Valence House in Dagenham has received a grant of £27,489 from Arts Council England’s Covid-19 Emergency Response Fund for a project called ‘Valence House: A New Digital Dimension’ which will help them to develop an educational online offer.

With the assistance of a professional film maker, photographer and website provider, they will produce short films and interactive exhibitions, which will be hosted on their website. These will include a video tour of the museum and grounds, an information guide to using archives and local studies information, and behind the scenes tours in the museum stores.

In these difficult times, everyone has had to adapt to the new measures put in place, especially for places like Valence House, that rely on people visiting the museum. This funding from the Arts Council England’s Covid-19 Emergency Response Fund is a great opportunity to create a space online for people to experience this wonderful heritage site, from wherever they are in the world.

The work the heritage service has done online during lockdown has been very successful in terms of reach and engagement and they want to use this piece of work to consolidate their efforts and maintain the momentum online post-lockdown. The project will help them engage with the public whilst social distancing measures are still in place, but it is also very much part of a longer-term vision to develop their relationship with the public.

In future, their goal is to see their new online audience translate into physical visitors and some key aspects of the project include allowing potential visitors who have a disability and anxiety issues to see the whole site and what they have to offer online, so they can be confident in planning a physical visit. Equally, the extended reach of online activity means they can reach people who have not been part of their core visitors up to now and demonstrate that Valence House is a welcoming and engaging place for them to visit.

Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Community Leadership and Engagement, Cllr Saima Ashraf, said: “In these difficult times, everyone has had to adapt to the new measures put in place, especially for places like Valence House, that rely on people visiting the museum. This funding from the Arts Council England’s Covid-19 Emergency Response Fund is a great opportunity to create a space online for people to experience this wonderful heritage site, from wherever they are in the world.