Confidence remains high – despite the challenges of the pandemic and the fact that visitor numbers are still variable – at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft as the museum marks ten years since its major redevelopment.
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00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. Really lovely
00:06 to speak to Steph Fuller at Ditchling Museum. Those interesting times, isn't it, for the
00:11 museum? You are opening a big exhibition, but the exhibition is celebrating 10 years
00:16 since a really substantial refurbishment, much needed, of the whole museum. And it's
00:22 put you in a fantastic place, hasn't it?
00:25 Yeah, it's a really great moment for us. It's lovely to celebrate 10 years in this really
00:32 still very beautiful, new-looking building. And our exhibition celebrates Hilary Bourne
00:41 and Barbara Allen. And Hilary is one of the co-founders of the museum back in 1985 with
00:47 her sister. So it's a very good sort of circular thing.
00:51 Yes, and those founders celebrated in the exhibition. What did they have? What was their
00:55 vision that enabled them to create this thing that's still going and still doing well?
01:01 Well, I think, I mean, there were three Bourne sisters and they came to the village to go
01:08 to school. They went to Dunbarall School, because their parents were living in India.
01:14 And they ended up spending a lot of their childhood here. And they came into contact
01:20 with all of those early 20th century artists and crafters people. Edward Johnston taught
01:27 calligraphy to one of them. They learned painting and drawing from Amy Sawyer, who was another
01:32 artist in the village. So they kind of grew up with that community. And when they came
01:38 back in later life to the village to help look after their mother, who lived to the
01:43 ripe old age of 103, which is quite amazing in itself, I think they had this idea to make
01:52 a museum that celebrated this really quite extraordinary community, which they'd been
01:57 part of.
01:58 But then as the last century closed and you started, it was clear that things needed to
02:02 be done, didn't they, to the museum?
02:06 Absolutely. So, I mean, the original school building, which became the museum, was Victorian.
02:13 It was not really fit for purpose as a kind of modern museum with proper environmental
02:19 standards and so on. And it was beginning to deteriorate. Visitor numbers were beginning
02:25 to fall off. And so the trustees took the quite brave decision, I think, really to focus
02:31 the collection in on the art and craft heritage specifically, and to raise the very substantial
02:38 amount of money needed to fix and expand the museum.
02:43 Wow. But there's always a challenge, isn't there? We've had the pandemic since. And in
02:47 a sense, you're still recovering, aren't you?
02:50 Yes, absolutely. I mean, it's been a very tough time for everybody in the cultural sector.
02:55 And I think we've, you know, we've kind of, we've come through it. Visitors are coming
02:59 back. We're really happy to see them. They're really happy to see us. But certainly visitor
03:05 behaviour is not quite the same as it used to be. And in the summer, you know, the tourist
03:11 numbers are not back to normal as yet. But, you know, we're carrying on.
03:16 I was going to say, do you just hold your nerve and think that things were written as
03:20 they were? Or have we just entered completely different times?
03:24 To an extent. I mean, we're launching a fundraising campaign to help bring in some more money
03:33 to keep the museum going and to help us run our social programmes, which obviously, you
03:38 know, if we have less income from visitors, we've got less money to do all the other things
03:42 as well. But we're, you know, we're doing some great stuff. We've got some really interesting
03:48 partnerships. You know, we have a very thriving shop and cafe. So hopefully all of that will
03:55 see us through.
03:56 And it's obviously not just, you know, I was just speaking to a cinema, one of our main
03:59 cinemas locally, and they are trying to set up partnerships, etc., because it's clear
04:04 that they can't go on being so completely reliant on box office. You've got to expand
04:10 the income sources.
04:11 No, I think that's absolutely right. I mean, we have, we're producing some new products
04:17 for our shop based on things in the collection, for instance, for the birthday. So that, you
04:22 know, I think all of those things, you start looking at what you've got and how, you know,
04:27 is there a way that you could earn a bit of income from that on top of doing what you
04:31 do?
04:32 But the key thing is, you said you are confident, you're optimistic.
04:36 Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think we're, you know, we've got a great collection here. We've
04:41 got some wonderful stories to tell. We've got a great team. And we've got a lot of local
04:46 people who are really committed to seeing the museum succeed. So I think with all of
04:50 that behind us, we ought to be okay.
04:52 You should be. You should be. Fantastic. Well, really lovely to speak to you. Good luck on
04:56 the, well, congratulations on the anniversary and good luck with the new exhibition. Thank
05:00 you for your time.
05:01 Thank you very much.
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