Milton Keynes Museum is awarded a £222,850 grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to progress new gallery plans

Today, Milton Keynes Museum has received a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £222,850.

Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, the grant will ensure that communities can work with the Museum on pilot displays planned to tell the story of Milton Keynes in a Gallery built in partnership with Milton Keynes City Council on the anniversary of the new City.

The Museum was set up by the people, and for the people of Milton Keynes. In helping to unite communities in this, its 50th year it will create a hands-on adventure that engages all the senses to tell the internationally significant story of Milton Keynes – including its place today as a thriving 21st Century city.

The city’s story is still unfolding and the galleries will change and evolve alongside its communities – just as the Museum has for 50 years.

The series of displays will include; The Beginning – the decision makers and their plans; the contextual timeline – each decade since the 1960s; How to bring woods and wild spaces meaning in an inside space; The Plans – grids and separating people from the traffic; The People’s Story – how to be inclusive and tell the stories as an unmissable attraction.

“This has been the Museum’s aim since the new galleries were launched in 2019,” said Museum Director Bill Griffiths, “Thanks to the generosity of the Heritage Fund and importantly, the National Lottery players we can now realise this dream.

“It will be a crucial moment in the development of the Museum which is a jewel in the crown of the new city. It brings us so much closer to sharing Milton Keynes’ rich history – both ancient and modern – with people from all over the country and beyond.

“Milton Keynes is a special place with a special story, and this grant will take us nearer our dream of telling that story in glorious detail. We are thrilled.”