Capital Projects
Impact Gallery, Leeds
Two years ago the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds created a new display, IMPACT, which documents through photographs, personal statements, and video, the effects of gun crime on A Leeds community and the impact of gun crime on those closest to it with testimony from the victims’ families and communities in which they live.
Plans are now in motion to re-design the entire gallery in the spirit of the IMPACT exhibition, to put the ownership and use of weapons into historical context and to help our visitors understand our current social and cultural position with regard to this issue. Information about the NTK (No To Knives) campaign and a pledge site will be featured along with a community work and exhibition space so that all Weapons Awareness sessions with young people can take place within the space and community art work can be exhibited in the gallery.
Fort Nelson Re-Development Programme
Fort Nelson in Hampshire is a unique example of a Victorian fort and home to the Royal Armouries collection of artillery – one of the finest and largest collections of historic cannon in the world. Visitors enjoy the 19-acre site, which is a combination of brick built structure, Parade Ground, underground tunnels and grass ramparts with spectacular views of the Solent and Meon Valley.
Our annual programme of special events offers visitors a diverse range from children’s historical activity days to full-scale battle spectaculars and a Military Tattoo. This unique combination of physical and interpretative attractions has produced excellent reactions from visitors and raised the profile of the site. Visitor numbers have risen year-on-year from 40,000 in 2000 to 90,000 in 2005 with an average annual increase in visitors of 27%.
The success and rapid visitor growth at Fort Nelson over the last six years has highlighted key limiting factors that are now hindering development of both audience numbers and ability to interpret the Fort and its collection. Primarily, the physical layout and size of the key galleries and visitor facilities are no longer able to cope with the level of demand.
An exciting new redevelopment programme has been designed to dramatically improve the visitor experience as well as improving other aspects including access, interpretation, learning and conservation.
Stage 1 of a regional Heritage Lottery Fund bid for £2 Million has been successful. In support of this a match-funding plan to raise the additional £1.5 Million required has been developed to facilitate the realisation of this exciting project which has opened up some unique sponsorship opportunities.
