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The woodwose is a curiosity harboured by many churches in rural Suffolk. Mysterious carvings of these wildmen-of-the-woods can be found on the staves of stone baptismal fonts or as reliefs adorning the porch of a church. Believed to date from around the 15th century, little is known about these … Continue reading The Last Woodwose

The Children's University (CU) Trust is a charitable trust that provides 7 to 14 year olds (and 5 to 6 year olds with their families) with exciting and innovative learning activities and experiences outside normal school hours. They celebrate achievement and reward participation through award … Continue reading The Suffolk Children’s University

The Red House have been successful in their recent application to the Arts Award Access Fund. The funding, administered by Trinity College, will allow The Red House, as an Arts Award Centre, help over 6o children from Chilton Community Primary School in Stowmarket achieve their Arts Award and begin … Continue reading Arts Award Success at The Red House

YMCA resident working with Lisa Temple-Cox on their banner I’ve got the vote and I’m going to use it! On February 16th, Ipswich Art Gallery threw the doors open and welcomed friends, families and visitors to explore the colourful, creative and challenging artwork created as a part of the … Continue reading Women 100 at Ipswich Art Gallery

Classical music is not traditionally seen as family friendly, but the Britten-Pears Foundation at the Red House in Aldeburgh aims to change that with a transformed programme of events and educational visits to engage and inspire families and younger audiences. The Britten-Pears Foundation … Continue reading Engaging families and younger visitors at the Red House

With 17 historic buildings set in 75 acres of varied landscape, the Museum of East Anglian Life (MEAL) is the largest independent museum in Suffolk. In January 2018, MEAL launched Search for the Stars, a collections digitisation project with a difference. MEAL cares for approximately 40,000 … Continue reading Search for the Stars at the Museum of East Anglian Life

The SHARE Museums East Conference will be held at Firstsite, Colchester on the 19th November 2018. The conference will look at how we can diversify the way we work to make our museums more accessible and appealing to a wider range of people, and in the process make them more resilient too. There … Continue reading SHARE Conference: Embrace, Empower, Employ

The 2018 Object of the Year competition closed this morning after a final, busy weekend of voting! This years competition looked at objects which hold Hidden Histories, stories that perhaps aren't obvious at first glance.  An object with a Hidden History can be anything from objects which are … Continue reading Object of the Year 2018 – And the winner is!

The Red House, Aldeburgh, the home of the British composer and Suffolk hero Benjamin Britten has been recognised for its family offering and has been shortlisted, alongside 10 other museums nationwide, for the Kids in Museums Family Friendly Museum Award. For the last two years the … Continue reading The Red House shortlisted for major family-friendly award

Heritage Lottery Funded project provides paid museum trainee opportunities across Suffolk & Essex The Colchester + Ipswich Museums Service is entering an exciting time of change and development. Supported by public funding through the Heritage Lottery Fund’s 'Skills for the Future … Continue reading Transforming People to Transform Museums

This week we are on the move in the search for family friendly things to do in Suffolk’s museums.  Although the first image of a museum that will typically come to most people’s minds is a static display of some kind, there are plenty with moving parts. And in somecases the fun starts before you … Continue reading Museums Blog: Still looking for things to do in the holidays?

The school holidays are when many of the county’s museums make a special effort to welcome summer visitors with a variety of things that will appeal to different age-groups and keep them entertained! There are lots of local museums in Suffolk (more than 60 at the last count), each with its own … Continue reading Museums Blog: Summer is nearly here! And we can’t wait!

You will find Suffolk museums in all sorts of interesting places: in moot halls and mansions, castles and control towers, seaside cottages and country houses. Each is different and filled with the objects and stories that keep Suffolk’s rich heritage alive. This leaflet is your guide to Suffolk’s … Continue reading Download the new Suffolk Museums leaflet!

Felixstowe Museum are celebrating after winning one of the prestigious awards last night at the EADT (East Anglian Daily Times) EDP (Eastern Daily Press) Norfolk and Suffolk Tourism Awards 2018 (www.tourismawards.co.uk) The museum is now officially the ‘Best Small Visitor Attraction’ in the area. … Continue reading Felixstowe Museum win ‘Best Small Visitor Attraction’ Award

The National Heritage Centre for Horseracing and Sporting Art at Palace House in Newmarket took the overall title of Suffolk Museum of the Year and Moyse’s Hall Museum in Bury St Edmunds won the  2017 Family Friendly Award. Other winners were the East Anglia Transport … Continue reading Capturing the (Awards) Moment

Lowestoft Rising with Museums is an Arts Council England funded project that works under the umbrella of Lowestoft Rising to improve the resilience and sustainability of three of the most popular museums in Lowestoft: Lowestoft Museum, Lowestoft Maritime Museum and East Anglia Transport … Continue reading Volunteering matters at Lowestoft Museums!

Suffolk Museums' reminiscence resources will be featuring throughout the week May 15 - 20 at an Ipswich event aimed at helping people living with dementia to reconnect with  activities, events and experiences. “Reliving the Moment” is a special Dementia Awareness Week  event … Continue reading Reliving the Moment

Ipswich and Colchester museums were successful in the first bid for a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), which will go towards the ‘Transforming People to Transform Museums’ project. The scheme will enable the two museums, alongside the Museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket, the … Continue reading Skills for the future in Suffolk Museums

We are delighted to be adding to Suffolk Museums' stock of loan resources, meaning that care homes and community groups in the Ipswich area will soon find it easier to borrow one of our Rekindling Memories mini-kitchen cabinets or wardrobes. The new resources will  be … Continue reading More memory resources

The two museums with the biggest smiles on their faces at 2016 Suffolk Museum of the Year Awards last night were Southwold Museum and Leiston's Long Shop Museum - which scooped  Suffolk Museum of the Year and the new Special Family Friendly Award respectively. But the good news and … Continue reading Everyone’s a winner!

Creative Heritage & Art in Mind is a Heritage Lottery funded heritage and arts in mental health project offering courses across four Suffolk museums: Ipswich Museum, Gainsborough's House, Moyse's hall Museum, and the Museum of East Anglian Life. Led by community artist Juliet … Continue reading Watch Creative Heritage in Mind on film