Mary's shoes

Today I have been a participant in a workshop run by local artist Serena Patridge and called 'Mary's shoes'. It was run to link in with the current exhibition in the Pannett Art Gallery, exploring the lives and art work of the Weatherill family, who were 19th Century Whitby artists.  Serena makes beautiful and intricate pieces of work with imagined histories and she demonstrated how to construct tiny shoes in paper and card. 

We all then made our own versions using the pretty papers and trimmings Serena had provided.

This is one of a series of events organised by the Pannett Art Gallery to link into the current exhibition.  There will be childrens Drama Workshops on 18th, 23rd, 25th, 30th August and 1st September (all starting at 1.30pm) and suitable for children between 8 and 11 years.  They will explore the lives of the people in the Weatherill paintings.  To book a place please telephone 01947602051.  There will also be a drop in day on Friday 26th August suitable for all ages exploring the lives and work of Whitby Women during the 1800-1900s and looking in particular at Ganseys and rag rugs.

Young consultants

On the 10th August we had a visit from a group of young people as consultants for the Precious Cargo project. I helped our Curator of World Cultures to introduce them to some of our Rich collection of objects. They are now going to do some background research for us. They were very excited at being able to take objects out of the display cases for a closer look. It was a fantastic morning as they were full of questions and enthusiasm, so it was a lovely thing to be a part of.


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Location:Whitby Museum

Work experience

Last week we had a work experience student helping out in the museum for a few days.  She did get to help behind the scenes doing all sorts of jobs like moving some beaded purses out of their storage, photographing them and helping to put them into the new store.  On Friday she helped to move some Bronze Age pots from their usual display into another case temporarily, for safety while some changes are made to the lighting in the main hall of the museum.  Here she is putting the label into the case, having carried the objects and carefully placed them in their temporary home.

Yesterday's celebration and student work

As part of the celebration of the re-opening of the Explorers wing of the museum we have a small display of student work on show.  This work was made by a group of young people in Year 10 at Whitby Community College.

It has been inspired by some of the objects from the Pacific that we have on display. These beautiful masks and shields were on temporary display in library yesterday together with many sketches and drawings.  I will add some pictures of the sketches and drawings to the blog later.

The pieces on the plinths (the first picture) will remain on display for a couple of weeks in the Explorers wing of the museum.

Grand re-opening

Today was the grand re-opening of the Explorers wing in the museum. Dr Sophie Forgan, Director of the Captain Cook Museum gave a short talk about the lives of objects. She used a small piece of Kauri gum as an illustration of the different journeys and stories that a modest object can tell.

The refurbishment has been a brilliant team effort and it was lovely to have so many people together this afternoon to share and celebrate our achievements.







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Re-opening of the Explorers wing

It has been a busy few weeks for the team of volunteers at Whitby Museum.  As one of the group of museums involved in a project called 'Precious Cargo' we have been working to make some of our objects from different world cultures more accessible to the visitors.

Some of the objects have now been displayed in new cases and others have been moved so that they are more easily seen.  This brightly coloured object is a bird shaped rattle from the Nootka Sound region of the North Americas.

The wonderful Maori Tiki has been raised up into position between the two new cabinets alongside the Waka Taua (Maori War Canoe models).  Tomorrow is the official re-opening and I must thank all the enthusiastic team of volunteers who have given their time to this including in particular Fiona Barnard, Holly Hyams, Rebekah Parkinson and Joan Edwards  Without the time and energy given by the volunteers none of this would be possible so well done to the whole team!  There is still plenty to get our teeth into though and we are planning a number of related events as well as working on refining the displays over the coming months.  

Stories of the World

Our project at Whitby Museum is really beginning to take shape.  The two new cabinets are in place and we have begun to assemble the new display in one of the original cabinets.  All this extra space means that we are able to show objects that have been in storage for some time.

Here are some of the objects from Nootka Sound.  They include some wonderful examples are basketry including the hat (top left) that has patterns woven into the brim one of which is a striking Whale motif.    The basket (bottom left) is made of birch bark and the two large ladles from sheep horn.  There is still quite a bit of work to do including making some labels for these objects so that visitors can tell what they are.  Nootka Sound was one of the places visited by Captain James Cook, although these objects date from much later.

Work is still going on in other areas of the display including  more work on one of the model Maori War Canoes.  Here you can see Rebekah has re-attached a piece that had been broken off some years ago.  She has been working very carefully and, as is usual in a museum situation, everything has to be reversible at a later date if better methods become available.  It is fascinating to watch someone so skilful at work!