St Helens’ World of Glass launches £50,000 Crowdfunder to ‘buy time’ to survive

The World of Glass in St Helens has raised just over £12,400 of an emergency Crowdfunder launched in a bid to save it from closure.

The town’s attraction is 25 years old this year but instead of celebrating the milestone anniversary it’s fighting a desperate battle to survive.

It needs to collect £50,000 in just three months which, if not successful, could see it forced to close its doors for good.

“We’re trying to buy time to put improvements in place,” says deputy director Katie Wade.

“We have made changes and things have started to get better in the last 12 months, but we still need help.”

The World of Glass was a flagship millennium project, opening in 2000 to tell the story of the town’s historic glass industry.

An independent charity, it offers cultural and educational experiences, as well as hands-on exhibits and live glass blowing.

The museum – which houses one of the finest examples of a regenerative furnace in England and a Grade II listed tank house, and has been invited by the Glass Art Society to partner with them to host the International Festival of Glass and the British Glass Biennale in 2026 – has seen more than one million people pass through its doors since it opened and is visited by thousands of schoolchildren in the area every year.

But despite this the last few years have seen an increasing struggle to make ends meet.

Increasing costs of energy, staffing and other overheads have played their part, along with competition for funding in the charity sector.

“We are making applications for funding which will make a huge difference. This is a sector which relies heavily on grants and funding and we need time to apply for bids.

“We have put them in recently,” Katie continues, stressing the need for the £50,000 support plan to see them get to that point.

Getting people through the door will also help.

“We need to make people more aware of who and where we are,” adds Katie. “Many locals don’t know we’re here or what we are, let alone the wider Liverpool City Region.

“And that’s a big part of it too, getting new people to realise we are here and make it a region-wide attraction.

“We have been free for the last two years to make it accessible to more and more people and we have started to work on some really good things, like a three month programme of events which is really exciting.

“There’s lots of things to see in places like Liverpool but we need to coax people further into the outskirts of the city and help people realise that are other things to do too and make World of Glass an attraction for the region as a whole, not just St Helens.” 

The Crowdfunder will give the charity time to work on its plans.

“This is something that’s too important to lose.”

⁠“This museum tells the story of our town, our families, and our future,” adds director Sarah Taylor. “We’re urging everyone who has ever visited, learned, or been inspired by this space to help save it. 

“We’ve been in the centre of St Helens culture for the past 25 years and want to be around for the next 25 and beyond.”

Support The World of Glass and help it survive by supporting here.

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