Thank you to all 57,416 visitors to Tut’22!
The recent news that an incredible 57,416 people came to see our Tut’22 exhibition in Barnsley during its 5-month run has completely blown us away. With some travelling from as far away as Barcelona and Cairo (not to mention Wigan and Scarborough!), we want to send out a massive and heart-felt THANK YOU to each and every one of you!
Jo and the ‘Meet Tut’s Family’ case which welcomed record numbers of visitors to Experience Barnsley (courtesy Barnsley Chronicle)
The exhibition was displayed in Experience Barnsley Museum and Discovery Centre in our town’s beautiful Town Hall, and thanks to the magical draw of all things ancient Egypt it’s had the highest number of visitors since the museum opened. In fact April 2022 to March 2023 has been a real bumper year for all our Barnsley venues, with almost 2 million people visiting our five free entry sites which also includes Elsecar Heritage Centre, Cannon Hall Museum, Cooper Gallery and Worsbrough Mill, three of which have also hosted ancient Egyptian exhibitions and displays (only Elsecar to go!).
There was even South Yorkshire’s smallest museum with an Egyptian theme right outside the Town Hall, a red telephone box temporarily housing a fabulous replica of one of Tutankhamun’s golden coffins. Created by super-talented local artist Amanda Stoner, the T’Tut Box has been part of Barnsley Museums’ ongoing plans to showcase culture in unexpected places and it made huge headlines, even appearing in the Guardian in a round-up of the best pictures from around the world
The Tut Phone Box outside Experience Barnsley (courtesy: Marc Chica)
It’s been lovely to see so many schools enjoying their ancient Egypt sessions in the museum too, making amulets and learning hieroglyphs, along with the families bringing along children of all ages who could even take away a bit of the exhibition in the form of an augmented reality poster. Complete with 3D pop-up objects and video footage replicating the same cutting-edge technology used in the exhibition itself, this has all been created by the digital magicians at www.frontrowlive.co.uk
And while Tut’22 is no longer at Experience Barnsley, you can still visit the very same exhibition right here on my new website VISIT HERE Featuring interviews, video clips, 3D objects, augmented reality and information ‘hotspot’ links, these showcase some of the several hundred ancient objects which came from Bolton Museum, whose first curators came from a Barnsley family, and whose current curator Ian Trumble worked closely with us at every stage to ensure the exhibition’s success. So another massive thank you to Ian and all the team at Bolton!
So having finally entered the C.21st via our new website, we’ll be adding more stuff ranging from my monthly blog to our ‘store’ (always wanted to have my own store!). And of course we have our recent ‘Audience with’ fundraising event which is now available to watch for free CLICK HERE, in which Digital Journalist of the Year Graham Walker interviewed Dr Stephen Buckley and me about our careers so far, chatting about our plans for the future and what exciting Egyptian things might be coming next…
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