supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

The 18-month project, called “Belonging in Crawley” will run from April 2022 until September 2023.

Designed to mark Crawley New Town’s 75th Anniversary year, the project will run workshops with members of eight local organisations. The workshops will focus on objects that represent ‘belonging in Crawley’. The organisations are: Crawley Open House, Crawley Foyer, Outreach 3Way, Diverse Crawley, Refugees Welcome Crawley, Crawley Town Community Foundation, Crawley Interfaith Network and Crawley Community Youth Service. Workshops will also take place at the museum for other members of Crawley’s communities.

Volunteers will then work with the project to design a pop-up exhibition that will take place in 2023 in K2, The Hawth, County Mall and Crawley Museum.

Andrea Dumbrell, Project Manager said “This is a really important project for the museum and for the people who live in Crawley. We aim to expand the museum out of its walls, and strengthen our links with local communities. This will enable us to more fully represent the experiences of people living in Crawley, creating a space in which their voices can be heard and their experiences valued.”

Volunteers will be a key part of the project. The museum is looking for people who want to volunteer with community events, helping people to discuss which objects represent Crawley to them.

Andrea will be visiting community venues to tell people about the project. She’ll also be holding project launch events on Thursday 19th May from 5.30 to 8pm, and Friday 20th May from 12 noon to 2pm at Crawley Museum, The Tree, 103 High Street, Crawley, RH10 1DD. These will be drop in events. People can come and find out more about the project, sign up to be a volunteer, and find out more about community workshops. Light refreshments will be provided.

Crawley Museum is also fundraising to raise £1000 towards the cost of the project. If people are able to make a donation they can do so via the project’s JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/belongingincrawley

All contributions will be gratefully received.

To find out more about the project people can contact the museum on 01293 539088 or email Andrea@crawleymuseums.org