THE reopened Limerick Museum and The Hunt Museum will benefit from an €8,000 grant from the Department for Arts and Heritage.
This modest investment is delivered through the Local and Regional Museums Funding Scheme of 2017, €135,000 for 23 projects.
Local Senator Maria Byrne has welcomed the news: “This will come as a very welcome announcement to artists and audiences who use The Hunt Museum and Limerick Museum. The Hunt Museum is to receive €5,000 for new display cases and dementia friendly memory suitcases.
“Limerick Museum is to receive €3,000 for the redesign of their website and the updating of online indexes and social media”.
A memory suitcase?? What the..? Let The Hunt’s volunteer coordinator Joni Roche explain the concept, one supported by KBC Bank as well as the Department.
“The memory app and the memory suitcase will be an exciting addition to our programme,” Joni makes clear. “The great value of memory resources to support people living with dementia has been recognised and the use of everyday items from the persons past can stimulate conversation. The Hunt Museum’s programme aims to achieve better health and wellbeing for people living with dementia”
Now to unpick that suitcase:
“The museum is developing a ‘Memory Suitcase’ and plans to expand its programme by offering specialised services to day care settings for people living with dementia. The goal of the suitcase is to remind people living with dementia, of life when they were growing up and to recall memories of the city and their time growing up in the area.
“It will contain items such as old posters, music and fashion memorabilia, books and games, car models and pre-decimal notes and coins.
“Liverpool Museum has developed a new app for tablets, which the museum will also be incorporating into their services. This can be customised to the city the person grew up in.”
A trainer from Liverpool Museum’s House of Memory Programme will bring people up to date in using this facility on July 14.
Triggering conversation, fun, humour, memory bells and a sense of value and relevance, are the hoped-for outcomes. Beautiful.
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