Museums and Leisure Centres providing online activities

Stoke-on-Trent museums and leisure centres have adapted their services to provide more online content during the pandemic.

The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery has a series of blogs and vlogs, with lots of information about the site’s collections including behind-the-scenes tours which can be accessed via: https://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag/blog.

The museum’s YouTube channel also now includes ‘event’ activities for families such as performers and a range of craft workshops to enjoy at home, as well as a series of talks for adults. The museum has a ‘community section’ online, with contributions from residents, artwork based on museum items and people’s ‘mini museums’ at home. This section also has examples of #SoTRainbow art and public literary responses to the pandemic.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council-run leisure centres continue to be closed during the coronavirus restrictions, with a whole range of activities online. The service has staged 16 live workouts through lockdown, which have been viewed 26,987 times with an average 1,687 per session. Leisure teams have also created 45 pre-recorded workouts, viewed a total of 33,155 times with an average 754 views per session.

Anyone can access the videos – even if they are not a member of a council gym. The live classes are available on leisure centre Facebook pages for Shapes and Dimensions and the Wallace Sports and Education Centre. The can also be found on YouTube via https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfyJ-Tk38MOWTOOJDJbNaNw.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council Leader Abi Brown said: “We have been working hard to make as many services as possible accessible during the lockdown, and it is fantastic to see so many residents using our online and digital resources at this time. Much credit needs to be given to our teams for working in new ways to provide services, and we will continue to work hard in different ways for residents, until national guidance makes it possible for us to reopen buildings in safe and accessible ways.”