Culture Volunteers - A special visit to Stourbridge Glass Museum
On Sunday 17th September Stourbridge Glass Museum opened it’s doors for a very special tour. Our partners, Deaf Explorer and Deafscope helped promote the event and bring together a fantastic group of visitors, some of who we will be working with to make the museum and it’s volunteering roles accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Like all good visits, the day started with tea, coffee and a chat.
Once plenty of coffee had been drunk and biscuits had been eaten, Ish from Deafscope got everyone’s attention.
Then, we headed off outside, where Maral, our interpreter for the day, and who is herself deaf, got the tour underway telling us some of the history of glass making in the region and the particular site where the museum is based.
First stop was the cabinet that holds the museums oldest piece of glass, dating back to the Egyptian era.
Next, it was time to pass around a glassblowers pipe and discover just how heavy it is, even BEFORE there’s a huge chunk of molten glass on the end!
As we moved around the gallery we learned some of the finer points of making cut crystal …
… and the techniques used for cameo glass, two of the more traditional glass making methods ….
… before heading up to the Contemporary Gallery.
Things ‘hotted up’ in the studio space when we were able to watch glass makers in action …
…creating this beautiful bowl.
Thank you to everyone who helped organise the day and to everyone who came along to support what we are doing. We’re looking forward to working with some of the group over the next few months, helping create a volunteer and museum offer that is inclusive to people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
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The Culture Volunteer WM project was funded by Arts Council England and the DCMS. The project took place in the Black Country, Stoke and Birmingham. Culture Central led the project, with CBC responsible for delivery in the Black Country region
During the Culture Volunteer WM project, we were lucky to be able to work with the team at Wolverhampton’s Grand Theatre. There hadn’t been any volunteers at the theatre for roughly ten years, so it was big step to take for them to get them back on board. 71 people came to the recruitment days and there’s now a lovely team of 30 volunteers. The following film tells a little of that story …