Lotto cash a catalyst for attraction
CATALYST Science Discovery Centre and Museum in Widnes has received a National Lottery grant of £60,100 for the ‘Catalyst; Past, Present, Future’ heritage project.
Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, the project aims to develop an interpretation strategy and a marketing strategy to enable the trust to become more resilient.
Supported through the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the project has appointed a firm of consultants to review the current heritage interpretation throughout Catalyst and report on recommendations on improvements and the use of the collection.
A part-time heritage interpretation officer, Claire Teague, has been employed to begin to implement recommendations and train or mentor staff, trustees and volunteers to carry this work through.
Catalyst Science Discovery Centre and Museum has a substantial unique archive and artefacts related to the birth of and growth of the chemical industry in the ● North West.
In addition to the archive collection, many aspects of which are not on display or readily accessible to the public, Catalyst has a gallery dedicated to telling the story of the chemical industry through exhibits, interpretation panels and interactives.
The interpretation of this gallery will also be reviewed as part of this project.
Dr Diana Leitch, chair of the Catalyst Trustees Heritage Group, said: “The financial support of HLF with this project is invaluable.
“Catalyst has been seeking to update and improve the interpretation of its extensive heritage for some time and this funding has allowed us to commission a comprehensive review of our offering and to look at the significance of our chemical industry collections which we believe to be unique in the UK.
“We are extremely grateful to HLF for supporting this necessary work.”
Find out more about Catalyst by visiting www. catalyst.org.uk