Behind the Scenes – Work Experience at the Museum

Chippenham Museum has been delighted to welcome back work experience students this year after the last tumultuous two years. It is a great opportunity to engage with young people and for them to see the work that goes on behind the scenes to look after and make accessible our collection of over 36,000 objects.

This year the museum received an unprecedented number of requests for placements and accepted twenty students spread over 6 weeks. Most were students from Chippenham’s three secondary schools, but the museum also welcomed students from Calne, Melksham, Swindon, and Trowbridge.

Our work experience students were all introduced to the rich history of the town and its surrounding area through an in-depth exploration of the museum galleries and stores. They took part in guided walks around the town, and some joined in with school visits and a visit by the Chippenham Memory Café. Alongside this the students also received training working on the museum reception, providing a friendly and informative welcome to our visitors.

The main focus of each of the work experience weeks was a research project which gave the students the opportunity to look in detail at objects from the collection. You can read about the experience of our first student William who researched a 200-year-old sword in our collection.

But it was our final week that was the busiest, when we were joined by ten work experience students. During this week, with the help of students from Hardenhuish and Abbeyfield we launched our new project, Our Landscape, which explores local environmental change and sustainability through the eyes of young people.

Funded through a Green Grant, awarded by South West Museum Development with thanks to funding from Arts Council England, the project aims to empower young people to start discussions and share ideas on the local impacts of climate change, using the museum’s collection and contemporary recording of local environmental knowledge.

During their week, the students worked together to research groups of objects and explore what stories they told about our changing attitudes and awareness of environmental issues.

Through the objects they considered the impact of dairy farming, fast fashion and the use of plastics, as well as exploring possible evidence of changing weather patterns.

The students’ findings will become part of a co-curated exhibition that will tour local secondary schools during September before opening to the public at the museum during the October half term.

We would like to say a big thank you to all the students who chose to do their work experience at Chippenham Museum.