COVENTRY music museum has got a £500 boost to mark its importance to the city’s culture – while an appeal is launched for donations.
The museum, one of Coventry’s treasured gems, has received a welcome contribution from the Heart of England Co-operative Society.
The HECS wants to ensure its doors stay open for visitors to come and experience the city’s historic music scene.
The museum is situated on Walsgrave Road near the heart of the city centre where it has educated thousands of visitors since its formation in 2013.
The HECS want to pay particular thanks to the museum’s passionate curator and founder, Pete Chambers BEM.
The independent museum takes its visitors on a journey through 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s Coventry, right up to the present day.
Guests can experience the Coventry sound across a variety of genres and only be charged a maximum of £3 per ticket.
The HECS says Pete has been a preserver of the city’s musical past since creating the Two-Tone tour in the 1980s.
According to Chambers he was shocked to hear two Japanese tourists had come to Coventry to visit sights symbolising to the city’s renowned Two-Tone scene.
But the tourists failed as there was not sufficient commemoration or preservation of Coventry’s musical past.
With the local tourist hotspot only in its adolescence, the museum is heavily reliant on donations and grants.
As a result, keeping the museum open to the public costs tens of thousands of pounds a year despite staff all being volunteers.
The museum hopes the HECS’s £500 donation will boost the quality of its exhibitions.
And it has already been put to use with the purchase of a brand-new karaoke machine for the museum’s newest exhibition.
Pete Chambers said: “The karaoke machine is a massive inclusion to our latest exhibition which we hope will be the most popular exhibition we’ve had since I opened the doors of the Coventry Music Museum.
“A huge thanks has to go to the Heart of England Co-Operative Society, as this timeless piece will inevitably attract more visitors to our museum. With the city winning the City of Culture bid we want to bring in more visitors than ever.
“To many the £500 may have only bought a karaoke machine but their generous donation has turned a modestly interesting exhibition into a great one. We have great plans for 2018 and beyond with brand new exhibitions that will really capture the significance of the Coventry music scene.”
Ali Kurji, chief executive of the HECS, said: “We were absolutely delighted to provide a donation to the Coventry Music Museum.
“Pete and his volunteers work tirelessly in ensuring that the city’s musical heritage is given the recognition it truly deserves.”
