Museum of Oxford declares opening time for crowdfunding appeal

Published: Thursday, 7th November 2019

The Museum of Oxford is launching a month-long crowdfunding campaign today through Art Happens with Art Fund, to support a future exhibition focusing on life in Oxford’s pubs and breweries.

Crowdfunding campaign event

There will be an event to mark the start of the crowdfunding campaign at Tap Social in Botley on Saturday 9 November from 3pm-11pm, with family activities, catering from Polentista (Italian street food), live entertainment in the evening and, of course, excellent beer.

'Heart of the community'

Pubs are at the heart of many of our communities, so capturing their individual histories is a way to tell the story of local people, places and events. The Museum of Oxford is the only museum in the city that tells the story of those who lived here, so a pub-themed exhibit is integral to plans for the redeveloped museum when it reopens next year.

Rewards for donors

The crowdfunding campaign offers exclusive rewards to donors: from limited edition tote bags to exclusive prints and artworks. The top reward will be a private pre-opening tour of the museum for four with an accompanying beer tasting experience. All donors will be invited to an exclusive thank you event in 2020.

The campaign aims to raise £15,000 by tapping into the city’s love of a good pint and a yarn. As well as physical exhibits like historic pub and drinking items, the museum is collecting pub memories at a series of events to preserve the human stories that go alongside the odds and ends of drinking history.

“There are no half measures in the rewards for this crowdfunding campaign, so I hope that plenty of people will be following the pub-going tradition of putting their subs in the kitty for the museum.

“We’ve teamed up with a fantastic local artist, Rachel Barbaresi, to create unique artwork as rewards for this campaign. There are plenty of more modest rewards as well, such as exclusive beer mats and bags, or you might just swap the price of a pint for your name on the supporters’ wall.

“Most of Oxford’s wonderful museums are full of things from far away and long ago. The Museum of Oxford is about the people who have made this city, and who are still making it a great place today. Big or small donations, this is the city’s museum and we want people to feel a part of it.”

Councillor Mary Clarkson, Cabinet Member for City Centre and Culture

The campaign launches with Art Happens at 12 noon on 7 November and runs to 7 December 2019.