Helen Grant

Promoting Maidstone's museums

I am very flattered to have been invited to become President of the Board of Trustees of Maidstone Museums' Foundation and I am thrilled to take up the position. My role will be acting as an advocate to support and promote the work of three museums including; Maidstone Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery, The Carriage Museum in Mill Street and the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regimental Museum.

I join the Trust just as plans for the East Wing Development at Maidstone Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery are getting underway. A lottery grant of £2m will be matched by funds from other sources to finance the project. The development will significantly enhance the museum's public and educational facilities and create more access to its outstanding collections. In addition it will allow the Council's Visitor Information Centre to be relocated to the museum, offering a better service in a more visible location. The redevelopment will promote tourism and economic growth and assist the Council in meeting its life-long learning agenda.

I will do all I can to help the Trustees achieve their goals. History was one of my favourite subjects at school and I have always been interested in archaeology too. In fact my first business venture at the ripe old age of 8 was digging up old bottles and artefacts on a Victorian dump near my home in Carlisle, and selling them to local curio shops.

Most recently I attended a concert at the museum in Faith Street as part of the 150th Anniversary Celebrations for Maidstone Museum and the Bentlif Art Gallery. The concert was performed by the Primavera Chamber Ensemble to a packed house who played a varietal collection of works by well loved composers including Handel, Puccini, Borodin. It was a pleasure and a privilege to be there and I was delighted with the outcome. Maidstone museum's Elizabethan elegance is a perfect setting for musical evenings and I am looking forward to the next event very much indeed.