Page 9 - Barnsley Museums Annual Review 2018-2019

Heritage and Our Economy
Our museums and heritage sites are important and effective economic drivers. They are a permanent home to over 40 businesses and they support hundreds more each year. Our museums attract visitors to our region to spend money and play a vital role in challenging perceptions of our borough.
Elsecar Heritage Centre is home to over
thirty businesses and is a thriving place. Our packed programme of events in the Ironworks brings thousands of people to the site every weekend. Our other sites are homes to a range of enterprises from pop up vendors,
to catering outlets to wedding businesses, supporting innovation and start ups. Barnsley Museums are committed to supporting local businesses, raising the profile of Barnsley
and boosting our economy through day and overnight visits to our borough.
Big events like the Flavours Food festival, the Man Engine spectacular, the Tour de Yorkshire and more have brought tens of thousands
of visitors to Elsecar this year, and injected hundreds of thousands of pounds into the local economy.
Together with our funders we continue to invest in our venues as places that contribute massively to the local economy. At Cannon Hall, thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we are continuing our programme of conservation in the parkland and gardens.
that make a real difference to where people choose to shop and spend time, be they local or from further afield.
At the Cooper Gallery, thanks to funding from Arts Council England and others we
are creating artist studio spaces, extending our café and creating an outdoor gallery.
At Worsbrough Mill we are creating a bigger retail offer, exploring opportunities for a new artisan bakery on site, and working to extend covers in our busy café.
I’m proud to live and work in Barnsley and as I travel the country I am noticing a genuine change in the way people perceive us. We are seen as creative, as dynamic, as forward- thinking, as a place that’s determined to involve everyone in the joyful
and fulfilling process of making and appreciating art, however you define that word. The arts make us healthier, mentally and physically, they make us resilient, they make us aware of each other and they make us celebrate the universal in the local. We are creative people in a creative place.”
Ian McMillan,
Poet
Experience Barnsley and the Cooper Gallery are recognised as crucial to our town centre, and provide experiences and cultural offers