Wisbech Museum announces partial reopening amid restoration works

The ‘Wisbech Schools' Summer Show’ exhibition and the library housing the manuscript of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens will open this weekend.

It will be open for visits each Saturday from June 26 and work on display includes art by more than 250 schoolchildren following a series of workshops.

Participating schools were Peckover Nursery, Nene and Ramnoth School, Orchards CofE Academy, and St. Peter’s CofE Junior School.

Ceramic pieces and pictures created by local under-11s at the workshops. (Image: Wisbech Museum)

Each school worked with one of three local artists - illustrator Abigail Hookham, ceramicist Louise Beale, or manga comic artist Irina Richards.

A spokesperson for the museum said: “Pupils' work is displayed in the exhibition alongside the objects from the museum's collection which inspired it - a Palissy-style earthenware dish and W.S.Elgood’s collection of butterflies and moths.

“The workshops were delivered both in-person and over video conferencing platforms as museum staff tested out new ways of working under the current social-distancing restrictions, and was funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

“Also visitors can see a pop-up exhibition of work created by a group of Year 7 pupils from Thomas Clarkson Academy centred around Dickens' life and the priceless manuscript of Great Expectations which was gifted to the museum in Victorian times.

Ceramic plaque made by a schoolchild artist inspired by the Pallisey-style earthenware dish. (Image: Wisbech Museum)

“On display for three Saturdays starting on June 26, this temporary exhibition has been funded by the Museums Association and Esmée Fairbairn Sustaining Engagement with Collections Fund.”

You can visit the Schools’ Summer Show and museum library on Saturdays from 26 June until August 28, 10am to 4pm.

Advance booking of a free timed-entry slot is recommended via the What’s On section of the museum’s website: www.wisbechmuseum.org.uk/