Pinatopia and Mount Folly

My name is Freya and I'm on the Art Gallery and Museum Studies MA and this term have been on a fantastic placement with visual arts organization Pavilion. Currently Pavilion have been working on a really exciting project to research the historic grounds at Temple Newsam, so that contemporary artist Harold Offeh can produce a response to the landscape. On the 17th of March Offeh will perform Pinatopia and Mount Folly with a group of young people from East Leeds.

I've really enjoyed working alongside Pavilion, the other volunteers, artist and young people to develop this project. Temple Newsam has quite a unique and eclectic history and through our research into the gardens we found out that pineapples used to be grown in hot houses there, as in the 18th century Pineapples were an ostentatious status symbol. Offeh will be running a workshop and performance, using the pineapple as a motif to explore issues of money, power and escapism. At dusk audiences will be invited on an exploration of the grounds at Temple Newsam to bear witness to a number of playful performances.

This is going to be a really fun event and it would be lovely if some of you could come along, plus there is a free bus running from the HMI so if you are interested email linzi@pavilion.org.uk or call 0113 343 2718

Read more at http://www.pavilion.org.uk/project.php?pid=148 and check out the blog too http://pavilionypp.tumblr.com/

Up The Steps

UP THE STEPS

This Saturday come be part of Up The Steps first pop-up arts event and help us build a big oragami sculpture on Briggate! We hope to create a large participatory structure which will then be shown in Leeds City Art Gallery as part of Up The Steps second art event.

Up The Steps is a brand new Leeds based collective of young people (which myself and other Level 2 HAMS students are involved in). Creating participatory arts events in association with Leeds Art Gallery, REcreative and funded by the Louis Vuitton Young Arts Project.

 

You can like our page to learn more about the project and its future events:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Up-The-Steps/217813158365355

And  follow us on twitter to keep up to date with our preparations:
@Up_The_Steps

Conservation of Contemporary Art?

Last month our Level 2 HAMS group attended a talk at Temple Newsam (@TempleNewsam) addressing the conservation of art in the Leeds Collections. This talk was delivered by Jenny Hack (painting conservator) and Ian Fraser (head of preventive conservation).

Jenny Hack talked of the two modes of coservation: to re-store and to re-touch. I asked Jenny why, if we are so concerned with retaining the objects true authenticity, are Greek sculptures not brightly painted? In response we discussed the boundaries of the conservator. Although it is known that Greek Sculpture was once coloured, due to the lack of documentation 're-touching' them in this way may put us in danger of fabricating the works original appearance. This is being addressed by the use of digital technology, projecting onto works 'what may have been' without physically falsifying the material object.

With this in mind it seems today's art practice may come up against the opposite problem. Different to the Greeks we face no shortage of documentation; mass media (photographing, blogging, tweeting, filming) puts us in the position where such a suggestion would be impossible. Documenting is not only widely practiced, but has become a characteristic of our contemporary culture. However, are we instead in a greater danger of the loss of material object? Art that takes the form of Installation and Perfomance moves away from arts traditional ties, functioning as participatory/conceptual instead of a purely decorative function. But in making these innovations, what aesthetic traditions are being compromised?  

Jenny talked of the difficulty in conserving objects made of degradable materials or involving technologies that become obselete, in place of durable materials such as oil paint. This issue is something that NeCCAR (Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art Research) have been introduced to resolve. However aside from this issue regarding material, other questions must also be considered. How are we to conserve artworks that are location specific? How are we to conserve artworks that require a certain person or performance to function? When supposing this, it may be justified to state that contemporary art seems to place greater concern on concept over the durability of its aesthetic.

My main thinking when leaving the talk was: will contemporary art remain in museums as the ancient Greek culture continues to exist in ours? Perhaps this is missing the point of what contemporary art is all about. With 'concept' playing such a large role, maybe the physical object and its durability take the back seat. It may be that the artwork of today will exist in the future in-part as material object, but mostly through text and documentation... as projections not of 'what may have been', but 'what was'.

The changing role of the conservator is something I want to look into more, maybe even as a sub-topic in my Dissertation next year. (I am completley new to it so excuse any mis-understandings! Found the talk very interesting though)

Rosa

Heritage Reading Group

I've just posted the next text for the Heritage Reading Group on the Reading Group's blog.

You can check it out here:

Heritage Reading Group

The meeting is on 7 March at 2.30 in the Student Common Room in the  Old Mining Building

It would be great to see you there!

Nick

Heritage Show + Tell

Hello All,

Helen Graham, our Transforming Tangible & Intangible Heritage Research Fellow has organised a new Heritage Show + Tell  (Yorkshire) - on 7th February, 5-7pm, at Leeds Museums  Discovery Centre

With a number of volunteers summing up their work in three minutes:

• Iona McCleery (University of Leeds) ‘You Are What You Ate: Sustainable food lessons from the past’
• Malcolm Chase (University of Leeds) ‘Northern Star: Leeds’ pivotal role in world newspaper history’
• Michelle Lees (National Media Museum) ’100 Years of Indian Cinema’
• Daniel Martin (Leeds Museums and Galleries) ‘The Future for our Locomotive Collections’
• John Tanner (Barnsley Museums) ‘Experience Barnsley’

If you too would like to volunteer to share your work, then get in touch. We ask that you use your three minutes and three powerpoint slides to answer:

• What are you working on?
• Why is it exciting? / What are you stuck on?
• What are you looking for?

All very welcome on the night, just turn up and refreshments will be provided!

MGHG Open Day Event

Hello All,

The MGHG (Museums and Galleries History Group) and the Photographic Research Centre at De Montefort University have organised what looks to be a fascinating event: 'Between Art and Information: Collecting Photographs', at Leicester on SATURDAY 2nd March 2013.

Here's a link to the Programme and how to Book:

MGHG PRC De Montefort

Hope to see you there!

kindest regards
Mark

MA Museum Studies Work Placements

 Hello All,
we are starting the New Year with news of some exciting Museum Studies Student work placements - our current cohort have a fabulous range of museum and heritage work placements to choose from, including work experience at Leeds Museums Discovery Centre (also affectionately known as the 'Disco'!)

Leeds Museums Discovery Centre

We also have students on placement at many of the other museums in Leeds,(Lotherton Hall,Leeds Museum, Abbey House Museum, Leeds Art Gallery), and at several other organisations such as East Street Arts and Project Space Leeds, and in York (at the Yorkshire Museum and at Fairfax House...)

Fairfax House, York

and at Bradford, Skipton and Harrogate....thanks to all our museum placement providers!...we couldn't do it without you all!
Mark