Friends of Rumble

Become a Friend of the Rumble Museum

Rumble Museum is an accredited museum based at Cheney School, and run by educational charity The Iris Project. It is unique in the UK. It is a fully accredited museum spread across the site of a busy, diverse and vibrant state school. Its collection ranges from stone age tools to modern day brain surgery instruments, with very many things in between.
 
We are looking for a new sponsor to support us as we continue to develop our exciting projects, events, displays and exhibitions for the busy, diverse community of east Oxford and beyond. If you think you might like to partner with us on our journey, please see below for further information, and get in touch on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 
We run Friends of the Rumble Museum scheme is for anyone who would like to support us and stay closely in touch with our work. For £30 per year (or as much as you feel you would like to offer), Friends will receive our weekly newsletter, priority seats at our talks and events, and invitations to displays and project opening events. 
 
You can find more information about us below or by exploring our website.
 
If you would like to become a Friend of Rumble, you can do so here:
 
 
We will send an email notification at the end of each year to ask if you would like to renew your subscription.
 

Introduction to the Rumble Museum

 
Rumble Museum is an accredited museum based at Cheney School, and run by educational charity The Iris Project. It is unique in the UK. It is a fully accredited museum spread across the site of a busy, diverse and vibrant state school. Its collection ranges from stone age tools to modern day brain surgery instruments, with very many things in between. 
 
During lockdown, alongside many exciting projects, we have been working for the very first time on the development of a collection tied closely to a GCSE specification (Medicine through Time), and a range of world class experts are providing voice-overs for our objects, which will be displayed in school, loaned to a partner school to pilot, and the findings shared at conferences later next year.
 
Cheney School is a large comprehensive secondary school, in a very diverse area of east Oxford, where over 30% of the students have English as an additional language, and over 30% of students are on free school meals. 
 
We are looking to develop our work with the community and to take the museum to the next level in terms of community outreach and building museum learning into the curriculum of both Cheney and schools across the city. 
 
Our vision for the Rumble Museum is:
  • to continue to grow our collections and displays;
  • to provide access to fascinating handling objects which can be used in lessons in any faculty and subject;
  • to support staff in using objects and museum learning within their lessons;
  • to provide a sustainable community base for museum activities and event;
  • to become a centre of excellence for artefact care, collection and display, and museum learning, in a school setting
In order for us to achieve these aims, in the short term, we need to be able to continue projects that we are working on, as well as embarking on new ways to engage and educate using our museum resources. Unfortunately, we are at a time when grant-making bodies which we would usually apply to have closed their programmes or directed them in ways which exclude us from applying. 
 
We need funds to complete the following exciting projects:

Technology through Time
 
Next term, we are excited to be working with the History of Science Museum on an exciting project to create some new technology displays in our new cabinets on the first floor of the Lane Building. We already have a small collection of technology items in our Technology through Time Collection. In order to develop our collections, we are calling for members of the wider community to loan or donate items to our collections.

We plan to work with Year Nine History students to explore both our own artefacts and ones which we are donated from the local community, and to create displays which narrate the stories of these objects in a way which connect with lots of strands of the school curriculum, from history and culture, to design and economy.
 
Protest and Power Displays
 
We have begun creating a display of our collections connected to protest and power, including a cabinet of Women's Suffrage items and one containing a range of items connected to Racial Justice. We would like to expand these displays with information boards and new cabinets to display other items. We plan to run a series of workshops with the students to introduce the themes and objects, and then work closely to co-curate a set of displays about the objects which will be accessible, engaging, and relevant to the lives and experiences of the 1700 students who visit the school site each day, as well as for the wider community of parents, staff, and visitors.
 
History of Cycling Project
 
We are working with our Museum Council students to explore the history of cycling and bicycles in Oxford, and would like to create a display of this local story in a permanent exhibition with both historical information and future ideas about how to encourage young people to travel in healthy and sustainable ways. 
 
All donations, however large or small, can make an enormous difference to our work, and every penny will be used towards the work itself. You can specify which project you would like to donate to, and we will include your donation in signage and on our website if you would like us to do so. 
 
If you would like to join us on this journey and think that you might be able to make a contribution towards any of our projects or our work more generally, we would be delighted to hear from you.
 
If you would like to join us on this journey and think that you might be able to make a contribution towards any of our projects or our work more generally, we would be delighted to hear from you. You can donate by getting in touch or using the link above.