Rethinking the Museum

We are all aware that there are seismic shifts taking place, politically, culturally and socially; non more apparent to us than in the world of museums and galleries. What will our 'industry' look like in 2030? What changes are likely to happen to us? What changes do we need to drive forward as current and emerging professionals?

Helpfully, the North West Museum Federation have asked these questions and more:

“Informed by futurology and some genuinely inspiring work overseas, this vision is intended to help us break out of pondering an immediate and uncertain future and undertake those most vital of tasks: long range thinking and a willingness to take a few risks.”
Piotr Bienkowski, Chair of the NWFE (NWMF website)

Read their vision here

Beryl Beryl

The Yorkshire Craft Centre has two highly recommended exhibitions of work by the staff of the Bradford School of Arts & Media until 17 February: Workers' Playtime and Beryl Beryl [which is, I'm told, what Rebel Rebel starts to sound like sung under the influence]. The latter is a particularly excellent display of work by Ian Taylor and Brendan Croker, but then I must declare my interests - Ian taught me the the ways of the chisel as a Foundation student almost ten years ago and more incredibly, also taught my father in the dim and distant primordial past. Just about the best sculpture you'll find this side of Wakefield.

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.