THE existence of Skipton's Craven Museum is not known to almost half the local population.

Skipton's self-dubbed "best kept secret" is perhaps too much of one to many Craveners and the museum's curator has said there is an "urgent need" to make the public aware of the treasure trove of local history.

The shocking statistic is just one of many revealed following an eight month period of market research, pooling data from visitors to the museum and from a postal survey of nearly 600 Craven residents.

The research into opinions on the museum has been carried out as part of a marketing strategy to determine how its future will be shaped in the next millennium.

Of those who returned their questionnaires 82 per cent had not visited the museum in the last 12 months and an alarming 44 per cent did not even know it existed.

Most of the unaware lived outside the environs of Skipton, and plans are afoot to take the museum to rural areas, perhaps by means of an outreach service.

This would probably take the form of small, tabletop exhibitions suitable for venues such as libraries, village halls and schools.

Curator Siobhan Kirrane said: "There is a clear and urgent need to raise residents' awareness of their museum service.

"We must be missing something and we must find some way to reach those people who don't know about us. One of the problems is we have a very good location in town but we are tucked away behind the town hall.

"One of the first priorities has to be better signage. A lot of people say they just stumbled upon the museum while attending a flea market."

But for people who live further afield, raising awareness pro-actively is to be the way forward.

Among ideas being mooted are promotional exhibitions in the council's mobile information service bus, or widening the field of the museum's summer roadshows.

Courting younger museum-goers is also a priority, with figures revealing an "under developed audience" of under 15s - just 11 per cent compared with a national average of 33 per cent.

An interactive computer with information on Craven's history is already under development but stronger links with local schools is another way the museum says it could attract younger visitors.

"Twilight evenings" for teachers are being mooted and the National Curriculum is likely to be considered in all developments.

As far as the layout of the current displays are concerned, the marketing strategy states that they are "seriously overcrowded" and eventually a total redesign would mean the storage of many items to enable more effective displays.

Ironically, despite the lack of awareness among Craveners, curator Siobhan says last Wednesday's attendance reached an all time high, with 422 people passing through the doors.

Museum assistant Kath Kershaw said: "I think it was a fateful combination of terrible weather, the half-term holiday and the great papier mache exhibits by Peter Rushton we are showing at the moment."

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