National Museums Liverpool Blog - lady lever art gallery

The press team supervised filming at the Walker and Lady Lever Art Gallery last week. The film crew, from Oxford Film and TV, were making a series on the history of British art for Channel 4.

Our galleries will feature in the episode that looks at Victorian art, in particular at nudes and themes of sensuality. I had no idea quite how many naked people there are in both galleries. In case you are unsure let me tell you there is a lot and it turns out the Victorians were not as reserved as you might have imagined.

The writer Howard Jacobson was the presenter. He is Manchester-born and has known the Walker Art Gallery since a young age but this was his first visit to the Lady Lever, which he was hugely impressed by.

Unfortunately it is a long wait before what looks to be a really fascinating and thorough insight into British art hits our screens in Autumn next year but we'll keep you posted with dates when we have them.

Those of you who live locally might already have heard about the imminent arrival of over 100 penguins to the streets and venues of Liverpool. Go Penguins! launches on 22 November, and National Museums Liverpool is providing homes for 13 of the happy but slightly homesick birds. They include 'Moon Waddler', aka Neil Flipstrong, at World Museum, while the Maritime is hosting 'Under the Sea' penguin. This photograph was taken at the secret penguin storage facility and shows another of our arrivals, 'Look at Me' (front left) along with some of his feathered friends.

Each of the birds has been created by either local artists, schools or community groups and adopted by a local organisation. Together they form A Winter's Trail which you'll be able to follow around the city centre, making Liverpool a proper Capital of Christmas.

As well as our usual programme of festive activities and events we'll be hosting a series of special penguin events that are guaranteed to keep the kids amused over the Christmas holidays. We're even creating a dedicated penguin shop at World Museum. There'll be more on our penguins and our other Christmas activities on our main site shortly. In the meantime there's more penguin information on the official Go Penguins! website.  

Update: Should have mentioned that some of the penguins have already been sighted in an Antony Gormley-esque arrangement on New Brighton beach (more on the Art in Liverpool website). Local comedian, Paul O'Grady, has also created his own, 'Owl Ma Penguin', and the BBC website has a slide show of some of the other designs you'll soon be seeing round and about.

Forget the Oscars and the Golden Globes they’re for tanned people with abnormally white teeth. Last night the Wirral Tourism Awards celebrated the real people who make a difference to our days out.

Two members of staff from the Lady Lever Art Gallery were rightly rewarded for the brilliant work they do on a daily basis.

Sarah Lynch, admin assistant won the Unseen Hero Award.  This award is given to staff who show a positive, committed and willing attitude to their organisation and who demonstrate positive communication skills.

Jenni Whiteside, assistant manager in the Lady Lever Art Gallery gift shop was runner up for the Most Supportive Supervisor Award. People nominated for this award demonstrate outstanding contribution to staff development, are a positive role model, and have motivating skills.

Both Jenni and Sarah looked lovely and are certainly a credit to National Museums Liverpool. Well done ladies we’re very proud of you!

 

Last week our new exhibition at the Lady Lever Art Gallery opened - An Edwardian Family Album. I'm not a big photography buff, but I still found the photos pretty captivating. They not only give you a glimpse into family life in Edwardian times, many of them also have an ethereal quality that is really interesting. They create an effect that is almost like capturing ghosts from the past on film. One that definitely has this feel is the photo of a group of people exploring Castleton caverns. They are all holding torches in a pitch black cave - but of course the ladies are all still wearing their fabulous hats!

Owner of the collection, Heather Price and her late husband David, were given a large collection of glass negatives which had been found in a friend's attic. Both keen photographers themselves they were keen to get these unusual photographs on display, so that others could enjoy them. Heather said "Dai would have been so pleased with how the exhibition has come together. He'd have been here every other day to see it." You can see Heather above, with her and David's favourite photograph from the collection. It is of the photographer's daughter Mary, dressed in her Sunday best dress and bonnet, with pet dog Bob.

Heather told me that she felt the details in the photos were really wonderful and showed that the photographer, Jack Urton, must have been very knowledgeable about photography. This was a time when advancements in technology meant that more people could start taking their own photographs in any location, rather than having to rely on professionals in studios. This new found freedom must have been pretty exciting and this is palpable in the variety of photos from cute family snaps, to dramatic shots of the Wirral coastline.

You can also have a look at my attempts at photographing the exhibition on our An Edwardian Family Album Flickr set!

If anything in the exhibition reminds you of photographs in your own family album, you can share your memories by filling in a card in the gallery's response area, or post your comments below.

Remind me not to pick such a risque image next time. Some of the suggestions weren't exactly suitable for a family audience, even if rather amusing.

Anyway, a randomly gathered group of NML staff has decided that Clair Sharp has won the October caption competition with her caption: 'The conversation waned somewhat while they waited for the butler to appear with the superglue remover'. Well done to Clair. You can see all of the other suggestions on the original post.

Another image and another prize next month.

Post a comment to tell us what you think the caption should be for this image. It's 'The Black Brunswicker' by Millais (more on it and a larger image on our main site). The caption we think is funniest/quirkiest/most inventive wins this month's prize which is a rather nice hardback book, 'Women Artists In The 20th and 21st Century'. The book features Tracey Emin, Rachel Whiteread, Georgia O'Keeffe, Barbara Hepworth, Frieda Kahlo, Bridget Riley, Kara Walker and many, many more, and ties in nicely with the forthcoming exhibition, 'The Rise of Women Artists' which starts at the Walker on 23 October.

You've a couple of weeks to enter. If you're looking for inspiration September's entries are here.

The not-very-small-print: This is competition isn't open to NML staff or their families. The judge's decision is final. There's no alternative prize. Please keep your suggestions tasteful.

Update 27/10/09: October's caption competition has now closed although you can obviously still add your suggestions. The winner was 'The conversation waned somewhat while they waited for the butler to appear with the superglue remover'.

Several statues from the Lady Lever Art Gallery have recently been out on loan to the V&A for the 'Thomas Hope:Regency Designer' exhibition. On their return they made a quick pitstop in the sculpture conservation studio, where they were checked and re-waxed before being ready to return to public display.

You can see the sculptures making their way back to the Lady Lever Art Gallery in our Moving stories Flickr set. As you can imagine, moving several large, heavy sculptures without damaging them is quite an operation, which required the combined efforts and specialist skills of the technical services team, sculpture conservators, conservation technologies and the handling and transport technicians, as well as some serious heavy lifting equipment. The good news is that the move was a success and the sculptures are now back on display.

The current Lady Lever Art Gallery exhibition, Whistler: The Gentle Art of Making Etchings, ends on 20 September, so you only have a couple more weekends to pay a visit.

To tie in with the exhibition's closure we're giving away a lovely hardback catalogue from another of the Hunterian's Whistler exhibitions. 'James NcNeill Whistler - Selected Works from the Hunterian Art Gallery' features 74 Whistler works (including three other versions of 'The Doorway' shown here), plus Japanese prints, manuscripts, silver and porcelain from the great man's collection.

To be in with a chance of winning the catalogue you need to tell us the name of the exhibition which follows Whistler at the Lady Lever Art Gallery (you'll find the answer on our main website). Send us your name, email address and answer using this contact form. Closing date is noon on Monday 21 September.   

A random group of people who happened to be in our office at the time chose Linda Reeds' entry as the best caption. Well done to Linda. You can see all the entries here. Another image and another prize in a short while.

While I'm here and talking about artwork I'll tell you about the Flickr group we've just started that celebrates the weird and wonderful world of credit crunch art. There's no prize for this one - just the knowledge that you've far too much time on your hands. Pick an artwork from our collection and recreate it using whatever comes to hand - cats, toys, food, your children, your co-workers - the possibilities are as limited as your camera's battery life. Upload them to your Flickr page and add them to our group. Again, please bear in mind that this is a family site!

This Thursday (3 September), the Lady Lever Art Gallery is hosting a special event to raise funds for the Hillsborough Memorial Appeal. During the early hours of Sunday 7 June 2009, the Hillsborough Memorial Garden in Port Sunlight Village was seriously damaged. Over 35 metres of stonework were destroyed in an act of mindless vandalism. The Port Sunlight Village Trust needs help to restore the garden.

You can support the appeal by visiting the Lady Lever Art Gallery this Thursday. Doors will be open 6-8pm. The cafe and shop will be open, plus there's entertainment from the Wirral based Capriccio Singers Chamber Choir. Bring your friends and family.

There's more on the appeal on the Port Sunlight Museum and Garden Village website.

As I've mentioned many times before, there's never a dull moment for the handling and transport team. Since I last reported on their activities they have safely transported a huge variety of objects from our collections, including ship models, paintings, a stained glass window and some Hindu Gods (well, sculptures of them, anyway). Some have been moved from storage to the conservation studios for treatment and back again, other objects have been gone on or off display and a few have ben loaned to other organisations.

Some of the more unusual jobs have involved taking a whole rack of uniforms to the conservation freezer to treat a possible insect infestation and weighing weapons from the collection in order to determine the floor loadings of planned displays in the new Museum of Liverpool.

On a rare break from work a few weeks ago the team had a sneak preview of the new galleries currently under construction at the Museum of Liverpool. They were all impressed by the scale and design of the building. However in the back of their minds I'm sure they were all thinking the same thing - they'll have their work cut out installing all of the many objects in this huge building in time for the opening.

You can see what they've been up to in the Moving stories Flickr set of photos.

If you caught this week's episode of 'Desperate Romantics' you'll already know that some of our Pre-Raphaelite paintings featured pretty heavily. There was the Lady Lever's The Scapegoat looking resplendent; an imagined, in progress 'Dante's Dream' from the Walker's collection, and Millais' 'Bubbles' which was the cause of much amusement to the TV Brotherhood.

If you didn't catch the episode there's always the BBC iplayer.

It's my first day back in work after a short break today, and I feel that I've returned with a whole new level of understanding of the works of art that I promote on the blog and website. For while I was off I did more than just DIY and sunbathing. I actually experienced what it feels like to be a work of art myself when I spent an hour on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square as part of Antony Gormley's One and Other project. One hour, one plinth, one Sam.

I've spent many hours amongst the crowds in Trafalgar Square but have never had those crowds watching and photographing me before. One man asked if I was going to do anything, which is a bit of a strange thing to ask a sculpture. I've never heard anyone ask any of the figures in the Walker's sculpture gallery if they were going to do anything, our visitors seem quite content to appreciate the sculptures as they are with no expectations of entertainment.

I did do something on the plinth though - I took lots of photos (which you can see in my Fourth Plinth Flickr set), I talked to people, I chased a very persistent pigeon and I waved at a lot of people on open top tour buses. That's something that I miss now that I've returned to ground level - I still wave at the tour buses that go past in Liverpool but nobody on them is remotely interested in waving back to me any more now that I'm just a regular person again.

With so many distractions the hour passed very quickly. I really enjoyed my time on the plinth but don't think I could handle that level of attention and public scrutiny every day. I'll try to be kinder and less critical of any sculptures I see in the future, now that I know the kind of pressures they face being viewed each day, some of them patiently sitting outside in all weathers for the public's enjoyment.

As usual, when I was down in the capital I caught up with a few familiar faces, in this case 'Echo and Narcissus', who appear in the Walker Art Gallery painting that is currently on loan to the Waterhouse exhibition at the Royal Academy. It's a fantastic exhibition which also features 'The Decameron' from the Lady Lever Art Gallery.

We like a bit of TV glamour here at National Museums Liverpool, so we're pretty excited that one of our paintings is going to be featured on a new BBC program!

'Desperate Romantics' looks at the lives of the self-titled 'Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood', which was made up of the artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and John Millais. We have paintings by all three artists in our collections - one of my personal favourites is 'Dante's Dream' by Rossetti, which is at the Walker Art Gallery.

You get all the juicy details of their rise to fame, with episode one following them on their search for a muse. One of our paintings was mentioned in this episode, when art critic John Ruskin compliments a youthful Millais on his painting, 'Isabella', which is also at the Walker. 

Each episode features a different painting by the artists and 'The Scapegoat' by Holman Hunt, from the Lady Lever Art Gallery will appear in episode four. So look out for it!

You can see a zoomable version of the painting with expert commentary on the BBC's 'Desperate Romantics' website.

 

New Radicals From Sickert to Freud opened this weekend at the Walker Art Gallery. The photograph above was taken at the private view where guests had the opportunity to view the fascinating exhibition, drawn entirely from the gallery’s own collection, for the first time.

I have been reading a biography of Walter Sickert in preparation for this exhibition and it has given me a small insight into the art world of the time. I haven’t got very far through the book yet, but I have been struck by what an exciting time it must have been for Sickert as a young and promising artist, particularly one with connections. From early in his career he worked under the close guidance of Whistler whose work and artistic philosophy he greatly admired as well as holidaying in France with Degas, which often included chance meetings with other great names such as Gauguin. Such holidays influenced Bathers, Dieppe, one of my favourite paintings in the Walker's collection, and also included in this show.

These connections of Sickert's had a huge impact on his work and ensured he was a significant figure in the transition from Impressionism to Modernism, one of the themes of the exhibition.

The exhibition runs until 20 September 2009.

Whistler: The Gentle Art of Making Etches is on at the Lady Lever Art Gallery until 20 September 2009.

Across the National Museums Liverpool website, we have loads of great games, e-cards, online-only exhibitions, videos, interactives and podcasts for you to enjoy. And we've just launched our new VIP Zone as a hub for all these cool features that really bring our collections and exhibitions to life.

You can watch a video of a Pharaoh talking about life in ancient Egypt or download a talk by curator Pauline Rushton and photographer Francesco Mellina about our Sound and Vision exhibition - photographs of Liverpool music and fashion from 1978-82.

This multi-media stuff gives people from around the world the chance to get a better experience of what we have in our venues, even if they can't come along in real life.

You can also find all our social networking sites in the VIP Zone. So if you want to follow the new Museum of Liverpool on Twitter or join the Walker Facebook group then you can find links to our social sites there too.

Here's one of the latest videos we've put online featuring George Holt, the former owner of Sudley House, in the dining room. He talks about dinner parties, his plans for improving the city of Liverpool and describes some of the paintings in the room.

Venice divides opinion. It can be far too busy and commercial, but if you are like me you will forgive such a truly beautiful place anything.

It would seem Whistler also appreciated the lure of Venice. There are four etchings of a Venetian doorway in the exhibition Whistler: The Gentle Art of Making Etchings at the Lady Lever Art Gallery. They are of the same scene but with small alterations. Hung together they convey a determination by Whistler to perfectly capture the charm of the place.

The artist found much of the inspiration for his etchings in the major European cities of the time including Liverpool. The exhibition features a lovely etching of Speke Hall from 1870.

The exhibition, organised by the Hunterian Museum & Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, runs until 20 September 2009.

We were very excited this morning as staff returned triumphant from The Mersey Partnership’s Annual Tourism Awards with some great news.

National Museums Liverpool won Tourism Experience of the Year and Marketing Project of the Year - both for the fantastic Art in the Age of Steam exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery last summer.

We were also pleased that the Lady Lever Art Gallery shop was 'highly commended' for Tourism Retailer of the year. 

More than 520 guests joined the celebrations to recognise and reward the best of the best during a black tie dinner at the BT Convention Centre on Liverpool's UNESCO world heritage waterfront.

You can see Marketing Officer Sam Vaux (above) with the award for Marketing Project of the Year, which was presented to her by Ranvir Singh from BBC North West Tonight.

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Update: As Art in the Age of Steam at the Walker won ‘Tourism Experience of the Year’, this means we're now automatically finalists in the England’s Northwest Tourism Awards that will be held in September at Blackpool Tower. If we're successful there, we could be entered for the Enjoy England Excellence Awards!

Here's the latest report from art historian Eleanor Beyer. Eleanor usually works in the British Museum's conservation and science department but has been visiting the paper conservation department up here in the National Conservation Centre. During her time at National Museums Liverpool she has had a look round our art galleries. Here's what she thought of the Lady Lever:

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"The Lady Lever Art Gallery sits in a village designed by Lord Lever. He aimed to have every local facility his soap factory workers might wish for in Port Sunlight, so the gallery, like the local library, was purpose built to serve his employees. The gallery appears like a mausoleum to the objects, from outside and inside with its low height, shallow dome and columned entrance, one expects it to be much older due to the style. It is in fact reinforced concrete which was the best available material at this date, clad with Portland stone on the outside. With such an enthusiastic collector and his fascination with architectural design it should be the ideal gallery space particularly with the purpose built interior spaces and design. For instance the main gallery space is the ideal height for some wonderful paintings by Edward Burne-Jones, and the small galleries for the ceramics displays.

Coming from a much older museum I was curious to see how this worked, although there were still problems with the building, much of Lord Lever's forward thinking had paid off. For instance, with few windows the gallery has more room for hanging pictures and displaying objects. Lever was visually astute and the things he collected were visually attractive (like the soap adverts) and at the same time as being of academic interest. Much of the collection itself is relatively hardy - since ceramics and most nineteenth century paintings were mainly painted in durable materials - therefore if humidity levels fluctuate these types of objects can cope. However some more fragile collections have since had to be removed, such as works on paper and embroideries, and the walls in the main gallery are no longer black. The British Museum is a far larger museum, with an even more diverse collection, from ceramics to other more fragile objects like the mummies, and ancient wall paintings. The architects of the British Museum appear to have aspired to grandeur and style for the building: environmental control had yet to become a concern in the early nineteenth century!

On a basic level Lever's gallery showed me how one individual could make it happen - interest in design as well as providing a collection for everyone. Lever had one advantage - the gallery was built to house his collection, not to house future unknown objects."

We've just published a cute little pocket guide to many of the fab happenings at NML in 2008. It's good to revisit highlights like Ben Johnson's residency, the Superlambananas, the opening of Seized! and exhibitions like Art In The Age of Steam and The Beat Goes On.

You can download your copy of The Little Book of Big Highlights here (pdf 6mb).

I know you will be truly excited about finding out the result of our poll to find out your favourite exhibition from our venues in 2008, so I will put you out of your misery. With an admirable 52.75% of all the votes, our monster music exhibition The Beat Goes On came out on top. But don't fret if you haven't been to this exhibition yet as it is staying at the World Museum until 1 November 2009. You can also check out our listings page to find out about any events going on that are related to this exhibition.

Yes everyone, it's that time again! The end of the year and time to vote on which exhibition you think was the best from our venues in 2008. Cast your minds back to the dramatic shots of the city from 'Metropolis - capturing modern Liverpool', or maybe your favourite was the 'John Moores 25 Contemporary Painting Prize' exhibition with it's cutting edge contemporary paintings? Here is a selection of some of our exhibitions from 2008 for you to vote on....

If you'd like to find out about our main exhibitions for 2009, then check out the listings page for more details.

Our venues were going Viking crazy in November, with several Viking themed events to link in with the Nordic International Cultural Events (NICE) festival. There was the opportunity to meet a Viking warrior and his wife at the World Museum and a free conference at the Maritime Museum discussing Viking finds in the North West, such as the Huxley Hoard. At the Lady Lever Art Gallery, visitors were treated to a concert by Icelandic musicians and Learning Officer Lauren Gould has all the details from this unqiue event:

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As part of the NICE 08 festival, visitors to the Lady Lever Art Gallery were delighted with beautiful music provided by soprano, Bjorg Thorhallsdottir and harpist, Elisabet Waage. Both musicians travelled over from Iceland to perform at the gallery on 26 November, after appearing on BBC Radio Merseyside the night before.

The recital was a wonderful opportunity to enjoy two acclaimed Icelandic musicians performing Icelandic music, English folk songs and variety of church music. Icelandic art songs were premiered as well as new arrangements of traditional folk songs for soprano and harp.

The acoustics and setting of the gallery was a stunning backdrop for the performance, which was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. They’ve promised to return next year and Bjorg has said she will sing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ for us then; there are some Liverpool FC fans in her family!

It takes a lot of guts to get up in front of an audience and talk confidently - anyone who's ever had to do a presentation will know all about this! At the Lady Lever Art Gallery, they've been training up groups of young people from all over the Wirral to be junior guides, enabling them to talk about the paintings in the gallery to visitors. Learning officer Lauren Gould can tell us more about it all:

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Over the past six weeks, young people from Bebington High Sports College, The Oldershaw School, and Neston High School have been training as junior guides at the Lady Lever Art Gallery.  They have been learning from staff as well as their five mentors, who trained as junior guides in 2007.  In addition to learning about the gallery and its collection, they’ve also developed their confidence, leadership, and presentation skills,

On Tuesday 25 November they delivered their first tour to Rock Ferry Primary School and received a round of applause for their efforts!  After providing four more tours for primary schools in the run up to Christmas we’ll be looking to keep this group of committed young people involved as volunteers while they complete their Arts Council England Youth Arts Award Bronze and Silver.

I have always been intrigued by Frederic, Lord Leighton, who is very much an unfathomable figure to me.

A couple of years ago I visited his former London residence, the Leighton House Museum, off London’s Kensington High Street, and was mesmerised.

This amazing villa in Holland Park Road has a room that reminded me of beautiful tiled palaces I had visited in Morocco. In the entrance a photograph shows Leighton gazing at a statue of a naked youth. All around there are hints of what his contemporary Oscar Wilde called “strange sins” – dark corners and sumptuous furniture set in gloomy rooms.

Despite this, bachelor Leighton lived a life that was squeaky clean – it must have been because Queen Victoria ennobled him. Any whiff of scandal and the Royals cast you into outer darkness in those days.

Leighton was the first painter to be given a peerage, in the New Year Honours List of 1896 just days before his death.

When distressed friends and colleagues went over his house they found Clytie – his final great painting – standing unfinished in Leighton’s huge studio.

Now this stunning work is on display at the Lady Lever Art Gallery for a year. This is because Leighton House Museum is closed for a £1.3 million refurbishment until the end of 2009.

Clytie was placed at the head of Leighton’s coffin before being removed to the Royal Academy, where Leighton was president. The painting depicts a heartbroken nymph who, abandoned by her lover Apollo, spends nine days in a wild and isolated place imploring his return and watching him drive his chariot across the sky. 

Clytie joins several other Leighton paintings in the Lady Lever collections including his massive masterwork The Daphnephoria (more of his work can be seen in the Leighton featured artist section). Sharp-eyed visitors will see a tiny study for Clytie nearby in the main hall.

Our picture shows skilled members of the National Museums Liverpool handling team hanging the picture using specialist equipment.

Clytie was acquired by Leighton House this year. Supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund and The Art Fund, the UK’s leading independent art charity.

October's 'Name That Object' competition starts today. Here's the first clue with a slightly larger version on the competition page. As ever there'll be another clue every day this week with the answer on Saturday. The first person to mail me the correct answer, using the contact form on the competition page, wins the prize which this month is a copy of the John Moores 25 exhibition catalogue. Lotsa luck.

As you probably already know, the Best of Merseyside exhibition at the National Conservation Centre features the highlights of this year's open exhibitions held at galleries throughout Merseyside. Having made it through the rigorous selection process for the exhibition, the artists then faced perhaps their toughest critics - the visitors.

Since the exhibition opened visitors have been voting for their favourite artwork. Today Paul Cousins was announced as the winner of the Visitors' choice award for his painting 'Night Flight'. He was presented with a bottle of champagne and some Rennies vouchers in the exhibition.

If Paul looks familiar that may be because he was the man responsible for 'Cloudorama', the Superlambanana that was displayed at the Lady Lever Art Gallery over the summer.

Paul is not the only artist whose fate lies in the hands of our visitors, as you can now vote for your favourite painting in the John Moores 25 exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery, which opened at the weekend.

Another month, another competition and another prize in our 'name that object' competition. Actually, it's the same prize as last month - a set of Beatles figures - but as so many people entered last time we figured they were popular and are offering another set this month. First clue appears on Monday morning (22nd). If you're keen to get your mitts on the figures you might want to visit the John Moores exhibition that starts this weekend and have a wander around the rest of the gallery while you are there...

I had an email from fellow Wiganer and author of ‘Pies and Prejudice’ Stuart Maconie today. (You won’t hear me utter the ‘W’ word very often being a Saints fan, and incase you were wondering Saints and Wigan drew last week. But I digress).

Actually, it was really from England’s Northwest announcing a new set of short stories penned by the Radio 2 presenter. Each tale highlights some of the fantastic things you can do in the North West. Now I am a bit of a fan of Mr Maconie on account of his excellent musical knowledge and the fact that he always turns up at local events and supports grass roots events. I like that. So I have signed up online for a free copy (yes – FREE copy) of his short stories which will go to print early next year.

One of the stories is entitled ‘Liverpool Museums’ and we don’t feature as much as you'd expect – but he does give the Lady Lever Art Gallery and the Walker Art Gallery a mention, so I’ll let him off. Infact, what he actually says is, “Liverpool has galleries the way some cities have roadworks and the Walker is the Bill Shankly and daddy of them all”. High praise (but I hope it doesn’t put the Evertonians off).

Slightly less satisfying is the fact that The Beat Goes On exhibition is overlooked in the 'Liverpool Music' story. He does talk about Eric’s and The Beatles  though – and given Liverpool’s musical pedigree I expect it is quite difficult to squeeze it all in.

Stuart, if you are out there then come and see the exhibition because you would absolutely love it, from Billy Fury’s guitar to The Zutons’ video props, but especially all the Eric’s stuff. I’ll stand you a pie and a pint if you make it.

While I’m here I’d also like to extend that offer to Mr Charley Boorman who metaphorically sprinted through Liverpool on his latest adventure, 'By Any Means'. I have been following Charley for many a year, in the motorbike series 'Long Way Round' and 'Long Way Down' with Ewan McGregor, as well as the brilliant 'Race to Dakar'. So I was absolutely gutted when he jumped off the ferry in Liverpool, hailed a black cab and legged it onto the train at Lime Street without seeing anything at all. To add insult to injury he went on to sleep overnight at the Transport Museum in Coventry where one of his Long Way bikes resides. And he didn't even say hello!

Note to Charley - all is forgiven - but you definately should’ve used the Wacker Quacker if you were looking for different types of transport.

Want to help with a project about how drawing helps us relate to the world around us? Then come along to the Lady Lever Art Gallery this month and you can assist PhD student Pippa Sherriff from the University of Leicester, who is researching this very subject for her thesis. Pippa is inviting visitors to get involved in drawing activities at the gallery and to talk to her about their experiences to help with her research. Read on for more details from Pippa herself...

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My name is Pippa Sherriff and I am a Research Student in the Museum Studies Department at the University of Leicester. My doctorial project explores the experience that adult visitors have when they are encouraged to draw in Museums and Art Galleries of Art and Design. I am interested in how the process of drawing encourages a closer engagement with the world around us and may enhance the understanding and appreciation of the object(s) encountered. 

I am inviting adults to come and participate in a drawing activity at Lady Lever Art Gallery, Monday to Friday from now until the end of September 2008. I have in situ a good supply of drawing materials or people may prefer to bring their own. Following the activity I am seeking people to talk to me (approx 10 minutes) about the experience and so contribute to my research findings.

In essence this is an opportunity for people to express their feelings about the drawing process itself and engagement with the object(s) encountered. The conversation will be conducted in a quiet space, audio recorded and then transcribed at a later date. There are no written questionnaires to complete and any confidential or sensitive information is neither expected nor required. Participants may also withdraw at any time if they so wish. 

My final thesis will include descriptions and quotations of the experiences related by drawing participants. However, importantly, each will decide how their individual contribution is attributed. A research consent form will detail this information. If anyone is also interested in being kept informed about the progress of my research I am willing to establish email contact.

Contact the Lady Lever Art Gallery for more details on: 0151 478 4136

If you didn't have access to a computer over the weekend you mightn't have seen the answer to August's 'name that object' competition. The answer was 'The Annunciation' by Edward Coley Burne-Jones, and the winner was C Sharp of Liverpool. Another competition and another prize next month.

We're cutting it a bit fine with the August 'name that object' competition, but are launching it on Tuesday 26th August (so the final clue will be on Saturday 30th). The prize this month is this fab but vaguely surreal set of Beatles figures. I say surreal because, as you may have noticed, there's a crocodile on stage with them.  The figures are 'straight from the classic Beatles cartoon series' that launched in the US in 1965, and apparently the croc featured in the series. The mind boggles.

Anyhoo, should you wish to give the Fab Four and their crocodilian friend a home you first need to name the object from our collection. It's an artwork, with a new detail being revealed each day for five days. Enter using the link on the competition page.

Should you fail to win I'm reliably informed that you can buy these sets in the World Museum Liverpool giftshop where they are on sale as part of the The Beat Goes On exhibition.

They’re not small, or fluffy, but they have certainly proved to be cute and cuddly.

The Superlambananas, which have taken the city by storm in Culture Capital year, are now approaching their final week on display and I will be sad to see them go.

Here at National Museums Liverpool, we have been watching visitors engage with our own Superlambananas – located at World Museum Liverpool, The Walker Art Gallery, The National Conservation Centre, and the Lady Lever Art Gallery at Port Sunlight. These colourful creatures have been receiving a lot of hugs and will no doubt feature in hundreds of photograph albums and holiday snaps.

If you haven’t been to see our flock, remember they will be going away on August 25 – so we’ll see you soon!

Sorry to those of you who won't have seen the answer to July's Name That Object competition - slight technical hitch. The answer was 'Waiting for Legal Advice' by James Campbell, and the winner of the exhibition catalogue was A Porter of Liverpool. Another competition and another prize next month.

Lauren Gould, Learning Officer at the Lady Lever Art Gallery writes to invite artistic young people to join a summer course...

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We still have a few vacancies on this year's week-long course for young people who want to explore their artistic side.  There will be plenty of sketching, outdoor painting, art history, and photography during the week of activities.  The course is free, although participants will need to bring a packed lunch. It is suitable for all 11-16 year olds.

The course runs from Monday to Friday, 28 July to 1 August, 10.30am-4pm at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, Bebington, Wirral. Contact 0151 475 4143 to book a place.

Michelle O’Callaghan, our youth arts officer, has this great news:

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"Young people from National Museums Liverpool Youth Theatre, Lady Lever Art Gallery Junior Guides and Culture Vultures course participants achieved a rip-roaring success when they joined forces last Saturday to have their Young People's Arts Awards moderated.

The Young People's Arts Award, run by Arts Council England and Trinity Guildhall, enables young people to achieve a nationally recognised qualification at three levels (Bronze, Silver and Gold) through their participation and enjoyment of the arts.

It encourages the young people taking part to think about their own development as artists and encourages development of leadership, communication skills and confidence, as well of development of their own artistic skills.

At Bronze level the award involves taking part in arts activity, enjoying the arts as an audience member, researching an arts hero or heroine and leading an arts activity for peers.

This is the first assessment and moderation since NML became an Arts Award Centre in 2007 and there are currently two trained Arts Award advisors within NML; myself and Lauren Gould, learning officer at the Lady Lever Art Gallery.

16 young people's work was moderated last Saturday and we are very pleased and proud to confirm that all 16 were successful in achieving their Bronze Arts Award.

Certificates will be winging their way to the young people very soon and they will be treated to a presentation evening to mark and celebrate their success.

A big thanks goes to all of the young people involved for all their hard work on the award and a massive well done on their success! It is well deserved!

Congratulations to the following young people who successfully passed their Bronze Arts Awards:
 
Sarah Kenny, James Garland, Deniece Courtney, Natasha Sweeney, Marcella May Rick, Kezia-Jaye Atherton-Davis, Charlotte Clynch, Dominic Hughes, Laura Baker, Craig Parry, Kaz Worrall, James Woodfinden, Beckie Clarke, Keily Hogarth, Abigail Hill and Marc Taylor."

Apparently it’s summer. It bears no hallmarks of the season I once knew; no pavement cracking sunshine, no smell of freshly cut grass and certainly no big decisions like what flavour of ice pop to get from the corner shop to make.

My typical summers day was brightened up today by a visit to the Lady Lever to check out our hardworking team putting the finishing touches to Masterpiece Watercolours and Drawings. The new exhibition opens this Saturday and runs till 9 November and is full of great pieces by Turner, Constable, Rossetti and Burne-Jones.

Looking at Turner’s painting of Falmouth harbour and Helen Allingham’s beautiful watercolour of a cottage in Pinner made me temporarily forget the dreary scene outside. Turner’s sinister depiction of Dudley brought me crashing back to earth though and sums up our current climate. It is an incredibly atmospheric picture, the almost apocalyptic light is how I imagine Vienna was last night during the amazing storm that brought the global coverage of the football semi-finals to a halt. Glad to see our friends on the continent aren’t escaping the rain-sodden summer.

If you're in Liverpool you won't have failed to have noticed that there's been a veritable fall of Superlambananas around town the past few days (apparently 'fall' is the collective noun for lambs). That includes our own colourful trio. Just been sent this snap of the Cloudorama at the Lady Lever being lifted into place outside the gallery. Thankfully the 'fall' noun wasn't appropriate to the operation and it made it to the ground in one piece.

There's just a few days left to submit your application for one of the 10 Creative Apprenticeships on offer. A number of Merseyside-based cultural organisations, including National Museums Liverpool, are involved in a project to foster emerging talent and give young hopefuls a solid grounding in the arts and culture industry.

By the end of the year-long apprenticeship you'll have earned a Level 2 Certificate in Creative and Cultural Practice, and a Level 2 National Award in Community Arts Management, but perhaps more importantly you'll have developed the skills and contacts you'll need for a career in the industry.

More details are available on the Creative Partnerships Liverpool website.

The answer to last week's Name That Object competition was Salem by Sidney Curnow Vosper which hangs in the Lady Lever Art Gallery. Coincidentally, this year sees the centenary of the painting, and this weekend S4C is showing a programme on the painting. It will be broadcast at 8.30pm on Sunday 15 June (in Welsh with English subtitles).

If you don't know the painting it's really quite a strange piece but one which, I'm told, has hung in many a Welsh home after Lord Leverhulme bought the original and then gave away prints with his soap. It's said to show the Devil's face in the folds of the shawl of the central character, Siân Owen. There's more on the programme on the icWales website.

The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that there wasn't a May Name That Object competition. We were rather busy with the redesign for the main site (check it out if you've not already) and it kind of took a back seat.

Anyway, June's is now up with the first clue available here. As ever you need to figure out which object from our collections (and our website) the detail is from and email us the answer using the contact link on the competition page. There's a new clue every day this week.

We've had lots of enquiries from people wanting to buy the Art In The Age of Steam exhibition catalogue so that's this month's prize. Good luck.

Our trading arm, NML Trading, is holding a Recruitment Open Day on Saturday 10th May. They're looking to recruit Team Leaders, Catering Assistants, Venue Supervisors, Chefs and Banqueting staff. They're looking for people who are passionate about catering for their daytime operation plus occasional evening work. You'll be working in Liverpool’s world class museums, providing high quality food and refreshments to over two million visitors each year.

To find out more about the roles on offer, bring your CV to World Museum Liverpool, William Brown Street, Liverpool between 10.30am and 4.30pm.

If like me you need cheering up after Riise-nt events cast your eyes on this cute fella currently being prepared for his new home at the Lady Lever Art Gallery. We’ve been lucky enough to get local artist Paul Cousins to paint our SuperLambBanana as part of the Go SuperLambBananas project which will give birth to herds of them around the city.

Paul has christened his creation ‘Cloudorama’ and it is a reflection of a series of sky paintings he has produced that highlight the threat pollution poses to the earth’s atmosphere. After Paul has put the finishing touches to the piece Cloudarama will be welcoming visitors to the Lady Lever from 16 June – 25 August. Let’s hope having him there in his blue-skied splendour will be a good weather omen for the summer. 

Today is day one in April's Name That Object competition and here is today's clue. To win a copy of the rather nice catalogue that accompanies the Art In The Age of Steam exhibition all you have to do is identify the object in question (it's an artwork this month) from the clues given every day this week, and email us your answer using the link on the competition page. Best of British.

 

BBC’s Songs of Praise filmed at the Walker Art Gallery yesterday. Presenter Aled Jones met up with local artist Cecelia Matson who introduced him to the gallery by showing him work by her favourite artist and source of inspiration JMW Turner. Cecelia told Aled how the Walker was a great place for contemporary artists to learn from old masters.

The feature, which is part of a programme dedicated to Capital of Culture will be aired on Sunday 4 May.

There will be more Turners to feast on over at the Lady Lever Art Gallery this summer when Masterpiece Watercolours and Drawings opens from 28 June- 9 November 2008.  The exhibition features other big names such as Constable, Burne-Jones and Cox and offers a rare opportunity to see a selection of the gallery’s most delicate artworks.

Can't believe no one's got this yet - thought it would have gone yesterday. The prize in this month's Name That Object game is still not won and today is the last day. This is today's clue - bit of a give away. All of this week's clues, plus the link to enter the competition, are on the Name That Object page. The prize is the catalogue from the recent Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool exhibition.

Are you a budding Botticelli, a promising Picasso or would you just like to be able to make you stick figures look less like, erm, a pile of sticks? If so and you’re aged between 11 and 16 then Culture Vultures at the Lady Lever Art Gallery is the place for you. There are still a few places left on this week-long course for young people who want to explore their artistic side running from 25 - 28 March. You’ll get to try your hand at sketching, craft activities and photography all in the inspiring surroundings of the Lady Lever. If you want to book a place call Lauren Gould our Learning Officer on 0151 478 4143.   

I think it’s fair to say we all need a little encouragement to draw out our artistic sides. It took an influential primary school teacher to force, sorry encourage me, to play Joseph in the school musical (Boltonian boys are notoriously tone-deaf) and I’ve never looked back. As my colleagues in the Press and Marketing office will tell you this extensive training has not gone to waste and is regularly demonstrated in the finest Liverpool karaoke establishments.  

The second of what will hopefully be a monthly feature (prizes allowing) begins on Monday. Name that Object shows a new detail from an object in our collection every day for five days. Could be from any venue and any collection.  To win the prize all you have to do is identify the object and be the first to mail us the correct answer (use the 'contact us' form link on the competition page). As there's only one prize - the rather excellent catalogue that accompanied the recent Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool exhibition - most of you will be 'playing for fun', and it is fun as you'll discover if you check out last month's game - bit of a warm up for you.

Here's a snap of last month's prize - a Superlambanana now christened Hogarth (I'll leave you to figure out why) - happily ensconced in his new home. His new owner got the answer right on clue one so you'll probably have to be there from kick off on Monday to be in with a chance. To make it a bit easier I'll tell you it is a painting and it is featured on our website.

You can also play via the rss feed so there's no chance of you missing a clue.

Today we've launched what will hopefully become a regular feature on the site - our 'Name that Object' competition. We'll be revealing a new detail of an object (it's an artwork this time - bit of a clue for you there) every day for a week with the answer at the end. This is today's clue. There's a prize of a miniature Superlambanana to the first person to correctly identify the piece and to email us the answer using the form on the competition page.

If you're as forgetful as me you can always subscribe to the rss feed to get updates, or just click backwards to see previous clues. And as a final hint I'll tell you that the object is somewhere on our website. There, I've said too much already...

I met Dr Yupin Chung at the Lady Lever Art Gallery today. Yupin has a busy job as both curator and researcher for the gallery’s Chinese collections. Today Yupin was being interviewed by the Daily Post for an article on her work. Hopefully this will help shed some light not just on the fabulous collection at the gallery but also on the work Yupin is doing to interpret it.

Lord Leverhulme began to collecting Chinese art in the 1890s. He orginally bought blue-and-white and enamelled porcelains of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) as furnishings for his various homes but they are now on display for us all to see in the gallery.

Yupin is working towards an electronic catalogue of the collection to be made available to the public as a web-based resource in 2009.

Now it’s coming to the end of the year. Your reindeer antlers are drooping after the office Christmas party, the sequins on your party dress are fading and you’re wondering what happened to that pile of sprouts you hid behind the piano to avoid eating them (and avoid upsetting your host). So while you consider if you can stomach another mince pie, why not have a think about your favourite National Museums Liverpool exhibition from 2007 and vote in our online poll!

Did ‘Doves and Dreams’ inspire you way back in Spring of this year? Or did you enjoy getting an intimate glimpse of The Beatles with Michael Peto’s revealing photography exhibition? Have your say and come back to find out the results in January. Once you’ve voted, you can also check out our program of events for 2008 here…

Note: Now These Days Are Gone, Victorian Visions, Magical History Tour and Merchant Palaces are continuing into 2008.

You wait ages for a great Christmas themed performance on William Brown Street then two arrive at once. Not only is the BBC Three Liverpool Nativity taking place there on Sunday, as I reported yesterday, the characters from 'A Christmas Carol' will be invading World Museum Liverpool over the weekend as well.

The theatrical invasion is in anticipation of the retelling of the famous Dickens story in the museum's Treasure House Theatre later this month. This Saturday and Sunday members of the National Museums Liverpool Youth Theatre will be roaming the museum in costume as Dickens characters, chatting to the public and sharing a good dose of Christmas cheer or ‘humbugs’. So come along and join in the Christmas spirit - or spirits, depending on who you meet!

The Treasure House Theatre’s production 'A Dickens of a Christmas' premieres on Thursday 27 December and is on every day until Monday 31 December with performances at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm. See the World Museum Liverpool What's on page for further details.

And while I'm on the subject, here's some trivia about the author to impress your family with over Christmas dinner. Did you know that Charles Dicken's daughter Kate was the model for the painting 'The Black Brunswicker' shown here? Usually on display in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, the painting is currently on loan to the fantastic Millais exhibition at Tate Briatin in London.

Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat, but don't go panicing and filling your stockings with tat! I have a much better idea - head down to the shopping night at the Lady Lever Art Gallery tonight and bag yourself a cracking gift instead. There's jewellery, candles, gift stationery, cards and christmas decorations - something for everyone. To make it a totally stress-free experience mince pies, mulled wine and musical refreshment courtesy of Church Drive School choir are on offer to help you on your merry way. Sounds perfect.

I went to the Walker Art Gallery yesterday to catch a talk by artist Phil Sayers about the Changing Places project he has produced with fellow artist Rikki Lundgreen. It consists of reinterpretations of certain paintings and sculptures that are on display in the Walker and the Lady Lever Art Gallery. Phil told us that one of the main reasons for doing the project was his and Rikke’s love of dressing up! They seem to have used this interest to great effect in their re-workings of the paintings, giving them a 21st century twist. Phil explained that he felt the women in the paintings they had chosen were portrayed as passive or dependent on men, so the artists’ idea was to ‘free’ them from this in their versions of the work.

Rikki’s video installation, ‘Ascension’, was inspired by Segantini’s ‘The Punishment of Lust’. Her version shows the central woman as a living, breathing person whose heart you can hear beating. Phil explained that his, ‘St Agnes’ Eve with hindsight’ was inspired by the painting ‘Madeline After Prayer’ by Daniel Maclise. The original depicts a young woman ‘looking to the heavens’ as a ritual before sleeping, so that she will dream of her future husband. This idea is turned on its head in Phil’s digitally created image, as he dresses as Madeline and looks towards the floor, holding a string of eye-shaped beads. He told us that he wanted to show Madeline as an independent woman who sees everything around her and is rebelling against the ritual in the original.

Some of the pieces in the collection have an eerie, almost ghost-like quality, using double exposure to layer images on top of each other. As you can see from my great photograph (!) of a blurry Phil Sayers on the left and his transparent hands, I have accidentally paid a small homage to their work!

The installations will be on display at the Walker and the Lady Lever Art Gallery until 20 April 2008.

Local press attended a preview this morning of the lovely exhibition Victorian Visions, which opens to the public at the Lady Lever Art Gallery on Saturday.

There are some big names in the world of Victorian photography included in the exhibition such as Julia Margaret Cameron and Francis Frith. But my favourite work is by Lady Hawarden, an artist I had never heard of before this exhibition.

What I love about her photographs is their intensity. Hawarden was a master of composition and used light and shadow to give her images an amazing elegance. I also love the models. She used her own daughters who appear to be experts at striking dark, moody poses. Their gloominess may well have more to do with being forced to pose for hours for a perfectionist mother than artistic expression, but they might have been comforted to know that their intense and unusual photographs could easily be on the pages of modern day fashion spreads. Contestants of America’s Next Top Model should watch and learn!

We're often told that we should open our minds to new experiences in galleries and try to approach art from a new angle. Visitors can now do this literally at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, where the old south entrance has closed and been replaced by a new fully accessible entrance at the west. Director David Fleming and head of the gallery Sandra Penketh are shown welcoming some of the first visitors to use the new entrance.

This is just the first of a series of imporvements at the gallery, find out more on the capital projects page.

Uber-shop assistant Lynn Taylor has scooped yet another award. She won in the Customer Service category at the North West Tourism Awards held last night in Manchester. You might remember that she's already the holder of the 'Outstanding Customer Services' The Mersey Partnership Tourism award, and now goes on to the national tourism finals.

Sharp eyed visitors may have noticed that a few of our paintings are not on display in their usual places in the Walker and Lady Lever Art Galleries. Don't worry, they haven't gone forever, they are just out on loan to other galleries. Our works of art are always in demand and this autumn is no exception, with National Museums LIverpool making significant loans to three major exhibitions.

The Walker's Simone Martini painting Christ Discovered in the Temple is one of 18 items from our collections, including paintings, frescoes, ceramics and stoneware, that are now on display just down the M62 in the Art Treasures in Manchester exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery. Another eight paintings have been lent to the Millais exhibition at Tate Britain down in London.

We haven't been left with empty walls though as we've received reciprocal loans from their collections. You can see four of the Tate's paintings including 'The Little White Girl: Symphony in White no 2' by Whistler in the Lady Lever Art Gallery and Manchester Art Gallery are lending 'Crucifixion' by the School of Duccio to the Walker.

We have also sent five paintings, including The Scapegoat, Mrs Mounter and Mr and Mrs  Atherton, even further afield to the British Vision: observation and imagination in British art 1750 - 1950 exhibition at the Museum voor Schone Kunsten (or Museum of Fine Arts) at Ghent in Belgium. Paintings conservator David Crombie, who was there earlier in the week to install the paintings, reported back:

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"British Vision is a very large exhibition with over 300 works including paintings, sculpture, sketches, prints and photographs spanning two centureis of British art. The Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent has only recently been reopened after a complete refurbishment, and the exhibition takes up about half of the entire gallery space in the building. The permanent collections are also significant and more of these will be re-displayed when the exhibition finishes. The historic city of Ghent is well worth a visit if you want to see the show and there is a gallery of contemporary art as well, the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (SMAK)."

Last Friday the Duke of Kent paid a visit to the Lady Lever Art Gallery. He was in Liverpool to officially open the new cruise liner terminal on the waterfront, and while here popped over the water to the Lady Lever. Here he is chatting to gallery head, Sandra Penketh.

Update 26.09.07: caught up with Sandra who told me that HRH was amazed by the size of the collection and thought it would take several days to tour properly. He was particularly interested in the Chinese displays, and the Masonic collection as he is Grand Warden of the United Grand Lodge of England (Freemasons).

Forget Eastenders, Coronation Street and Neighbours, there’s a new soap storyline in town. Take a tour around the Lady Lever Art Gallery this weekend and experience the amazing architecture and collections through the eyes of a Sunlight Soap worker. You can catch our role-player giving a unique insight into the gallery on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 September at 1, 2 & 3pm. These sessions are part of a jam-packed Heritage Open Day programme happening across our venues. Check out our full programme for details.

The installation of the new access ramp at the Lady Lever Art Gallery is continuing this week with the fitting of the new glass balustrade. Did a previous post on the ramp itself if you are interested.

This afternoon's picture of the month talk at Lady Lever Art Gallery saw Sandra Penketh discussing William Holman Hunt's 'The Tuscan Girl', now available to download (mp3/transcript/links).

The painting is in a private collection and is currently on a long term loan to the Lady Lever Art Gallery. In her talk Sandra looks at Holman Hunt's early years, the formation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, his time in Italy and his aptitude for painting portraits of children.

A few weeks ago I told you we had been nominated in two categories at the The Mersey Partnership 2007 Tourism Awards. Well, we're pleased to report that we won, and in both categories.  'Big Art for Little Artists' won in the 'Large Visitor Attraction' category, and Lynn Taylor from the Lady Lever Art Gallery won the 'Outstanding Customer Service' category. Obviously we're pretty chuffed with both awards and proud of Lynn's individual achievement.

More on the awards can be found on the icLiverpool website.

Recently saw this Guardian article on Millais and a new Tate exhibition. Reading it I felt quite sorry for Millais and I'm a bit puzzled about his work needing rescuing. A lot of people like 'Bubbles', which is on long loan at the Lady Lever Art Gallery and will be returning there once the Tate exhibition is over. Ok, it might seem a bit sugary and sentimental to our modern eyes but that's a lot of people's cup of tea and fair play to them.

In case you don't know Millais didn't paint 'Bubbles' to advertise soap; instead he intended the bubbles and the innocence of the child to represent the fragility of life, and the painting as a whole is meant to encourage us to ponder the brevity of our existence. Some people think that Millais wasn't best pleased when it was used to advertise Pear's soap, but he'd sold the copyright so there wasn't a whole lot he could do about it. Others suggest that he was happy with the sale as long as the reproduction was of a suitable quality

'Bubbles' actually fits in quite well at the Lady Lever, partly because we've a good few Millais's in the collection (you can explore them in this Millais online feature), but also because of the gallery's history and links to the soap industry. Lord Leverhulme began buying art, not just Millais's work, in the late 1880s to use in advertising for his 'Sunlight Soap' brand. Pieces like The Wedding Morning, Girl With Dogs, Besieged, His Turn Next, A Dress Rehearsal and The Centre of Attraction were purchased to promote soap, and many a home still has a print, postcard, jigsaw or tea tray depicting one of them.

So, if 'Bubbles' is your cup of tea you can read more about it here or listen to a gallery talk on our main site.

For Museums and Galleries Month I've been asking which everyone to nominate which people from the past related to our collections they would bring back if they could, so it seems only fair that I should share my suggestions. It has taken me a while to think of somebody, mainly because there's so many to choose from, I just couldn't decide.

It'd be interesting to talk to any of the sailors from past centuries related to the Merseyside Maritime Museum's collections - the people who set out to sea during an era when they were never really sure if they'd make it home safely again. I'm sure they'd all have some great tales of their adventures on the ocean wave, but I can't narrow down my choice to just one.

I'd also like to talk to the person who did some rather strange things to a 15th century painting of St Michael and the Dragon, which were discovered by our paintings conservators recently, as I'd like to know how they could treat a work of art that way.

I'm tempted to have stern words with the questioning soldier in the painting 'And when did you last see your father?' and tell him to pick on someone his own size, but I realise that he's not real so doesn't really count.

So in the end I've decided that the person I'd bring back would be Mrs Emily Tinne, whose enormous collection of clothing was the focus of the exhibition A Passion for Fashion last year. I'd love to take her shopping to see what she thinks of all the designer shops springing up in Liverpool now. Today's clothing may be a bit too daring for her tastes, but I'd love to get her to at least try on a colourful new pair of shoes, as the shoes from the Tinne collection tend to be more practical than glamorous. I'm sure I could convert her to the joys of bling footwear!

This painting, May Morning on Magdalen Tower by Holman Hunt, would have been really appropriate if I'd written this post a few hours ago. I suppose it's still morning in some parts of the world - I'll just pretend I'm on New York time, it sounds glamorous. A complete aside, but on the subject of odd timing I noticed that this painting was the Lady Lever Art Gallery's Picture of the Month a few years ago. In July. I'm saying nothing.

Anyway, back to the point. As you probably already know, May is Museums and Galleries Month, an annual UK-wide celebration. As always, we've got lots of free events, activities and exhibitions taking place all month, way too many to list here. I will draw your attention to one in particular though.

The Merseyside Maritime Museum is holding 'The great museums debate', asking what the purpose of modern museums actually is, on Thursday 17 May, 6-8.30pm. Chaired by journalist and broadcaster Gillian Reynolds, speakers include David Fleming of National Museums Liverpool, writer James Delingpole, David Barrie of the Art Fund and Dea Birkett of Kids in Museums.

Do you think that there should be ‘as many people as possible visiting our great museums, not just the wealthy and overseas tourists?’ (David Fleming). Or is the ‘idea of ancient vases being mauled and chipped by mobs of primary schoolchildren’ abhorrent to you? (James Delingpole). This is your chance to have your say.

The debate is free for anyone to join in but places are limited, so please call 0151 478 4402 or email events  to request your free ticket.

See the What's On listings for further details of all our events in May, including the debate.

Changes are afoot at the Lady Lever Art Gallery. Last week saw the installation of a new ramp for visitors who can't manage the steps. This photo shows work in progress at what will be the new entrance - it's to the right of the front entrance as you currently look at the building. The new entrance and foyer will be a big improvement on the current cramped, inaccessible one, and will lead people right into the heart of the building. Fans of the building should rest assured that all of these changes are totally in keeping with the building and its listed status. More on the improvements we're making to the gallery are on the main site.

Update 10.04.07: sorry, that should read 'to the left of the front entrance as you curently look at the building', so that's the west side of the building.

Liverpool style icon Coleen McLoughlin celebrated her 21st birthday at Thornton Manor this weekend and I can exclusively reveal that pictures from inside the house are now on show at the Lady Lever Art Gallery.
 
Ok, you’ve rumbled me. We couldn’t quite match the offer Hello! put on the table to secure the rights to capture Rooney serenading the birthday girl or Peter Crouch celebrating his Liverpool hat-trick with more hilarious robotics. But we can treat you to a glimpse of the music room at Lord Leverhulme’s former residence as part of the Merchant Palaces exhibition. Who wants to see a bunch of WAGs and B-listers drunkenly cavorting when you can see some true Victorian splendour anyway? 

 

I’m delighted to reveal Port Sunlight has made it into the BBC News website’s top 20 hidden tourist gems. After asking a gaggle of celebrities to pick their favourite places off the typical tourist track readers were invited to nominate secluded spots of their own. It’s heartening to hear that the Lady Lever Art Gallery is gaining a reputation on both sides of the Atlantic and I couldn’t agree more with Daniel from Charleston, USA, that the gallery does have a ‘surprisingly good art collection’. I’ll let him off for calling us a museum.

As for Tony ‘Time Team’ Robinson’s rather random choice of Newbury Park Bus Station, think I'll give that one a miss.

 

Digital, 35mm or good old pinhole, pick up your camera, I’m declaring 2007 the year of the photograph.

 

We've got Bernard Fallon’s atmospheric images of Liverpool going down a storm at the National Conservation Centre and the images of Merchant Palaces at the Lady Lever Art Gallery provide a fascinating insight into the way the other half lived.

 

If you fancy a shot at photography and are lucky enough to be aged between 12 and 16 there’s a Victorian photography workshop at the Lady Lever on Thursday 12 April. Places are limited so call our learning department on 0151 478 4178 to snap up a place. 

 

Never fear oldies, there's also opportunities for those of us old enough to remember when Polaroid’s were cutting edge to develop our skills. Shoot Liverpool is an interactive photographic treasure hunt happening in May and promises a fantastic day of creativity and camaraderie on the streets of Liverpool. Sounds like a reel good time.

 

If your photographic thirst hasn’t been quenched by that fine lot I visited the BALTIC in Gateshead last week to see the Vik Muniz exhibition. Check out a chocolate Elvis  and Che Guevara reborn through the magic of black beans. Definitely the best exhibition I’ve seen all year – apart from our own of course.

Julian Treuherz's last speaking engagement before his retirement was delivering a picture of the month talk at the Lady Lever Art Gallery on Hubert von Herkomer's 'The Last Muster'. The talk is now available to download online (mp3/transcript/links).

The painting portrays a group of Chelsea Pensioners in chapel. One of the men has  died during the service. The talk covers Herkomer's time working on 'The Graphic', Van Gogh's admiration for his work and the subject of death in Victorian painting.

If you missed Bernard Fallon when he briefly returned to Liverpool to open the exhibition of his photos The Long Way Home at the National Conservation Centre, then don't worry. A podcast of Bernard giving a guided tour of the exhibition is now available on the website. Yes, we do spoil you.

For further proof of how much we spoil you, there have been extra talks added for our other photography exhibition, Merchant Palaces at the Lady Lever Art Gallery. Exhibition curator Joseph Sharple's talks about Merchant Palaces have been so popular that 2 more dates have been added on 27 March and 16 April. Full details are in the Merchant Palaces events programme.

Two Liverpool legends turned 60 this week, both of whom I met when I started working at the Walker Art Gallery a long time ago (we’re talking more years than I have fingers here).

I’ll never forget being introduced to Julian Treuherz on my first day of work as an information assistant at the Walker. He told me that he thought the front of house staff were the most important people working in the building, as we were the first ones the public saw when they came in.

Give him his due though, as the keeper of 3 national galleries (the Walker, Lady Lever Art Gallery and Sudley House) and the brains behind blockbuster exhibitions including Rossetti in 2003 and Alma Tadema in 1997, he wasn’t exactly insignificant himself. Julian retired on Friday but I hear that he'll still be involved with a major exhibition at the gallery next year.

Also celebrating his sixth decade is one of my former colleagues from the info desk, Norman Killen. He spent most of my first weeks tidying up after me, then once he had knocked me into shape he started broadening my musical horizons with some mix tapes that I still treasure. He was well placed to do this, for after DJ-ing at many of the city’s coolest clubs including Eric’s and the Sink, as well as working at Probe Records, he has played a major part in improving the musical taste of the city over the years.

As you’d expect, the music at his party on Saturday was fantastic. The birthday boy himself got behind the turntable, in between live music from the Rocketeers and Deaf School, who were joined for one song by a singer who was truly 'one step beyond'. Happily Norman has no intention of hanging up his uniform, or his record bag, just yet. The Walker just wouldn't be the same without him.

I’ve just been acquainting myself with Merchant Palaces, our photographic exhibition of Wirral and Liverpool mansions, currently on show at the Lady Lever Art Gallery. I was interested to discover that Dawpool in Thurstaston, the magnificent home of Sir Thomas Henry Ismay, was designed by Richard Norman Shaw the architect responsible for the White Star Line offices in James Street. I’ve always had a strange obsession with this candy striped masterpiece and yet again this morning its hooped turrets of copper and cream stirred me from my rush-hour induced slumber as I crept along the dock-road. Ever since I visited Liverpool, as a wide eyed 7 year old Boltonian, I’ve always had a sneaky feeling the White Star building actually has an edible façade. I remember looking longingly and almost salivating at the prospect of a huge building encased in chocolate and icing. So far I have resisted giving its auburn bricks a cheeky lick so I’d like to think there’s still a small chance it could be Liverpool’s equivalent of the Hansel and Gretel gingerbread house.

This got me wondering if there are any more buildings in Liverpool with culinary characteristics and I discovered the Radio City tower is in fact a marshmallow ripe for melting and the columns of the Walker Art Gallery bear more than a slight resemblance to sticks of coltsfoot rock. Ah, if only Lutyen’s Cathedral that Never Was had made it past the planning stage, Liverpool would have been home to an ice-cream sundae of mammoth proportions. 

This man probably knows more about the historic houses in the area than the people living in them do. Many people will remember Joseph Sharples from his time as a curator at the Walker Art Gallery during the 1990s. Since leaving he has been involved in several architectural research projects, including rewriting the Pevsner guide to Liverpool. While he was working on this I occasionally spotted him standing in the street looking up at buildings, which he always claimed was critical research.

Most recently Joseph has been the guest curator for the Merchant Palaces exhibition, which opens today at the Lady Lever Art Gallery. The exhibition features photographs of local Victorian and Edwardian mansions from the Bedford Lemere Collection at the National Monuments Record, the public archive of English Heritage. At the opening yesterday evening Joseph described how he had to wear thermals and fingerless gloves while examining the negatives in the collection, which are refridgerated in order to preserve them.

His painstaking research has resulted in a fascinating exhibition of incredible photographs, beautifully capturing a lost era of grandeur and opulence.

The awards season is upon us, so in honour of the Baftas and the Grammys and in anticipation of the Oscars and the Brits (anyone else think Russell Brand, alcohol and live TV spells a pre-watershed disaster worse than Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood?) I couldn’t resist awarding gongs to my favourite pieces from our collections. 

First up Best Newcomer and it was a photo-finish between Reveal at the National Conservation Centre and the brand new Titanic, Lusitania and the Forgotten Empress gallery at the Merseyside Maritime Musuem. For me Reveal just edges it in this tightly contested category, where else can you see dirt-busting lasers and look under a mummy’s bandages? 

Best Actor in a leading role goes to David Garrick as Richard III by William Hogarth. David’s in such high demand that he’s currently away from the Walker Art Gallery starring in Tate Britain’s blockbuster Hogarth exhibition running until 29 April, definitely worth checking out if you’re in the big smoke.

Personally I think there could only be one winner of Best Animated Short, Crackers the crab. This vivacious yet vertically challenged inhabitant of the Shipwrecked exhibition, voiced by Ricky Tomlinson, beat off strong competition from Big Arts Little Artists to claw his way to the top of the pile.  

Forget Pirates of the Caribbean and Superman Returns, our Planetarium which scoops the award for special effects, is nothing short of spectacular. My personal favourite show is the Sunshine Show to which I’d also like to award Best Soundtrack.

Sitting resplendant at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, hair with more volume than a gaggle of teenage girls at a Justin Timberlake concert, Anne Duchess of Cumberland painted by Thomas Gainsborough takes the coveted Best Hair and Make up. The fact I’ve got hair as flat as a pancake and thus have extreme volume envy may have slightly influenced this result.

Finally Best Picture goes to the Walker Art Gallery’s Harmony in Green by Dan Hays, for the simple fact that it’s my favourite and I love it.

 

At the second attempt, I managed to record Sandra Penketh's picture of the month talk yesterday at the Lady Lever Art Gallery on John William Waterhouse's 'The Decameron' and 'The Enchanted Garden' (mp3/transcript/links).

The paintings are companion pieces, 'The Enchanted Garden' depicting a scene from Boccaccio's Decameron. Sandra's talk looks at the contemporary influences on Waterhouse, the story of the Enchanted Garden and Lord Lever's unusual approach to buying from Waterhouse's widow.

Fans of Cute Overload! shouldn't miss this photo buried in the podcast's suggested links (although whether 'mouse about to be savaged by cat' counts as cute is debatable).

The object of the month talk at 1pm in the Walker tomorrow (Thursday 25 January 2007) is on a Vivienne Westwood outfit from her Buffalo Girls collection.

Audio downloads of the Lady Lever and Walker Art Galleries' December artwork of the month talks are now online.

At the Walker, Curator of British paintings Alex Kidson took a look at Henry Fuseli's 'The Death of Oedipus' (mp3/transcript/links). Fuseli's painting portrays a scene from the Sophocles play 'Oedipus at Colonus'.

At the Lady Lever, Dr Paul O'Keeffe gave a seasonal talk on 'The Annunciation' by Edward Burne-Jones (mp3/transcript/links). Paul discusses buying a bible and concordance, the connections between Eve and Mary, original sin, the V&A exhibition 'Renaissance domestic life in Italy', the model and her famous daughters, the history of the Grosvenor Gallery, Gilbert and Sullivan's 'Patience', Oscar Wilde, William Morris and Clause 8 of the Trust deed of the Lady Lever collection.

Subtitle: diversionary tactics part 2.

Today's foray into the world of 'kind of work' has been provided by the Guardian art & architecture blog which has posed the question 'what is your favourite Christmas painting?' In the spirit of 'diversionary tactics' I'd better go for images from our own collections. You'll know a lot of these as they are regularly used on Christmas cards. My choices are:

• Peter Doig's 'Blotter'
• The Shortening Winter's Day Is Near A Close by Farquharson (proper chocolate box stuff)
• The image shown is a detail from The Daphnephoria by Lord Leighton which, despite being used on lots of Christmas cards, isn't even about winter. The Daphnephoria was an ancient festival held every nine years in honour of the god, Apollo. So now you know.
• Snowdrift by Edward Onslow Ford is often used as well, despite being about the end of winter and the coming of spring. 
• Just realised that one our most popular Christmas pics isn't on our main site (job for the new year me thinks), Angel Playing A Flageolet by Burne-Jones.

Email me with your suggestions and I'll consider posting them here.

Guess this is the National Museums Liverpool blog signing off for a few days. Have a restful and peaceful holiday, whatever you end up doing.

 

There's an interesting article on the 24 Hour Museum site by Jacob Simon from the National Portrait Gallery on the portrayal of disability in art. Several of the artists mentioned also feature in our collections including Zoffany, Hogarth and Reynolds.

This got me thinking about the portrayal of disability in our own collections, and wondering how much attitudes have changed in the time since these magnificent pieces were painted. Just off the top of my head I can think of the blind man in Holman Hunt's 'The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple' (see image), and three depictions of Nelson (by West, Drummond and Maclise) who at the time of his death was missing an eye and an arm.  

Benjamin Robert Haydon considered himself near blind but still managed to produce several works including 'Christ Blessing the Little Children' which was commissioned to decorate a chapel for the blind (this linked page includes his son's description of Haydon wearing several pairs of spectacles at once).

There is also the theory that JMW Turner had increasing problems with his sight as he aged - colour blind from an early age and then cataracts in later life (check out this Guardian article). Works like The Falls of the Clyde might be seen as the result of a condition, though we probably wouldn't describe Turner as disabled.  

I guess the most famous modern representation of disability in art is Marc Quinn's wonderful statue, 'Alison Lapper Pregnant', which stands in Trafalgar Square. It seems that attitudes really have changed.

Should also mention, in case you've missed it, that National Museum Liverpool is hosting events as part of this year's DaDa Fest. More details on the North West Disability Arts Forum website.

I've been catching up with a podcast backlog -  there are three recently recorded gallery talks now available to download.

Curator of Fine Art, Ann Bukantas (mp3/transcript/links) takes an extended look at Helen Chadwick's 'Viral Landscapes', a recent addition to the Walker Art Gallery's permanent collection.

Head of Decorative Arts, Robin Emmerson, found time last month to deliver object of the month talks at both the Walker and the Lady Lever Art Gallery.

At the Walker, Robin spoke about Ettore Sotsass' 'Casablanca Cabinet'  (mp3/transcript/links). The cabinet is displayed in the gallery's cafe, outside the entrance to the Craft and Design gallery, and there is a lot of background noise on the recording from the lunchtime crowds.

The next day Robin was at the Lady Lever to deliver his talk on the 'Moor Park mantelpiece' (mp3/transcript/links). Robin begins his talk by admitting that he knew little about the object when he was asked to deliver the talk.

Today there's only 3 weeks left until Christmas day. If you are still trying to think of present ideas then why not go along to the Christmas shopping evening this Wednesday at the Lady Lever Art Gallery from 5.30-8.30pm. With original artworks for sale in the 'Objects of Desire' exhibition plus the gallery's usual enticing range of goodies in the shop, there's something to suit all tastes and price ranges.

If you can't make it there, you can always send the shopaholic in your life the Christmas e-card pictured above, which is one from a range of vintage Christmas and New Year e-card designs now available on our website.

They say that wherever you go in the world you'll meet a scouser. I'm not sure if paintings and other items from scouse collections count, but I certainly encountered a lot when I was down in London at the weekend. It was starting to feel like a home away from home.

I saw a familiar pair of cheeks at the Hockney exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, which features Peter getting out of Nick's pool from the Walker. If you go then have a look at the painting from the gallery opposite, as it's beautifully framed by the arched doorways - a really nice touch I thought. Next door the National Gallery are featuring another Walker painting, The Murder, in their Cézanne in Britain exhibition.

There are no less than 9 (count them!) works from the Walker and Lady Lever Art Gallery in George Stubbs: A celebration at Tate Britain, an exhibition that you may have seen at the Walker earlier this year. Another popular painting, the Walker's Henry VIII, is also there in the Holbein in England exhibition.

In the Imperial War Museum you can read the story of canine hero Jet and see a painting of him from our collections in the exhibition The Animals' War. The beautiful sculpture Danaid that visitors to Sudley House will remember is currently on show in the Royal Academy's Rodin exhibition. 

It's not just works of art that have made it down to London either. The exhibition The Great White Bear at the Horniman Museum includes photographs of every taxidermied polar bear in UK collections, which were taken by artists Bryndís Snaebjörnsdóttir and Mark Wilson as part of the project nanoq: flat out and bluesome. Our polar bear is featured, although its circumstances have changed since the artists photographed it in storage a couple of years ago. Since then it has been conserved at the National Conservation Centre and is now back out on display again at World Museum Liverpool.

The good news is that there's still lots to see in our galleries in Liverpool - well we are the capital of culture for 2008 after all! With such an embarrassment of riches up here it's only fair that we share them with the Londoners when we can.

I'm feeling very virtuous. I am the image of restraint, a pillar of strength who has faced the ultimate temptation without losing control. Somehow I have just visited the new Objects of Desire exhibition at the Lady Lever Art Gallery without testing the limits of my credit card. I think I deserve a medal, or at least a round of applause.

This is the gallery's first ever selling exhibition, in collaboration with Liverpool's Bluecoat Display Centre. The ever-changing selection of beautiful ceramics, jewellery, glass, metal and textiles on display are all by leading contemporary makers from the north of England.

All the exhibits are available to purchase and take them home. So if you are looking for a Christmas present with a difference, or if you just want to treat yourself, it's worth checking the exhibition out.

For extra festive cheer, there's a Christmas shopping night on 6 December from 5.30-8.30pm, with carol singers and mulled wine.

If you are reading this from an office in the UK then don't forget to go outside and make the most of the daylight after work today, as when you leave work next week it will be a lot darker. That's right, the clocks go back this weekend, something which usually causes mass confusion in my house as there's always a clock or two that we forget to change.

All those in the same position should spare a thought for John Griffiths, the curator of horology (or man in charge of the clocks) at National Museums Liverpool. True, most of the timepieces in our collections are not kept wound up and running, so they wont need to be changed. However, the clocks in John's care that do keep time are located in several different venues spread out across Merseyside, including World Museum Liverpool, the Lady Lever Art Gallery and Prescot Museum. With all that running around to do next week, I bet he'll be glad of an extra hour in bed on Sunday.

On Tuesday we recorded Paul O'Keeffe's latest Lady Lever Art Gallery sculpture of the month talk on John Gibson's 'Pandora' (mp3/transcript/links).

Paul discusses the controversy that the sculpture caused when it was first exhibited (alongside a version of the Walker Art Gallery's 'Tinted Venus') in the 1862 Great Exhibition. His talk also looks at the complicated commissioning process for the sculpture and the Greek legend of Pandora.

Big Draw is the national drawing campaign that runs throughout October annually. Our first event for is at World Museum Liverpool tomorrow, 7 October, an art workshop with artist Karl Eversley. Further events take place next weekend at World Museum Liverpool, the Walker Art Gallery, Lady Lever Art Gallery, National Conservation Centre and Merseyside Maritime Museum.

• Big Draw events at National Museums Liverpool
• Big Draw events nationally

We recorded Frank Milner's artwork of the month talk at the Lady Lever Art Gallery on Wednesday (mp3/transcript/links).

George Morland was arguably the most popular painter of the late 18th century but only two attendees out of a packed standing room only audience had previously heard of him.

Frank Milner discusses Morland's reputation as an alcoholic, debtor, womaniser and painter of 'exquisite technique'.

September's monthly updates are available on the National Museums Liverpool site now. Lady Lever Art Gallery artwork of the month will be 'The Piggery' by George Morland, free gallery talks by Frank Milner on 6 and 26 September 2006, 1pm.

The Walker Art Gallery's object of the month will be Rembrandt van Rijn's 'Self-Portrait as a Young Man', with free gallery talks by Curator of Continental European Art Xanthe Brooke on 7 and 26 September 2006, 1pm.

September's Nightwatch feature is also available, with tips on viewing our neighbouring galaxy Andromeda, M31, both through the naked eye and with binoculars.

Keeper of Art Galleries at National Museums Liverpool, Julian Treuherz, gave a lecture at the Lady Lever Art Gallery this afternoon on 'Bubbles', by Sir John Everett Millais.

The lecture is now available as an audio download from our site (mp3/transcript/links).

The 30 minute talk covers the long term loan of 'Bubbles' to the Lady Lever from Unilever, memento mori, fancy portraits, Sir Joshua Reynolds, the Maurits house at The Hague, competition between Pears Soap and Sunlight Soap, the Graphic magazine and the theme of death in Millais's paintings. 

Regular monthly updates for August are live on the site. The Lady Lever Art Gallery's picture of the month will be 'Bubbles', by Sir John Everett Millais. It is on long-term loan from Unilever, free gallery talks will be held on Thursday 10 and Wednesday 23 August 2006.

Object of the month at the Walker Art Gallery is recent acquisition 'Loophonium', by the late Fritz Spiegl. The loophonium, a euphonium crossed with a toilet, was created by Spiegl for an April Fools' Day concert in 1960. Free gallery talks will be held on Tuesday 1 and Thursday 24 August, 1-1.30pm.

August's Nightwatch feature for World Museum Liverpool higlights sightings of Jupiter, Venus, the constellation of Pegasus, M51 (The Whirlpool Galaxy) and the Perseid meteor shower.

For those wanting to know what the night sky was like in the recent past, our Nightwatch archives date back to the beginning of 2004.

This afternoon Frank Milner gave a free talk at the Lady Lever Art Gallery on James Holland's 'View of the Piazza San Giovanni e Paulo'.

An audio recording of the talk is available to download online now (mp3/transcript/links).

Over the last few weeks, we've been recording talks and lectures held at the Lady Lever Art Gallery and the Walker Art Gallery. Some of these free talks and lectures are now available to download as audio files to be played on your computer or personal mp3 player. A podcast feed is also available for advanced users (as well as instructions on how to use these files!).

The first talks available are:

• Dr Paul O'Keeffe on a Chippendale commode (mp3 file)
• Dr Paul O'Keeffe on 'Horse Frightened by a Lion', George Stubbs (mp3 file/transcript/links)
• Dr Paul O'Keeffe recreating John Ruskin's controversial 1851 lecture 'Pre-Raphaelitism' (mp3 file/links)
• Xanthe Brooke on 'Danaid', Auguste Rodin (mp3 file/transcript/links)

Unfortunately Augustus John's painting of Lord Leverhulme, which hangs in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, didn't make it to the virtual wall of The People's Museum. It was beaten by the Kitchener Camp Review - a journal of the daily happenings in a Jewish refugee camp in Sandwich.

...or maybe that should be Sky+ boxes.

Anyhoo, National Museums Liverpool is on telly as part of The People's Museum series on BBC2. Transmission dates for our venues are:

Monday 15th May @ 3.30pm - Walker Art Gallery
Friday 26th May @ 1pm - Conservation Centre
Tuesday 7th June @ 3.30pm - Lady Lever Art Gallery

We'll remind you nearer the time as well.

 

Every St David's Day my Welsh mate Dave at uni would proudly wear a leek in his shirt pocket.

I'm not sure if there's an equivalent English dress code or ritual to celebrate St George's Day on Sunday. It would probably involve watching a cricket match while sipping a cup of tea and listening to the Archers.

If that's not your cup of tea (sorry) you could always have a patriotic trip to the Lady Lever Art Gallery to see a sculpture of the legend himself indulging in his favourite pastime, dragon slaying.

Or you could check out a painting of St George entering The Dragon's Den from the comfort of your own home thanks to the online Pre-Raphaelite feature on our website. Cup of tea and cricket whites entirely optional.

Press call at Lady Lever Art Gallery this morning to promote our Bunny Run easter activity.

I don't know if it's something in the water, but there's some serious artistic talent in evidence in these parts at the moment.

Last weekend saw the last drawing workshop in the Pre-Raphaelites Drawings exhibtion at the Lady Lever Art Gallery. Participants, helped by artist Julia Midgeley, spent the day sketching our very own Pre-Raphaelite model, Lisa. You can see some of their drawings in our online people's gallery.

Tomorrow is the opening of Dare to Dream at the Maritime Museum, a display of paintings produced by past and present staff. The organisers, Liverpool Front House, aim to promote the creative talents of the city's working community.

For sheer colourful exuberance though you can't beat the cool art pics displayed on the Little Artists' fridge in the Big Art website. These guys may be too young to enter the current John Moores competition, but who knows what the future may bring. Remember, you saw them here first!

Last night Chelsea made it through to the semis of the FA Cup, so here's a painting of Chelsea pensioners to mark the occassion - 'The Last Muster: Sunday at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea' by Sir Hubert von Herkomer which hangs in the Lady Lever Art Gallery.

Sorry barcodes fans - couldn't find anything Newcastle-related.