Lottery supports museum overhaul

A bid has submitted to the HLF for a £1.3m grant to help finance an overhaul of the upper levels of part of the York Castle Museum to include a major exhibition to mark the centenary of World War One.

Development funding of £73,000 has been awarded to the York Museums Trust, which submitted the bid, to help progress the plans to apply for a full grant. If the bid is successful, the trust will use the money to create 1914 - When the World Changed Forever, a five-year exhibition which will change through its lifetime to mark centenaries between 2014 and 2018.

The York Museums Trust’s chief executive, Janet Barnes, said: “The proposed changes will be unveiled in time to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War. No other war has ever had such a significant impact on nearly every aspect of life in Britain. This exhibition will look at the key political moments and the battles but also how culture and society’s values were revolutionised in this period.”

A new exhibition space is planned on the first floor of the Debtors’ Prison side of the museum which would be used for large-scale displays. The displays would focus on the most important national and international stories that changed the world, using regional perspectives, collections and archives.

A lift will be installed allowing disabled access to the floor for the first time and more space will be opened up – with all offices moved to the second floor. The remaining funding is due to come through the trust’s own finances and national development funds as well as bids to other charitable trusts and private sponsorship. The trust will hear whether it has been successful in the second round of its HLF bid in January 2013.

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