National Museums Liverpool Blog - Thursday, April 20, 2006

Finding himself in the company of journalists, photographers, film crews, artists and celebrities is all in a day's work for senior press officer, Stephen Guy. But just recently, Stephen has been enjoying a share of the limelight himself.

Stephen's unique perspective on life - evolved through years as a cutting-edge news reporter - makes him the ideal candidate to mull over the morning papers on Radio Merseyside's Breakfast show. He also writes the intriguing 'Maritime Tales' for Saturday's Liverpool Echo.

However, it is his voluntary roles within the community that have catapulted him into the media spotlight of late. As Chairman of the West Derby Society, Stephen has played a key role in securing funds for his beloved 'Lowlands' - dubbed Britain's most beautiful community centre, and home to the West Derby Community Association since 1957.

Stephen is also on the management committee of the Friends of Croxteth Hall & Country Park, where one of his roles in running the bar for Friends' events. He hastens to add that the behind-the-bar activities haven't got him into the news yet!

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

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

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

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

How many doors do we walk through every day without even noticing them? Most people regard doors just as things to pass through on the way to somewhere interesting and beautiful (like, for instance, the Walker Art Gallery). We probably only notice them if they are too awkward, slow or heavy to get through easily, especially if we're hindered by heavy shopping or a pushchair.

As part of ongoing improvements to the Walker, the old revolving doors at the entrance have been replaced by sleek automatic glass ones. You probably wouldn't notice the difference from the outside:

However, inside the light flooding through the large glass panels make the entrance foyer seem much lighter, bigger and altogether more pleasant.

Next time you visit the Walker Art Gallery, spare a thought for our lovely new doors.

Preparations are well underway for the Walker's first ever costume exhibition, 'A Passion for Fashion - a Liverpool lady's wardrobe', which takes a stylish look at fashion between about 1910 to 1940.

Every single one of the 130 items on display in the exhibition is from the enormous collection of 700 items formerly belonging to Mrs Emily Margaret Tinne. Donated to National Museums Liverpool by her family, this is now probably the largest surviving collection of period clothes from one person's wardrobe in Britain.

Conservators and curators will be working flat out for the next 2 weeks to get the mannequins assembled and dressed in time for the opening of the exhibition on 29 April 2006.

Conservator Vivien Chapman attaching an arm to a mannequin.

Mars, the mythological god of war is actually sporting a child-like smile. Europe's Mars Express spacecraft has captured a charming picture of 'Crater Galle', which resembles two eyes and a smiley mouth drawn in a sandpit. Not quite as Orson Welles envisaged when he wrote ‘War of the Worlds’.

One the other hand, the Venus express probe has just gone into orbit around the 'love' planet in a bid to get up close and personal. Let’s hope our neighbour isn’t lying in ambush!

Find out more about Mars in our regular event,  ‘A Tale of Two Planets’ at the Planetarium of World Museum Liverpool.

 Edward Burne-Jones' drawing of Venus, goddess of love, is part of the Lady Lever Art Gallery’s Pre-Raphaelite Drawings exhibition. The beautiful sculpture, The Tinted Venus by John Gibson can be viewed in the Walker Art Gallery.

We've now received over 1000 entries in our 'favourite colour' online poll, accompanying the 'eye for Colour' exhibition at World Museum Liverpool. Most entries  are short and sweet, unlike no.1051 - Rebekkah O'Gorman from Birkenhead:

'MY FAVOURITE COLOUR IS YELLOW BECAUSE I LIKE PLAYING ON THE BEACH AND I LIKE FUDGE AND I LIKE COLLECTING LIMESTONE THAT IS YELLOW AND I LIKE THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD ON WIZARD OF OZ ALSO I LIKE YELLOW TOPS AND A BONNET THAT IS YELLOW AND I LIKE YELLOW CHICKS AND VANILLA ICECREAM ALSO I LIKE MAKING A BONNET WITH YELLOW CHICKS AND YELLOW STRING AND YELLOW PAINT ALSO I LIKE THE STONES OF TUTANKHARMEN AND I LIKE YELLOW MARBLES AND I LIKE YELLOW CHIPS AND I LIKE YELLOW PAINT AND I LIKE YELLOW SLIDES AND MY OTHER COLOUR IS SKY BLUE BECAUSE I LIKE THE SKY AND I LIKE BLUE SWEETS AND I LIKE BLUE PAINT AND STRING AND I LIKE BLUEPUPPETS AND MY OTHER COLOUR IS GOLD BECAUSE I LIKE GOLD AND MY OTHER COLOUR IS GREEN BECAUSE I LIKE MONEY TO SPEND ON LOTS OF TOYS, NECKLACES, AND SPECIALLY THE BOOK CALLED GREEN EGGS AND HAM'

All entries received through the website are projected live into the gallery exhibition space. Let us know your favourite colour.

Margaret Houlston (pictured right) was in the Walker Art Gallery on Saturday to collect her first prize in the Bunny Run image competition. The prize was to have her picture professionally framed.

Winners and runners-up images can now be seen online at the Dubble chocolate website.

Yesterday was the 200th anniversary of the birth of the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. To mark the anniversary we've produced a trail leaflet showing relevant items from our collections on display in the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Items include an oil painting of SS Great Britain and an exhibition model of PS Great Western.

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

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

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

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

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

A painting which has previously only been seen at the Walker Art Gallery is to go on sale at Christie's on 9th June. 'Liver Building, Liverpool' by LS Lowry was featured at the gallery in 1973, and has been held in a private collection for the last 40 years. It is considered one of Lowry's masterpieces and could sell for up to £500,000.

Learn more here.

The Walker has its own Lowry painting - The Fever Van - featuring a typical yet distinctive Salford scene. An ambulance is seen outside the house of a fever victim, with local people looking on.

This week has seen the completion of the first stage of the judging process for this year's John Moores exhibition of contemporary painting. The judges are Ann Bukantas, Curator of Fine Art at the Walker Art Gallery and the artists Tracey Emin, Sir Peter Blake and former John Moores prizewinner Jason Brooks.

This week's judging process involved going through the 2300 entries received, each entry viewed on a slide projector. From these the judges have been selecting up to 500 works which will be called in for judging in June 2006.

Modernism: Designing a New World 1914 - 1939, the new blockbuster exhibition at the V & A in London, opens today. The exhibition microsite gives a great taste of what visitors can expect.

Best of all, you can design your own poster to promote the exhibition, here's my effort on the left.

We were saddened to hear yesterday of the death of Mr Peter McGovern, who wrote the world-famous folk song, 'In My Liverpool Home'. Mr McGovern was a regular visitor the Walker Art Gallery and has helped the learning section with workshops in the past. He was immensely proud of his city and wrote the song as a tribute. He was also an old friend of my grandad's - and from what I hear he was a jolly nice man.

Derek shows exhibition officer Justina his Celebrity Silk

Everyone's getting sporty at National Museums Liverpool. While one half the office is entering the forthcoming 'Race for Life', and the other half is getting ready for Ladies' Day at Aintree! 

If you are in Liverpool for this weekend’s Grand National you might want to bob along to the Walker Art Gallery to see 'George Stubbs: A Celebration'. Stubbs is the city’s greatest artist and specialises in exquisite paintings of horses.

Armchair spectators will be pleased to hear that the web team have put together an online exhibition of sporting ephemera from across the collections - so you can join in without even leaving the house. This is the only place you can see the items all together - some of which are in storage.

For those who prefer to get out and about, 'Celebrity Silks' opens at World Museum Liverpool on Friday 7 April. Celebrities have designed their own jockey silks including household names like chef Gordon Ramsay, cricketer Andrew Flintoff and Top Gear presenter, Jeremy Clarkson. Infact, clairvoyant and psychic Derek Acorah, who has contributed his own spooky design, has been along today for press launch. I wonder if he can give me any tips on the Grand National?