In the beginning…
Falmouth’s social and economic regeneration needs, particularly towards the derelict Docks area, had been recognised for many years before the Museum opened. More widely, across Cornwall, many voices were calling out the need for a culturally vibrant ‘all weather’ heritage attraction to strengthen and extend Cornwall’s seasonal tourism offer. National Maritime Museum Cornwall (NMMC) was created, in part, as a response to these cultural, social and economic needs.
It was also created as a major regional museum that would help solve the problems facing two important maritime collections: the National Small Boat Collection owned by National Maritime Museum, London and the growing collections owned by the volunteer-run Cornwall Maritime Museum, in Bell’s Court, Falmouth. Both collections urgently needed significant funding for new, more accessible homes. At the suggestion of the Heritage Lottery Fund a ‘cunning plan’ was hatched: to create a ground-breaking, 21st century museum for Cornwall that would house both collections.
This solution underpins our evolving mission which began with the duel aim to promote an understanding of the design and importance of small boats and Cornish maritime history, to become something more interconnected and visionary: to be ‘a place to enrich your understanding of the sea, and Cornwall.’
Built on Falmouth’s historic waterfront, on the tidal lands of a derelict boat yard, NMMC would be a museum that is both ‘of’ the sea and ‘in’ the sea – submerged and re-connected to the ocean at each high tide.
1990s
- The Falmouth International Maritime Initiative, later National Maritime Museum Cornwall, is set up to take care of the National Small Boat Collection and the Cornwall Maritime Museum collection
- £23m is secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund, South West Regional Development Agency, the EU Regional Development Fund and other private and corporate sponsors
- October 1999 construction work begins
- May 2002, millions of tv viewers watch as the Queen visits the nearly completed building at the start of her Golden Jubilee Tour
- With Cornwall Council support, NMMC will become the third ‘big’ regeneration investment for Cornwall, alongside Tate St Ives and the Eden Project
- Ambitious (and, in hindsight, unrealistic) visitor targets are set in the business plan: over 180,000 visitors each year
2003
- Museum opens officially in 2003
- 160,000 people visit during the first year (mostly during free period)
- The idea that changing the display of hanging boats will be enough to attract new and repeat visitors is put to the test
2004
- Will to Win exhibition, exploring Olympic racing, opens in the Main Hall
- Operational challenges with the building begin to emerge: most problematic are the difficulties visitors have in finding the under-developed Cornwall Galleries and the lack of adequate space for major temporary exhibitions to attract new and repeat visits
- The roof first starts to leak
2005
- The Museum achieves Full Accreditation status with the Arts Council
- The Museum supports Falmouth Town in hosting the arrival of Ellen MacArthur following her record breaking, single-handed voyage around the world. Thousands of people gather in Events Square to celebrate
- Museum recognises lack of provision for families in the original design. It begins to experiment with floor games and summer ‘play areas’. These evolve into the much-loved programme of ‘Playzone’ exhibitions, activity trails and live events
- Surf’s Up exhibition opens in the Main Hall
2006
- Museum invests more resources and creativity into its hands-on learning programme for schools and families
- Endurance and Survival exhibition opens in the Main Hall
2007
- First time the Museum’s Learning Team wins the Sandford Award in recognition for their ‘outstanding contribution to heritage education’
- First time the Museum wins ‘Gold’ for Best Large Visitor Attraction at the Cornwall Tourism Awards
- Your Falmouth exhibition opens, inviting local people to share their stories
- Mad Dogs and Englishmen exhibition opens, exploring eccentric boats (and sailors)
- The Cornwall Galleries are re-configured to improve physical access and visitor orientation, and to increase workspace in the café. The problems are not fully solved, and challenges remain
2008
- Stormy weather … the ‘credit crunch’ financial crisis batters the economy
- Under the Sea major exhibition opens in the Main Hall. It explores the underwater world from shipwrecks to submarines, from diving to underwater photography and warfare
- Museum works with Falmouth Town to support the International Tall Ships Festival, becoming the media centre and operational hub
- ‘Cornish Voices’ live drama and living history programme is launched for Cornwall schools
- Regional winner, British Museum Marsh Trust ‘Volunteers for Learning’ Award
- Museum closes the immersive ‘Set Sail’ black box gallery. In its place a huge, flexible temporary exhibition space is planned, with a new ground-floor entrance from the Main Hall
2009
- Major temporary exhibitions are now possible in The Hold, and become key to attracting new and repeat visitors
- Under the Sea is extended for a second year, and moved into The Hold
- The team experiments with ‘buying in’ a touring exhibition, with Titanic: Hope and Glory on display for three months
- Museum becomes fully licenced for weddings and civil partnerships (over 300 weddings so far!)
2010
- Lighthouses: Life on the Rocks major exhibition opens, in partnership with Trinity House
- 150 Years of Falmouth Docks exhibition opens
2011
- Winner, ‘Volunteer Host of the Year’ Award, Volunteer Cornwall
- On Thin Ice exhibition opens, celebrating the history of Polar exploration, in partnership with the Scott Polar Research Institute and the British Antarctic Survey
2012
- Search and Rescue major exhibition opens, in partnership with the RNLI, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and HM Coastguard
- Museum builds its first replica historic vessel: a Bronze Age sewn-plank boat, in partnership with Exeter University’s Dept of Experimental Archaeology. Sea trials prove the design and construction is seaworthy
- BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, reaching a global audience of millions
- Museum helps to preserve and repatriate the ‘Enys Canoe’ back to Canada. The canoe is found to be one of the oldest surviving examples of a Native American birch bark canoe – nearly 250 years old
- The Breton Connection exhibition opens
- Waterline: Cruising Photography, 1925-70, exhibition opens
- Sail for Gold touring exhibition opens, produced by Royal Yacht Association
2013
- The Museum is 10 years old!
- Museum invests significant resources in upgrading its environmental and security systems to be able to borrow artefacts from national and international collections
- The building becomes a Cornwall hub for the BBC’s Children in Need celebrations – over 600 adults, children, BBC staff and performers take over the building
2014
- National winner, Kids in Museums Daily Telegraph ‘Family Friendly Museum of the Year Award’
- Winner, Best Museum in Cornwall, Cornwall Today Awards
- Smuggling exhibition opens
- Kurt Jackson: Line Caught and Local artist exhibition opens
2015
- Viking Voyagers major exhibition opens. The Museum builds a full-scale Viking trading ship in the Museum workshop. Visitors can walk on board, giving them a unique insight into the ‘Viking’ world
- Museum borrows objects from the British Museum’s ‘Cuerdale Hoard’ of Viking silver. This marks the start of the Museum’s strategic aim to bring iconic artefacts from national and international museum collections to audiences in Cornwall
- Mermaids: Women at Sea exhibition opens. It features the Museum’s first-ever 3D printed exhibit: the famous Mermaid of Zennor carving
- Jo Atherton: Stranded artist exhibition opens, inspired by objects washed up on beaches
2016
- Stormy weather… the Museum faces financial challenges and responds with a difficult but necessary staff re-structure. A smaller team continues to deliver the Museum’s ambitious forward plan
- ‘The Great Big Cornish Gig Project’ is launched. Supported by the Armed Forces Community Covenant Scheme, 40 wounded, injured and sick veterans work with the Museum boat team to build a pilot gig, and row it to the Isles of Scilly for the World Pilot Gig Championships.
- ‘Medal Winners Hall of Fame’ opens in the Main Hall, celebrating British success in water sports at the Olympic and Paralympic games
- The Mysterious Loss of the Darlwyne exhibition opens, marking the 50th anniversary of one of the worst British sea tragedies of modern times
- RNLI – Hope in the Great War exhibition opens
- Captain George Hogg completes a detailed audit of the Museum’s growing archive
- Skeleton artist exhibition opens, featuring wooden sculptures inspired by old boats by artist and museum volunteer Rob Johnsey
2017
- Tattoo: British Tattoo Art Revealed opens. This groundbreaking and critically acclaimed exhibition receives unprecedented national and international media coverage
- Bligh: Myth, Man and Mutiny exhibition opens concurrently in The Hold. The centrepiece is a replica of the Bounty launch, built in the Museum workshop
- First spectacular ‘vertical dance’ performance by Yskynna Vertical Dance Company takes place on the outside of the Lookout Tower. Two free-to-view performances of ‘Bligh Spirit’ attract thousands of spectators
- Tattoo Tales community engagement project records the stories behind local people’s tattoos. This inspires the team to reflect critically on the stories we tell – and collect – and who those stories are for, now and in the future
- Winner, Best Gallery, Cornwall Today Awards
- Hosts a touring production of The Coastguards Daughter by Canvas Theatre
- Fathom, an annual journal of the Museum’s activities, is launched
2018
- Titanic Stories exhibition opens, placing the ‘small boat’ story of the lifeboat survivors at the heart of the narrative. The exhibition is based around a full-scale replica of Titanic Lifeboat 13, built in the Museum’s workshop
- Porthleven: A Journey Through Time exhibition opens. It marks the first of a dedicated programme of genuinely collaborative ‘co-curated’ exhibitions produced with coastal communities and other heritage organisations
- Museum begins its ambitious contemporary artist commissioning programme, inviting artists to create thought-provoking artistic responses to our exhibition spaces and narratives
- Local artist Dan Arnold creates a visually stunning ‘upside down iceburg’ over Lifeboat 13. It is made with the help of over 700 community participants
- Titanic Voices: Contemporary Stories community co-curated exhibition opens. It makes thought- provoking links between Cornwall migration past and present
- Tattoo on tour! Following the closure of Tattoo, the exhibition is repurposed as a national-touring exhibition – something not attempted before by any museum in Cornwall
- Museum co-hosts the 2018 Cornwall Contemporary Poetry Festival
- Cornwall-based composer Nick Hart is commissioned by the Museum to produce a new choral work, inspired by the 1968 Golden Globe Circumnavigation Race. The production, entitled Great Circle: The Call to be the First, premiers at the Museum, and features the award-winning Canoryon Choir
- Museum takes out a 25-year term loan to acquire the Maritime Car Park, a vital asset for its long-term operation and financial future
2019
- Completion on the acquisition of the Maritime Car Park, ending a lengthy period of uncertainty
- James Dodds: Wood to Water, artist exhibition opens. The work is inspired by the vernacular boats of Falmouth and Cornwall
- RNLI ‘Rescue Zone’ opens, produced in partnership with the RNLI and supporting their Respect the Water campaign
- Nav Station Gallery is re-developed as a mid-size temporary exhibition space, suitable for artist, mixed media and single theme displays. Work is supported by the DCMS Wolfson Foundation
- The Museum is awarded a Coastal Communities Fund grant to trial heritage boat trips in Falmouth Harbour using boats from the collection
- Museum commissions Yskynna Aerial Dance Company to create ‘Ghost Ships’, a spectacular aerial dance performed high among the hanging boats in the Main Hall
- ‘Pirate School’, interactive performance by Rattlebox Theatre, proves hugely popular with local and tourist families during the Summer
2020
- The Museum is again awarded Full Museum Accreditation by the Museums Association, meeting demanding ‘national’ quality standards
- Museum plans to open its major temporary exhibition, Monsters of the Deep: Science Fact and Fiction. Developed in partnership with the National Oceanography Centre, it is to be the most ambitious, theatrical and logistically complex exhibition the Museum has ever mounted
- Monsters continues the Museum’s commitment to artistic and cultural risk-taking, working with artist Viktor Wynd to create Viktor Wynd’s UnNatural History Museum
- Stormy weather… the Covid Pandemic forces the Museum to lockdown two days before Monsters of the Deep is due to open
- Things look grim. Museum takes proactive steps to reduce expenditure, furloughing most staff and, where possible, rescheduling and renegotiating contracts and activity commitments
- The Museum team rallies. New Covid-safe measures and messaging enable the Museum to open to the public on 27 July 2022, to heart-warming public feedback. Flexible public programming is planned around the changing ‘tier level’ Covid restrictions and lockdowns
- New, flexible job descriptions and an ‘all in it together’ attitude means that the Museum is able keep most staff in employment, although three staff are made redundant. The Museum team is now the leanest since opening
- Museum receives emergency funding from the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Headley Trust and the Govt’s Cultural Recovery Fund. The team begin to plan for a ‘new future’ with greater certainty and confidence
- Museum takes over the management of Falmouth ‘Park and Ride’ operation
2021
- The Museum supports Cornwall and the UK’s bid to host the 2021 ‘G7’ event. The whole building is repurposed as the G7 global media centre
- Cornish Voices goes digital!
- Stormy weather … During the Covid lockdowns the Pontoon is found to have suffered structural – and expensive – damage. Heritage boat trips are suspended
- Hegarty’s Boatyard, a photographic exhibition of the last surviving traditional wooden boatyard in Ireland by Kevin O’Farrell, opens (despite Covid and post-Brexit customs restrictions!)
- Memories of Falmouth exhibition opens. It is cocurated by museum volunteers during and in between lockdowns
2022
- Winner, Cornwall Heritage Awards for the mental and physical health outcomes of Memories of Falmouth volunteer-led project and exhibition, largely produced during Covid restrictions
- 50th anniversary of incredible survival story of the Robertson family in the tiny boat Ednamair, now held by the Museum with other objects kept by the family during their ordeal. The family’s stories are recorded, including memories evoked by holding these objects again, to form a unique historical archive. An evening lecture and panel interview with the family is live-streamed from the Museum’s newly furnished Lecture Theatre to a local and global audience
- Coastguard 200 exhibition opens
- Reclaiming the Narrative tattoo artist-led response to the original Tattoo exhibition opens
- The Museum works with Queer Kernow to create an artist and community-led installation, titled Queer Pirate. This will form part of their wider engagement with the narrative development for our major temporary exhibition, Pirates, in 2023
- Work starts on creating a new Play Zone – Skull Island
- The replica of HMS Bounty’s ship launch, Bligh’s Tribute, is transported to a new museum on Norfolk Island, in the Pacific Ocean
2023
- The Museum is 20 years old!
- Pirates major temporary exhibition opens. This is the most expensive and ambitious exhibition ever mounted by the Museum. It is developed in an innovative ‘co-production’ partnership with Royal Museums Greenwich, based on the sharing of objects, skills and cultural decision-making between the Cornwall and London teams. The exhibition will travel to London to be on show at Royal Museums Greenwich in 2025
- Museum looks to the future!
