Penguins are almost go at the warehouse. 'Look At Me' is front left. Image courtesy of Helen Burnley.

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!

Jenni Whiteside and Sarah Lynch looking glamerous at the Wirral Tourism Awards

The conversation waned somewhat while they waited for the butler to appear with the superglue remover.

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.

Millais' 'The Black Brunswicker' from the Lady Lever Art Gallery collection.

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'.

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.

All I said was 'Back a bit!'

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.

When they handling team say they're moving houses they usually mean literally!

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.

'The Scapegoat'

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.

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:

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).

Billy Fury thanks you for voting for The Beat Goes On! Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.

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.

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:

Taking over the gallery: one of the new recruits talks to a group of visitors.

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.

'Clytie' being manoeuvred into place at the gallery

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.

The clue for day 1

Artist Paul Cousins standing next to his award winning painting 'Night Flight'

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.

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).

Bill Shankly - the daddy

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.

'Waiting for legal advice'

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...

Sketching outside the Lady Lever Art Gallery

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.

Wave if you're winning! Participants on the Culture Vultures summer course at the Lady Lever Art Gallery enjoying the sunshine.

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

"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.

Ah, the lovely British 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.

© Paul Cousins 2008

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.

Paul and friend

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. 

Gallery attendants Brian and Dave meet Aled Jones at the Walker Art Gallery

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.

This month's final clue

Sketchbooks at the ready!

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.