"A £350,000 funding bid has been put together to promote the Staffordshire Hoard by holding a festival celebrating the Anglo Saxons".
"Stoke-on-Trent City Council is leading the application for a grant from Arts Council England and Destination England. If successful, the cash would pay for a major family-friendly event to be held across museums currently sharing the hoard and other venues. The idea would be to promote Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire’s links back in time to Anglo Saxon Mercia and attract tourists to the area. Cathy Shingler, interpretations manager at Hanley’s Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, said: “The idea for a festival would be to link all the venues which house exhibitions of the Staffordshire Hoard. “An Anglo Saxon festival has been held in Tamworth for a while and that has worked really well. “We have not really decided the details yet, but there is a big involvement of theatre. “We are quite keen to work with the New Vic Theatre and we would probably have some artwork commissioned. “There will be lots of things for families to do.” The Potteries Museum is leading the bid consortium, which includes the Mercian Trail – the collective name for museums and historical sites across the county that share and display the silver and gold items. The Hoard – valued at £3.3 million – is made up of more than 1,500 Anglo-Saxon pieces found by metal detectorist Terry Herbert buried on a farm off Barracks Lane in Hammerwich in July 2009. It is arguably the most important archeological find relating back to the period since the 6th and 7th century royal burial sites at Sutton Hoo were uncovered in 1939. The Anglo Saxon festival would aim to tell the emerging story of the Hoard and the period history of the region, through a series of temporary and permanent exhibitions and a programme of outreach cultural activities. Since its discovery, more than a million people have been to see it. It is the most successful exhibition ever staged at the Potteries Museum, with 55,000 people queuing for up to four hours at a time to see it in the first three weeks of the launch of the display in February, 2010. Museum visitor George Twigg welcomed plans for a festival. The 51-year-old, of Clayton, said: “I think it’s a good idea. “The Hoard has attracted interest all across the world and I think a festival would be a good way of promoting it further.” Tracy Prince, aged 32, from Wistaston, near Crewe, said: “It would be a good way of getting children interested in the Hoard and about what life was like in Anglo Saxon times.” The Hoard is due to go back on display at the Potteries Museum on October 26".
Read more: http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/350k-bid-hold-festival-celebrating-Anglo-Saxon/story-19888017-detail/story.html#ixzz2hGFhDYqn Follow us: @thisisstaffs on Twitter | thisisstaffordshire on Facebook
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