Project: Unboxing History
Grant: £2,400
Area of benefit: Dorchester and surrounds
The project was funded to provide outreach boxes to extend the learning about the Museum’s collection beyond schools and the Museum Site. The funding provided, was used to curate outreach boxes containing educational resources, handling items and a variety of sensory objects with the aim of sending them out to youth organisations, care homes and other community groups.
The project has successfully been delivered and has enabled the Museum to reach new audiences outside of the traditional museum visitors, with the outreach boxes being used by a variety of groups all over Dorset.
From August 2022 to August 2024, the boxes were used by 22 groups, with a reach of 2650 people, all within Dorset. The boxes are still going strong with two currently in use with a group, and another two going out at the end of this week.
There has been positive feedback about the boxes, and small improvements have been made to them as the project progressed.
The resource packs provided with the boxes have been steadily growing with additional content being created and added.
Due to the nature of the boxes, they allowed groups to be able to engage with the museum and heritage from the comfort of their own location, without needing to travel to Dorchester.
The contents also allowed for a variety of learning styles and allow for a hands-on approach, which is not normally accessible. We have engaged with and made connections with groups that traditionally we have not in the past, and several groups have since been used the boxes on more than one occasion.
The boxes were also able to be tied into the re-launch of the Keep’s education programme and have been highly successful in bringing people to their learning offer.
More information on the outreach boxes can be found on The Keep Military Museum website.