Battle of Waterloo Bicentenary Exhibition

The centrepiece of the new Waterloo exhibition was a 1970s diorama created by Mike Buxton of Valhalla Models which takes a creative approach of representing a fluid vision of the entire battle rather than highlighting a single moment in the battle. An artwork in its own right, the diorama had restoration and conservation work completed to make it a wonderful draw card for visitors.

The museum successfully leveraged this interest to increase their number of visitors but also encouraging them to explore the museum's full collection. A series of events during the exhibition saw a rise of visitor numbers far surpassing expectations and also resulted in increases in admission sales and shop sales.

This has created a wonderful chance for the museum to reach out to new audiences and, most importantly, given them renewed enthusiasm for exploring ways they can present the remaining collection to engage their audiences.

A project spokesperson said: “It has caused trustees to examine proactively and enthusiastically how the lessons learned may be taken forward in improving museum display, interpretation and interactivity.”