We’re working with them to help develop their new flagship National Museum in Doha, a Jean Nouvel-designed building inspired by the intricate petal-shaped sand formations of the desert rose. Due to open in 2015, this museum will capture Qatar’s culture and heritage in a series of impressive galleries, designed to appeal to both locals and tourists alike.

Take a look at what to expect here.

Research Support

Rachel is responsible for conducting research and developing content for exhibitions, and for processing information on Barker Langham’s content management system.

Rachel joined Barker Langham after completing a Masters in Art Gallery and Museum Studies at Manchester University, where her research focused on public collaboration in museum collecting. She graduated with First Class Honours in Classical Archaeology and Ancient History from the University of Oxford in 2010.

During her studies, she volunteered at Fishbourne Roman Palace and Manchester Museum, gaining valuable experience in content management, collections care, archaeological fieldwork, education and research.

We’re there to undertake some community engagement for the RSPB, as part of their Round 2 application to the Heritage Lottery Fund. We’re hoping to find out what activities and events people in the villages of Bempton and Buckton, as well as those slightly further afield in Bridlington and Filey, want to see take place at Bempton Cliffs in coming years.

We won’t be quite the spectacle of the 250,000 seabirds that flock there every spring and summer, creating an awesome sight. But we hope to do our bit…

If you would like to have your say about Bempton Cliffs, then do let us know.

Over the next few months, we will be developing the business plan for the project, which aims to bring together Manchester’s most important archives under one roof. The revamped Manchester Central Library will be home to this significant collection, and locals and visitors alike will benefit from much greater access to the city’s heritage, as well as their own.

Take a peek inside the Library to look at the work that has been done so far.

Working alongside the V&A curatorial team and with architects Caruso St John, a new design brief was developed that provided the museum with a new thematic structure, visitor route and visitor reception, suitable for both children and adults. For children, we ensured that interactives, games and object-rich exhibits provided National Curriculum learning opportunities. And for adults, we provided more in-depth content and experiences, alongside bite-size information on objects that could be easily conveyed back to their families.

The Museum won the Visit London Kids Love London Award in 2004 and the Museums and Heritage Magazine Readers’ Award in 2008.

This new strategic plan includes a new art gallery based upon the town’s exceptional art collection; a discovery gallery close to the STEAM Museum; and a new collections storage centre to improve collections management. It also promotes access to the collection with a new programme of outreach and education. In the short-term, the existing museum will be refreshed and revitalised.

The 10-year strategy is being realised through a series of major funding applications to the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Esmee Fairbairn Trust, based on the collective work of the Council and Barker Langham.

This project aims to preserve and celebrate the memory and accomplishments of the soldiers and policemen who formerly served the UAE. It seeks to do this by recording the oral testimonies of these veterans; creating a digital archival collection of photographs, films and recordings; and creating a museum collection for display in the UAE.

Barker Langham are the museum consultants for this project, working closely with the Centre for Gulf Studies at Exeter University where Eric Langham is an Associate Fellow. For the first phase, we have interviewed a number of former Scouts to ensure that their stories on the military, political and social history of the region are recorded. This has resulted in a wealth of material for use in the later stages of the project.

This project follows the success of the Al Jahili Fort Rehabilitation Project, in which this former base of the Scouts was restored and transformed into a new cultural venue.

Our first ever Scandanavian project, we are working in partnership with an international design company to develop a masterplan for this site in southern Sweden.

More details to follow as the project develops…

The Archives+ project aims to bring together the largest and most important archives from different Manchester venues and re-house them in Manchester Central Library. Ten km of items, from 12th century parchments to 50,000 rare books, will be accessible via a new learning programme that will give people access to this important national collection. And exhibition spaces will provide new ways for more people to discover the archives, share their own stories and have a personalised experience of Manchester’s history.

Archive+ has received £72,500 in development funding from a £600,000 pot. Read about the other projects that have received recent funding here.

Our connection to Al Ain is via Al Jahili Fort – one of the UAE’s oldest landmarks and the largest of the many traditional mud-brick forts in the city. We developed the cultural vision for a recent restoration of the fort and helped present this philosophy in a temporary exhibition. We also curated the first permanent exhibition there of British explorer and photographer Wilfred Thesiger, who crossed the Empty Quarter Desert twice during the 1940s.

Read more about other new inscriptions here.