National Museums Liverpool Blog - other museums

Image courtesy of Berkeley White Photography.

Rebecca Watkin has sent this account of how she helped support a very good cause at the weekend:

"Hello. As a brief introduction my name is Rebecca Watkin and I am curator of transatlantic slavery at the International Slavery Museum. To mark Nelson Mandela Day on 18th July 2010, myself and Jessica Moody, research assistant from our Development Office, travelled down to the British Museum to represent the International Slavery Museum.

As Nelson Mandela is one of the museum’s Black achievers we were passionate about commemorating the 67 years that Mandela has been involved with human rights work. Visitors were invited to pledge 67 minutes of their time to charitable causes to mark this.

The British Museum forecourt was bustling with visitors on what was a vibrant, sunny day. It was a great opportunity to promote forthcoming museum events such as the Slavery Remembrance Day festival from 20th-23rd August and the FIRHM (Federation of International Human Rights Museums) Conference being held at the International Slavery Museum on 15th and 16th September 2010.

As curator it was very interesting to talk to the visitors who had been to the International Slavery Museum and hear their feedback which was very positive. It was also a great opportunity to encourage new visitors to the museum. We were informed that 30,000 visitors attended Nelson Mandela Day and we were the only museum from outside London to be represented.

The BBC World Service were filming and conducting interviews about how people are going to take individual steps to combat climate change. Jessica pledged she would give up tea (but later admitted she couldn’t). I pledged to turn more lights off when not in use. Both being keen drivers, we perhaps could pledge to use public transport more and save on petrol emissions.

The day was celebrated through South African music, dance, amazing food and storytelling. Special thanks goes to the kind man from the South African tourism stall who rescued our museum pop–up banner from the persistent breeze on the forecourt and Gabriella, the kind little girl who offered to help pack our stall away as part of her 67 minutes of her time. Thank you!"

Last month, Mersey v’s (our Young Volunteers Steering Group) visited Manchester Museum to meet with their Youth Board. Caroline, one of our Mersey v’s has kindly shared her thoughts about the day …

Members of National Museums Liverpool's Mersey v's and Manchester Museum's Youth Board, making friends with Stan, the Tyrannosaurus Rex!

‘After their visit to World Museum last year with the Mersey v’s, the Manchester Museum Youth Board wanted to repay our invitation to visit with one of their own. On the 8th May, the Mersey v team ventured into the wide world to visit one of our neighbouring youth museum volunteer teams in Manchester. After a claustrophobic train journey (both Tranmere Rovers and Wigan Warriors were playing beyond Manchester), we arrived at Manchester Oxford Road ready to go to The Manchester Museum.

On arrival we were greeted by the Manchester Museum Youth Board. Once reacquainted, we had a presentation about what the Youth Board is doing in their museum. Their enthusiasm and confidence during the presentation was amazing and we were all impressed by the members of the advisory board about changes to the Egypt and classical collections and the group project to create the Manchester trail. The Manchester trail is a highlights tour of what the Youth Board believe are a mixture of Manchester greatest sites and has been so popular that it has become one of the many leaflets to accompany visits around the museum.

After a booming buffet, the Youth Board gave the Mersey v’s a tour of the Museum.  Highlights included the community gallery, showing the work they had done to help create the Manchester trail, from photos to personal stories of objects relating to Manchester including an elephant skeleton which when alive had walked to Manchester from Edinburgh. Other highlights included the Egyptian mummies, the Tomato Frog in the live reptile section and the scary encounter with Stan, the Tyrannosaurus Rex. At the end we had a chance to look at the Darwin exhibit.

Overall, it was a fantastic day not only to see another museum, but to see how a youth group like our own makes a difference in the museum. Thank you to the Manchester Youth Board for showing us around and the Volunteer team for sorting everything out for such a great day.’

Mersey v’s help the Volunteer Team to develop and deliver ideas and volunteering projects at our museums. If you are interested in volunteering and becoming part of the steering group please contact the Volunteers Team to find out more.

You can also find out more about Youth volunteering from v, the national young volunteers’ service.

Exploring the 'Casa das Histórias'

Earlier this month I got to visit Lisbon for the first time. Part of my excitement about discovering this new city, was the opportunity to also discover more about the Portuguese artist, Paula Rego. I'd read about her for the first time in a newspaper article before her dedicated museum, 'Casa das Histórias' ('House of Stories'), opened for the first time at the end of last year. I was intrigued by her combination of innocence (e.g. 'Little Miss Muffet') and darkness (e.g. 'Dog Woman') and her representations of the experiences of women.

The building itself is really a work of art. Two sandstone coloured 'pyramids' stick up and look amazing next to the blue sky and set you up for the striking visual experience inside. You are taken through the various different phases in style that Rego has gone through to get where she is today. Her work includes collages in her early work, bright, cartoon-like paintings, spooky dummies made of found objects and large, dark, textural paintings.

My favourite works fell into the latter section, in particular the twisted, upside-down form of 'Snow White', the snarling and visceral 'Dog Woman' and the protective/vengeful 'Angel'. You're not quite sure from the expression on the face of Angel if she is ready to attack you or protect you!

You might say that her work is disturbing and on one level, I can agree. But for me it is the way she depicts women in roles that you don't normally see in everyday life and the way that this 'wakes you up', which is appealing. Women are often depicted as delicate, peaceful, clean, light, benign, beautiful... whether this is in paintings or in the modern media. I admire the way she fully embraces the messy, powerful and sometimes difficult realities of being a woman - or rather of being human!

We are lucky that here at the Walker Art Gallery we have one of Rego's etchings on display in 'The Rise of Women Artists' exhibition at the moment. It is an unsettling yet poignant piece of work from her Abortion Series and has been mentioned as a stand-out work by many reviewers of the exhibition. Her ability to distill intense emotion into small and simple pieces such as this, is also what makes her work so extraordinary. So if you can't make it all the way to Portugal, then at least come to Liverpool and take a look at her work!

Following the recent founding of the John Moore's painting prize in Shanghai, representatives from Liverpool and Shanghai caught up yesterday to discuss art in the UK and China and the running of the John Moore competitions.

From the Walker Art Gallery, participants in Liverpool were able to talk face to face to those in China via a live video conference link.

Angela Samata, Project Manager for the John Moores 2010 shares her thoughts on the video meeting:

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from a live video conference as I entered the empty gallery yesterday. I’ve used video conferencing before, but only within the UK, so the chance to link live with Shanghai was really exciting, but also a little bit nerve-wracking.

I needn’t have worried. When the unassuming button that has the ability to link two places hundreds of miles apart was pressed, waving hands and smiling faces greeted us from Shanghai and it really was hard to fathom the miles between us.

The participants in China were from a wide range of backgrounds including gallery owners, representatives from the Shanghai University Fine Arts College and the China Artist Association. Three of the judges from the John Moores Shanghai competition also joined the discussions. They were artists Gu WenDa and Zeng Fanzhi and Lewis Biggs, Artistic Director of Liverpool Biennial.

The discussions, via an interpreter, gave both sides a chance to explore the practical aspects of running a painting prize. Both sides acknowledged the importance of cultural contexts and discussed the continuing vitality and importance of contemporary painting in the UK and China.

It was a really useful exchange of ideas and it is hoped that we will host similar events in the future, with a backdrop of John Moores 2010 paintings on the walls of the gallery.

We're also going to display the winners of the John Moores Shanghai competition here and we are exploring further ways that we will be able to work together in the future.

So, watch this space!

Nottingham Contemporary art gallery - home to the Walker's Hockney painting for the next few months

Here's a behind-the-scenes look at one of the aspects of the work that our staff are involved in, courtesy of handling and transport technician Paula Frew. This week Paula travelled to Nottingham as a courier to supervise the installation of one of the Walker's most popular paintings, which has gone out on loan. Here's what she got up to, in her own words:

"Monday morning at 7.30am I was on the train travelling to Nottingham to act as a courier for the installation of the Walker's David Hockney painting  'Peter getting out of Nick’s pool' by David Hockney, which is on loan to the Nottingham Contemporary art gallery for their Hockney exhibition. The painting had travelled ahead of me, having been collected from the Walker on the Friday by Momart, who handle and transport art works nationally and internationally.

Twenty minutes walk from the train station, Nottingham Contemporary art gallery stands on a corner like the raised prow of a ship looming in front of a sandstone gothic church, the opposing architectural styles complimenting the space.

Entering the gallery, construction work was underway installing interior features. I signed in and was introduced to the staff who escorted me into the exhibition space. Here was a quiet eclectic mix of organised disciplines consisting of painting conservators, curators a registrar and exhibition technicians.

I instructed the technicians on the safe removal procedure of the crated work. The work was carefully removed and placed on foam blocks and leant temporarily against the wall.

Painting conservators checked the painting against the relevant paperwork and images that I had with me from National Museums Liverpool's painting conservator David Crombie, who had supplied a full report. Content with the report and the painting's condition, the conservators allowed the technicians to continue with its installation.

I observed the technicians measure a space on the wall and install the original lifting brackets. Lifting brackets are used to support this painting, as a pretty chunky frame encompasses the canvas, giving it a weight of 105kgs.

A small lifting machine (SWL 227kgs) was used to elevate the painting onto the brackets. Once installed onto the brackets, the fittings attached to the back of the painting called ‘Oz- clips’ (nothing to do with a wizard’s hair!) were used to finally secure the painting to the wall, installation professionally completed.

Visitors to the Walker Art Gallery hoping to see a David Hockney painting over the next few months won't be disappointed as the Tate have kindly loaned 'Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy', which is going on display in gallery 15 for the duration of the Hockney exhibition in Nottingham."

As a fervent Blue Nose (that's an Everton supporter in case you're football illiterate) I'm very excited that Thursday sees the launch of The Everton Collection website; the most complete treasury of football memorabilia in the world.  And if you're a supporter of another club or social history buff you should be excited as well as the collection isn't just about Everton Football Club. This is the history of football told through the story of Everton.

The collection is made up of over 18,000 items of football memorabilia, dating back to the founding of the club in 1878, itself a founder member of The Football League. Programmes, medals, tickets, transcribed ledgers, trophies, boots, shirts, contracts, cash books and photographs all feature and are now available to browse online. It features the earliest programmes of many clubs including Manchester United (then Newton Heath), Celtic, Aston Villa, Derby County, Bolton and Blackburn, and many of football's rarest artefacts.

I've had a sneak preview and think the transcribed ledgers are my favourites. The minutiae of life in the days before TV deals and big money transfers is fascinating. Players late for training because they missed their bus is a far cry from today's industry.

The collection will be launched with the major new exhibition at Liverpool's Central Library, ‘Everlution: The Everton Collection’. There's also a series of talks by Peter Lupson on topics such as joint Everton and Liverpool programmes, the birth of the football league and the man who many claim was responsible for that famous split that created Everton and Liverpool football clubs.

I should point out that my interest isn't totally partisan. The new Museum of Liverpool will be featuring many objects from the collection in the Creative City gallery, using the pieces to tell the story of Liverpool and its people.

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.

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.

You have until Monday to enter our competition and win a luxury weekend away in London.

This fabulous prize is being offered to tie in with the Royal Academy's exhibition, J.W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite, which includes one of the Walker's paintings, Echo and Narcissus.

The prize includes two nights accommodation at a five-star hotel, tickets to the exhibition and first class return tickets from Liverpool.

Competition details and how to enter can be found on our main site.

As regular visitors will realise, there are always small changes taking place within our galleries, even in the 'permanent' displays, as objects do occasionally get removed for loans or conservation treatment. An example is the painting 'Elaine' painted by Sophie Anderson, which is going to be included in the exhibition 'The Rise of Women Artists' at the Walker from 23 October 2009. Framing conservator Roy Irlam is using this opportunity to address particular areas of the painting's framework, as access to this painting has been difficult due to its high position on the gallery wall. You can see photos of the de-installation in our Moving stories Flickr set. Handling and transport technician Paula Frew explains just how this large painting was safely removed from display below.

Installing 'Daniel in the Lion's Den' in the Walker

"The handling and transport team use specialised equipment for paintings at this height which include a block and tackle system used to elevate and lower paintings. Each block and tackle section is equipped to take a safe working load of 250kg which are suspended from a lifting strap (SWL 1000kgs) which is attached to a load bearing picture rail.

Another piece of equipment which is an old favourite of the team's goes by the fanciful name of 'Airwolf'. It's a gas operated hydraulic lift that enables technicians to access the heights needed to reach the galleries picture rails.

The most recent addition to the team's repertoire of equipment is an electrical hydraulic lift embellished with the title of 'Leonardo'. This machine takes the weight of one person and can be operated at its base or by the operator in the caged platform area at various heights to move around the gallery area. Unfortunately it doesn't go as high as the 'Airwolf' and is therefore restricted.

The Mobile Elevated Towers named 'Pulpit Towers' are mobile platforms that have replaced ladders due to the new ladder regulations and adhere to the new safety rulings.

The large maroon coloured machine is called the 'Sumner lift'. This machine has been specifically adapted to take a 500kg weight, having counterbalanced weights in the enclosed basket. The machine can access heavy paintings at particular heights on its forks. It works on a ratchet and geared system operated manually, preferably by someone who has eaten a lot of spinach!

The equipment has to be condition checked before use which takes time, so the team started at 7.30am to make headway before the Walker opened to the public at 10am. Once it opened we barricaded off half of the gallery space rather than closing it completely to the public. We found that the visitors were more interested in our operation than they were in the collections!

Before taking down 'Elaine' we removed the painting beneath it 'The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden' using the Sumner lift machine. The team then set up the block and tackle for 'Elaine' and removed it safely.

The painting 'Daniel in the Lion's Den' by Riviere has recently returned to the Walker after going out on loan to the British Museum for their 'Babylon' exhibition. We installed this painting in place of 'Elaine' using the block and tackle system, then re-installed 'The Expulsion of Adam and Eve...' beneath it and re-opened the remaining gallery space."