Release date: 7th May 2020

Arts Council England have awarded The Vindolanda Charitable Trust a grant for just over £34,700 from the Emergency Response Fund to support the wages two of the Trust's key workers for a six month period and facilitate a new ways of creative engagement with the staff and volunteers as well as the wider Vindolanda online global community. 

A series of ten behind the scenes short films will be produced that open up some of the Trust's reserve collection to the public, access to these films will be freely available through the Trust's website.

The general public are also being asked to engage with the Vindolanda collection and its two museums through 'Vindolanda Inspired'. The public can submit images of their creative responses to the Trust's online presence in any art form.  Two early submission have included a love letter written to Vindolanda and a replica of the Vindolanda Roman horse standard, made from cardboard and Vindolanda excavation t-shirts!

The Trust's Curator, Barbara Birley said "We grateful to Arts Council England for their support. With this grant we can not only maintain the Trust's online presence but also build new ways of engaging with the community and releasing information about our collection while the museums are closed. 2020 was due to be a year of celebration for the Trust as we reached our 50th anniversary. These are exceptional times and we are determined to adapt as quickly as we can to ensure our objectives of making our collection accessible can still be achieved".

In addition the Vindolanda staff, volunteers and trustees have been invited to submit their 'Favourite Five'. These lists of personal highlights of the site, museums and collections will be published on the website and it is hoped they will inspire others to make a visit to the sites when it is once again safe to do so.

Global Vindolanda