'The People's Map of Leeds' at the Stanley and Burton Gallery

Cartography and the Arts have always been embroiled in a long, sometimes inexplicable, love-affair. And this weird mix seeps into our lives on so many levels. As a footnote and introduction of myself, I have spent four years of my life researching medieval maps for my PhD and here I am newly appointed at the Stanley and Burton Gallery surrounded with what I enjoy most (almost as much as maps!): art at its best, paintings and drawings, and all that jazz! You’ll certainly hear excited noises from my direction every now and then, here and elsewhere, in the future.
Well, to get back to my original topic, it seems it’s high time to re-read ‘The Selected Works of TS Spivet’ by Reif Larsen (also: wouldn’t everyone want to be a child prodigy cartographer, even if somewhat disturbed…?)! I’m very pleased that these two, maps and art, meet once again, and this time everyone is invited to get involved… You can come to see us and play with your city! Join in our free, interactive 'People's Map of Leeds' with artist Louise Atkinson, throughout the evening in the Parkinson Court. Light Night visitors - both young and old - are invited to participate in the creation of a large-scale drawing based on a map of Leeds on Friday, 8 October, 2010, 5-10pm. Referencing the Gallery's current exhibition 'All Over the Place: Drawing Place, Drawing Space,' Louise will led visitors to experiment with drawing and mark-making techniques in response to the daily activities and memories of the places they inhabit. Participants will also be encouraged to bring 2D items such as pictures and letters to contribute to the map, as well as cut-out templates, which will be supplied by the artist. We’d love to see you leave your mark on Louise’s map as your move across the Light Night trail of activities of the city!
In the same vein, and at the same time, Louise will launch her awesome beta site designed to map independent gigs, venues and goings-on in the city: the first demo of the new collaborative geo-wiki www.independentfullstop.com. She'll be on hand to help you share all your favourite places and events in the city. Markers added on the night will receive a limited edition #onthemap badge.
Thinking about mark-making, as well as techniques of representing space and loci is no doubt an excellent pastime. This whole thing ties in wonderfully with the gallery’s Temporary Exhibition and find thinking about spaces in the context of art very inspirational. Take this from a woman who gets excited about the Tube Map.

A Walking Art Gallery... 'What the Flock?!'

This is a follow up on my last blog. What seemed to be a static, one off happening has turned into one that is moving through time and space. Over the last week I have watched the spray painted stencils, which existed on the main route from Hyde Park to the University, become faded under the foot of many a student on the way to lectures. I thought these were the only remains. However, this morning I witnessed the return of the flock, or more precisely of 'what the flock?!' Cardboard cut outs of black sheep on sticks were yet again stuck in the marshy grass of Hyde Park. This time with the date 10/10/10 printed on them. What did the date mean? Perhaps it was informing us of the beginning of the exhibition, proper, or even more interestingly the end-date. This got me thinking about the life-span of exhibitions. Conventional exhibitions usually advertise when, where and how long the exhibit is going to be. We are too often used to planning to go to an exhibition at a certain time and place. However it is becoming an increasingly common occurrence to stumble across artworks in public domains, which, repeating what i said in my last blog, gives us an entirely different experience. It is a much more confrontational kind of experience, we see it and experience it whether we like it not. For example, like in the case of the Mysterious Banksy, who has given rise to graffiti art.

I thought my questions would be answered when I caught a glimpse of a black sheep out of the corner of my eyes whilst sat on the Parkinson steps. I looked up to see a parade of people dressed as sheep with the trade-mark black-sheep-on-stick in hand. They were anouncing the date through a megaphone. I ran over to see if they would shed any light on what the flock was going on, but apparnetly they had no idea either. I was simply instructed to go to http://www.whattheflock.org.uk/ at 10pm on the 10/10/10. The 'exhibition' was now moving to cyber space. This is interesting as the internet is increasingly becoming a platform for new-media art and an art space in its own right. This is reminisent of the previously blogged Art experiment 'Second Life' by Hayley Goodsell. Creating virtual environments in which art can exist, or virtual environments and web pages that are actually art, again bring to mind the question of the art gallery. What constitutes an art Gallery? As you have suggested Mark work by the likes of Christo, who makes huge landmarks such as the Reichstag, Berlin (1971-95) into art objects by wrapping them up, thus making the environmental space surrounding it the viewing gallery. Therefore if the art object exists on your computer screen your bedroom becomes the gallery. It won't be long until an 'art gallery' app will be come available, if it hasn't already, making anywhere you are an art gallery.

After checking out the web page, which is linked to LUU, I began to wonder whether it was an art project at all. It could be anything to do with LUU from elections to the promotion of yet another weird and wonderful society or even a marketing tool for a new product. In any case I think it is an intriguing 'project' that raises issues surrounding what constitutes an art gallery. I can't wait to see what is to be revealed on Sunday.

http://www.whattheflock.org.uk/ ... watch this space!

Alex

Food For Thought

The museum restaurant, a place where once children dreamed of having a Faraday fudge Sundae or a tyrannosaurus Mex burger, now a place of limp pre-packed sandwiches, stewed tea and coffee the colour of dish water. Or is it?

With the recent growth of the stay at home holiday could the museum restaurant be on the rise?

With a recent trip to the Wallace collection, London, I got to thinking about the symbiotic relationship between the museum caterer and the museum itself. Can a restaurant add to a museum? Can a restaurant promote and gain an audience that otherwise might ignore the museums collection altogether? Can a restaurant provide a feeling of ownership and understanding of a collection which is in the nations hands? And can a museum use a restaurant to it's advantage without risks of expenditure?

Ask "who has heard of the Wallace collection?" outside of a set of friends, with whom one would be most disappointed, not many. It's a small national collection in Manchester Square housed in Hertford house. It has some of the best preserved porcelain on show, some fantastic armour, and paintings and furniture to rival any where in the world. Ask "who has seen the great British menu?" and I would suspect a lot more. It has national TV coverage, appeals to a nation that seems to be excessively drawn to cooking programs and contains a panel of three judges, one of whom, Oliver Peyton, is in the centre of the Wallace collection. Literally.

Within the central courtyard of Hertford house lay the Oliver Peyton restaurant, at the top of a google search for the Wallace collection you see table reservations for the restaurant, and as you walk through the collection you see the restaurant, busy, alive, creating an atmosphere of life within a house which, without it, might seem a little lifeless, and the restaurant reviews make sure people know where it is.

Can we learn from this? The Leeds museum has a fine cafe, it might even be more engaging than the museum itself for some adults, the tiled hall has had a fantastic influence upon the visitor numbers for the Leeds art gallery, the terrace at Harewood house gives a feeling of watching a shooting party returning across the grounds in halcyon edwardian days, and there by creating a slightly better understanding of the house, it's architecture and the upper classes. And the royal armouries? Well... not so great.

In the examples of the Wallace collection, the Leeds museums and galleries and Harewood house, rent is paid to the collections, the restaurants draw in a number of visitors who otherwise might pass on by and, in some cases, might allow the public to feel closer to understanding certain collections. All this with little or no risk on the behalf of the museum or collection who are always, especially in the current economic climate, in need of cold hard cash. The royal armouries on the other hand, has no such symbiosis with their cafe. Built as an example of how government and private enterprise could work together it has failed.

The building which houses the national collection is owned by a catering company, so no rent for the armouries, the private company has the rights to hold large functions within the building, using the exhibits as a draw, so no money for the beleaguered armouries, and the armouries has no control of opening times, which leads to complaints about the museum, and the armouries cannot provide catering so no historical food to tie in with joust weekend, or campaign food from the peninsular war. And the food? Yep! Limp sandwiches and cold chips are the house speciality.

So if we treat the museum and restaurant relationship with respect it can bring great rewards for both parties, free advertising, increased visitor numbers, greater income and greater interaction between visitor and collection, a relationship greater than the sum of its parts. And if we get it wrong? Well let's just not! Food for thought......

Now where did I put that Gauguintuan burger?

New Technologies in Museums

Crossover Summit

Wednesday 3rd November

For those interested in the application of technology in museums and galleries, this is an interesting session being offered as part of Sheffield Documentary Festival:

'There will also be a special showcase of how archives, museums and galleries are exploiting new platforms to enhance public access to launch a new Crossover Lab programme designed to forge collaborations between film-makers, games, web or mobile developers and archive holders.'

Bring-a-thing-athon

The Wellcome Collection have instigated a quite spectacularly named 'bring-a-thing-athon' for their next artist-led exhibition, Things. Intriguingly, you can bring them anything between 12 and 19 October as long as it's smaller than your head (although the small print says you can't lend or donate wet specimens, human remains or explosives. Boring.)

Gallery Wall to Hyde Park Floor, ‘What the flock?!’

Hi everyone I’m Alex and this is my first blog. Where better to start than a trail of stenciled sheep, each titled ‘What the flock?!’ The trail lead me through Hyde park yesterday morning to a full flock of cardboard cutouts stuck on sticks and some hanging in the trees. Projects like these are now a normal site to behold when walking through cities and parks. Over the last 50 years art has slowly moved away from gallery and museum walls, and now pretty much anywhere constitutes an art space. There was no sign of an artist or establishment, which made it ever more intriguing. If I had seen this in a gallery or museum situation my experience would have been somewhat different. The spontaneity of time and place allowed me to look at, think about and make conclusions (or not) about the ‘piece’ without any preconditions. I think seeing art outside gallery walls brings new dimensions to a work as it engages with the environment and the minds of those who would not usually encounter art. All in all it got my brain ticking (which at 9.30 in the morning is quite an achievement) and gave me a cheap giggle on the way to uni. I am excited to see more of this kind of thing next week at Leeds Light Night!

Alex

MGHG Conference in Leeds

The Museums and Galleries History Group Conference, 'Museums and the Market' took place at the new Leeds City Museum last weekend (10th-11th September). It was considered to be a great success by all attendees and speakers! You can read the conference programme in an earlier post on the Blog, but the event was buzzing and there was lots of debate...I just wish it could have gone on longer!
Thanks to all the people that came along, and the speakers (from USA, Germany, Belgium and across the UK)...and of course to our Keynote Speaker, Helen Rees Leahy....I'll load some more pics from the conference soon.....
I'm off to Antwerp later this week, for another Conference/Workshop...this time on the 'Location of Value'.....more anon!
Mark