Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums Blog

Little details: big impact – a closer look at family museum experiences

Shipley Art Gallery
Posted by administrator on April 27, 2016 Permalink Leave a comment

A key part of Exhibition Explorers at the Shipley has been exploring the gallery environment with the children. Hopefully over the course of the project all the grown ups involved – both parents and staff – will understand better what a gallery visit looks like to small children. During the sessions we’ve done lots of exploring the artworks on display; but equally important has been exploring the gallery environment in general, and discovering that the floor tiles, toilets, big steps and spaces underneath display cases are just as fascinating to the children as the artwork itself. The more we understand children’s interests and see the gallery from their perspective, the more insightful we can be about early cultural experiences, and the more positive these will be all round.

On a recent visit to the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, I couldn’t help but imagine how the Shipley’s little Exhibition Explorers would respond to the environment. Here are a two aspects of the visit that caught my eye as brilliant examples of an Exhibition Explorer-friendly museum:

1. Display cases with a difference:

The exhibition about Scottish wildlife includes plinth-style display cases with tunnels built inside them. These allow children to explore beneath the diplay’s surface, viewing some of the creatures up close and from different angles. In addition, they can explore the gallery space in new ways, finding those appealing child-only dens, and inhabiting cosy spaces in an otherwise vast museum environment.

Without fail, children entering this part of the museum were magnetically drawn to these tunnels. I was also amused to see how the children become part of the display – for a moment, the Highland Cow below looks like it’s strolling through the gallery, and it’s the child who’s on display!

Seeing the exhibits from a different angle

Exploring the exhibits

Tunneling through the display cases

Spot the foot!

2. Details at child height:

Going up the stairs, I noticed these metal casts depicting details of the museum collection. Positioned at children’s eye level, they are pleasing details that the youngest Exhibition Explorers can spot. Many adults were missing them, making the experience of spotting them a particularly exciting experience for young visitors.

Miniature chair detail on the stairs

Miniature fish on the stairs

Miniature picture frame on the stairs

Seeing how young children interact with these details, it’s clear that the little things make a big difference to a family friendly museum experience. Our next Exhibition Explorers session takes place this week, by which time we’ll be half way through the project. I can’t wait to hear about the Family Adventures to museums and galleries that have been embarked on since we last met – watch this space!

Meeting David Bowie – a guest post by Michael Metcalf

The sad news of the recent death of David Bowie reminds me of another great experience whilst filming for the TUBE.

We had been invited to make a film with Duran Duran whilst they were relaxing and working on a new album in the South of France.

The filming coincided with the Cannes Film Festival and we were invited to do an interview with DAVID BOWIE who was their publicising the movie ‘Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence’ which he was starring in Ryuichi Sakamoto who live Bowie was not only an actor but a brilliant musician.

Now most people have seen in movies and tv documentaries how at a ‘junket’ many reporters, journalists’ tv crews are ushered in front of a ‘celebrity’ and told by the publicist that you have ‘five minutes’.

This was one of those occasions. We had to stand in the corridor of a smart hotel in Cannes waiting for our turn to go in and interview David Bowie.

The publicist who was looking after us, kept saying you will have ‘five’ minutes with David, once you get set up inside.

Finally getting into the room to see David Bowie we started to set up. Unfortunately the publicist had obviously not told David Bowie about the schedule, as he immediately said, ‘Oh! You are the TUBE crew from the UK’ and proceeded to talk about football.

All the while the publicist is doing a count down in my ear, telling me we had to finish.

Needless to say, we got a great interview with David Bowie (much longer than the five minutes) and he genuinely was a lovely guy.

Michael worked in television for over 30 years as a Director and Producer and was involved with The TUBE from the very beginning as a Production Assistant during filming and then subsequently directing part of series 4.

He is now retired from television and heavily involved in charity work. As well as being on the committee for the Make A Wish Foundation, he is an Ambassador and mentor for Northumbria Coalition Against Crime, Chairman of Newcastle East Sea Cadets and Junior Vice President of Ponteland Rotary.

Michael became involved with Discovery Museum when he joined three ex colleagues from Tyne Tees Television who also worked on the TUBE when they visited the museum to see the TUBE neon logo that was in storage. From that visit, the idea of the TUBE exhibition came into being.

An exhibition of items relating to the Tube, including the neon Tube sign, is on show at Discovery Museum until 30 June. More details.

The Gold Mine Club – a guest post by Michael Metcalf

Collections & Objects Discovery Museum
Posted by administrator on April 13, 2016 Permalink Leave a comment

At the time of the TUBE, one of the main things about the programme was that we reflected what was happening in the country regarding music and clubs.

One of the most famous of those clubs at the time was the Gold Mine Club on Canvey Island.

Chris Hill is a British Disc Jockey who was associated with the Gold Mine Club and was recognised as being head of the ‘Soul Mafia’ in London and the South East of England in the early 80’s.

Many clubbers who went to the Gold Mine Club became musical stars in their own right such as: The Clash, Spandau Ballet, Depeche Mode, Erasure, Culture Club, Alison Moyet and Soul II Soul.

So for the TUBE it was an ideal place to make a film about.

Arriving in Canvey Island was a bit of a surprise to we Northerners as I think we were expecting somewhere quite glamorous! We were booked into the only place on the Island that we could get rooms, which was a local pub.

Deciding it would be good to get some aerial footage of the club to put its location into perspective, we hired a small twin propellor plane to fly us around and over Canvey Island.

Canvey Island

In those days to shoot aerials, you had to literally fly around in a small plane with cameraman hanging out of the plane holding the camera and shooting the aerials.

Getting to the airfield, we boarded out small aircraft. Michael Metcalf the Production Assistant, sitting next to the pilot with a head set on so he could talk to the pilot. The Director Geoff Wonfor sat in the seats behind with the assistant camera man Alistair McKenzie (these were the days when we were still shooting on 16mm film, so an assistant was required to load the ‘mags’ with film and assistant the cameraman Graham Brown, who was hanging out the side door tied into the plane with a strap!

Taking off and circling Canvey Island it quickly became apparent that the Director Geoff was not the best traveller, so hand over his mouth he kept pointing down. Which we all meant that was the Gold Mine Club (he was the only one to have seen the club). Eventually we managed to rustle up a plastic bag for him to use!!!

The pilot kept asking do you want to go around again, which PA Michael kept saying yes please.

Throughout all this Geoff kept pointing down towards Canvey Island.

Eventually landing and helping Geoff off the aeroplane and into the car, we set off back to the ‘hotel’. It was only later that night we realised he hadn’t been pointing to the club but just wanted us to land.

I am still not sure what we were filming but it most certainly wasn’t the GOLD MINE CLUB!

An exhibition of items relating to the Tube, including the neon Tube sign, is on show at Discovery Museum until 30 June. More details.

What’s the recipe for a Leonardo da Vinci drawing? Ten Drawings from the Royal Collection

Art Exhibitions Laing Art Gallery
Posted by administrator on March 31, 2016 Permalink Comments (1)

How did Leonardo da Vinci go about creating the exceptional drawings currently on show at the Laing Art Gallery, lent from the Royal Collection?

One of Leonardo’s main drawing materials was ink, used with a quill pen. The fluidity of ink allowed him to capture movement and energy, and he was also able to record fine detail. But his materials were quite basic. The quill pen was made from a bird’s feather, first hardened in hot sand to make it last longer in use. Then the pen maker cut a nib with a sharp knife. When the artist dipped the pen in ink, the liquid collected in the hollow shaft of the feather and gradually flowed down (depending on the skill of the pen-maker). In a really interesting short film (view here), the Royal Collection conservator demonstrates the materials that Leonardo used.

Making ink was another story. Once you know how, it’s apparently fairly easy (more details here), but I imagine it must have been very hit and miss to start with. First, the ink-maker mixed water with crushed oak galls – round growths formed by oak trees around eggs laid by gall wasps. The crushed galls released tannin, which has a brown colouring. It’s also acidic, and when it was mixed with little scraps of iron, it created a chemical reaction resulting in even darker liquid. Gum arabic (made from the sap of acacia trees) was added to help the ink stick to the paper.

You may be a bit surprised to learn that Leonardo didn’t draw in pencil, or at least not the kind most of us use today – graphite pencils didn’t become available until 100 years later. Leonardo’s pencil was a little point of silver probably embedded in a wooden holder. To allow the metal point to actually make a mark, the artist or their assistant first had to cover the paper with a slightly rough coating based on bone ash, rabbit-skin glue and a little colour powder. The earliest drawing in the exhibition shows Leonardo using silverpoint to sketch a fat little baby. But he must have been dissatisfied with the faintness of the lines overall, and strengthened some of them with ink, drawn with a pen. Ink allowed him to draw bolder and more varied lines, and he eventually gave up silverpoint.

The red drawing material Leonardo used was a particular type of clay that was rich in iron oxide. It was dug up from the ground and cut into handy-sized pieces for artists. Leonardo preferred it for many of his studies from life, and he was able to achieve impressively naturalistic detail in drawings like his study of a nude man (detail shown). Slightly confusingly, the coloured drawing materials Leonardo used are generally referred to as chalks – a kind of shorthand for artists’ sketching materials from the earth that have a dry, non-greasy character. His black drawing material was a coaly type of clay, with a high level of carbon. In his study of the Head of St Anne, Leonardo aided the tonal shading with a little bit of blurring, probably with his finger. The precision and subtlety of this drawing are just amazing.

But how have these drawings remained looking so fresh? As a starting point, Renaissance artists like Leonardo used paper made from mashed linen fibres, which stays in much better condition than modern wood-pulp paper. Leonardo didn’t risk his drawings getting lost or damaged – he kept them carefully, and very few people even knew about them.

After Leonardo’s death, his ex-pupil and friend Francesco Melzi continued to keep the drawings safe. The next owner put them into albums, protecting them from fading and other damage. The Royal Collection drawings had remained in their album for around 250 years until the pages were gently separated, starting in the 19^th century. Then in the 1970s, a programme began to give the drawings some conservation TLC and put them in new mounts. And we are part of a lucky group able to see this group of Leonardo’s remarkable drawings, looking virtually as fresh as the day he finished them, more than 500 years ago.

The image reproduced above shows a young artist from around Leonardo’s time. Dr Jane Colbourne, Programme Leader for the University of Northumbria Conservation MA, will be giving an illuminating lunchtime talk on Renaissance Drawing Materials and Techniques at the Gallery on Wednesday April 20th (£3, students free).

Before then, the Royal Collection exhibition curator will be giving a lunchtime talk on Thursday 14 April, Leonardo through his drawings (12.30-1.15pm, £4, book online or at the gallery). His talk is full of fascinating insights and discusses the unparalleled range and diversity of Leonardo’s drawings throughout his career.

The exhibition Leonardo da Vinci: Ten Drawings from the Royal Collection is on show at the Laing Art Gallery until April 24^th, admission £2.50, further details on the Gallery webpage. The complete drawings can all be seen here (details of selected drawings are shown in this blog), and there’s another blog you can read here.

All drawing images: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2016

Exhibition Explorers: five surprising discoveries for the grown-ups!

Shipley Art Gallery
Posted by administrator on March 23, 2016 Permalink Leave a comment

The second Exhibition Explorers session took place earlier this month. We were delighted that so many of the families returned with their completed ‘Family Adventure’ page, sharing their experience of visiting a museum or gallery since the previous session. You can read all about what they discovered and the things that surprised them, here. The families’ discoveries will not only help create a record of the children’s early cultural experiences, but also help build up ideas and recommedations of museums and galleries to visit with young children, which families can dip into for inspiration: watch this space!

There were so many magical moments during the session – here are a few that caught my eye and made me smile, accompanied by Mark Savage’s wonderful photos:

Children make great exhibition tour guides:

We began the session by giving each child a page with pictures of 6 colourful cats with corresponding coloured stickers – when they spotted some red in an artwork, they should stick the red nose onto the red cat: a sort of artwork bingo!

Although some children preferred chewing the card, or sticking all the stickers onto themselves, this was fine; they were enjoying the gallery as a play space which is also an extremely valuable part of the project! The children who used the bingo card to spot colours in the artwork were fascinating to observe though: they excitedly pointed out discoveries to their grown ups, often noticing unexpected details because of their height in relation to the artwork.

This little one made her way around the whole gallery, giving Mum an animated guided tour, and sharing her observations of not only the colours, but the shapes, patterns and hidden details in the abstract paintings. It was wonderful to see that children really do take notice of the artworks and have opinions, preferences and observations about what they see. Clearly the Shipley is not alone in noticing this; you can read about The Whitworth’s exhibition that was curated by toddlers in my previous blog post, here.

Simple tools can help children look and lead:

We offered the children a range of tools to encourage looking, such as magnifying glasses, decorative frames, and transparent coloured paddles. These not only got children looking closely at the artworks, but got them taking notice of everything around them – toys, crayons, floor tiles, skirting boards, each other’s faces, and so on!

Equipped with these simple tools, the children were elevated to ‘expert’ or ‘detective’, and empowered to lead the visit: grown ups instinctively allowed themselves to be led, and children stepped forward as leaders, steering their grown ups towards whatever aspect of the gallery visit most interested them.

Taking a closer look

Coloured paddles are close at hand in the pocket of this Explorer’s dungarees as she navigates the gallery.

Sharing our experiences is important:

During the project, families have been given special Explorer Kits with paper and pens. They’re encouraged to embark on a ‘Family Adventure’ to a museum or gallery of their choice, and share their experiences and recommendations.

At this session we enjoyed a storytime with a difference, showcasing each family’s page. You can read about what the families discovered here. It was wonderful to observe the children avidly listening to which places had been explored this month, and beaming with pride and recognition when their page got a mention. Sharing our experiences during this project is important for so many reasons: to help it to be a really valuable piece of research into Early Years engagement; to enable families to share tips and recommendations; to help families develop as habitual museum and gallery goers (not just to our venue); and to recognise the journey of discovery the children are embarking on and the generosity with which they share it.

Sharing the Exhibition Explorers Encyclopaedia

Discovering which museums and galleries other families have visited.

Being an Exhibition Explorer is a whole-body experience:

Everyone knows toddlers don’t sit still for long! Whilst their minds were busy trying out new skills in art activities, and observing details in the artworks, their bodies needed to keep active too! We incorporated this need to keep moving into the session, by offering a range of push- and pull-along toys with which to look around the exhibition. We also had a very lively storytime and songtime with the lycra.

Lycra songs and games

By general consensus, the children all decided that being under the lycra whilst it was waved overhead was the most exciting, so we were led by them, as you can see here:

Hiding under the lycra

Seeing things in a different way:

When an exhibition is particularly engaging, it makes you think and see things in a different way. By extension, we felt it was important to present opportunities for the children to see themselves and the artwork in new and surprising ways.

It was great to see the same piece of equipment (the mirrored den) being used in different ways, as children chose to travel through it, get up close to their reflection, lie down, or look at the artworks around them from a different angle. This fits very well with the importance of open ended ‘invitations to play’ which I blogged about in a previous post, here.

Viewing the gallery in different ways.

Crawling through the mirrored den.

We really are learning all the time from our Early Years audiences, and can’t wait to see the project evolve further!

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums Blog

Little details: big impact – a closer look at family museum experiences

Meeting David Bowie – a guest post by Michael Metcalf

The Gold Mine Club – a guest post by Michael Metcalf

What’s the recipe for a Leonardo da Vinci drawing? Ten Drawings from the Royal Collection

How did Leonardo da Vinci go about creating the exceptional drawings currently on show at the Laing Art Gallery, lent from the Royal Collection?

Exhibition Explorers: five surprising discoveries for the grown-ups!

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