Help Jessie get to the Open Palace Programme

Kia ora everyone! My name is Jessie Bray Sharpin, I am a historian who works as a Collections Assistant at the Nelson Provincial Museum.

Thank you for stopping by my fundraising page! I am fundraising because late last year I found out that I had been accepted into the Open Palace Programme, a three week course in July 2017 travelling around heritage sites in England and learning from the professionals who work at these places.

This is an amazing opportunity for me as only 25 people from around the world (NZ, Australia, USA) are selected for this unique programme.

On the programme we'll be visiting places like the Royal Crescent in Bath, the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, Stowe Palace, Windsor Castle, Kensington Palace, the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and Apsley House.

The benefit of the course is the range of different sites involved, and the different areas of museum and heritage work that the lectures and practical seminars will cover. These areas will include conservation, education and interpretation/ visitor programmes.

This kind of work is relevant to any museum or heritage site, and can be applied to my work back in Nelson at the Nelson Provincial Museum, even if the scale and age of the places that will be visited seem very different to anything we have in New Zealand.

Those of you who know me know that I am crazy about history! I would be incredibly lucky to be able to bring the knowledge and experience from the Open Palace Programme back to the Nelson Provincial Museum and my work in New Zealand. It's a brilliant opportunity for a young female historian like myself to be able to take part in.

You can learn more about the programme here: http://openpalace.co/