The new platform celebrates and showcases ‘History Makers’ exhibitions at AIM member museums in England which have received grants of up to £90,000 via rounds 1 and 2 of the AIM Biffa Award History Makers Programme – funded by Biffa Award as part of the Landfill Communities Fund.

The first time AIM has created a resource for both the museum sector and the public, the website also serves as a learning resource for young people studying STEAM subjects. It is hoped that schools across the UK will start using the website and online resources to support students with their studies.

“The new History Makers website is a bold new step to ensure that STEAM students can discover the inspirational stories of the History makers in one fun, engaging and informative site that showcases the incredible breadth of projects that Biffa Award have supported across AIM member museums,” AIM’s director, Emma Chaplin, noted. “Now everyone can explore their fascinating stories at the click of a mouse.”

Interactive quizzes, a cartoon character to help young people navigate the platform and a timeline documenting the key moments in history for each featured History Maker can all be found on the new site.

Ideas for the design and content structure were provided as part of an online feedback exercise AIM conducted throughout the summer with STEAM students and the website was developed with the aid of Norfolk-based website design agency GRIT Digital.

“We wanted to bring the stories of these incredible, historical people to life and provide a fun and immersive way of telling their stories that young people could relate to,” said Sassy Hicks, AIM’s membership and marketing manager. “By including clickable and interactive elements and fun facts, we hope that STEAM students will enjoy discovering more about each History Maker and their daring deeds, innovative ideas and clever inventions.”

 

Association of Independent Museums
A child explores the Digging Deeper exhibition at London Transport Museum

“Biffa Award is extremely proud to have funded the AIM History Makers programme which recognises some of our lesser-known but hugely important and influential historical figures. It is so important that stories like these are told and remembered by future generations,” added Gillian French, Biffa Award head of grants. “The History Makers website will act as a fantastic online resource showcasing each of the projects and creating a legacy to those whose stories have been told.”

Further History Makers exhibitions from rounds 3 and 4 of the programme will be added to the website in 2020, including Sir Humphry Davy, Joseph & Sarah Paxton, Oliver Cromwell, Annie Besant, Jayaben Desai, Noor lnayat Khan and William Lever.

Museums + Heritage Advisor has served as a Contributing Third Party for AIM, as an Environmental body, supporting the AIM Biffa Award History Makers Year 4 Grant Scheme.

Explore history-makers.co.uk here.

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