National Museums Liverpool Blog - community

I know I speak for many people when I say that someone close to me has had dementia. Many of us have had grandparents, parents and loved ones who have lived with dementia, and it is an emotional experience to watch someone you care for go through it.

“There are 800,000 people with dementia in the UK, with numbers set to rise to 1 million by 2025”.

I picked up this stat today when visiting the team from the Alzheimer’s Society, who had brought their Dementia Community Roadshow to the Museum of Liverpool. The Roadshow is going all over the UK to help raise awareness of dementia, and the services that the charity has to offer to those living with dementia and their carers.

The Dementia Community Roadshow visited the Museum of Liverpool today

Families and carers provide vital support to many people living with dementia across the UK. In fact, there are currently 670,000 carers of people with dementia in the UK, and family carers of people with dementia save the UK over £8 billion a year.

At the Museum of Liverpool, we have a training programme called House of Memories dedicated to helping carers recognise some key skills and resources that can inform their practice and support people living with dementia. To acknowledge and understand an individual’s personal history and memory is of great value and significance - especially for people living with dementia – and by using a museum or other cultural venue such as a library or theatre, carers can help unlock memories that are waiting to be shared.

Hurrah for half term! Aside from all the great half term events that are taking place at our venues next week, we are also set for some radio interference across the city from 18 – 22 February.

Waves on the Mersey is a project that has been created by Open the Door Theatre in Education, who are bringing five giant radios into the city to broadcast documentaries about major historical events that have shaped Liverpool’s history.

The documentaries have been created by young people between the ages of 14 and 21, who have researched, interviewed and devised radio shows and plays on each topic. They have also decorated the radios, which will be located at five locations around the city, broadcasting a different documentary every day.

The radios can be found at the Museum of Liverpool, FACT, Albert Dock Liverpool (outside Merseyside Maritime Museum), the Metquarter and Liverpool Cathedral. They will each broadcast the following documentaries between 1 – 3pm every day:

Monday 18 February – The Beatles, 1964
Tuesday 19 February – The Toxteth Riots, 1981
Wednesday 20 February – Hillsborough, 1989
Thursday 21 February – The May Blitz, 1941
Friday 22 February – Pope John Paul II’s visit, 1982

You can also tune into 87.7FM to listen to the documentaries, but if you’re able to visit the giant radios, how about doing a trail of them all and getting a picture with each one?

The Waves on the Mersey team with the giant radio located at the Museum of Liverpool

Most of us have already celebrated the New Year, and enough time has passed that we have made – and broken – New Year's resolutions a plenty!

If like me you've taken a while to get started with your plans to start a new fitness regime or take up a new hobby, why not have another crack at starting a fresh this Sunday, with the dawning of the Chinese New Year.

2013 is the Year of the Snake, and World Museum can certainly boast a lot of snakes in its collections. You can visit the Clore Natural History Centre to see some of the snake specimens and skeletons on display, or have a look at our online collection if you really want to have a good nose at what’s in our stores.

And if snakes aren't you thing, but you'd like to get involved in the New Year celebrations on 10 February, Liverpool will be awash with activity and some of our venues are getting involved. There’s loads going on this weekend and next, including Martial Arts displays at World Museum, Chinese Crafts at Merseyside Maritime Museum and Lion Dances at the Museum of Liverpool and Lady Lever Art Gallery.

Or why not go to the Museum of Liverpool's Global City gallery, to learn about the history of the Chinese community in Liverpool? The special exhibition East Meets West: The story of Shanghai and Liverpool, looks into the city’s relationship with China and Shanghai, and is watched over by its resident Ceremonial Chinese Dragon.

The Ceremonial Chinese Dragon on display at the Museum of Liverpool

Happy New Year everyone!

A display of traditional artefacts at World Museum's Meet Your Muslim Neighbour Day. Photo courtesy of Usama Munir, MYMN

Meet Your Muslim Neighbours (MYMN) is an established group of volunteers, adult and children of Muslim faith. They run this initiative to help break down barriers and build bridges for all communities.

World Museum’s inaugural Meet Your Muslim Neighbour event in June 2012 attracted almost 700 visitors. Brimming with family friendly activity, the day included henna hand painting, Arabic art writing, samosa tasting and a show-and-tell on cultural artefacts and objects.

Following the success of Meet Your Muslim Neighbour Day at World Museum, there are now plans to roll out the same event across all National Museums Liverpool’s venues, starting with Museum of Liverpool tomorrow (Saturday 20 October). Drop in any time 11am-4pm - see the website for further details.

April Ashley was at the Museum of Liverpool on Friday to launch a new project by Homotopia Liverpool

On Friday, we hosted a very special event, marking the beginning of an exciting project that will culminate in an exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool.

The event led by Homotopia Liverpool, took place to announce the ground-breaking project that will tell the story of the life of Miss April Ashley, utilising her unique collection of photographs, letters and personal documents supplemented with archive materials from Liverpool records Office, National Museums Liverpool and other sources.

April attended the event herself, and took part in a Q&A session with BBC Radio Merseyside’s Roger Philips, which inspired everyone who came along to hear about the project and April’s life.

The April Ashley Heritage Project will demonstrate the significant role April has played in making social and political history in Britain form 1935 to 2012. In detailing her life, the project will tell the wider story of social, political and legislative change affecting Trans, LGB and many other people in Britain over the past 70 years, and of the impact April’s story has had on family law and legal definitions of gender and identity.

Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the project will culminate in autumn 2013, with an exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool forming a key part of Homotopia’s 10th anniversary.

Homotopia Liverpool is currently looking for participants and volunteers to help deliver the April Ashley Heritage Project. You can help by telling your story, taking part in one of the reminiscence workshops, recording your own oral history, or just lending a hand as a volunteer. Contact bev@homotopia.net for further information.

Exhibited as part of the Heroes project, students from year 9 were inspired to produce portraits of historical and contemporary Black role models, from actors such as Morgan Freeman and Denzil Washington to politicians such as Barrack Obama and Malcolm X.
Researching their subject matter meant understanding the contributions of Black and Minority Ethnic people to society.

The Heroes project was devised by Caroline Ihiekwe, Equality and Diversity Advisor at the Criminal Records Bureau in partnership with Childwall College and the International Slavery museum. She said, "Heroes seeks to raise the self-esteem of pupils. The project sends a message to young people of all backgrounds that they can and should aspire to achieve great things. The chance for these young people to exhibit their work at the International Slavery Museum is brilliant because visitors from all over the world will see what they have achieved."

John Moran, demonstrator from World Museum's planetarium, on an exciting event taking place this Friday 23 March at Sudley House:

Sudley House's uninterrupted view of horizon offers good platform for stargazing.

One night, several different types of telescope, binoculars and the whole night sky to explore. Sound good? Then come and join us for an evening of celestial fun.

Staff at the planetarium will be running this event in conjunction with Dark Sky Discovery who have awarded us a grant of £1500, which is nice of them, with the aim of increasing people’s awareness of the night sky.

We have decided to run this event at Sudley House as there are uninterrupted views to the horizon, much less light pollution and if it's clear gives us the scope (no pun intended) to see more of the sky then we would normally have from the level 5 balcony at World Museum.

By the way, we will be utilising the terrace and rose garden area of the grounds so please don’t wear your best Jimmy Choo’s or your Louboutins, that includes the guys. Please wear suitable footwear and dress warm.

We will have a wide range of telescopes for your viewing pleasure and to give you some idea of the difference between a reflecting and refracting telescope. It gives us so called experts the chance to show off our knowledge of the night sky because as well as telescopes and binoculars to look through we will also be doing some naked eye observing and giving you some tips on how to find your way around the constellations. Don’t worry its not as daunting as you think, plus we'll be putting out some information sheets to take home with you!

There will also be some simple crafts like badge making and colouring in for the little ones and there will also be limited access to Sudley House so you can get yourself a cuppa and a sandwich if you like.

The event is open to the public but, working with the Communities team, we are also hoping to bring in groups from across the city.

So if you fancy close-up views of Jupiter, Venus and Mars as well as a whole array of celestial treasures join us from 6.30pm-8.00pm on Friday 23rd March at Sudley House and grounds; I bet we can amaze you!

In the event of bad weather we will have to postpone the event until the following Friday (30th March) when we will hold it from 7.30-9.30pm. Please keep an eye on the website for updates.

Tomorrow is one of my favourite days of the year (except for Christmas and Derby Day). It’s St Patrick’s Day, and if you’re not in Ireland, Liverpool really is one of the best places to celebrate.

The early 19th Century saw half a million Irish people settle in the city, and the country’s music and culture has thrived here ever since. So much so, that we have our own Irish Festival, which takes place in October each year.

The Museum of Liverpool celebrates many of the cultures and communities that have made the city their home, and the Irish connection can be seen throughout the galleries whether it be through music, poetry, exploring the Scouse accent or politics.

This spiral motif was found on Neolithic stones in South Liverpool

In fact, as you walk into the Museum one of the first things you see has a link back  to Irish heritage. The stunning Atrium is dominated by a sweeping elliptical staircase, which has been mirrored on the ground floor by a spiral motif that’s not just a pretty pattern.

This New Stone Age motif was discovered on large stones known as the Calderstones near what is now a park of the same name in South Liverpool, where the remains still stand. Virtually all other prehistoric burials with the same type of carvings are found in Ireland and this suggests close contacts with people around the River Mersey and the Irish Sea more than 4,000 years ago!

So our connections with the Emerald Isle go way back, and if my family’s anything to go by, we’ve all got an Irish connection somewhere along the line so there’s no excuse not to celebrate tomorrow.

The folks at the Liverpool Irish Festival have not only arranged a parade in the city to mark the occasion, but also organised some fantastic events at the Museum of Liverpool tomorrow. The Waterfront Café is cooking up some proper Irish grub and there will be talks, storytelling, music and dancing throughout the day, so come down to enjoy the craic!

The People's Republic gallery, featuring the life size Liver Bird and scale model of the Pier Head. (c) Mark McNulty

The Museum of Liverpool is hosting a free family-friendly event in The People's Republic gallery this weekend, working with artists collective Re-Dock to create a film to document the life of the Pier Head.

People of all ages are invited to the Museum of Liverpool on Saturday 15 October to get involved with an interactive filmmaking experiment aiming to create a film that mixes old and new footage of the Pier Head together, to create a looping video mix that will take the audience on a journey through time.

If you have any old or new video footage of the Pier Head and would like to be involved in this collaborative video project, Re-Dock is inviting you to contribute this so that it can be used to create the film which will be show on gallery during the day.
Whether you have footage or not, and would like to take the role of editor during this unique film experience, pop along to the Museum of Liverpool between 12 and 4pm on Saturday 15 October to try your hand.

How you can get involved

Re-Dock is looking for digital format clips of no longer than three minutes of video footage of the area around the Pier Head, which could be footage from this summer or from years ago.

Footage of the On the Waterfront events including the fantastic projections on the Royal Liver Building and the Museum of Liverpool, or of one of a number of cruise ships coming into port on the Mersey are just a couple of ideas for contributions.

The easiest way to contribute is to upload it to the project blog at: http://pierheadtimewarp.wordpress.com or you can bring your footage along on the day on a DVD or USB drive and Re-Dock will aim to include it in the project.

Please remember the Pier Head Time Warp can only use video footage if it belongs to you or you have permission to use it.
Contact Neil Winterburn at Re-Dock on 07528 316 230, neil@re-dock.org or via the website to discuss sharing your video footage.

How much do you know about your parents and grandparents?

Bernie, Denise and Sun Yui worked with us to find out more about their families who feature in a new interactive Family Tree displayed in East meets west – The Story of Shanghai and Liverpool, part of the new Museum of Liverpool opening on July 19th.

Copies of marriage certificates, passenger lists and trade directories have been put together in a visual log that will provide visitors with plenty of ideas on how to track down family members past and present. These personal stories took us to archives in Shanghai where researchers tried to trace the participants’ Grandfathers – Sow Loo, Ching Ming and Leung Ngau.

For Bernie Gibson (nee Loo), the project meant exploring the family she never knew and celebrating the Chinese heritage she is proud of. Bernie’s search for her birth family began with a letter to Social Services in 1995 and the reply confirmed what she was always vaguely aware of – that her Mother’s father was Chinese, and Bernie’s surname Loo came from him.

Liverpool has one of the longest established Chinese communities in Europe, all thanks to Alfred Holt and Co’s momentous launch of the first direct steamship from Liverpool to China in 1866. Recruiting men from across Shanghai and Hong Kong, the Blue Funnel Line, as it became known, brought thousands of Chinese seamen to Liverpool, and many made the city their home. Sow Loo, Bernie’s Grandfather, was one such seafarer who arrived in Liverpool on board a Blue Funnel Ship in the late 1910s.

From looking at their marriage certificate from Liverpool’s Registry Office, we know Sow Loo married Catherine Johnson in 1922, and that he was working in a laundry at the time. By checking trade directories in the Liverpool Record Office we found out the business was actually his, and that the Sow Loo Laundry also housed the family at 230 County Road, Walton. The laundry disappears from the directories in 1928, the same year that the story of the family moving to China emerges. Passengers lists for the Kashima Maru in 1929 records Catherine returning to Liverpool with two of her four children, without Sow Loo, in time for the birth of Bernie’s mother – pictured kneeling down to the right of the photograph. Very little is known about the family at this time (1950s) and this is the only photo Bernie has of her mother.

These family trees show how documents, old photographs and oral testimonies can unlock the secrets of family members past, and show us the many ways Liverpool has grown as a Global city.

Do you recognise anyone at this Christmas party in Stanhope Street? Courtesy of Bernadette Gibson

Global Families – Discovering our roots, appears in East meets west – The Story of Shanghai and Liverpool for the Global City Gallery, part of the new Museum of Liverpool opening on 19 July.