Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!...Hope you have a lovely time...heritage prezzies, heritage crackers...heritage Turkey...(a well-known brand I'm told!)...

More Museum, Gallery and Heritage News in 2013! best wishes Mark

Research Associate Job

RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, PICTURING FINANCE PROJECT Closing date: 15 January 2013 Reference: HUM- Faculty / organisational unit: Humanities School / Directorate: Arts, Languages and Cultures Division: English and American Studies Salary: £29,249 Employment type: Fixed term Hours per week: 0.5FTE Location: University of Manchester (in collaboration with Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland) Applications are invited for a 0.5 AHRC Postdoctoral Research Associate post. This post is part of the ‘Picturing Finance’ project led by the Principal Investigator, Dr Peter Knight, that will stage an exhibition on the visual imagination of Anglo-American financial capitalism over the last three centuries. Working closely with Alistair Robinson (Director, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art) and the project Investigators, you will assist in curating the exhibition. You will be responsible for conducting research in archives, libraries and museums to identify and source suitable objects for the exhibition. You will write captions for the objects, and develop content for the section of NGCA’s website accompanying the exhibition. You will organise an outreach seminar involving leading figures from the realms of journalism, politics and the banking industry, as well as liaising with the NGCA’s education outreach team. You will also contribute a chapter to the catalogue that will be co-authored by the project Investigators. This appointment will begin on 1 April 2013 and last 15 months, and will require working in both Manchester and Sunderland, as well as travel to archives in the UK and US. The likely interview date is 1 February 2013. Informal enquiries Informal inquiries may be made to Dr Peter Knight, Principal Investigator, Division of English and American Studies Email: peter.knight@manchester.ac.uk Project information: www.imageoffinance.com The University of Manchester values a diverse workforce and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. Further particulars www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk

MA Museum Studies Graduation

CONGRATULATIONS to all our MA Art Gallery & Museum Studies students....the 2011-2012 cohort had their official conferment of degrees ceremony last Monday, in the Great Hall at the University.  Well done all!....The 2011-12 cohort are moving on to great things...including jobs at Beamish Open Air Museum, and further Doctoral research at University of Lucca!...well done all!...richly deserved.... It's now up to the latest cohort to do even better! Mark

Reading Armley- The Industrial Museum.

The Level 2 HAMS group visited the Industrial Museum at Armley on Wednesday. Nick Cass set us three themes to consider; encouraging visitor interest, 'good' historical interpretation, and work processes, worker's lives and the social structure of the workplace; all this leading to a future discussion.

BA students Art Market field trip

Hello All,

the undergraduate students (from all of our 4 UG programmes, not just BA Art History and Museum Studies) went on an Art Market field trip to London last week. There were so many of them I had to divide them into 3 groups! Anyway, I think we had a great time, wandering (purposefully of course), the area around St James's and Bond Street...where many businesses in the art world congregate - for interesting historical reasons (you'll need to do the Art Market course to find out!)......

Here is one of the student groups outside Christie's Auctioneers, King Street rooms....

Students at Christie's Auctioneers

We also took in a number of art dealerships, including Hauser & Wirth, White Cube, Fine Art Society and Marlborough Fine Art (who were very generous with their time...).....
  It'll be same again next year, for a new bunch of Art Market student enthusiasts!
Mark

Contemporary art meets historic collections...what do you think?

The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery is working with researcher Nick Cass to explore how bringing contemporary art together with historic collections can enhance the visitor experience and engagement.

Cass's research looks at how the Brontë Parsonage Museum has used contemporary art in this historic home within its displays. He is organising an exhibition of contemporary art inspired by the Brontës at Leeds College of Art, a show opening on 14 December 2012, entitled 'Wildness Between the Lines'. In connection with this, the Gallery is hosting a display in its Education Room called 'Visions of Angria: Creativity of the Brontës', which opens on 7 January 2013.  This display will include original materials from Special Collections by the Brontë family, in particular texts relating to their children's fantasy world, Angria. These texts will be interpreted by students of illustration from Leeds College of Art, displayed alongside the historic materials.

What do you think of these sorts of pairings?  Come let us know!  Do the tour from Leeds College of Art and over to the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery (over to the Parsonage if you are REALLY keen!) and then tell us how well you think it works.  Does it inspire you, or leave you cold?

If you want to get thinking even deeper about the Brontës, and how they have inspired creativity in later centuries in many ways, there will also be a free conference on 29 January 2013, entitled 'Re-Visioning the Brontës' - book your place online today!

MA Museum Studies Students London Trip

Hello All,

our current MA Museum Studies students took advantage of our Reading Week field trip to London last week.

MA museum studies students with Dr Kim Sloan at the Enlightenment gallery at the British Museum.

We had our usual exhausting time...starting at the Natural History Museum, then the V&A, the Wallace Collection, and the National Gallery (in day 1)...then off to the British Museum and Museum of London (in day 2). Pictured are the students talking to Dr Kim Sloan, Curator of Prints and Drawings (up to 1880) at the British Museum, and also curator of the Enlightenment Gallery at the museum.  We all had a fascinating time!
Mark