Welcome to the Leeds University Museum Studies Blog. Here you can follow the activities, conversations and debates associated with the University's School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies courses.
We envisage it as an informal space for museum-related discussion, interests & the sharing of ideas.
To join the conversation click the 'Get involved!' tab.
We hope you enjoy it! Rosa and Mark
Thank you to the level one Country House and Museum Studies students, who all made the trip to Harewood House on a misty Yorkshire morning this week. After taking in the exterior, state rooms, below stairs area and terrace gallery, there was even time to explore the grounds and say a brief hello to the resident penguins (while of course asking ourselves why they are there in the first place!) I hope it was an enjoyable and productive experience which provided plenty of food for thought.
The Hepworth, Wakefield, are looking for a range of volunteers, both for half term and beyond. If interested you should visit www.hepworthwakefield.org/volunteering, for updates on opportunities and to download an application form. Thanks to those of you who attended the volunteering event there last night. They were really impressed by the Leeds Uni students.
Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough and didn't post this in time for the launch at Opera North's Howard Assembly Room last night. However all is not lost! Running from 27th September until Wednesday 16th November, this brand new, first-year festival sees arts organisations across Leeds, uniting with Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust and the Art and Mind Network in an exploration of arts, mental health and well-being. With both arts and mental health being such broad and complex areas of study, it will definitely be enlightening to see how they are tackled in relation to each other, with the added diversity of Leeds as the setting.
With the likes of Ruby Wax and Phil Hammond getting involved, I have my fingers crossed publicity isn't a problem. Due to the stigma surrounding mental health problems and unease when it comes to discussing such issues in depth, I feel this collaboration with the rich art and culture that Leeds has to offer, will shed some light and provoke some thought on a subject that needs opening up. Art, in all it's forms , is an expression, a release and this experience is heightened further still, when a form of escape is just what the doctor ordered.
Here's to hoping this festival becomes a more permanent fixture in the affluent collection of culture and arts events, the city of Leeds already has to offer.
Congratulations to our MA Art Gallery & Museum Studies student, Elizabeth Stainforth - she has won the prestigious 'Volunteers for Museum Learning Award' for the Yorkshire Region, as part of the Marsh Volunteer Awards 2010, for her outstanding work at the University Stanley & Audrey Burton Art Gallery.....The Awards are run by the British Museum and the Marsh Christian Trust.....WELL DONE Liz!.... See you (and all the other 2010-11 cohort of students) at Graduation in December!
Preparing for our month-long sketchbook challenge for the Big Draw campaign, I accidentally came across this TED video about doodling and how it improves comprehension and unlocks creativity. Doodlers unite!
And once you've shed your inhibitions about doodling and become empowered by this short video, you'll be interested to run to our nearest Big Draw station at uni and sketch away. Here are the details:
The Big Draw: Sketchbook Challenge The Campaign for Drawing has one aim: to get everyone drawing!
Held throughout October, The Big Draw is the Campaign's flagship programme and aims to bring communities together in creative ways. Join the largest drawing festival in the world! The Sketchbook Challenge, this year’s Big Draw activity of the university’s Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, has been inspired by the sketchbooks by the artist and art historian Stephen Chaplin (born 1934). To find out more about Chaplin and to see a selection of his fascinating sketchbooks please visit the Brotherton Library foyer from Monday 3rd October – Friday 21st October.
Between 1 and 21 October, ourlovely concertina sketchbooks will appear in various places around the whole university campus so you can sketch in all of them!
You can pick up a map of the locations at the Gallery. Please note that not all areas are open to the public.
Start drawing! Take a few minutes to look around your surroundings, document the moment through a quick sketch in the sketchbook provided.
Stephen Chaplin often sketched the most mundane objects such as crumpled crisp packets and his mug of tea, often annotating his sketch with a couple of words, date and time, the weather, or his personal impressions, e.g. ‘Tea & ham sandwich in the first floor café – waiting for departure, platform 6, Salisbury’. You might have time to draw what’s going on the next table or out of the window. You could add a date, time, include your name or remain anonymous, annotate your sketch to set the scene for others. Be part of the exhibition.
Fill the sketchbooks with your observations, ideas and doodles, and your art will be displayed in the Brotherton Library Foyer and outside The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Parkinson Court from Monday 24th October.
Doodle and chill with friends: Big Draw Day in the Gallery In connection with the month-long drawing campaign, the Gallery will host a drawing and sketching afternoon on Saturday 8 October.
The Gallery will celebrate Big Draw Day by transforming the Gallery space into a cosy place where you can drop in to meet people, doodle and have a chat about art, universe and everything.
There will be beanbags, pencils, sketchbooks, music, and lots of inspiration.
The sketchbooks collected from campus and the Gallery will be exhibited from 24 October 2011.
The Campaign for Drawing will finish when the words 'I can't draw' are dropped from our vocabulary!
23 Sept 2011
Rise Art, the curated art marketplace, recently launched across the UK. The website, which commissions and promotes the work of talented emerging and established artists across the globe, now has thousands of artists portfolios listed across the site, and a growing board of curators who, along with our users help select the artists featured across the site.
Artists and enthusiasts can also take advantage of Rise Art's community tools to connect with one another and promote upcoming events and exhibitions. To get started visit www.riseart.com
Finally, the team is looking for current Leeds students with a keen interest in curatorial and gallery studies to participate in the public discourse on Rise Art and help shortlist artist portfolios across the website for consideration. If you would like to get involved, please email the Rise Art team at info (at) Rise Art (dot) com.
Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough and didn't post this in time for the launch at Opera North's 
