The work to develop the Jurassic Coast story within nine museums along the coast is developing apace. David Tucker and Richard Edmonds have visited all but one of the museums to agree new displays and content and some of the new cabinets and stands are now already in place. The project is called Collecting Cultures.
An artist/illustrator Lisa Berkshire has been commissioned to produce some ambitious 3D illustrations of the Purbeck Coast for Wareham and Swanage museums together with a visualisation of the Triassic landscape at the time that the Budleigh Salterton Pebble Beds were formed.
A number of fossil specimens have now been selected including a superb example of the rare ichthyosaurs breviceps, a species only known from about eight specimens. This is the first major acquisition and will take pride of place in the Lyme Regis Museum.
David Tucker has described the collect cultures project; ‘It’s like preparing an exhibition in one gallery that’s 90 miles long and all the work requires partnerships and agreements with the individual organisations that run the various museums along the coast. The project will be delivered by June 2010 and is funded by the National Lottery Collecting Cultures fund with match funding from Dorset and Devon County Councils. Of the £230,000, £140,000 is for specimen acquisition and the remainder is for interpretation and education across the museums.’
Richard Edmonds, Earth Science Manager.
