Ely Museum
2021

A project with Simon Leach Design
Project duration 2019–2021
HLF funded, £2.2m
Architecture by HAT Projects
AV software design by Heritage Interactive
Illustrations by Roland Chambers, David Rooney and David Sparshott
Photo commissions by Andrew Sharpe and James Billings
Exhibition build by Workhaus Projects
Lighting design by Dha
Photography by Philip Durrant
Grade II listed building

Awards
Civic Trust Award 2023
Selwyn Goldsmith Award for Universal Design 2023
Kids in Museums Family Friendly Museum Awards 2022, shortlisted
RIBA East Award 2022
RIBA East Conservation Award 2022

Articles
RIBA Journal, 10 March 2022
Museums Journal, 25 January 2022

In 2021 we completed a two-year project with Simon Leach Design to redesign the permanent galleries at Ely Museum and make their collections more accessible and relateable for their core family audiences. Our role encompassed setting the overarching design strategy, creating design guidelines for project partners, commissioning av software design and undertaking final artwork. We also commissioned three different illustrators and two photographers, working closely with each to direct, layout and integrate their work fully with the overall design.

The museum is 200sqm arranged over two floors. The displays are structured thematically, following chronology from prehistory to the present day. Every area integrates an element of hands-on activity and discovery, including dressing up, food shopping at the market, handling real fossils and puppet-animated fenland folk tales. The illustrator Roland Chambers created a bespoke artwork for the ground floor, which we manufactured in marmoleum and inset into the floor surface. David Rooney created a series of drawings using his scratch art and lino-cut techniques, some of which we turned into large scale wall stencils, and David Sparshott created a set of highly detailed  drawings of objects that were printed within case displays to provide context and understanding around key obejcts. The entire production and fit-out of this project was done successfully during the global coronavirus pandemic.