Craven Museum at Skipton Town Hall is a Finalist for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2024
Craven Museum at Skipton Town Hall is one of five finalists for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2024 (the world's largest museum prize)
At the heart of the local community, Craven Museum sits within the Grade II-listed Skipton Town Hall, a modern multi-arts cultural hub. The venue holds an exhibition gallery, historic concert hall and education and community spaces which all work in unison with the museum. The museum itself focuses on the local area, displaying artefacts including archaeology, textiles, fine art and literature, with engaging content for visitors of all ages.
‘The museum was set up in 1928 by a local group of history enthusiasts and people in the community who had, over the years, been gathering together items themselves to create a personal collection – things from excavations they’d been undertaking and particularly more archaeological finds,’ says Jenny Hill, lead museums curator at North Yorkshire Council. ‘They came together to create Craven Museum and its 100th anniversary is coming up in the next couple of years. The collection was originally kept at Skipton Library, but in the 1970s it was moved to a new purpose-built home at Skipton Town Hall and that’s where it’s been ever since.’
Founding collections for the museum included the Elbolton Cave finds, Roman artefacts from Elslack (Olenacum) Roman Fort and a fossil collection. Now the museum cares for a treasure trove of around 60,000 objects representing millions of years of Craven’s history, it’s one of only a few places where the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays is on permanent display, and you can also browse furniture by Kilburn-born master craftsman Robert Thompson (better known as the Mouseman, as he a carved mouse on almost every piece).
‘We have an exhibition gallery within Skipton Town Hall and exhibitions change three or four times a year in that space,’ Jenny says. ‘We try to reserve one spot a year to work with community groups so people can apply to exhibit in our gallery space. In the past this has involved working with local schools, health and wellbeing charities, and young photographers. We also try to show work from contemporary artists as well as items from the museum’s collection. For example, last year we did an exhibition on contemporary craft working with crafts that might be seen as traditionally heritage crafts (like embroidering skills and basket weaving) and looking at how we could see that in the museum’s collection and how people are still using them in the present day. Making those links between the past and the future is really important to us,’ continues Jenny. ‘We also have the community case in the museum itself which local individuals and heritage groups can apply to use and we offer as much curatorial advice as they would like. That’s a really lovely spot in the museum for people to share what’s important to them. It’s really integral to the museum, it’s right in the middle and it’s something we definitely want people to come and see when they’re here.’
The museum’s staff always focus on the community and accessibility and believe, as a small and local museum, Craven can lead the way in innovation of access and community engagement. ‘In 2018 and 2019 we started work on our redevelopment project,’ explains Jenny. ‘Made possible thanks to a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant, we really needed to update our facilities, particularly in terms of access. The museum used to be up a steep flight of stairs, with no lift, so we really wanted to bring the museum down to the ground floor to make it more accessible and more visible for visitors. That was really at the heart of our redevelopment project.
‘We were also looking at access to the collection, keeping nice simple labels and avoiding jargonistic content. We worked a lot with local community groups during the project to make sure we were showing themes and objects people were really interested in locally and that told the story of Craven really well, because as a local history museum the collections really tie into the Craven area of Yorkshire. We really wanted to tell the story of what Craven is and why people continue to live and work in the area.’
Between 2022 and 2023, 115 artists displayed their work in the museum's exhibition gallery, and eight community groups created displays in the community case. The museum welcomed 156,391 visitors during this time. The museum was recognised as the Kids in Museums Family Friendly Museum 2023 and Best Accessible Museum 2023, and it offered a programme of free and low-cost activities and events for families each day of the school holidays
last year.
