The Kitchen Project: 2023-2030

The Kitchen Project is the next step in the multi-million pound redevelopment of the museum’s 84-acre site. The project will deliver a series of exciting and engaging programmes of activities and exhibitions, including creating new opportunities for partnerships and volunteering.

Capital works

The project will transform the presentation of a group of buildings at the centre of the museum’s large 84-acre site to explore how food is and has been made. This will include:

• The Factory: The ‘Robert Boby Building’ was part of a 19th-century factory complex, relocated to the museum from Bury St Edmunds in the 1980s when the factory site was redeveloped. This versatile and attractive space will house a permanent display about industrial food production.
• The Barn: Conservation and repair of the Grade II* Medieval Barn at the museum’s entrance. We will restore the 14th-century barn to highlight its stunning features and bring it into year-round use. A new introductory film will be the starting point for future visits.
• The House: New displays in the 18th-century Grade II* Abbot’s Hall will tell the story of food in the home, how we learn to cook and how food reflects and shapes identity and culture.
• New paths will link the exhibition spaces together to help improve accessibility and the experience of the museum for all visitors.

 

Activities

A series of exhibitions, events and activities will be delivered each year in partnership with others. They include:

• School Dinners – opening at Easter 2025, this exhibition will explore school food and its history. Young people have participated in its creation through our Young Curators programme and the Jubilant! youth arts festival.
• Bringing in the Harvest – Who were and are the communities who grow our food? This programme will focus on harvest-time and who was and is involved in getting our food from the fields, particularly focusing on GRT communities and migrants. The museum holds an important collection of GRT (Gypsy, Romany, Traveller) vehicles and objects. Historically GRT families played a key role in the farm labour pool. They moved from farm to farm as each crop needed harvesting seasonally.
• Food in Wartime – ‘The land army fights in the fields. It is in the fields of Britain that the most critical battle of the present war may well be fought and won’, according to Lady Denman, Director of the Women’s Land Army (and also the first president of the Women’s Institute). This programme will explore the critical contribution of women to farming at a pivotal point in its evolution and present the testimony left by former members of the Women’s Land Army.
• Eating the Empire – The connections between the UK and its Empire are myriad with far-reaching legacies and impacts. We intend to work with diaspora communities to look at the subject of Britain’s imperial past focusing on different cultures, foodstuffs, industries and topics.

 

If you are interested in partnering with the museum or getting involved with our work, please email contact@foodmuseum.org.uk

 

The project is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Suffolk County Council.