Today we are celebrating our fantastic young volunteers! 

A large portion of Derby Museums’ volunteer team is a young demographic, with many people under 30 giving their time with roles ranging from welcoming visitors to the gallery, to helping with cleaning and painting of the model railway (amongst lots of other things!). 

Volunteering can be a great way of trying new things and following curiosity in a risk free environment to build confidence and skill sets. Our young volunteers are encouraged to do this, to try new roles and have a go, with no minimum time requirement, full training for roles and flexibility for busy study and social lives. 

Young volunteers have given time as part of the Duke of Edinburgh award requirements, arriving after school to help clean our model railway trains and keep them running. Others volunteer at weekends to chat with members of the public and inspire them in our collections. Work experience alumni have stayed on to help out in our fully kitted out workshop, helping to make fixtures and fittings within the Museum of Making. And our partnership with the University of Derby has seen many students coming to share their passion and knowledge for history, learning, design and interpretation both in and out of placement hours. 

Alongside this sits our work experience programme, with seven college students this year having worked with different departments including marketing, collections care and even helping our resident Finds Liaison Officer to document historic finds from the local area. The Museums staff have really enjoyed sharing their skills and experience and likewise learning from the students, too! 

Finally, the cherry on the cake being the fantastic Make Works, a project in which young people are taught skills in filmmaking, photography and interviewing with a professional filmmaker. Supported by Museum staff, they then enter the factories, studios and workspaces of Derbyshire based makers to document and capture their process. 

They’ve documented glassblowers, furniture makers, ceramicists and more- capturing their stories beautifully- and then it all goes onto the Make Works site, which acts as a kind of Yellow Pages for makers. You can see the beautiful videos they’ve made through this link and I can’t recommend enough that you have a browse- it’ll not only inspire you through the many types of making, but also through the learning, dedication and passion of the young volunteers behind the cameras making the videos! 

All in all, we just wanted to say a huge thank you to our fantastic team of young volunteers for all of the enthusiasm, passion and joy they’ve brought this year. You are amazing and together we help make Derby Museums!