A New Year and a new member of staff for the Coffin Works Project
Happy New Year to all our followers! Here at BCT we’ve started the year very positively as we welcome to the team our first member of staff for the Coffin Works Project.
Yesterday Sarah Hayes took up the post of Collections and Exhibitions Manager and will be responsible for managing the Newman Brothers collection, bringing it back to the factory, implementing the Interpretation Plan and producing conservation strategies for its long-term care.
During the past three and a half years Sarah has worked on two major and successful capital projects for Birmingham Museums Trust. At BMAG Sarah was a key member of staff managing the development of the new permanent history galleries, Birmingham; Its People, Its History. Most recently Sarah was the lead curator on the permanent We Made It exhibition at Think Tank. Sarah has also worked on a large documentation project at the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter and is a committee member for the Friends for the Centre of West Midlands History.
I asked Sarah on her first day, yesterday, for some thoughts on her new job with BCT. She said,
“Being able to work on this project is simply a career highpoint for me and having the opportunity to contribute to the creation of Birmingham’s next visitor attraction from scratch is both a unique and exciting opportunity. Although challenging, the many exciting facets of this project, from returning the contents of Newman Brothers to inputting into the display of the building, underline my original motivations for wanting to work in the heritage sector. This really is a dream of a project.”
I’d say we are incredibly fortunate that Sarah will be bringing all her skills and passion for Brummie heritage to the Trust and we sincerely are very excited to be working with her!
Sarah is a social media type, and will keep you updated on progress and activity with the Newman Brothers collection via the Coffin Works twitter feed @coffinworks and through our facebook page and blog.
