Come and meet the Schools Minister

Andrew Pakes (Livesey Ward councillor) has arranged for Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, to come and meet the Friends. This is a really important meeting for us as it shows just how valuable the Museum is to the nation and to Government policy, just as much as it is important to our community. Everyone is welcome, including children. It is a chance for us all to say how much we miss the Museum, how much we want to reopen it and to ask him what he and his department (DCSF) can do for us. Practically of course, we need funding to underpin our plan to run the Museum, but if you have particular suggestions please post them here, email us or come to the meeting.

It is on Monday 21st April from 12.30 at Ledbury Tenants Hall (small block next to Kwik Fit by the Museum). If you can come please email livesey.friends@googlemail.com

Brief report from the meeting: Luckily, it was an Inset day for many schools so we were able to get lots of children to come along. Jim Knight was very warm and made an effort to encourage all the children to have their say. The children’s descriptions so obviously showed that the exhibitions were memorable, much loved and much missed. They described precisely how the experiences were fun but also made you think. The parents and carers talked about the friendliness of the place, the lack of other facilities in the area and the fact that you could go again and again without the children being bored. As the children fondly remembered the treasure chest from the last exhibition, Jim Knight said he got that – we wanted a treasure chest to be able to rescue the Museum. He was very supportive and said that he would see what he could do in talking to Southwark to encourage them to work in partnership with us.