It's been hard at the Museum, being closed since November 2020, and as you may have noticed through our projects and social media over the last year, lockdown has really made us think about how we can extend our reach to more people, and yet again a great project and opportunity fell into our lap this year as we sat tight through Lockdown #3
As some of you may remember, the 2019 temporary exhibition at the British Motor Museum was called 'The Car. The Future. Me.' and focused around the future of the car, sustainability and interactions with travel, transport and vehicles in the future. Back during the initial planning of 'The Car. The Future. Me' the Curatorial team had talked about touring it, due to the current and wide interests that it hit on. Unfortunately these plans were put on hold as the strange year that was 2020 unfolded and our exhibition programme was thrown out of kilter! This meant that by December 2020 we still had 'The Car. The Future. Me' exhibition whole and installed in a museum that was sadly still closed.
As luck would have it, in December 2020 I was contacted by Dundee Museum of Transport to see if we had any vehicles and objects we might be able to loan to them for an upcoming exhibition they were hosting. The theme was to coincide with the United Nations Climate Change conference, due to take place in Glasgow later this year and was around future fuels and sustainability in transport - both key topics we touched on in 'The Car. The Future. Me.'
Rather than lending items from the exhibition, discussions began between Dundee and the British Motor Museum about how we might be able to supply the existing exhibition materials (or as many as possible) so that they could be reused as part of this new upcoming exhibition. By April 2021 we had dismantled and saved what we could of the exhibition in over here in Gaydon. Much of the existing structures, graphics and interactives were able to be saved and made their long journey up to Dundee shortly after this.
This meant that not only did we get to have a go at travelling an exhibition, but a whole new, untapped audience gets to engage with the content we created two years ago. And on top of that we have managed to recycle a number of large exhibition pieces, giving them a new life instead of disposing of them.
Alexander Goodger, Museum Manager at Dundee Museum of Transport, pictured below, was delighted with the partnership, which has helped them to host a low-carbon exhibition nearly 400 miles away from where it was created. Together we are so excited that the conversation about the future of transport can continue - and pleased that a whole new audience will be able to experience 'The Car. The Future. Me' so that the debate about future travel can live on!
Plus we've ticked a few recycling and environmental goals of our own.
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