At the recent joint committee meeting Bill Griffiths, Senior Manager for Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) delivered a presentation about the service’s learning and community engagement in 2010/11 and the statistics were extraordinary.

Here are a few of those figures:

• 285, 795 people engaged in the learning, community and outreach activities.
• TWAM venues have engaged with 91.7% of primary schools in the Tyne & Wear area and 87.3% of secondary schools.
• TWAM has engaged with the equivalent of 25% of the Tyne & Wear population through its learning and community programmes.
• 581 volunteers contributed around 20,000 hours.
• Engagement with individuals and groups is geographically widespread and covers most of the Tyne & Wear area but also the wider North East and across the UK.

Learning and outreach groups engaged across Tyne & Wear

I am tremendously proud to be Chair of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums Joint Committee and to support the outstanding work that TWAM delivers but there’s something very powerful about seeing results in black and white.