New Mary Rose Trust appeal seeks new 'crew' of 500 donors
Howard Lake | 12 October 2009 | News
The Mary Rose Trust is launching a public appeal to help fund its new £35 million museum project. It is seeking 500 individuals, schools, businesses and organisations to come on board and symbolically become the ‘new crew’ of the Tudor warship.
Each new crew member will pledge to raise £500 towards the appeal’s £250,000 target, which will contribute to the final £1 million public appeal total to help fund the new Mary Rose Museum.
The appeal was launched in the 500th anniversary year of King Henry VIII’s accession to the throne and of his commissioning of the Mary Rose, his flagship.
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To promote the public appeal the trust presented previously unseen artefacts recovered from the ship. These included Europe’s oldest example of a fiddle complete with its bow; a beautifully preserved leather ‘manbag’, the height of Tudor fashion; and the giant wooden spoon used to stir the crew’s porridge pot.
The items have been stored away from public view in the Mary Rose’s reserve collection due to a lack of display space. They have been brought out of storage to highlight the need to for the new museum.
The new museum will complete the preservation of the wreck of the Mary Rose and reunite the ship with thousands of hidden treasures that have never before been displayed in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, the Mary Rose’s home.
The Trust has already been awarded a £21 million Heritage Lottery Fund grant so now has to raise an additional £14 million to complete the project.
The Trust has produced a video for the campaign:
www.maryrose500.org
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.