A look back at 2010 by the Museum's Facilitators

Wow, I can’t believe 2010 is nearly over! We’ve had such a busy and exciting year. 2010 saw us really get going with our themed weekend events. Throughout the year we’ve had many varied activities for all our visitors to take part in over the weekends. In January we kicked off with our Storytelling weekend, to tie in with National Storytelling week – and had Lady Godiva (the lovely Pru Poretta) come in and tell her story to the little ones.

In March Coventry Women’s Festival was once again held at the Museum, and we put together a Women’s History trail around the museum to go with it, as well as focusing on all the wonderful work women did during the Second World War in our Blitz area.

In July we had our first ever Land Speed Record weekend, which was a massive hit! We saw the competitive side of our visitors as they built and raced balloon powered cars! It went so well in fact that we had another Land Speed Record weekend in October, and this time the Bloodhound SSC team came in and brought Thrust SSC Driver Andy Green with them!

Throughout the summer holidays, visitors may have spotted us in the Ice Cream Dream Machines exhibition. Sadly we weren’t selling actual ice creams (although we looked as though we might be!), but we did have fun showing people how Ice cream was made in Victorian times, and challenging people to our fun Ice Cream quiz!

Drawing the year to a close we had a spooky Halloween in October, our Road Safety weekend in November, and we’ve just rounded off our Wartime Christmas weekends!

As well as all the weekend events we’ve put together this year we also developed our new Tactile Tour. We developed the tour for blind and partially sighted visitors and worked with some students from Hereward College, who gave us some excellent ideas. We were very pleased when we heard we’d been awarded funding from the CultureLink project to develop our tour and help improve access for blind and visually impaired visitors to the museum. As part of this exciting project we held a workshop where blind and partially sighted participants used cameras to photograph their experiences of the Tactile Tour. In December we showcased an amazing exhibition called My Mind’s Eye, which displayed some of their photos. It was a privilege to work with these people, their enthusiasm and open mindedness was incredible, and the photos they produced were amazing!

Looking forward now to 2011 and things won’t get any less busy! We’re stepping up the program of weekend events, repeating many of the popular ones from this year and adding in a new series of weekends which will take our visitors ‘Through The Decades’! Starting in January we will be taking visitors on a time travelling adventure that will visit a different decade each month throughout the year!

We also hope to develop the work we have begun with the Tactile Tour and photography workshop, and hope to continue improving access for all at the museum.

Thanks so much to everyone who came and took part in any of our activities this year! It’s been really fantastic and we hope to see many of you back again in 2011!

See what's on on 2011

Classic archive images to view & buy

CTM are proud to lauch a new online facility - www.ctmimages.co.uk

This site demonstrates images from our huge archive, also allowing you to purchase the items as Prints, Canvases or Gifts. The store will continue to grow as we demonstrate the huge array of items from Coventry's long heritage in the transport history.

The site also offers links to our archive enquiry service - here you can make enquiries on various aspects on the archive and collection to our experienced team.

CTM Events Calendar 2010

Xmas Factor Returns

You know what they say... If you've got it, flaunt it! Well, here's an excellent opportunity for you all to show off your musical talents as our popular singing competition Xmas factor is back for a third time! So if you think you've got it in you come along and strut your stuff at the heats which be held this Saturday 21st November and see if you can make through to the Grand Final on 5th December.

The competition is open to all, young or old, amateur or professional. All you need to do is perform a Christmas song and spread some Christmas cheer. You can perform at the heats unaccompanied, or accompanied by a CD. If you wish to sing to a music track, don’t forget to bring along your CD. There will be four categories of performances: groups, under 10s, 10 – 15 years old and 16 years and above. You will be judged for your stage presence, professionalism and ability. So get practising as the heats are just around the corner!

The Grand Final will take place on Saturday 5th December 2pm – 5pm. The show will be hosted by Touch FM’s Brody Swain and there will be grand performances by ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ stars Good Evans while mum Estelle will be on our panel of judges and also by Coventry’s own Phoenix Dance Academy performers. With grand prizes for winners and loads of fun for everybody the event promises to bring a fun-packed evening for one and all!

No pre-registration is required for entering the heats. For free tickets to the Grand Final email us at enquiries@transport-museum.com or call 024 7623 4270

New Gallery

We are clearing out the Icons gallery to make room for the new 80’s, 90’s and today gallery. This will open early in the new year, the building of it has to be finished before Christmas though. Basically we have cleared the ‘row of old cars’ in front of the ‘old café area’ and the icons area and temporary moved these cars into store or into the current 80’s 90’s and today gallery (next to the offices).

Most of the cars have been removed and we are currently removing the ramps and other equipment.

Museum awarded top prize!

We were all very pleased to be awarded a prestigious VisitBritain prize last week, following a day-long assessment of everything the Museum has to offer.

The Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance Scheme (or VAQAS) is VisitBritain’s quality assessment service for all types of visitor attractions throughout England.

All areas that impact on the quality of the visitor experience were included in the assessment, ranging from an initial enquiry via our Admin team, information gathered from our website - www.transport-museum.com - through to the facilities available to visitors.