This weekend Leeds-based mixed media artist Amy Balderston is taking over the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery for a very interesting experiment with the help of our visitors. To quote Amy's train of thought here, the starting point is the way Aubrey Beardsley deals with his backdrops and scenery: "I feel that within his complex worlds he makes the ordinary extraordinary. The landscapes often have something the viewer can connect to, rather than completely plucked out of his imagination. It is the characters and unusual additions to these backdrops that create such a captivating image." To explore this (very astute) observation further, visitors will be given simple templates of different backgrounds and sceneries, and Amy will help them fill these with their own thoughts and imagination with an expert hand.

The question 'What Would Aubrey Do?' arises, when it comes to Amy's art and the workshop's focus. Does it make sense to explore Aubrey Beardsley's fine black and white ink drawings by creating mixed media art at all? I think this is exactly what makes this workshop challenging and inspirational. Instead of recreating the style, the accomplished forms and lines in Aubrey's images, Amy's workshop is designed to look deeper and search for what lies in less conspicuous aspects of these pieces: the power of composition, perspective, characters, hidden, barely visible quirks of expression, the importance of the background, and other means to create the slightly ominous and almost tangible atmosphere, familiar to those who have come to see Aubrey Beardsley's art at our current exhibition.

The workshop is also carefully designed to accomodate various abilities and levels of artistic skill. Amy's templates will help to overcome the paralysing feeling of incompetence most of us experience when staring at a blank page, when we're told to create something there and then. While giving something for the mind to latch onto, the art templates are also designed to provide inspiration, a starting point for expression. The added bonus of working with mixed media is that while it is far from being basic and childish, it is a great way to alleviate the pain and frustration of the half of humanity that I belong to: I want to draw, but I just don't think I'm good enough. This normally makes me steer clear of arty workshops and run to the hills (Plus I always get to sit next to people who complain how they can't draw a straight line to save their lives and then proceed to draw the Guernica with Etch-a-Sketch, which really doesn't help). Not this Saturday though! You'll find me at the Gallery doing what I like best: cutting up pretty magazines and play with yarn.

I'm not sure Aubrey would be okay with that with his hangups about aesthetics and all, but I know that I'll come out knowing more about the artwork that I see at the Gallery almost every day. Now that is something he, the king of arcane weirdness and subtly hidden grotesque, would certainly approve of.

Join Amy and of course the illustrious company of dead book illustrators, Aubrey Beardsley, Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen and the rest of the gang at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, 2pm on Staurday, 4 December 2010.

Visit the website for more info on this and other events at the gallery.

6th December - Talk at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery

The Quakers Tea Table Overturn'd: Moral Dangers of the 18th Century Tea Party
Talk by Oliver Pickering and Liz Stainforth. Free, no booking necessary

Monday, 6 December 2010, 5.15pm Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery,University of Leeds

Come and find out about the origins of the great British institution of tea drinking. Believe it or not, the tea party was a controversial and highly debated topic throughout the 18th century, regarded by some as a sign of weakening moral standards and by others as the height of refined social intercourse. The talk includes a discussion of the unpublished 1717 poem The Quakers Tea Table Overturn'd, from a manuscript held in Special Collections at Leeds University Library. It highlights a contemporary concern that young people in Quaker families may be tempted to partake of 'worldly pleasures' through indulging in the fashion for tea parties.

The development of tea drinking is traced through observations made by such eminent contemporaries as Jane Austen, William Cobbett and Samuel Johnson. The talk is held in association with the Gallery's temporary exhibition of late 18th century tea equipage, Vanity Ware: Affordable Luxury in the Late Georgian Period.

Upcoming HMI exhibition on Angkor Vat

One of our Leeds colleagues, Dr Ashley Thompson, has guest curated an exhibition of temple inscription rubbings from Angkor Vat. More info is on
http://www.henry-moore.org/hmi/exhibitions/angkor-wat
The exhibition raises a whole host of interesting questions about the limits of display. What is one displaying, when the actual exhibits are French colonial scholars' rubbings of commemorative and votive inscriptions added to a Cambodian Hindu temple by later generations of Buddhists? And the objects (are they sculptures? are they Cambodian or French?) are being shown in a British institution of modernist sculpture? What politics and what aesthetics are involved? This would be well worth a seminar...
Watch out for an education event at the HMI in Jan/Feb.

Student exhibition 2010: Artistic Legacies: Sir Michael Sadler and Quentin Bell

This year, the Art Gallery and Museums Studies MA students had to create two displays in the Gallery Education Room at Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery at the University. The students were divided in two groups, the Ceramics Group and Works on Paper Group. The Works on Paper Group was asked to select a number of works from the 'Bloomsbury Group' and 'Camden Town Group' to display in the upright cases and provide interpretative text for the visitor.

During the handling session we decided to put together an exhibition that told the story of the Bloomsbury and Camden Town Groups, their personal relationships within the group and Leeds through people like Sir Michael Sadler and Quentin Bell.

We selected several drawings and books to create an overarching narrative structure. We wanted to create a story that could be read visually, making it more accessible to the visitor who does not want to read through everything. However, our narrative was not as clear as we had hoped, and we attempted to do too much by deciding to have an exhibition leaflet, a laminate, an activity sheet and a poster. A simpler theme and better time management would have improved our exhibition.

This project gave us the opportunity to learn how to work in a team, be aware of the challenges that exist in setting up an exhibition, and to put in practice the work done in class.

'Artistic Legacies: Sir Michael Sadler and Quentin Bell' will be at the SABG until the 23rd of December 2010

Thanks to Abigail, Layla, the University of Leeds Library Special Collections, and the works on paper group.

Student Exhibition 2010: Vanity Ware

Ten students. Two display cases. A tableful of ceramics. A baptism of fire!

Our exhibition project was an early opportunity for us to bring together all the interpretation theory we’d learnt thus far and apply it to a range of domestic ceramics from the University’s collections. Ideally our exhibition would dazzle our tutors and attract thousands of creamware-hungry visitors to the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery. It didn’t… but we did learn a lot about ourselves, the importance of a clear interpretation strategy and the practicalities of designing and assembling an exhibition.

‘Vanity Ware’ focuses on the relationship between the form and function of Leeds creamware 1760-1810. Creamware was produced as a cheap alternative to porcelain. It was used, however, to consume relatively expensive commodities like tea, coffee, chocolate and sugar. Creamware thus represented the social aspirations of the middle-classes and the increased ‘ritualisation’ of their dining and drinking habits.

From this core concept we deliberated and decided upon various methods of interpretation, marketing and display. In general the choice and design of our interpretive information received praise, as did our decision to leave a comments book to collect visitor feedback. Our exhibition could have been improved with a tighter and stronger theme rather than attempting to do and say too much. Curating by committee presented some challenges which often prevented decisive decision making. However it provided a realistic taste of the array of perspectives and interests a curator must consider when designing and assembling an exhibition. Moreover we learnt from each other’s valuable experience, becoming wiser and more considerate as a result.

Vanity Ware will be at the SABG until the end of the year.

Thanks to Abigail, Layla, Hilary and the ceramics group.

Museology Seminar Series

Hello All,

Our next 'Museology Seminar Series' talk is on Monday 15th November 2010.

Leeds University Museology Seminar Series V

'The Reconstructed Old Town of Warsaw - a World Heritage Site'

Dr Urszula Szulakowska

School of Fine Art, History of Art & Cultural Studies

University of Leeds

Monday 15th November 2010

2.00pm - 3.00pm

University of Leeds, Baines Wing, Room 3.06

ALL WELCOME

Curating the Old and the New - (and the things that are left behind)

Hello All,

all the MA students have been thinking about Foucault (again) the past few weeks - and whether such opaque ideas are useful at all, (at least for us in thinking about 'museum studies')...(the answer is of course it is!)  In relation to this I thought I'd draw your attention to a recent exhibition I went to at the Royal Museum of the Fine Arts, Antwerp. Closing Time, curated by the Belgian artist Jan Vanriet - (it's unfortunately 'closed' now...I didn't hear if they called 'last orders'.....) -Closing Time is an interesting example of the complex ways in which museums and galleries are 're-thinking' the classifications, conjunctions and narratives of their collections; (perhaps in a 'Foucauldian' way...or perhaps we've always done such things...and..doesn't assigning this process a 'name' subvert the intentions of such a project?...what, indeed, is 'an author' in this context?)
Anyway, Vanriet is a well known Belgian artist (I confess I'd not heard of him...but I'm not usually in such 'loops'..I'll avoid the cliche of 'famous Belgians'...oh I didn't..sorry!).  Vanriet had been given carte-blanche in choosing artworks from the permanent collections of the Royal Museum of the Fine Arts and re-assembled them in the temporary exhibition spaces, setting up conjunctions with his own works and disrupting the conventional taxonomies and classifications of the artworks in the gallery.  As you can see (here), paintings by 'masters' such as Hans Memling (Man with a Roman Coin c.1478) are set in dialogue with the works of Vanriet (Eva, Black Bonnet, 2006). One can see 'echoes' in these conjunctions - across time, across cultures, across visual memory.  I confess it was a beautiful exhibition - a taxonomy of poetics, instead of the 'hard science' of art history..(perhaps); and the exhibition was packed with visitors!
But.....there are, of course, 'consequences' for such interventions; I arrived at the gallery very early on a Sunday morning, and accidentally wandered into the (closed to the public) spaces of the permanent collections, from which Vanriet had rummaged and taken his choice. I was eventually, and very politely, ushered out of these spaces by the security guy, but had managed to wander through quite a few rooms before being 'caught'.

Unlike the Closing Time exhibition (which was downstairs), the spaces in the permanent galleries were rather sad.  Paintings left, forlorn, and propped up against the walls, many swathed in bubble-wrap (this was not just as a consequence of Vanriet's interventions, but also in preparation for the closure of the gallery, which is to undergo a refurbishment for the next 2 years).  But I was struck by the empty spaces on the walls alongside the artworks. 'Holes' in art history if you like - perhaps an inevitable consequence of the re-invigorating 'presence' in the Closing Time exhibition is this 'absence' - but then I suppose such effects are more than a 'necessary consequence' of the disruption of conventions, they are also a 'neccessity'!
Mark

Meet the artists - this Friday

Image : Emma Stibbon, Devil’s Throat, Iguazu, 2009, chalk drawing on blackboard (c) The Artist


This Friday, 22nd October, from 1-4.30, the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery is hosting an Artist Roundtable for the current exhibition ‘All Over the Place.' If you've enjoyed the show, it's the ideal opportunity to come in for one final time (and I mean final - it ends on Saturday!) to meet the artists yourself, and to discuss the show's themes with them. Three of the artists speaking are from our own School of Design, so it would be a great opportunity to speak to them about their work in the context of the city and campus life.

The afternoon will be chaired by Prof. David Hill. There will be a free tea and coffee break midway through the afternoon, with an open public discussion following the artists' presentations.

The event is free, no need to book, but seats are limited, so arrive on time to avoid disappointment!

The event will be held in our Education Room, which saw two new displays open today, curated by the M.A. students on the 'Interpreting Cultures' module. During the break, we invite you to view their efforts and leave your comments in the guest book for them.

Hope to see you soon in the Gallery!
Layla

Workshop: Drawing Machines with Jim Bond at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery

Light Night at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery turned out to be fantastic. Thank you for all who came and helped us make our map of Leeds bigger and better! Now, something completely different: Anyone up for kinetic stuff?

István Harasztÿ is the senior representative of kinetic art in Hungary (been around since the end of the 60s, that man). On his website, he talks lovingly about the beauty and meaning of making art literally move. He states that the primary feature of kinetic art is to leave behind superfluous elements, and somehow streamline the enjoyment and understanding of the statement conveyed by the pieces by making the interaction of sound, light, and motion as efficient as possible. This week’s Saturday event in the Gallery is bringing this idea of efficiency to the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, with the added bonus that visitors can engage and even compete with artist Jim Bond’s machines, thus becoming part of the process (and have some fun at the same time).

Jim Bond’s work, especially the wonderfully creepy Blink makes him a significant member of the international tribe of kinetic artists. Blink is an ‘eye-machine’, very much in line with Jim’s fantastically Da Vinciesque celebration of the human form and function. No, not the Dan Brown humbug, not an ounce of that: we’re talking the real Vitruvian Man stuff here. You can see the somewhat unsettling contraption made out of a WWII glass eye and brass, as the main image on his homepage. Some Bond-trivia: Bond’s Blink has travelled to Budapest two years ago and was exhibited with the aforementioned István Harasztÿ’s Situation Indicator and Attila Csörgő’s magnetic Drawing Machine. According to Jim’s page, there are two pieces of this work one in a private collection in the US and one in Kilmorack Gallery, Inverness. One wonders whether they will (whether they should) ever meet in a contraption that moves them towards and away one another. Hah. Well, anyway, this Saturday he’s bringing his quirky art to the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery for the afternoon.

This upcoming workshop brings me back to my starting point, Harasztÿ’s thoughts on the big questions of kinetic art. Not only because of that Kinetica exhibition in Budapest back in 2008, but because he touches on something very important in his web introduction. István (also known as Édeske -'Sweetie' in Hungarian), says ‘when I was a child, I made all kinds of strange contraptions for myself because I could not never find a game that would have interested me more’. Deep down kinetic art, although indubitably one of the more complex and multilayered art forms (or is it a genre?), is about fun, exploration and ingenuity and Jim Bond’s workshop will surely deliver. So come along and be the human factor.

Saturday, 16 October, 2010, 2-4pm
Join artist Jim Bond in the Gallery to test your skills against his 'drawing machines.' Each machine has a different quirk to make the experience of drawing a special challenge! Free, family-friendly, drop-in activity.

'The Location of Value' - Antwerp Workshop

Hello All,

I attended a fantastic 'Workshop' in Antwerp last week, (24th-25th September) entitled, 'The Location of Value' - (trust me, this was directly related to Museum and Art Galleries!...for what is a museum but a material manifestation of series of Values!) - There were just 14 of us, 'hot-housed' I suppose...and it was such a great experience...very effectively, efficiently, (and socially) organised by Bert De Munck and Ilja Van Damme of the University of Antwerp...

.....It was a great collegiate event.  Bert & Ilja had drawn together a seemingly disparate group...Economic Historians, Social Historians, Art Historians to both challenge disciplinary boundaries and approaches and (I think) to share knowledge and open opportunities....I think everyone who attended valued the experience!  As you can see here (picture, above) there were some animated discussions (but no fights!).
The Workshop was framed around overlapping Themes; 'Value of Art', 'Value of the Past', 'Pricing Mechanisms' and 'Negotiating Quality' - with stimulating papers by Ilja and Bert, Tomas Macsotay; Dries Lyna, Anne Wegener Sleeswijk, Phillippe Minard and Christof Jeggle (and me, of course).  There were also papers submitted by Barbara Bettoni and Giorgio Riello (unable to attend).  This was much more than a 'conference' and the dialogue between presentations and responses was illuminating, providing much food for thought.  As catalysts for debate Bert & Ilja had invited some very eminent 'Discussants', including Filip Vermeylen, Beverly Lemire, Patrick Wallis, and Bruno Blonde...and there were some insightful (and amusing) concluding remarks delivered by Victor Ginsburg!...editor of the Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture. Also present within the group was Annelies de Bie, a PhD student at the University of Antwerp......this was a really stimulating project, there should be more of these kinds of things I think, they are much more productive than conferences - (which are more like 'performances' and can tend to 'fllatten' out the issues)...here, by contrast, I felt that there was real dialogue, both across and within disciplines.......I hope that Bert and Ilja organise another one sometime!
Mark

The Big Draw: 'On Your Marks, Get Set, Design! at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery

Ooooh, while I'm at it, have you noticed those banners hanging around the café half of Parkinson Court? Good old Marks and Sparks! One almost gets excited about food rationing and nylon! Well, not just almost… In the spirit of old-fashioned Make Do and Mend and new-fangled Recycle Reuse Reduce the Gallery is bringing you a free, drop-in activity for all ages on Saturday, 9 October, 2010, 11am-4pm throughout the Parkinson Court. This free creative programme is organised as part of the Big Draw Campaign. October 2010 is Big Draw month in twenty countries and on five continents. Launched in 2000, this annual initiative has grown from 180 events in the UK to over 1500 worldwide. The Campaign aims to use drawing to connect visitors with museum and gallery collections, urban and rural spaces – and the wider community – in new and enjoyable ways.

It is, in the spirit of Big Draw, for those who love to draw and those who think they can’t. If you drop into the University of Leeds on Saturday, you can join in some creative recycling and make a sustainable statement for future fashion. Be inspired by the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery and the Marks & Spencer 'Marks in Time' Exhibition here in Parkinson Court to redesign and customise your cast-offs, or get creative with an M&S eco-bag. Can't be bothered with fashion? You can also create designs and drawings on paper, and think about new ways of packaging and think in terms of industrial design. But if you're into your handbags and gladrags: with all the vintage and crafts fairs going on (e.g. Handmade III right this coming Sunday and the Vintage Fair and Tea Party in Chapel Allerton on 16 October), and amazing student run initiations, like the Peanut Gallery in the Union, Leeds students are probably way savvier in this field than anyone else. If you need guidance and how-to, our volunteers will be at hand with help and stuff you may need: a selection of plain T-shirts, eco-bags, and materials to design and embellish your item will be provided along with help and advice. And, of course, feel free to bring along your own items and materials too. More about this event at our website.

'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

Curator, there's a butterfly in my fruit

This week I managed to put down my bucket and spade long enough to see what the many and various museums of Brighton and Hove had to offer. The Royal Pavilion was showing a particularly interesting installation/intervention of three thousand black ceramic butterflies by Clare Twomey called 'A Dark Day in Paradise'. It teetered quite efficiently between decorative and distressing, the play between theme and variation was satisfying. I'm not sure of the stability of their significance, I was reminded occasionally of the treasure hunts galleries and museums stage for children in that, paradoxically, concentration can become distracting. Also surprising that they weren't also for sale in the gift shop!

New Design Template...a new Blog-o-sphere

The Blog has been a bit quiet lately, with only the valiant efforts of Rebecca to keep the lamp burning...(Thanks Rebecca!)....I've been a little bit preoccupied, writing some stuff I'm supposed to be delivering soon...(more anon.).
But anyway, I thought, in order to breath some more life into the embers I'd redesign the webpage...(well, it's more of a pret-a-webpage, rather than me actually fiddling about with photo-shop...and that comment demonstrates that I'm really not up-to-date with these techy things.....)...so what do you think?...or should we go back to the old design?

Anyway...thanks Rebecca for a really provocative post...and you're right, these 'traditional' museum displays are quite romantic...(in a positive sense, I mean....as in the poetics of history....)..and are part of the heritage of museum displays..maybe there should be a new body to protect museums from being re-displayed?....maybe we should develop a Grading for Museums...as they do for Architecture etc...?

More blogging to come...
Mark

In Praise of Independent Museums

I think this might be the best one room, one pound museum I've come across on my recent travels. I thought these dioramas from Marazion Museum were really worth sharing. It's easy to be disparaging, but museums that lie outside centralised funding structures and formal accreditation can perhaps pursue more interesting, or eccentric, or alarming, modes of classification and conservation. At their best, independent museums seem to disrupt the ways in which the museum professional is figured, even revealing their efforts as just a little turgid. Or perhaps I'm being unintentionally condescending in implying an enthusiastic amateurishness at work, in a similar way to the contemporary perception of 'outsider art'?

MGHG Annual Conference

Hello,
here is the programme for the annual Museums and Galleries History Group conference. Hope to see you in Leeds...you can book at
mghg.org

Mark


Conference Programme

Friday 10th September 2010

9.15 - Conference Registration
10.00 - Welcome
10.10 - Welcome to Leeds: John Roles, Director, Leeds City Museums
10.30 - Conference Keynote: Dr Helen Rees Leahy, Director of the Centre for
Museology, University of Manchester

11.10 – Coffee

11.40 – Conference Session 1: Commerce & Consumption
Steven Miles (University of Brighton) Contrived Communality: the gallery and museum as a themed space for post-industrial consumption
Christine Guth (Royal College of Art) Blockbusters and Museum Merchandise: Marketing Hokusai’s “Great Wave”
Gareth Williams (Royal College of Art) On Design Art

13.00 – Lunch Break

14.00 – Conference Session 2: The Formation of Taste
Julia Courtney (The Open University) ‘The stuffed animals will have to go’: Alderman Jacob, William Chalkley and Dr Cottrill
Stephanie Schumann (The Drawing Centre, New York) (title tbc)
Louise Tythacott (University of Manchester) The Power of Taste: the dispersal of the Berkeley Smith collection of Chinese ceramics at Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum (1921-1960)

15.20 – Coffee

15.50 – Conference Keynote: Professor Jos Hackforth-Jones, Director of Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London

16.30 – Optional Guided Tour of the Leeds Discovery Centre

Saturday 11th September 2010

9.30 – Parallel Conference Sessions 3 & 4

Conference Session 3: Philanthropy
Andrea Meyer (Institut für Kunstwissenschaft und Historische Urbanistik, Berlin) Museum directors as money makers: a reinvestigation of the history of the National Gallery in Berlin
Jozef Glassée (The Catholic University of Leuven) Buying Art for Ghent: The Ghent Museum Friends and the European Art Market (1897-c.1930)
Martin Weiss (University of Leiden) ‘With a Little Tacit Encouragement’: Teylers Museum’s Paleontological Collection

Conference Session 4: Circulating Commodities
Savithri Preetha Nair (Independent Scholar) The Rise of the Natural History Dealer in Colonial India
Sam Alberti & Christopher Plumb (University of Manchester) The Beastly Marketplace: Animal Commodities in Shops, Museums, and Other Sites of Display
Lina Tahan (Leeds Metropolitan University) The role of the Lebanese agents and dealers in the development of the Louvre Museum near Eastern Collections

10.50 – Coffee

11.20 - Parallel Conference Sessions 5 & 6

Conference Session 5: Regeneration and the Cultural Economy
Susannah Eckersley (University of Newcastle) Regeneration by Museum? Case studies from Germany
Patrick Haughey (Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston) Hamilton’s Classroom: the museum of American Finance and the education of a market citizen
Mariam Al-Mulla (University of Leeds) Heritage in Qatar: an example of culturally-led economic regeneration



Conference Session 6: Museums and Identities
Natasha Degen (University of Cambridge) A National Type of Imagination: Nation branding and the museum
Uta Protz (Kunsthalle, Bremen) Modern French Painting and the Musee du Louvre: the impact of the studio sale of Gustave Courbet 1881
Annalea Tunesi (University of Leeds) An enigmatic façade: Palazzo Mozzi-Bardini in Florence

12.50 – Lunch Break and MGHG Annual General Meeting

14.00 – Conference Session 7: Leeds in Perspective
Mark Steadman (University of Leeds) Mail Order Museums: Recovering the market forces behind Nineteenth-Century Natural History collecting practices
Rebecca Wade (University of Leeds) ‘A Love of Truth even in Trifles’: the exhibition of art and manufactures in mid-nineteenth century Leeds
Geoffrey Forster (The Leeds Library) William Bullock in Leeds

15.20 – Coffee

15.50 – Conference Session 8: Museums and the Art Market

Esmée Quodbach (The Frick Collection, New York) ‘Trying to catch a rising star’: Vermeer on the Art Market 1870-1920
Anne Helmreich (Case Western Reserve University, Ohio) Strategies of Display: the museum and the commercial art gallery in nineteenth-century Britain

16.50 – Closing Remarks: Alan Crookham, Chair, MGHG

Art workshop at Gallery experiments with virtual exhibitions in Second Life

Next Saturday, 10 July, the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery is running an innovative new adult workshop, led by artist Hayley Goodsell. Hayley has been inspired by the Haunch of Venison's much talked about show, 'Shoebox Art,' which invited some of the country's top artists to decorate a room within a shoebox. Hayley is inviting her participants to do the same, creating a bedroom from their past, a dream or one from a photograph. Then, the works will be photographed and re-created in a virtual format online, in Second Life. Thus, anyone in the world will be able to visit the resulting artworks!


Second Life (for those of you as tech-savvy as I was a few weeks ago) is an online 'virtual world' where users - represented by avatar characters - can build their own environments and interact with other avatars. The University has leased some 'virtual land' for researchers to experiment with this phenomenon and many different projects have resulted. The virtual island where the University of Leeds and other sister organisations are based is called 'Education UK'. If you log into the programme online, you'll know you've found the right place if you spot our iconic Parkinson Building in virtual form! You'll also encounter the results of various research projects, including artificially intelligent beasts and a hip disco. (To get a sneak peak at the Education UK island, watch this You Tube video - though this is 3 years old and many new things have been added since!)

The workshop runs from 11-4pm on 10 July (with lunchbreak). Materials fee is £5 or £4 student concessions. To book, please contact Hayley by email: hayley@hayleylouisegoodsell.com

'All Over the Place' opening night

Come one come all to our next exhibition opening! 'All Over the Place: Drawing Place, Drawing Space' opens tomorrow evening from 6-8pm at SAB Gallery. Among the 17 artists involved, 4 are lecturers in the School of Design. All are inspired by the relationship between space/place and drawing - with varied resulting images.







Hope to see you tomorrow, and if not, the show is on until 23 October 2010.





Image: Iguazu Falls, by Emma Stibbon, 2009, chalk on blackboard, (c) The Artist







Also open in the Education Room this summer (14 June- 27 August) is 'Representing the Romany' - materials from Special Collections Romany Collection. Includes a painting on a butterfly wing, among other treasures.







Have a great summer!

Image: Detail from Die Rotwelsch Grammatic, Augsberg, 1520, Leeds University Library Special Collections

Tate Trumps (the noun, not the verb)

Another interesting app, perhaps more daft than edifying!

Tate Trumps from Hide and Seek on Vimeo.

'Write Me a Picture' creative writing workshops

The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery invites you all to attend a series of creative writing/art workshops, 'Write Me a Picture'. Run by local poets Suzannah Evans, David Tait and Rosie Blagg, the 3 workshops (all different) investigate the relationship between visual art and verbal creativity. Participants will draw inspiration from the artworks on display to create prose and poetry responses.

This cross-displinary workshop should be of great interest to those of you who are interested in Gallery education and in creative ways of interpreting art. The first workshop runs this Sat, 5 June, 1.30-4pm, and subsequent sessions are 26 June and 17 July.

The workshops are £5/£4 concession rate. Book your place with Suzannah Evans directly by email: evans.suzie@googlemail.com.

MA Symposium 2010

Some of the MA Museum Studies Postgrads, relaxing in the University
Bar after the three -day Symposium...they bought me a drink
(well Natasha did anyway).....Cheers to you all!

Hello All,

the MA students delivered their dissertation topics at the MA Symposium at the University of Leeds this week. This three-day programme of papers is an annual event in the School and allows the postgraduates from all programmes (Art History, Cultural Studies, Fine Art Practice, and Museum Studies) to share perspectives - the much vaunted 'interdisciplinarity' that Leeds is famous for!
The Museum Studies MAs presented excellent papers (as usual)...and we very much look forward to reading their final dissertations.....here's a flavour of the very varied themes and approaches...WELL DONE ALL OF YOU!

Mark

'Interpreting Heritage' Session Chair, Professor Catherine Karkov
Louise Flower - The History of Theobald's Palace

'Museums and Politics: Global Perspectives Session Chair, Professor Catherine Karkov
Natasha Roberts - Crossing Cultures, Crossing Time
Katherine Ernest - Presenting History in National Military Museums
Sotiria Pizania - Politics and the Museum: the new Acropolis Museum
Rebecca Price - Promoting Culture in Qatar: the political role of the museum
Helen Fairhurst - Preserving National Identity: the Iraq War and the Conservation of Cultural Property

'Considering Curation' Session Chair, Professor Griselda Pollock
Katherine Vaughan - An examination of the documentation of the Curator's work using the Mercer Art Gallery as a case study
Elizabeth Kilburn - The 1938 Loan Exhibition of Pictures and Furniture at Temple Newsam House
Emma Fikkert - Anubis within the Egyptian Galleries at the British Museum
Christine Cant - Curating the Outsider: Surrealist Exhibitionism Then and Now
Hattie Heng Shing Lam - From Democratisation of Culture to Museumification of Objects in the form of Cultural Souvenirs

'Consuming Spaces' Session Chair, Professor Griselda Pollock
Nell Crook - Restaurants in the Contemporary Art Gallery: Spaces of inclusion or elitism?

'Participant Observation' Session Chair, Professor Vanalyne Green
Elizabeth Hardwick - Viewing versus Experience: an exploration of physical and visual art encounters
Ashley Hamilton - Neo-Baroque Aesthetic: Claudio Bravo and the Contemporary Art Market

'Musuems & Politics' Session Chair, Professor David Hill
Jemma Conway - 'Experience Barnsley': reflecting the notion of the community as collector
Elaine Narrie - The Lowry: what role does Culture play in Urban Regeneration?
Melanie Marsh - The National Trust and saving Tyntesfield. Why?

More next year!
mark

Augmented Reality

The Museum of London have recently brought our their own iPhone app called Street Museum that uses geo-tagging and augmented reality to overlay images from their archive in real time and space. Seems like it could have interesting implications for diffusing museum collections and content, and it's free!

Science & Heritage Talks

Hello All,

you are warmly invited to our 'Science & Heritage' talk at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery at the University of Leeds on WEDNESDAY 26th May at 6.00pm - wine and nibbles afterwards!

'Metrology as an Investigative Tool'

Liam Blundt

School of Computing and Engineering

University of Huddersfield

ALL WELCOME

These talks are supported by a Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) and the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, and the Centre for Critical Studies in Museums, Galleries and Heritage at the University of Leeds.

Pavilion

Hello everyone!

Pavilion will be presenting a series of screenings and events with artist Elizabeth Price in June (15-19) and I thought her work might be of interest to some of you. Elizabeth is an artist who uses "digital video and reprographic media, to reformulate and re-inscribes collections and archives using artefacts drawn from the debris of modernism, popular culture, consumerism and science-fiction." She is currently creating an ongoing series of work called The New Ruined Institute in which each video 'episode' unfolds a different room within a fictional museum. We will be screening the first two parts of the work - WELCOME (the Atrium) and USER GROUP DISCO (the Hall of Sculptures) at Pavilion during the week. We are also running two events with Elizabeth. There's more info about screening times and the events on our newsletter here: http://www.pavilion.org.uk/public/public_html/Newsletters/Elizabeth_Price.htm and there's also an interesting Art Monthly interview with Elizabeth and Paul O'Neill here http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_6735/is_326/ai_n31944778/ that gives some more insight into her practice.

If you are interested in the work and would like to come down as a group (or as individuals!) just let me know (gill@pavilion.org.uk) (It's a small space so we're asking people to book) The two videos last 19 minutes in total!

Best Wishes

Gill - Programme Producer (Interaction), Pavilion

Leeds Public Art Walk

I had the pleasure and privilege of leading one of the monthly art walks organised by Pavilion and Project Space Leeds last week, for which thanks must go to Gill for the invitation and rounding up such an impressive array of lovely people for me to talk at, to and with. For those of you who couldn't make it, I've archived the route we took and works we saw on map below. The loose theme of the walk was culture and urban regeneration, taking in the redevelopment of the Corn Exchange, Brewery Wharf and Holbeck Urban Village in relation to the ways in which public art has been deployed in each of these reconstructed, reconstituted areas of the city.

View Leeds Art Walk in a larger map

Fragments of Conversation (and textiles)

Hello All,

the textile thread (now that's a real pun!) has generated really interesting debate, and much of it remains hidden in the 'comments' section for the Textile Fragments posts...and in the interest of continuing this important discussion I've cut-and-pasted the comments into a main post here....
Here's Polly's post...

'Speaking as someone who is right in the thick of redisplaying a collection of Textile fragments I think it is important if not essential to both place them within some form of narrative context and display them as objects in their own right. I also think that this is entirely possible. On a very practical level, I have to cater for the casual visitor who needs immediate colorful impact to spark their interest. I need to support existing schools workshops which cover both style and design and history. I have to support the needs of design students who come for immediate inspiration. I also have to cater to the textile enthusiasts who are the biggest advocates of the collection. I am also duty bound to tell something of the collectors who generously gave these objects. Although telling the story of collectors can be considered a bit outdated, I do believe that the public should be aware that the availability of these objects is often due to the extroidinary generosity of others."Am I trying to do too much?" I sometimes wonder. What I am sure of is that textiles have the capacity to tell many stories. They are complete objects in themselves whose individual stories need telling. They are also parts of whole objects, tangible traces of people or places. If we wish to seek a theoretical framework for the display of textiles I would consider them as relics. Powerful in themselves and pointing outwards to the otherness of the past.'
And 'Leeds Tapestry'....response...
'In an ideal world I'm sure we would all want to see every single object in museums placed in context, each with the narrative of how it was made, used and by whom and why it has survived to the twenty-first century. I, too, can't resist the story and the context which is why I'm spending more time than I should justifying each piece on Leeds Tapestry.

If the Timorous Beasties quilt in the V&A exhibition is accessioned by the museum then this is exactly what can be done, though it won't exactly be a riveting story, missing the almost essential ingredient of previous ownership (OK, that's an entirely different discussion). The joy of many fragments is speculation and discussion between scholars. If curators decide that only textiles which can tell the story are to be displayed then surely museums would suffer.

The Textile Study Room at the V&A provides as many examples as possible in a small space. Maybe not riveting viewing for the general public but the place to go as a textile historian. Fortunately that particular museum is large enough to cater both for tourists and scholars. The new Medieval and Renaissance Gallery puts its textile examples in context and who knows it may be just the place to encourage further study of the subject.

From experience, I find textile scholarship very poorly served by country houses open to the public, in particular National Trust properties. Few of the guide books make much reference to the textiles or the wallpapers, concentrating largely on the reason the house was accepted by the Trust (vast collection of Chippendale, home of Churchill etc). I acknowledge we're a minority sport so perhaps it's time that museums and galleries came up with a plan to serve both scholars and 'the majority'. Some of the major art galleries have a printing machine where a visitor can put money in the slot and request a particular print. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to request a picture and the full details (if any known) of particular textiles, wallpapers, or any other individual item (presumably people researching other subjects have the same problem)?

Who knows, when fewer and fewer curators have time to spend on scholarship, perhaps the transfer of knowledge could be a two-way process.'
And Sally Tatters...
'Hi Mark, and thanks for the namecheck. Sorry to be a long time responding, but I've been a long time thinking. I find I am better at asking questions than at answering them. My concern, after reading your first post, was the same as that expressed by the Leeds Tapestry writer, that while the drive to 'tell a story' may improve the visitor experience for some, it may downgrade it for others. I think sadly of a favourite museum with a huge collection of costume and quilts, where the already small costume gallery has shrunk even further to make way for an 'interpretation room' in which a video (telling a story) plays on a loop and there are occasional practical demonstrations. A video, however interesting, is not something you can pause in front of and study in detail, the way you can the weave of a stunning brocade or the embroidery on a cuff. Live interpretation is dependent on willing volunteers, and on the visitor being there on the right day at the right time. Otherwise their experience is just of an empty room. In many museums now, staffing cuts, pressure on space, and even health and safety issues reduce access to items in store, so they are available only to the few who are groups or researchers. It is the interested amateur, neither new to the subject nor an accredited researcher, who I fear will fall between the two stools. And in the ageing population we are constantly reminded we are, there are a lot of us interested amateurs about.
The current Quilts exhibition at the V&A is a case in point. Titled 'Hidden Histories, Untold Stories', it is entirely designed around the context of the pieces. Arts correspondents from Radio 4 who readily admitted sinking hearts at the assignment went on to deliver rave reviews. However, some quilt historians (you may say obsessives) who found the presentation didn't always allow them to see and learn what they hoped for, in the way they hoped for, have been criticised for being 'picky and complaining', and by implication 'ungrateful'. Years from now the art correspondents will probably never have had another thought about the quilts, but the quilt historians may still be feeling shortchanged. So there were winners and losers. I'm sure the exhibition will have been a financial success, but is that the most important thing? As with my previous comment, I hasten to add that is a serious question, as I know we have to live in the real world. Is the financial imperative, the bums on seats, the most important consideration now in the museum world? Without it do we risk losing collections altogether through lack of financial support? Putting readers on the spot, I have another question. If you ran your own museum, had nobody to answer to, no political masters, no financial constraints, no visitor numbers to meet, what would your choice of display style be?'
And finally, Arwa's post.....
'Hi Mark and sally
My name is Arwa , I am from Suadi Arabia and I am here in Leeds university doing post doctoral.
My PhD was : Consolidation, Implementation & Documentation of some Saudi Arabian's Traditional Cloths.
Actually, I like your work and ideas about textiles and I think that we share the same interest. I would like to contact with you so we could discuss some relevant issues (the cultural values of traditional costume and textile)
My email is:

arwadk@gmail.com '

Whilst textiles are the focus of these debates it seems, to me anyway, that the 'problems' (if indeed they are problems?) remain central to the role and purpose of the museum itself. More discussion on this would be welcome....maybe even some kind of 'discussion group', conference, or other kind of 'space' would be useful?
Mark

Textile Fragments

Hi All, and especially to 'Sally Tatters' - many thanks for the comment btw, it's good to know that someone is reading our museum blog...(and sorry for the delay in reply posting...I was stuck in Belgium....)

The blog entry on Fragments and History (see entry on 22nd March), has generated some interest and Sally has left some thought provoking comments - (I've cut and pasted it here in the hope of generating a debate on this important topic...rather than hiding it away in the comments list at the bottom of the 22nd March entry...hope that's OK Sally?....)

Anyway, Sally comments -
"Are you getting obsessed with form over function? As a lover of textiles I actually go looking for them in museums in order to study them as individual pieces, rather than to 'place them in the middle of a narrative'. The 'old textile displays' have served me well in the past. How would you see a change of display improving that experience for me?"

I don't know if this is about form over function...I suppose I was interested in how museums have changed over the past 10 years and what challenges there are for interpretation and 'use' for some kinds of objects in the museum (or fragments of objects...that's moot point I suppose..when is an object a 'fragment'?...aren't all objects 'fragments' of social life?....). I'm genuinely interested in this, as I say, because we (Leeds Uni) have been working on a project that addresses this very 'problem' - (and I take your point about the textile fragments being useful and interesting for you..that is obviously important - but it does draw attention to the notion that the meanings assigned to objects are just as much a part of the ways in which they have been collected (and used) before they enter the museum....).
I suppose my real point was in relation to the propensity (at present) for museum interpretation/exhibition designers to create 'narratives' for their displays...(this, I think is part of a much broader cultural phemonemon I think....you just need to watch the News to recognise that all news reports seem to be 'stories'(I'm thinking of the way that they are visually structured in particular)...everything seems to be a 'story' these days (I'm painting with a broad brush here I know...). And my question was (is), what does the museum do with these 'fragments' of textiles given this need to create 'stories'?.... Do we have 'stories' of collecting (a bit 'old hat' by now I think...(there's my first costume pun)...Do we have 'stories' of design?..Do we have 'stories' of cultural exchange?..etc etc etc...but all of these have been done before.....So what do we do (if we need to do anything of course) with these fragments?
The question becomes (is) important given the push by government/funding bodies to make culture an 'instrument' (i.e. to ensure it is put to use) and the requirement that objects in museums should 'speak' and be relevant beyond their 'conventional' audiences....

What do you think?

BTW....Sally Tatters own blog is fab...here's a link (I've also linked it from our 'Favourite Blogs' list)
http://textilehunter.blogspot.com/

Mark

Architectural Objects

Alan Davie at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery

Thanks to everyone who turned up at our recent opening night for 'Alan Davie' on 16 March 2010.

There were several familiar faces from Museum Studies on the evening, including our most wonderful work placement student, Nell Crook. Thanks Nell for helping us get the show up! I'm sure those who came to the event will agree that though the artist couldn't be there himself, his work was most inspiring...and certainly colourful!

Not sure what everyone thinks of the work, or the display itself? We did a 'snapshot' exhibition, as there wasn't a particular group of works Alan wanted us to focus on. As we're not a big space, we can't do a serious overview, so it was just a collection of highlights from his post-war career beginnings in 1948 to today. To augment this brief vision of his career, I've included some ephemera in a case: poetry he wrote to his father while serving in WWII and couldn't paint, jewellery he made in the late 40s-ea.50s when he had temporarily turned away from painting, his pilot's logbook from his gliding exploits in the 1960s and his recent rough sketches - to show the constant automatic drawing that informs his painting. We also have some experimental jazz recordings by Alan playing in the Gallery. Alan's had such a prolific career, and done so much in his life, it was really hard to represent it in such a small space! Does it work for you? Criticisms and thoughts are always encouraged...

Happy Easter all!

Layla