Funded by Arts Council England, mc7 is an innovative three-year project to develop a dynamic model of collective working and programming. The project enables £1.86 million of funding, over three years, to reach the museums and their users directly.
mc7 is a consortium of museums made up of Bodmin Keep, Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery, Falmouth Art Gallery, Museum of Cornish Life, Penlee House, PK Porthcurno, and Wheal Martyn.
The museums represent different aspects of Cornwall’s rich history and provide ways to discover and understand the distinctive story of Cornish identity. Each museum is at the heart of its community and understands the unique priorities and challenges that they face. Through the programme the investment is designed to help deliver the Let’s Create strategy and respond to the Creative Case for Diversity.
At the Museum of Cornish Life the funding currently supports our Community Engagement Curator, Apprentice and Collections Curator plus our temporary exhibition and community engagement programme. The funding also supported in 2023 and 2024 a Museum Assistant (with a Marketing Apprentice from Truro College) and a Collections Museum Assistant (undertaking a work placement year from the University of Exeter).
Collaborative project that have been made possible by the funding and the work of the Community Engagement Curator have included Kara Hellys, Untold, Reveal and the Illustrated Museum.
The funding supports our pathways programme of career development including young volunteers, placements, work experience and apprenticeships. These initiative have created a vast output some of which is through research blogs:
- Two Chinese Silk Jackets
- Shop spotlight: New Cornish design from ocean plastics
- Violence in the system: Man traps, landowners, commoners, food and farming
- Remembering William Gilbert, miner and inventor who died on the Titanic
- Whimsey bottles research project
- A window into the past
- Exploring the museum’s poster collection
This together funds core activities in the museum allowing us to provide a service to our community and better care for the collection.
