Joy Critcher, a volunteer at the Mary Rose Trust is the winner of the inaugural South East regional Marsh Award for Museum Learning.
In a fantastic celebration of volunteering last week, Joy attended the award ceremony at The British Museum to collect her prize and certificate. The judges were particularly impressed by the contribution made by Joy and the gathered audience were shown images of her in action in her voluntary work.
“I feel proud to have won the Marsh Award for Museum Education. Even more so because the work I do with the outreach team helps to bring the Mary Rose experience to people who because of diability or social constraint cannot visit us at the Dockyard.
This is the first year of the Marsh Awards which is a collaboration between the British Museum and the Marsh Christian Trust to recognise volunteers in engaging museum audiences. Applications were judged on how they make a difference, how they improve the museum experience for visitors and on positive feedback from visitors and staff.
Joy was awarded for her work with the Mary Rose Trust outreach programme, which aims to engage with people unable to visit the museum for a variety of reasons. These visits, led by the Community Officer, Trevor Sapey, include Stroke clubs, the visually impaired, hospices, day centres for the elderly and adults and children with learning and physical disabilities.
To hear them laugh and talk, in many case, as they have not done so before, is the reason why I enjoy volunteering to do this work. I have met some amazing people and we have a great time together.”
Joy gives up her own time several days a week to meet the demand from these special need groups which have proved very popular and mutually beneficial. This work is in addition to her role as a costumed volunteer guide in the museum on at least two days per week.
Joy helps the Mary Rose Trust to deliver outreach sessions in costume and helps with artefact handling and dressing up. This raises the confidence of many individuals in these groups who often feel excluded from museums. The programme helps the Trust to welcome a more diverse range of visitors.
Joy’s experience of dealing with a variety of special needs on outreach has also helped her to engage with similar visitors to the museum whilst she is there as a guide. This outreach programme aims to meet individual learning capabilities. It also encourages groups to visit the museum for the first time.
Some of the positive feedback Joy has received included:
“Our clients were diverted from their illness and amused” (Countess Mountbatten Hospice)
“It is difficult to run a session such as this for all abilities but it was brilliant” (Portsea Gateway Award).
The Mary Rose Trust has a thriving volunteer scheme that is going from strength to strength with 50 volunteers.
