THE newly announced Worcestershire Poet Laureate Suz Winspear has been appointed as the Poet in Residence at the Museum of Royal Worcester.

She will be in the post for a year and intends to play a pivotal role in attracting new audiences to the museum. She has already visited the museum several times to study the collection and meet past factory workers and artists.

She has discovered that the museum offers a wealth of inspiration for her work and her poem ‘I do the Chinese’ is a touching and poignant poem about an early painter at the factory.

Museum director Amanda Savage said: “Her energy, perception and enthusiasm lead Suz to capture the very essence of ‘The Porcelain’. We are excited about and look forward to the final output of her time with us, but know for certain we and our visitors can depend on an eventful and stimulating programme of events.”

Suz said: “I intend this year to be a celebration of the wonderful skill, imagination and creativity of the ordinary working-class people of Worcester who created the most beautiful porcelain in the world.

“This is a fantastic opportunity and I am really looking forward to taking up my residency in this fascinating museum.”

The residency comes at an exciting time for the museum as it embarks on a Heritage Lottery Funded project to re-interpret the collections.

The new displays will explain the manufacturing process and will for the first time feature social history, the workers’ incredible skills, the conditions in which they worked and their remarkable achievements.

The residency will draw to an end during the Worcestershire Literature Festival in June 2017.

Poems, performances and updates about Suz’s work will be published on the museum’s website www.museumofroyalworcester.org and social media pages throughout the year.