National Museums Liverpool Blog - Sam

Jo Connor, education manager at Merseyside Maritime Museum, reflects on a busy Bank Holiday weekend packed full of events:

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"Call me Ishmael..." Must be one of, if not the most famous opening line to a novel perhaps next to "It is a truth universally acknowledged..."

And so started the weekend of Moby Dick on the Mersey marathon readings at 9am on Saturday, each day beginning on board the wonderful Kathleen and May schooner moored outside the Merseyside Maritime Museum, then moving inside the museum from 10am. BBC Northwest arrived and stayed most of the morning to interview readers and film excerpts for their evening slot.

Highlights of our accompanying events included wonderful performances by students from the University of Liverpool of the Chester Noah play. Performances took place in the open air on a very windy grassy knoll next to the Piermaster's House. The dialogue retained its medieval English language roots, but even so was accessible and very funny. And as with the performances at the time, certain aspects were contemporised, hence the chart songs by Mr and Mrs Noah and the cast.

On Sunday local children’s author Jon Mayhew enraptured a young audience enticed outside by the sunny weather, with his stories of 'Terror on the high seas' on the decks of the Kathleen and May. Meanwhile inside the museum families were making their own model whales to take home.

A thank you of Moby Dick proportions to all the staff from the University of Liverpool who made it a thoroughly fun and well organised adventure, and to everyone who took part in the readings or offered their services to the weekend.

If you missed the weekend's events there's still time to catch the last of our Moby Dick themed Wednesday lunchtime lectures, which continue for a few weeks.

Liverpool's creative talent is celebrated in the displays and exhibitions at the Museum of Liverpool. One exhibition in particular has inspired a poetic response, as Claire Hunter, assistant curator of urban history, explains:

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We have had a very creative response to the ‘Liverpool Doors’ exhibition, which is currently on display at Museum of Liverpool.

‘Liverpool Doors’ is an artistic collaboration between legendary poet Roger McGough, book artist Mark Cockram and students from Liverpool John Moores University’s School of Art and Design. Doors from across the city were kindly donated to Roger in order to create this unique display of art and poetry.

It was his intention for the exhibition to spark the literary imagination of the people of Liverpool and last week one of our visitors left this copy of another poem by Roger McGough, entitled ‘Streemin’, next to the ‘Writer’s Block’ door,

If, like this visitor, you are feeling inspired, then why not share one of your favourite poems with us? Or you might be interested in the free events that are taking place in all of our venues as part of the In Other Words literary festival from 23 April to 19 May.  

Poem transcript:

Streemin

im in the botom streem
wich meens im not brigth
dont lik reading
cant hardly rite

but all thes divishns
arnt reely fair
look at the cemtery
no streemin there.

The painting depicts an imaginary scene in which a woman says goodbye to a soldier as he leaves for battle. It's a painting full of emotion, the woman seems to be holding the door closed to stop her man from going. Or was she secretly looking forward to some 'me time' after he left so that she could settle down to read the latest Dickens novel...

Our waterfront venues have a packed programme of events for this year's River Festival, which includes activities to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic.

A highlight of the programme will be a talk by TV presenter and historian at Merseyside Maritime Museum. Dan explained to us why the events are so important to him:

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It is extremely exciting to be coming to Liverpool to mark the official anniversary of a desperate and hugely important battle that raged from the first day of the war to the last. The Battle of the Atlantic was nothing less than a long running attritional struggle for national survival. Britain's enemies, as so often before in our history, attempted to shut off supplies to our island nation on which we depended. Had they succeeded the war would have been over, a starving population, and a weaponless army would have given the government no option but to sue for peace, on the enemy's terms.  

Battles were fought on fields far and near, armies were lost, territories evacuated, but Britain’s ability to fight on was really at stake on the cruel stretch of the North Atlantic. It is a titanic struggle that is often overlooked by the people of Britain, a battle won by the supreme ability of the Royal Navy and merchant marine, institutions hardened by centuries of conflict and professionalism.

My grandfather served in the Royal Canadian Navy escorting convoys throughout the war. His stories mesmerised me as a young boy and fired my love of history. In Liverpool I will be marking the battle with the public and the surviving veterans, and my grandfather will constantly be on my mind.

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Update 15 April 2013: Dan Snow's talk is now fully booked However there are lots more free events for all ages during the River Festival,see the website for full River Festival event listings.

Anne Gleave, Curator of Photographic Archives, has found this photo in the Stewart Bale collection which shows a very different Easter display to the ones in shops today:

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There are 195,445 photographs in the Stewart Bale collection and this is one of them; a window display for Easter 1945 in the former department store Owen Owen on Clayton Square, Liverpool, which was commissioned by Owen Owen Ltd, April 1945.

I’m guessing that the passer-by’s attention was supposed to be grabbed by the words ‘Easter Harvest’ in large rustic letters in each of the three windows, hopefully to draw them closer to investigate and read the explanatory text panels about this strange phenomenon (how could harvest be at  Easter! But wait a minute...) 

The text reads "A Harvest in Easter? Yes... Seeds that were sown in the Fashion Market last summer have now born fruit"; a rather complex advertising hook which stages the new fashions amongst objects associated with farming: cartwheels, large forks, rakes, wheel barrows and a scattering of straw for good measure; the harvest fruit is the clothes on the manikins, who although they are in a farm setting are there not to labour but to loll in what is new and smart in the world of fashion.  

There is a jacket at 56 shillings (approximately £2.80) and a blouse at 15 shillings and sixpence (approximately 77 pence). The blouse, which is in the central window, strewn across the top of the wheel, carries a war-time utility label at the top of the neck; clothing was rationed from 1st June 1941; other basic commodities were also rationed and the utility label would have been a familiar sight. 

According to the text in the window these clothes have been more than 6 months in the planning; quite typical of WWII designs and not obviously showing anything very new. An Easter display without a hint of an egg or chocolate (rationing was in place and continued until 1954). 

The building still stands and is now occupied by different shops including Tesco Metro; it is still recognizable and was designed by Walter Aubrey Thomas and built in the 1920s, originally for use as a hotel.  The building was altered in 1925 to house a department store and Owen Owen who occupied it remained in the building until 1995.

Easter Sunday in 1945 was on 1st April (only one day later than this year).  So think of what Easter would have been like at this time, austerity and loss but also hope and change; this was just a month prior to German unconditional surrender 8th May 1945.

The Stewart Bale collection is full of gems like this; a collection that takes you back in time, a time traveller’s paradise. 

For more details about the Stewart Bale collection which also contains a large proportion of maritime related subject matter see the online information sheet. You can see further images from the collection on the website.

Much has been written about the loneliness of the long distance runner. But what about the friends and families who support those runners? You get up at the crack of dawn, become a mobile cloakroom service when your runner takes off the warm layers of clothing and emergency waterproof that they wore on the train over, you cheer them off, and then what? You find yourself in town  with time to kill before your runner reappears across the finish line and suddenly realise just how little is open at the crack of dawn on a cold Sunday morning. Yes, I speak from experience.

Luckily for anyone coming to the Liverpool Half Marathon this Sunday, help is at hand. The Museum of Liverpool's Waterfront Café will be opening early at 8.45am with a pop-up shop outside, which means that you can wave off the runners with one hand while holding a nice hot drink in the other. They will also be serving fruit, breakfast rolls, and water.

The rest of the Museum of Liverpool will open at 10am as usual, so come in to be inspired by the stories of the city's sporting heroes in the Wondrous Place gallery. There's also a great vantage point to watch the end of the race from the huge window of The People's Republic gallery.

Good luck to everyone running on Sunday, have a great race.

Olympic gymnast Beth Tweddle doesn't seem to have stood still since winning a bronze medal at London 2012. She became queen of the ice on Sunday, skating to victory in Dancing on Ice with a breathtaking Bolero. This morning she was back home in Liverpool to unveil a new sculpture, with has literally cast her in a much stiller moment.

The limited edition sculpture, 'Olympian Series II – Beth Tweddle MBE', which belongs to a private collector, is on temporary display at the Museum of Liverpool. If you come to see it then do pop upstairs to the Wondrous Place gallery, where there is a Locker Stories display about Beth's gymnastic career.

Artist Louise Giblin worked closely with Beth to create the sculpture. She was inspired to embed the flag in the design after visiting Beth's flat and seeing the Union Flag on her doormat, t-shirt and many other items. It was a motif that she carried over to her sculptures of other Olympians. Beth's sculpture also features scenes of London, including the stadium where she became World Champion in 2009.

At the press call this morning artist Louise presented Beth with her own copy of the sculpture, as a thank you for stripping down and being covered in plaster for a body cast in order to make the sculpture. The casting process required Beth to stand very still, something which she admitted doesn't come naturally to her!

See more photos from the press call on our Flickr page.

Museums in Liverpool are the most popular in England outside London, according to the 2012 visitor figures issued by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA).

The Museum of Liverpool attracted more than 1 million visitors, and was the most visited museum in England, outside of London.

This wasn't the only success story though. The number of visitors to the Walker Art Gallery increased by 40%, mainly due to the popular exhibition ‘Rolf Harris: Can you tell what it is yet?’ The International Slavery Museum saw a 9% increase and visitor numbers to the Lady Lever Art Gallery increased by 7%.

Dr David Fleming, Director National Museums Liverpool, said:

"In 2012 National Museums Liverpool had our most successful year ever, with more than 3.3m visits. We attract more people now than we did during Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture five years ago, and nearly five times as many as a decade ago.

We are thrilled that the Museum of Liverpool is the country's most visited museum outside of London. We are equally thrilled that it has been awarded the Council of Europe Museum Prize for 2013, proving that the Museum's success has been noticed internationally.

Our museums and galleries are exciting and emotional places to visit - that's the secret of our success. We want our venues to inspire and educate, and also be fantastic for families. Across all our museums we like to try new things and reach new audiences. The big challenge is maintaining this success when public funding is shrinking."

Here's an appeal from Vikky Evans Hubbard at the International Slavery Museum:

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Daniel Baird, who runs our fabulous Capoeira Club on Saturday mornings, is off to train in Brazil soon. While he is there he works with groups of young people in the favelas, helping his 'Mestre' (master or trainer) train them in Capoeira.

Capoeira teaches discipline, self respect and respect for others as well as elements of self defence, dance, music and African Brazilian cultural identity and is a powerful tool in the fight to keep young people of the favelas off the streets and way from drugs and crime.

Daniel will be visiting a group he has previously trained in the Quinta de Boa Vista e Lapa favela in West Rio and would like to take some gifts for the kids in the ghetto there.

We are wondering if any of you have any old kids or teens size football shirts you don't want anymore you could donate to them? Especially from North West teams - Liverpool, Everton, Manchester United and others they would possibly have heard of in Rio.

If any of you have any football shirts that have been outgrown or are no longer needed, Daniel and I would be very grateful if you could donate them.

The deadline for any donations is 25th March. Please leave any donations at the information desk in Merseyside Maritime Museum, marked for the attention of Vikky Evans Hubbard. Thank you.

I love this fantastic recreation of the Life of Pi poster, spotted on the Empire magazine facebook page. The cat's face makes it for me - I think if I asked my cat to pose like a tiger to recreate a film poster then she would look at me with exactly the same expression!

This reminded me of our own Credit Crunch Art project, in which we asked people to create their own versions of art from National Museums Liverpool's collections. We have had some fantastic entries, which you can see in the Credit Crunch Art Flickr group. Below is my homage to Gainsborough.

We haven't had any entries with pets yet - could any talented dogs out there recreate this Briton Riviere painting from the Lady Lever Art Gallery, I wonder? Have a go and add your Credit Crunch Art to our Flickr group, we'd love to see it!