National Museums Liverpool Blog - volunteers

Below, James tells us all about his work experience with our Decorative Arts department. Over to James…

“I’m James and I’m a Year 10 student at King David High School in Liverpool. I spent a week on work experience at NML, in the Decorative Art department, and it has been brilliant. I came here not knowing what to expect and ended up having a great time. I found that my enjoyment for history, which I’m studying for my GCSE, helped greatly. I most enjoyed handling the objects and being able to connect with them. I documented information I had collected on the toys and costume and where I had re stored them. I also enjoyed going to the Walker Art Gallery and Sudley House as I had never been to these places before. I realised that I was interested in silver and ceramics even though I’d never had a chance to look at them closely before. I particularly enjoyed sorting the toys and moving them about. I found all the collections really interesting and stimulating.

I would like to thank everyone in the Dec. Arts department for giving their time to show me what they do and give me a great experience. I also felt that everyone else was really nice and friendly. I am sad to leave and hope to come back again for some volunteering in the future. Thanks to my experience I hope to work in museums when I an older.

Hope to come back soon.
James”

James enjoying his work experience.

It's great to hear that volunteering at National Museums Liverpool can really be a memorable experience for those involved. Here's a blog by a recent volunteer who helped out in our Photography and Decorative Art departments...

Adrian in the Decorative Arts store

My name is Adrian Foo-Gibney and for the last two weeks I have been on a Year 10 work placement with National Museums Liverpool. During my time here I have learnt many skills, ranging from hands-on skills like photography to communication skills. This was a great experience for me as I got along with all the members of staff and had fun as well as learning. Everyone was really friendly and made me feel comfortable.

During my first week in Photography I worked with David Flower. He taught me many skills and gave me lots of tips about photography. The things I learnt were really useful, as back in school I have taken the GCSE photography course. It will also help with my personal photographic skills.

I was given many jobs during the first week, including photographing hats, processing images and scanning negatives ready for editing.

In the second week I worked with Alyson Pollard in Decorative Arts where I got to work with my friend Joseph Evans who is also from my school, Calderstones. We worked together photographing men’s hats and suits and inputted all the data for them.

I have enjoyed my time working with the National Museums Liverpool and it was a privilege to be here. I would like to do a similar job when I leave school. This has been an amazing adventure for me and I will remember this placement for ages.

Stewart Bale Volunteers: Hard at work helping to clean glass plate negatives.

Ann Stewart; Head of Framing, Paper and Paintings Conservation tells us a bit more about the wonderful work our Stewart Bale Volunteers have achieved this past year…

“Based in the paper conservation studio, a volunteer project to clean and re-house glass plate negatives from the Stewart Bale collection began in March this year.

Mainly due to the poor condition of the original packaging, most of these images haven't been seen since the collection came to us.

9 months later the volunteers have steadily worked their way through an amazing 10,000 negatives. There are approximately 30,000 negatives still to be cleaned! The entire collection which also includes film sheet negatives is c.200,000.

During the course of the year we have seen 26 volunteers involved in the project with a further 17 due to start in the New Year.”

Well done to all volunteers involved!

If you are interested in volunteering, please contact the Volunteers Team to find out more.

Caitlin busy during her work experience.

Caitlin from Chesterfield High School is currently in the middle of her work experience at National Museums Liverpool. Below, Caitlin tells us what she has done so far…

“My name is Caitlin, during my two week work experience I have been in many departments in National Museums Liverpool. I wanted to do my work experience here because I’m interested in history and wanted to see if a career in museums was for me. As well as learning new skills in the office, which will be useful for me in the future; I have taken part in meetings regarding upcoming exhibitions and spent a day in Decorative Arts, where I handled objects and witnessed the problems and work that goes into creating a new exhibition.

One of my favourite days was spent in Oral History which I didn’t know much about before. I listened to interviews and recordings of peoples interesting life stories and wrote a summary sheet. With the new Museum of Liverpool about to open all hands were on deck and the office became a very exciting place! I have also added more knowledge to my history through oral history and meetings at the Maritime Museum.

I have loved my time at National Museums Liverpool! Everyone’s been very welcoming and the whole experience has been exciting. I’d love to volunteer in the future and maybe have a career in museums.”

School Work Experience placements are now fully subscribed, however if you are over 16 and interested in volunteering with us, you can contact the Volunteer Team to find out more.

Here's Caitlin Allan, one of our most recent volunteers, talking about her work experience in the Decorative Arts Department...

My name is Caitlin and I have had my work experience at National Museums Liverpool for two weeks. In the first week I visited the Lady Lever Art Gallery for the first time. I was shown around the gallery and learned a lot about the story of the gallery and its collections. I was then asked to choose three pieces from the gallery that really caught my eye and to do some research on them and write up my findings.

I assisted in buying a few modern accessories for an upcoming exhibition ‘The Finishing Touch’, which were to be used in the dressing up section of the exhibition. When I saw them displayed in the exhibition I felt very proud that I was involved in choosing them.

In the second week I photographed accessories related to the forthcoming 'Costume Drama' exhibition due to open at Sudley House in July. I thought this was really enjoyable because photography is one of my favourite hobbies and also gave me more experience in handling clothing. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed the past few weeks and my view of art galleries have changed dramatically. I never knew how interesting they could be! I feel very privileged that I was allowed to have a really interesting placement for my work experience.

Emma in the new British Art 1880-1950 gallery, Walker Art Gallery.

Emma, one of our brilliant volunteers is currently working towards gaining her Bronze Arts Award. As part of her project, Emma visited the newly opened British Art 1880-1950 gallery at our very own Walker Art Gallery. Here is Emma’s review…

“I recently visited the newly refurbished Room Eleven gallery space at the Walker Art Gallery. It is home to the British Art 1880-1950 collection which includes pieces by artists such as L S Lowry, Lucian Freud and Roger Fry, to name but a few. The collection brings together a range of different types of art, including paintings, sculptures, ceramics and furniture. The room is split into sections, with the art works in each section linked by one of four themes; Finding a Modern Style, War Artists, Close to Nature, and Materials, Colours and Processes. I found the collection to be highly accessible – there is something for almost everyone, whether it be drawing one of the jugs on display, examining the textures achieved by different glazes on ceramics, or the reading about the individual pieces in the collection.

This gallery space differs from other art exhibitions and galleries that I have visited previously in that it contains several interactive sections, which I think aid understanding of the artworks. A touch-screen computer provides an interactive timeline of various works of art along with major historical events. This allows you to put the works into the context in which they were created, which I found particularly interesting.

The space also contains sculptures and which have been specially treated so that you can touch them. For example, visitors are able to examine the texture of Sir Jacob Epstein’s ‘Israfel’, which is not smooth like a traditional sculpture. This links into the theme of ‘Materials, Colours and Processes’, which explains that artists began to experiment more in these areas, and wanted to encapsulate thoughts and feelings as opposed to creating an accurate representation of what they saw.

I liked that the pieces in the collection are put into a wider historical perspective. For example, in the ‘Close to Nature’ theme, it is explained how advances in technology encouraged artists to move outdoors, away from their traditional studios, and explore the countryside. As urbanisation drew an increasingly large section of the population into the growing towns and cities, artists began to portray life in the country as something to be idealised, often omitting any signs of poverty from their works.

I found the British Art 1880-1950 collection to be insightful and innovative, and I feel that I learned a great deal. I enjoyed the interactive elements which aided my understanding of the pieces, and allowed me to experience them in inventive ways. I feel that the information which accompanies the collection helps to ensure that the works are accessible to anyone and everyone who is interested, and I would definitely recommend visiting.”

If you would like to find out more about volunteering at National Museums Liverpool, please contact the Volunteer Team.

The v Big Celebration at World Museum

Last Thursday, the Volunteers team, youth volunteers and members of staff came together to celebrate the end of their vinvolved youth volunteering project; at the ‘v Big Celebration’ in World Museum. The past three years have been incredibly successful and we have created over 350 volunteer opportunities for young people aged 16-25. We also created a Youth Volunteering Steering Group (Mersey v’s) which have been integral in helping to shape volunteer opportunities and projects and provide a good sounding board for marketing and evaluation.
 
During our project, we worked with over 200 young volunteers and issued 119 v50 Award certificates, that equates to almost 6000 volunteer hours – and that’s only including the certificated hours! We have also seen 20 young people achieve their Bronze Arts Award – gaining an accredited qualification in the process. In terms of awards; our vinvolved project gained REACH accreditation, we were shortlisted at the Young Partners Awards and most recently awarded the Unite Award for Team Activity in the North West at the National vinvolved awards for our Discovery Volunteers project.

The Volunteers Team would like to say a huge THANK YOU to all the young people who volunteered with us these past three years; you have helped shape the future of volunteering at our museums and we will hopefully work with you all again soon.

If you are interested in volunteering, please contact the volunteers team to find out more. You can also visit vinspired to find out about youth volunteering.

Discovery Volunteers in London l-r: Tom, Andrew, Helen, Sophie, Richard, Caroline, Sam, Ryan and Tara

Richard, a regular volunteer at World Museum tells us what it was like to attend the recent vinspired Awards in London. Richard and his fellow volunteers represented the Discovery Volunteers programme which received the regional Unite award for teamwork.

“On the 17th March 2011, nine discovery volunteers were selected to attend the prestigious vinspired Awards 2011 at the 02 Arena in London. Spending the night over at the Holiday Inn Express, the volunteers quickly settled in to frankly the “good life;” although at times, it became apparent that some of us were used to the pampering (and frankly abused it at times), whereas some struggled to...adapt.

The awards were held at the 02 Indigo theatre, within the 02 arena (formerly known as the Millennium Dome). When we arrived however, I think I speak for all of us when I say that there was an overwhelming fear that somehow we did not arrive at the vinspired awards, but the Justin Beiber concert, happening at the same time! This gave rise to a little game of volunteer? Beleiber? Or Both?

When inside the venue, it was most definitely clear that this was an esteemed event. Sponsored by ITV2, we didn’t expect anything less really. Waiters were patrolling the floor with “meat and veg” bowls, and complimentary beverages, whereas tables were arranged in front of the main stage for the nominees.

The ceremony lived up to expectations featuring celebrities: Keith Lemon (Celebrity juice), Natasha Bedingfield (Singer), James Caan (Former dragon) and Jason Gardner (Olympic sprinter). And yet, no Justin Beiber? What’s up with that?

The after party wasn’t bad either.

Making the most out of our time in London; we decided to see the sights the following day before taking a later train back to Liverpool. We therefore visited:  Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Big Ben, Trafalgar square, the Olympic clock (lots of hogging the clock here and a test of reaction times against London’s finest) as well as Downing Street, and unsurprisingly, the British Museum, which is colossal by the way.

It was a good trip!”

Newsletter Volunteers l-r: Emily, Charlotte, Hasan, Stephen, Roz, Hannah, Michelle (mentor) and Ashley

Youth volunteer, Emily, has recently volunteered on a group project to produce a volunteer newsletter for all our museum volunteers and staff. Here’s her report on their project…

‘Since October 2010 I’ve been taking part in a volunteer newsletter project. Aimed at 16-25 year olds it was in partnership with Media Trust. Meeting weekly, we created a newsletter which would both inform and entertain its readers. The group were also working towards a Bronze Arts Award which is a national qualification. The project was mentored by Michelle Fiddler who is a journalist for the Liverpool Echo.

Working alongside Michelle we began discussing what the newsletter would contain and what our responsibilities would be. I wrote the welcome letter and also interviewed volunteers about their experiences. I particularly enjoyed hearing about how National Museums Liverpool has helped volunteers of all ages and how varied their roles are.

In the following weeks we edited our pieces, firstly using paper layouts to decide which articles would go together on the page. It was interesting to learn that newspapers still use this technique as a way of editing their pages. We then used the layouts as a guide when importing the articles onto the computer. I learnt quite a lot from this as each import would need re-editing to fit into the text boxes on the computer.

As part of the Arts Award we had to review an exhibition. We visited Inside DNA which is currently at the World Museum. I enjoyed using the interactive materials to learn more about DNA and how it is used in criminal investigation and medical breakthroughs.

Another aspect of the award was to create a presentation about our arts hero/heroine and I enjoyed listening to the variety of people who inspired the group. This ranged from famous artists to film stars and authors.

On March 23rd I went to meet the arts award moderator with another volunteer and the volunteer co-ordinators. I am pleased to say we passed the award and will soon be getting our certificates.’

The Volunteers Team would like to say a Big Well Done to the group on gaining their Bronze Arts Award and we look forward to distribution the newsletter soon!

If you are interested in volunteering at our venues, please contact the Volunteer Team to find out more. If you are aged 16-25, you can also find out more about Youth Volunteering by visiting vinvolved; the national youth volunteering programme.

Our Newsletter Volunteers and mentor; planning their first edition of 'Volunteers In Print'

Since October 2010, a small group of youth volunteers have been meeting weekly to help put together the first National Museums Liverpool volunteer newsletter.

They each took on different roles; carrying out interviews, reviewing exhibitions and putting together stories that would feature in the newsletter.

The group also worked alongside Michelle Fiddler, a journalist from the Liverpool Echo who has helped mentor the volunteers throughout the project; sharing her background and experiences with them.

We hope to have the first edition of our newsletter out very soon and we can exclusively reveal its title will be ‘Volunteers In Print’. There will be lots of stories and opportunities to publicise what our brilliant volunteers get up to both front of house and behind the scenes, so it should hopefully make for a fun and informative read!

The Volunteers Team are always looking for volunteer stories to publish on the blog and also now within forthcoming newsletters, so if you volunteer with us and wish to publicise what you get up to whilst volunteering – please give us a shout.

And finally, big thanks to our newsletter volunteers: Ashley, Charlotte, Emily, Hannah, Hasan, Roz and Stephen for their time and creative journalistic skills.

If you wish to find out more about volunteering at National Museums Liverpool, please contact the Volunteer Team.

You can also find out more about Youth Volunteering on the vinspired website or the volunteering section on our website.