Award winning Hastings Museum and Art Gallery's lockdown efforts recognised nationally

Hastings Museum & Art Gallery has been recognised for its continued work throughout lockdown and has been shortlisted for the 'Best Lockdown Project Award' through the Museums Change Lives Awards 2020.
 
The virtual awards ceremony will take place on the 5 November where all shortlisted projects will be showcased. The museum's project is the #HastingsDigitalMuseum which began at the beginning of lockdown and ran until the museum reopened its doors after 24 weeks of closure.
 
Over the months the digital museum was operating its range of activities reached over 1.45 million devices, creating opportunities for people to engage in cultural activities on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The programme included materials created by the museum team and co-designed content with creative freelancers.
 
This exciting award news comes following a series of recent successes for the museum including receiving Tripadvisor's 'Traveller's Choice Award' and the news of their Indigenous Engagement Policy approval. The policy sets out the principles the museum will follow when Indigenous people visit the museum or request information about the collections, creating an approach that can be adopted by other museums, who have limited resources.
 
Colin Fitzgerald, lead councillor for Regeneration, Culture and Tourism, said,
 
"It is great to see the museum being recognised for the hard work it has put in and continues to put in. The officers have spent the many months of lockdown organising digital projects so that the exceptional history and art pieces they have could continue to be enjoyed by the public. Alongside this a range of new activities were developed to engage with different ages including the Unbuilt Room, an online immersive game, the LGBTQ+ Zine activity and the Hastings Digital Quilt which proved to be incredibly popular with a range of ages."