The John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize now open to entries.

Any artists considering entering the John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize would do well to get inside the head of a previous judge. Matthew Collings, who hosted What is Beauty? last Saturday evening, was on the panel for John Moores 22 in 2002 when the artist Peter Davies won.

In the programme Collings lists his top 10 favourite “beauty experiences” in art. From an amazing bridge designed by Sir Norman Foster to pre-historic cave art, his perception of beauty is really interesting and varied. Definitely worth a watch on iplayer.

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."

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.

The Singh Twins next to Ranbindra's painting 'Oh Come All Ye Re-eds'

Is football a new religion? Can being a female artist be an advantage in some cultures? These are just some of the subjects covered in a brief interview I did with acclaimed local artists The Singh Twins. I chatted with Rabindra and Amrit at the private view of the Walker Art Gallery's latest exhibition The Rise of Women Artists, where Ranbindra's painting 'Oh Come All Ye Re-eds' is on display. One of the main things I was interested to find out was whether they ever actually define themselves as 'women artists' or if they didn't think about gender at all.

Amrit said; 'I think personally as artists we’ve never thought of ourselves as women, we’ve never defined ourselves as ‘British female artists’. I think that the gender issue is not really important, as ultimately I think the art should speak for itself and the quality of the work. Therefore it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman.

But I think that it is important in the context of if you consider throughout history where there has been prejudice towards female artists then obviously that is something that needs to be re-addressed. I think there should be more incentives to support female artists especially since many of them are juggling a million things; family life and other commitments around the work they are trying to do. And it’s not always easy to take up a career in art alongside that and to commit to all your other daily activities. Essentially though, no I don’t think that gender matters. The work should speak for itself.

Rabindra said; 'From a personal perspective though, in terms of support for women, in the context of our own background and coming from an Indian family, actually we’ve had a lot more support being women than we would have done being men. Because traditionally it’s the men who are meant to be the breadwinners and go out and get a so-called ‘decent job’. There was less pressure on the women! So I think from our own cultural context I think it’s been an advantage that we’re women and we’ve had 100% support from our family in pursuing a career as artists.

You can listen to or download the full interview with The Singh Twins here and see photos from the private view on our The Rise of Women Artists Flickr set.

I thought my school days were over, but last week I was very excited to be able to join our class of Little Liverpool Designers on their very first school trip!

I had a lovely morning spent with Class R reception class from Kingsley Community School in Toxteth, touring Liverpool familiarising themselves with Liverpool’s famous landmarks to inspire artwork for the Museum of Liverpool’s dedicated children’s gallery Little Liverpool, opening 2011.

They will be working with illustrator Kate Pankhurst to develop the final artwork for display in Little Liverpool as part of our work with the ECHO in the Community programme, which aims to inspire young people by engaging in a cross section of activities, including the arts.

A Little Liverpool Designer gives the new Museum of Liverpool the thumbs up

At four years old, Mrs Randles’ reception class were a credit to their school, and it was fantastic to be surrounded by such young, inquisitive minds who were visibly impressed by everything they saw.

The first stop on our magical mystery tour of Liverpool was at the Anglican Cathedral, and I only wish I’d had a video camera with me to record their faces on walking into that grand, vast space and filling the air ‘wows’!

We also took a trip to the Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral, or Paddy’s Wigwam as it is affectionately known locally, where they were very taken with the colours and reflections coming in from the beautiful stain glass windows. Hopefully this will transfer to the marvellous artwork they’re soon to create for our Little Liverpool Gallery.

After the cathedrals, we also took a driving tour round many iconic buildings, including St George’s Hall and William Brown Street; home to World Museum, Central Library and the Walker Art Gallery.

Spotting the Radio City Tower overhead, our whistle-stop tour also took us past the Town Hall – "where the mayor lives" – and down to the waterfront where we met Museum of Liverpool buildings operations manager Martin Hemmings – "Bob the Builder" – and had a look at the location for Little Liverpool.

A lovely day out was had by all, so thanks goes to Mrs Randles and her ‘helpers’ for organising the trip, and for inviting Julia Bryan from the Museum of Liverpool team and I along. We look forward to seeing the wonderful artwork that Class R create in their roles as Little Liverpool Designers.

National Museums Liverpool's handling team carefully slide the painting on to special lifting equipment.

Observant visitors to the Walker Art Gallery may have noticed Echo and Narcissus has been away for some time. Lent to the Royal Academy as part of their J.W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite exhibition, the beautiful painting of unrequited love returned home yesterday.

What sort of paintings inspire you? Those with flame-haired Pre-Raphaelite muses or striking 20th century works?

National Poetry Day is on Thursday 8 October and we want you to be involved! Get inspired by a painting at the Walker Art Gallery, write a poem about it and send it to us. 

We'll publish a selection of them on the website and pick one winning poem. The winner can choose one poetry book from the ones listed below:

• 'Rapture' by Carol Ann Duffy (hardback)
• 'The Mersey Sound' by Roger McGough, Brian Patten and Adrian Henri (paperback)
• 'Andraste's Hair' by Eleanor Rees (hardback)

The theme for this year's National Poetry Day is 'heroes and heroines', so we have put together a selection of paintings that we think fit in with this idea. These range from ‘Dante's Dream’ by Dante Gabriel Rossetti to 'Pin Up 1963 - For Francis Bacon’ by Sam Walsh. So now it's your turn to look through our selected paintings and get inspired!

Send in your entry by Monday 2 November using the online form on the Get inspired...at the Walker page. Good luck!

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'.

Bridget Riley

I was lucky enough to get to photograph Bridget Riley this week, while she was here for the opening of a major exhibition of her work at the Walker. She was pretty in demand so I didn't get to talk to her, but Press Officer Laura Johnson got chatting with Bridget who told her how pleased she was with the look of the exhibition. (You can see the final adjustments made to the displays by the handling team on our Moving Stories Flickr set.)

Bridget also talked a little about how she creates her work, describing how she doesn't always know what her work will end up looking like and that letting accidents happen often takes her in new directions.

You can get more of an insight into the inspiration behind her work in a short video clip on our exhibition page. In the clip Bridget describes how even brief moments when she sees light in a certain way, can be a form of inspiration:

'I remember one very hot summer, it was in the South of France and I was climbing a hillside of broken shale and the light was so strong that it dazzled. It seemed to come at me from all directions, it was beating down from above and beating back into my eyes at the same time. One lost all sense of focus. Everything seemed to disintegrate in light, the landscape dissolved - it was like standing in a field of pure energy.'

Her paintings are certainly dazzling as a result. Looking at 'Ecclesia', it is almost a dizzying experience, but definitely a pleasant one all the same. You can also see some of Bridget's early sketches that have many annotations around them and show the development of some of her paintings.

See more photos from the exhibition in our 'Bridget Riley Flashback' Flickr set and experience these stunning paintings and drawings for yourself, until 13 December 2009.

Billy Nugent, from the Walker Art Gallery, discusses Heritage Open Day events with BBC Radio Merseyside

One of the things I love most about Liverpool is that despite it being a relatively small place or the fact I have lived here all my life I can still find amazing buildings or streets I didn’t know existed. A wise person once told me to always look above ground level to spot the original architectural features of old buildings. Not only are they often real works of craftsmanship but they can reveal so many clues to its history. 

This Saturday and Sunday is Heritage Open Day weekend, when lots of the city’s architectural jems will be open to the public.

I was lucky enough to be at the Oratory yesterday for a media call about the free events this weekend. It’s such an atmospheric place, perched above St James cemetery and in the shadow of Liverpool Cathedral. Hopefully the weather over the weekend will be as good as it was for me and visitors will enjoy the same view across to the city from the Oratory steps.

More details about National Museums Liverpool’s events over Heritage Open Day on our main website.

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!

I was very interested in an article in the Guardian by Syma Tariq on women artists and institutional collecting. The Walker Art Gallery has been collecting work by women artists since its foundation in the 1870s. These works, which now form perhaps the best collection of historic art by women in a public gallery in England, span from the 16th century to the present day. Artists include Lavinia Fontana and Rosalba Carriera, but what do we call them? Old Masters obviously not, but the alternative Old Mistresses is worse! A clear demonstration of the art historical bias.

Our exhibition, The Rise of Women Artists (opens on 23 October 2009), will examine historical changes affecting women, looking at their status and careers as they moved to assert themselves as artists in their own right. It will also highlight the breadth of the Walker’s collection. In fact such is the strength of the collection of work by women, that some key works can’t be included in the large exhibition space, but will instead feature in a tour of other works by female artists in the rest of the galllery.

The exhibition features work by Vigee-Lebrun and Angelica Kauffman as well as less well known artists of the 19th century such as Annie Swynnerton. Contemporary artists including Louise Bourgeoisand Paula Rego will complete the journey to the present day. 

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."

Earlier this month I was lucky enough to be allowed to tag along on a shoot of a video interview with internationally acclaimed artist, Emma Rodgers.

I went with our audio visual team to her house on the Wirral, where she has her studio. They needed to film Emma because her work is going to be included in our forthcoming exhibition ‘The Rise of Women Artists’ , which will be at the Walker Art Gallery from 23 October 2009 - 14 March 2010. This video would be used to create one of the interactive displays for visitors to explore in the gallery and also to make video clips for our website.

The team filmed her working on some of her sculptures, while she answered questions about her inspirations, early career and what it means for her to be a female artist.

It was really interesting to hear about the processes that Emma goes through when creating a sculpture, whether this is of animals or humans. Sketches form the foundation of her work, sometimes from observations at Chester Zoo and also during animal autopsies at Leahurst on the Wirral. Through her work, Emma also travels abroad regularly. This also helps her study of animal’s bodies as she is sometimes lucky enough to hold animals like monkeys. She said she had been able to get to know the character traits of different primates, which also influences the way she depicts them in her sculptures. Emma clearly loves animals as well as finding them inspiring – we even met her pet hare, Mr. Redfern, who she said has helped her think about joints and bone structures in her work.

Emma has also spent time observing and sketching dancers and said she is fascinated by their muscle structures and how their bodies become altered through dancing. As she was answering questions from curator, Robin Emerson, she was building up a sculpture of a woman’s body, piece by piece.

You’ll have to wait until the exhibition opens on 23 October 2009 to see the video clips and find out how that sculpture turned out! In the mean time you can find out more about Emma's work on her website or browse through our Emma Rodgers Flickr set.

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.

Sarah and Louise enjoy a rest in the Big Art gallery!

Here's a photo of a double celebration in the volunteers team. On the left is Sarah, who you may remember received her first v50 certificate for completing 50 hours as a volunteer in March. Sarah has just achieved her second v50 - bringing her total to more than 100 hours now.

With Sarah is another Big Art volunteer, Louise, who has just received her first v50 certificate. After all those hours of hard work with the younger (and therefore more energetic) visitors to the Walker Art Gallery, I'm sure you'll agree that they deserve a sit down!

The v50 certificates are awarded as part of National Museums Liverpool's dedicated youth volunteering programme aimed specifically at 16-25 year olds, funded by v, the youth volunteering charity.

If you would like to find out more about youth volunteering at National Museums Liverpool please email our youth volunteer officer Claire Olson.

Louise told us:
 
"I have enjoyed helping the children in Big Art to appreciate and be inspired by art through fun art activities. I have gained many skills and it has been a great opportunity."

Here at the press office it can get pretty busy at times, so we are very grateful for the generous help of our volunteers. Matthew Linden has been with us for several months so we felt it was time he had a break from the office and took a trip around the venues. Here is what he discovered:

Henry Moore's The Falling Warrior (bronze)

I’ve been carrying out voluntary work in the Press Office since February 2009.  I have a degree in the History of Art, and was asked to write a piece on a favourite artwork at the Walker Art Gallery.  On visiting I was immediately affected by The Falling Warrior (bronze), originally a public sculpture created by Henry Moore between 1956 and 1957.

The sculpture is seen standing on the first floor, placed centrally, an ornament dominating the interior landscape, and an object designated as the intended focal point of the audiences’ attention.

The sculpture seemingly ‘rests’ on a platform, it possesses a dark, decaying exterior, with a contrasting smooth and rugged organic surface.  As one approaches the enigmatic form, one is drawn in; but on closer inspection, the figure is not ‘resting’ – Moore’s human form is abstract, dynamic, expansive, protecting itself with a shield, struggling for life, close to death, a body with no identity, full of ambiguity.  Who is this stranger, this ‘falling warrior’?

The sculpture suggests the simultaneous act of birth and death, an infant and a corpse, the beginning and the end, echoing Moore’s experience of the pain and trauma of the two World Wars.  ‘I wanted a figure that was still alive…in the act of falling…emphasising the dramatic moment that precedes death’, says Moore.

As the viewer walks away from ‘the falling warrior’, the figure remains on the horizon, evoking history and the past, the memory and experience not forgotten

A daring performance by our talented Youth Theatre

After a 12 month break for maternity leave I'm feeling a little rusty, so I've been enjoying the opportunity to reacquaint myself with our venues and exhibitions. Last week, during a trip to the Walker Art Gallery, I was lucky enough to catch an on-gallery performance from our very talented Youth Theatre in the exhibition Fashion V Sport.

The young people explored the four themes of the exhibition; dare, desire, play and display to create a quirky interpretation of each area. The budding thespians interlinked poetry and drama to produce a funny and unique short play that questioned our addiction to fashion and celebrity.

Unfortunately the exhibition closed last weekend but you can find out more about the Youth Theatre Project here. Or contact Helen MacBryde on 0151 478 4818.

The High Victorian room at the Walker

Here's the last review of our venues written by visiting art historian Eleanor Beyer from the British Museum's conservation and science department. In addition to visiting the paper conservation department in the National Conservation Centre, Eleanor had a look round Sudley House and the Lady Lever Art Gallery. We couldn't really let her go back to London without seeing the Walker as well. Here's what she thought of it:

"After visiting the National Conservation Centre it was great to go to the Walker to see where the conserved pictures go – some to newly decorated galleries like the sumptuous Georgian style gallery (room 5) which was a perfect setting for the full length Gainsborough and Reynolds portraits. I liked the way Liverpool mixed old and new, with contemporary displays in some of the galleries and old masters in others. The High Victorian gallery (room 8) was also fun, with Edward Burne-Jones' (1833-1898) painting, 'Study for The Sleeping Knights', showing the knights asleep on verdant green vegetation, beautifully offset by the gallery walls.

Having talked to Nicky at the Conservation Centre I could imagine how varied working to care for this sort of collection is. Staff mentioned how complex managing the building can be as well, for instance retaining the past context of the nineteenth century building at the same time as making displays visually appealing to a modern audience. Although much of the building was changed in the 1940s when new galleries were added and improved lighting put in, the museum still retains its character. I particularly enjoyed the sculpture gallery which reminded me of the casts court at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where statues of similar style jostle for space with one another.

I returned to The British Museum thinking of how much galleries in museums have changed since the nineteenth century with better lighting, stimulating gallery events, and with a mix of - often abstract - contemporary art with older pieces. At the British Museum for instance modern objects were displayed next to ancient objects in a recent exhibition in which artists like Damien Hirst and Marc Quinn were invited to contribute. In 'Living and Dying' (Room 24, The Wellcome Trust Gallery) the display ranges from a nineteenth century death mask from the Indian Ocean to the recent work 'Cradle to Grave' (2003) which consists of lines of pills. Seeing both recent art work and old master's works offer a different visual experience and interest to visitors."

Press officer, Ed Casson, tells us about a fascinating soundtrack that has been created to accompany one of our most popular paintings...

'And When Did You Last See Your Father?', William Yeames

Aigburth-born Alison invited visitors to the Walker Art Gallery to give descriptions of the famous William Yeames painting 'And When Did You Last See Your Father?' While some people were happy to give brief explanations of what they saw, others spent up to an hour outlining each precise detail of the piece. Alison edited these together to create a soundtrack, which was then played in front of an imprecise line drawing of the painting at a Liverpool DaDafest exhibition.

This fascinating recording has now been added to the 'And When Did You Last See Your Father?' page on our website where you can also see the painting, which shows a Royalist house under occupation by Parliamentarians and a young boy being interrogated as to the whereabouts of the master of the house.

Alison – the arts manager for Liverpool DaDa (Disability and Deaf Arts) – has recorded an interview with Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour about the project, which will be broadcast later this year.

At the end of March, we held a launch party to celebrate the release of 'Something Wild… at the Walker Art Gallery' - the very first storybook that National Museums Liverpool has published. Public Programmes Officer Nicky Fawcett can tell us what went on at the launch...

Jenny the Artist with two little artists...

We wanted to hold a launch party to thank everyone who had helped create the book and to encourage Liverpool primary schools to take up their entitlement to a free copy of Something Wild… All the children from St Pascal Baylon and St Columbas Out of school clubs were invited as they had worked with Kate Pankhurst to help draw the illustrations for the book.  The Mayor also came to the launch and gave out free copies of the book and a goody bag to everyone that took part. He congratulated the young illustrators on all of their hard work in bringing the book to life.

The launch was lots of fun as we had organised plenty of activities that families could take part in. The storytelling sessions proved most popular and 'Jenny the Artist', one of the characters from the book, led an exciting tour of the gallery to find all of the paintings and objects featured in the book.  We also had a mask making workshop and afterwards many of the children were wearing the horse, pig or bird masks they had made around the gallery!

The launch was a huge success and it was great to see just how much everyone enjoyed the night and most importantly the book itself.  We’re all looking forward to seeing families and schools having fun using the book at the gallery.

If you are a teacher in a Liverpool primary school, you can are entitled to a free copy of the book. If you are a parent who would like a copy to use with your children, you can buy a copy from the Walker (or any of our venues) or by mail order.

Big Art volunteer Sarah (left) receiving her v50 Award certificate from NML's youth volunteer officer, Claire Olson (right)

At National Museums Liverpool we have a dedicated youth volunteering programme aimed specifically at 16-25 year olds, funded by v, the youth volunteering charity. Young people can get involved with all kinds of interesting and fun volunteer projects and if they complete 50 hours of volunteer work they are awarded a v50 Award certificate.

Our latest volunteer to achieve their v50 is Sarah. Both the Learning team at the Walker Art Gallery and the Volunteers team would like to congratulate Sarah on her achievement and hard work within the gallery – well done Sarah!

If you are aged 16-25 and would like to find out more about youth volunteering at National Museums Liverpool, please email our youth volunteer officer Claire Olson.

Here’s what Sarah has to say about her time volunteering:

"Hello I’m Sarah and I’m 24. I volunteer in Big Art for Little Artists at the Walker Art Gallery and I have just completed my v50 Award.

I love volunteering in Big Art, as you meet and get the chance to talk to many young children and each day is different. I enjoy helping the children to use the wide range of interactive and practical resources. I especially like assisting them with the craft activities, such as making magic maize pictures, finger puppets etc.

As well as logging my hours for when I volunteer in Big Art, I also went on a Disability, Diversity and Equality training course for my v50 Award, which I found really interesting."