Young Friends Manchester Report: February 17, 2024
The BAFM (British Association of Friends of Museums) affirms its sincere ambition to integrate Young Friends into its actions: encouraging the creation of a Young Friends network in the United Kingdom is one of its short-term objectives.
This is how, for a few hours, Manchester has been at the crossroads of a meeting between :
Naïma Sagna (Grenoble, France), Young Friends coordinator of the WFFM
Jean Knight (Carshalton), South East regional coordinator of the BAFM
Margaret Stebbing (Lancaster), North West regional coordinator of the BAFM
The three delegates shared the same objective : to get to know each other and to draw up a report taking into account the functioning of the existing Young Friends sections, and their current situation within the WFFM network, in comparison with the functioning of the BAFM.
Jean Knight volunteers for the Carshalton Water Tower and Historic Garden Trust, which has over 80 members. The Trust supports the maintenance, restoration and preservation of the Water Tower, the Hermitage, the Lodge, the Folly Bridge, the lake and surrounding land as historic, architectural or otherwise of public interest. It promotes public education, particularly in relation to the history and architecture of the heritage asset, supports residencies for professional artists and encourages students to come and photograph, paint and draw the buildings and landscape, make an installation and carry out research. It sometimes organises short-term projects for teenagers and guided tours for groups of young people.
Margaret Stebbing volunteers for the Judges’ Lodgings Museum. Situated close to Lancaster Castle, it was named after the travelling « red judges » of the Assize Courts it hosted from 1826. The house now exhibits Georgian furniture by Gillows of Lancaster, elegant period pieces and the popular Museum of Childhood. The Friends of Lancaster Judges’ Lodgings supports The Lancaster Judges’ Lodgings Museum Trust and the owners of the building, Lancashire County Council in promoting the Lodgings as one of the premier heritage attractions in Lancaster. The Friends of Lancaster Judges’ Lodgings was formed in 2016 when a group of local people got together to try and keep the venue open as a museum and community asset. The Friends Group has 40 members. The Friends take part in a range of activities and events organised by the Museum and they also run their own events to help raise money for the development of the museum. These include Raffles, a Summer Fair and Summer Musical concerts. The introduction of a pop up Victorian Tea Room once a month in the courtyard has proved extremely popular. Volunteers from the Friends act as room stewards and help maintain the Judges’Lodgings garden.
Jean and Margaret are both regional delegates for the BAFM, which awarded its 2023 Young Professional Award a few months ago to Heather Stracey, 28, Senior Collections Manager at the Amelia Scott Museum, Tunbridge Wells : she will use this award to develop her skills in the field of costume conservation.
After their meeting, Naïma, Margaret and Jean visited the Manchester Art Gallery, which celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2023. A historic building where the presentation of works questions contemporary issues. For example, the British Afro-Caribbean artist Sonia Boyce, to whom the museum had organized a retrospective in 2018, has been invited to collaborate with a group of museum staff, artists, collaborators and visitors to initiate a process of change in the permanent collections : exploring the politics of class, gender, race and sexuality, which can be seen from the very first rooms, inspired by classic paintings such as Sappho from Charles Mangin (1877).
Encouraged by the BAFM's excellent welcome in Manchester, our Young Friends coordinator Naïma Sagna then travelled to Tunbridge Wells to meet her colleague Heather Stracey, recently appointed UK Young Friends Ambassador : a new step in the development of the Young Friends network, supported by the BAFM and the WFFM.
