Articles about culture from Norfolk County Council
Norfolk Museums Service is developing new revenue streams at Norwich Castle, including weddings, corporate events and venue hire, to reduce reliance on grants and hit break-even targets. The committee heard the service recorded 75,864 visits between April and May 2026, up from 53,695 in the same period last year.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
Norfolk Museums Service is running five paid traineeships in 2026-27 for young people who face the greatest barriers to employment, placed at sites in King's Lynn, Great Yarmouth and Norwich. Participants are paid at the living wage and supervised by museum professionals, with some going on to secure permanent museum roles.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
The Ancient House Museum in Thetford has received £198,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to mark 100 years since the death of Prince Frederick Duleep Singh, the man who gifted the museum to the town. A dedicated exhibition celebrating his life and legacy is now open.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
Norwich Castle Museum has won a prestigious national award for its Keep restoration project and was shortlisted as a finalist for the Art Fund Museum of the Year. The recognitions come as the museum records a 41% surge in visitor numbers.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
Norfolk Museums Service is preparing a funding application to Arts Council England for the 2028-2033 period, with guidance expected in September and applications due in November. The outcome will shape the museums' programme for five years.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
Great Yarmouth's Time and Tide Museum is drawing up early plans to redevelop its galleries while also recording its best-ever year for school visits. The museum is also collaborating with the University of East Anglia on a new maritime trail funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
Norfolk Museums Service recorded over 52,000 school visits in 2025-26 — among the highest school engagement figures in the country — while total visitor numbers jumped 41% year-on-year in the first two months of 2026/27.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
Norfolk Museums Service's 'Kick the Dust' programme has reached over 6,100 young people through more than 20,000 individual interventions since 2018, targeting those facing barriers to employment and education. The programme offers paid traineeships, youth groups and volunteering across Great Yarmouth, King's Lynn and Thetford, with 78% of participants reporting a positive impact on their mental health.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
Norwich Castle Museum is developing a dedicated exhibition for the Year of the Normans, tying together the reopening of the Keep, a loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum, and the Norwich Friends Tapestry. A full-size replica of the Norwich Friends Tapestry is also being commissioned so it can travel to venues across Norfolk.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
Norfolk County Council's refurbishment of Norwich Castle Museum has already cost an estimated £34m, but the final bill remains uncertain due to unresolved contractual disputes. Councillors were told an update would be provided in due course.
Source: Strategic and Corporate Select Committee
Norwich Castle Museum launched a new Dungeons Tour in January 2026 and introduced a cross-subject maths and history programme for secondary pupils. The developments come as the castle drives a record 52,000 school and learning visits across Norfolk's museums.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
Norfolk Museums Service recorded its highest-ever number of school and learning visitors in 2025/26, with 432,000 total visits across its ten sites. The surge was largely driven by the reopening of Norwich Castle Museum in autumn 2025.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
Norwich Castle Museum attracted 214,000 visitors by the end of March 2026, more than double the 91,000 seen in the same period the previous year. The museum is on track to hit its target of 300,000 visitors in its first full year of operation following the Royal Palace: Reborn redevelopment.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse has received over £143,000 in grant funding to deliver activities celebrating its 250th anniversary in 2027. The money comes from two sources: the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Friends of Gressenhall.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
An exhibition marking Miffy's 70th birthday at the Time and Tide Museum in Great Yarmouth attracted 14,000 visitors compared to 8,000 in the same period the previous year. Retail sales during the exhibition jumped 440%. The museum is now hosting a Pirates exhibition before a roller-skating show opens in autumn.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
The Norfolk Museums Service has passed 10,000 members on its Museums Pass scheme, providing a stable income stream as the service looks to grow commercial events such as weddings and banquets at Norwich Castle to offset financial pressures.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
A TikTok video exploring Victorian grills at King's Lynn Museum attracted 277,000 views, highlighting social media as a key tool for drawing visitors to Norfolk's museums. Visitor numbers at the site rose to 23,000 in 2025/26, up from 22,700 the previous year.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
The Kick the Dust programme, which funds heritage traineeships and youth groups across Norfolk, is secure until 2028 but will require fresh Arts Council England grant applications to continue. councillors raised concerns about both funding sustainability and the potential impact of local government reorganisation on future support.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
Great Yarmouth's Time and Tide Museum has successfully passed an early stage of a National Lottery Heritage Fund bid as it begins planning a significant redevelopment. The project is expected to unfold over several years.
Source: Norfolk Joint Museums Committee
Councillors raised alarm that further budget cuts at the Norfolk Record Office could cost specialist jobs that cannot be replaced, pushing the archive into a trajectory of managed decline. The concerns were formally noted in the service risk register.
Source: Norfolk Records Committee
The Norfolk Record Office is running a pilot workshop series to improve media literacy skills using archive materials, and is pursuing National Archives funding to preserve the papers of Norfolk naturalist Ted Ellis, with £2,500 in match funding already secured.
Source: Norfolk Records Committee
The Norfolk Record Office held ten workshops for school groups in the six months to March 2026, reaching 271 pupils. The archive also launched a new community history project focused on Norfolk country houses, attracting 70 volunteer expressions of interest.
Source: Norfolk Records Committee
King's Lynn Library has seen a dramatic surge in visitors since reopening in March 2026, with weekly footfall jumping from 898 to 8,298 people — a more than ninefold increase. The figures mirror a similar trend seen after Great Yarmouth Library reopened. Cabinet members highlighted the results as evidence of strong public demand for library services.
Source: Cabinet
Pathmakers, the charity that delivers Norfolk's Walking Festival, is looking for volunteer walking guides and new walk suggestions ahead of this September's event. Training will be provided to anyone who signs up, and organisers are particularly keen to add routes in west Norfolk.
Source: Norfolk Local Access Forum
The Norfolk Record Office has received nearly £250,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to research and digitise records relating to 88 lost country houses across Norfolk. The Hall Marks project runs until September 2027 and will include public workshops, volunteer opportunities, and a major exhibition.
Source: Norfolk Records Committee