Experience Barnsley (#NewBarnsleyMuseum) and Barnsley Archives to (re)open on 27 June 2013

I'm really looking forward to Barnsley Archives reopening as part of the new Experience Barnsley museum in Barnsley Town Hall ... if you are viewing this post before Thursday 27th June 2013 you will see my ticker to the left of this post telling you how many days, hours and minutes there are until it opens - if you are reading after that date I don't want you to miss out, so this is what it looked like tonight ...

Countdown Widget (from MyCountdown)

I've been searching the web for the last week looking for articles on the new Barnsley Museum (that's #NewBarnsleyMuseum if you tweet).  There seem to have been a couple of press releases, a big one in May which made a double page spread in the local newspaper the Sheffield Star, followed an interview with Jemma Conway, the Community Heritage Curator, which generated some more press coverage.

There's been a Facebook page run by John Tanner, the Museum and Heritage Project Manager, since January 2011.  He's been putting a new picture or two on every day for the last few weeks.  He tweets too using @EBMuseum again commenting nearly everyday at the moment.

This week Barnsley Council actually updated their web page with the latest news, they are a bit slow, but they've got around to it just in time. 

The most recent news is that on Thursday 27th June 2013 Barnsley Experience will open with,

"a colourful public celebration at 2pm. The Town Hall building will be swathed in a giant ribbon which members of the public will be invited to cut ceremonially to open their museum.
Thousands of visitors are expected to pack the new town square outside the Town Hall which will have a free children’s carousel, musical entertainment and attractions to represent Barnsley throughout the ages, from an animatronic dinosaur to giant stilt-walking sportsmen."


The ribbon which will be wrapped around the Town Hall

I've found a picture of the ribbon on the Facebook page.  What I hear is that we will all be allowed to cut a section out of it to take home and keep as a souvenir. 

The same information was printed in today's Barnsley Chronicle, the local weekly newspaper and appeared on several other local websites (eg Barnsley News and Sport and the Sheffield Star)  - so I guess that was this week's press release. 

When I find out more I'll let you know - and I'll take some photos on the day (I hope).