About the NMAS

Inspiration, education and enjoyment for all

The "vision" of the Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service

"Norfolk's museum collections and landscape heritage are for the inspiration, education and enjoyment of all. Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service (NMAS) holds our common heritage in trust and makes it available to the widest possible audience."

It does this by collecting, safeguarding and making available, to the highest possible standards, sites, artefacts, specimens and information from and about Norfolk, together with other material which places the heritage of Norfolk in a national and international context. By doing so "it improves the quality of life for all of the people of Norfolk" (Norfolk Ambition: The community strategy for Norfolk 2003-2023).

The NMAS comprises 12 museums, two collections study centres and countywide services relating to archaeology and education. Electronic databases on museum collections and archaeological finds are available and regularly updated. Information about all these services can be found on this website.

Working In Partnership

The Joint Museums Agreement
The Norfolk Museums Service was established in 1974 when the County and District Councils in Norfolk agreed to delegate their museum powers to a Joint Committee to manage museums through a county-wide Museums Service. The NMAS is now regarded as one of the leaders in the museum sector and has been selected at the Lead Partner for the East of England Museum Hub, a government-funded initiative to identify regional museum centres of excellence.

The work of the Service is guided by five Area Museum Committees, reporting to the Joint Museums Committee. A team of Area Museums Officers is responsible for managing NMAS museum sites in their areas and fostering local and regional heritage partnerships.

Who is the service for?
Museums are about enabling people to understand the world about them and their place in it. The NMAS attracts over 300,000 museum visits a year making it the most effective county museums service in England.

We meet the needs of many different people through a wide variety of services including…

• Permanent displays and temporary exhibitions
• Lively events programme throughout the county
• Outreach for hard-to-reach groups
• Reminiscence sessions with older people
• Basic skills courses for adults wanting to improve their employment prospects
• Working with disadvantaged youths
• Special events for children, such as summer schools, day schools and out-of-hours clubs
• Themed event days, such as the popular Apple Day at Gressenhall
• Re-enactment and activity days for schools
• Specialist courses and study days
• Volunteering opportunities for adults, as well as work experience and work placements for school and university students
• Signed talks for deaf people
• Enquiry and identification services, such as the Identification and Recording Service for Archaeological Finds
• Easy access to information about collections and services through the NMAS website

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