From the Flames

4 September 2019
Editor
Communities, Fundraising, Heritage, Heritage Lottery Fund, Project management

SBSA has successfully concluded project managing the ‘From the Flames’ project, having helped Bata Heritage Centre secure £84,000 for the 18-month project back in 2017.

The project focused on the restoration and sharing of Bata records, memories and memorabilia that were devastated in the East Tilbury Library fire on January 2017. SBSA worked with Rainbow Restoration and One Big Storage to restore around 95% of the smoke damaged collection on site in East Tilbury. This process included involving 360 East Tilbury school children in artefact restoration, complementing the professional restoration work.

SBSA also advised on the sharing of the collection whilst the future arrangements for the destroyed East Tilbury library and Heritage Centre were developed. This included developing a new IT strategy with input from Twister Solutions to ensure digital resilience in future and enable the delivery of talks and events again. We also worked with our friends at TellTale and Museum in a Box to develop and deploy a ‘portable museum’ focussed on collection highlights to engage audiences away from the Heritage Centre.

We are delighted with the end result – a brand new Heritage Centre with a restored collection, more resilient cloud-based IT, portable interpretation and new partnerships in place. SBSA were particularly delighted with the feedback on our work. An independent evaluator reviewed our performance with the Bata committee and noted the following:

Scott provided great insight into what was possible and affordable, [praising] his excellent planning of the project, his abilities, calm and methodical manner, interpersonal skills, and ability to communicate in an informal and clear way. He also kept a firm hand on the budget and worked well with the BHC treasurer, [keeping] people informed both at and between meetings in writing and in person and with key people in BHC, the chairman and treasurer. These comments were confirmed by other stakeholders who praised the project manager, especially how well he kept them informed by means of regular progress reports.

We look forward to continuing to support the development of Bata Heritage Centre in the future. If you need help responding quickly to a crisis, we can help develop a proposal with you, source funding and support the day-to-day management if needed. Give us a call!

Editor