The People’s History Museum in Manchester has announced details is of its successful project in partnership with the Working Class Movement Library, Salford, funded through a £95,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) Collecting Cultures programme.
Voting for Change will build upon the complementary strengths of both collections to acquire material related to movements and campaigns for the franchise, from the build-up to the Peterloo protest in 1819 to the lowering of the voting age in 1969.
Both organisations are champions of working people’s movements and campaigns.
Sara Hilton, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund North West, said ‘Collecting Cultures is unique: HLF is the only funding body that currently offers this type of support for museums, libraries and archives. Building on past success, this second incarnation of the initiative is back by popular demand. This investment of over £880,000 will greatly enhance collections across the North West – in subjects ranging widely from contemporary slavery, high fashion to football in art – and encourage more public access and involvement.‘
The Director of People’s History Museum, Katy Ashton said ‘This project places the museum’s Designated collections firmly at the heart of the visitor experience and will help to widen our appeal to new and repeat visitors. Our successful application comes at a time of heightened awareness of the democratic process and Voting for Change will act to capitalise on this through targeted collections acquisitions and visitor programming.’
Margaret Cohen, chair of Trustees at the Working Class Movement Library, said ‘We are excited at the prospect of building on our strong history of working with the People’s History Museum. This project will encourage visitors enthused by what they find at the museum to ‘come on up the road’ to find out more here at the Library.’
More details will be available on both the People’s History Museum and Working Class Movement Library websites as the project develops.
