Today our whole class of St Thomas’ Year 5 and 6, ages 9 – 11 years took over the Manx Museum and have been doing adults jobs for the day! We have had special guests visiting us to see us working in our roles. We are the communication team bringing you the news from our Takeover Day.
At 10am The Lieutenant Governor and the Mayor and Mayoress arrived for a tour of the Manx Museum by our Takeover Assistant Directors. They met our tour guides in the Art Gallery, Holiday Isle and Social History Gallery. Our object conservators were measuring moisture in the air with the whirling hygrometer!
The curators were stationed in the Manx Folklife Gallery. David, one of our curators said;
“We are measuring and recording objects onto a database on a laptop. We are making sure they are in good shape then packing and labelling them for storage.”
Rebecca is a gallery guide;
“We are in the Holiday Isle gallery, here you can find out about tourism in Victorian times.”
Sam, from the communications team interviewed the Mayor to get his views on Takeover Day;
“I think it’s absolutely superb, you’ve done a wonderful job, it must have taken a long time to learn the facts I’m sure. You’ve taught me things that I’ve never known before and it’s marvellous that the museum is being taken over. You never know you might be working at the museum one day.”
Jessie took a tour with the President of Tynwald, Hon Clare Christian and asked what she was expecting of Takeover Day;
“I was expecting much of what I have found, enthusiastic young people who have learned a lot about their Island and their history.”
And when asked about the favourite part of Takeover Day, she said;
“Meeting you all, and hearing of what you had to tell me about the Museum.”
Martin Moore, Former Chairman of the Trustee’s of Manx Museum and National Trust was asked what he thought about Takeover Day;
“Wonderful, it’s a very good way to learn about how the museum works. It’s great to see young people interested in the museum.”
So the big question of the day is what can Manx National Heritage do to attract more kids to the museum? We asked our fellow students, visitors and we also had our own ideas;
“There’s more objects behind the scenes that could be on display like skeletons and bones!”
“Have more guided tours, images and interactive displays.”
“Have special days for kids and activities that even smaller kids can get involved with.”
“More exciting displays and changing the displays more.”
The Takeover Assistant Directors met the management team at the Manx Museum to also give their ideas on how MNH can attract children to the museum. They also learnt about management.
St. Thomas’ are taking over until 3pm today, and this afternoon visitors could take a tour of The Forgotten Kingdom? or discover ‘Interpretation Live’, learning about some of the objects from WWI and the Sulby Giant.