National Museums Liverpool Blog - Friday, July 28, 2006

Liverpool Clipper, looking pristine and shiny new before the start of the race last October

This morning the Liverpool Clipper sailed into Holyhead to win the penultimate leg of the Clipper 2005-2006 round the world race. All ten clippers have a quick rest before the final race, arriving in the Albert Dock tomorrow. It'll be a nail-biter, as Liverpool are now only one point behind 3rd placed New York on the leaderboard. Could they regain their podium position?

The return of the clippers to Liverpool will be celebrated with a weekend of activities on the waterfront. The Maritime Museum is hosting traditional craft demonstrations, hands-on art activities for children and survival fun in the new Shipwrecked exhibition. It's also the museum's annual RNLI weekend.

If you're among the crowds in the Albert Dock, don't forget to pop into the Piermaster's House for a chat to Rose, the Piermaster's wife, who will be receiving visitors from 1-4pm on Saturday 29 July. Have a look at the What's on section for the full programme of events. 

The Piermaster's House in the Albert Dock

This year, as you probably already know, is the Chinese Year of the Dog. There are lots of canine related items in our collections, some of which can be seen in an online exhibition of dogs.

This summer however the Customs and Excise Museum have gone one better, with real live sniffer dogs visiting every Thursday afternoon, from today until 31 August.

The dogs and their handlers will be giving special demonstrations of how they sniff out contraband goods in our ports and airports.

Yesterday's live link up from the Treasure House Theatre in World Museum Liverpool was a real treat. We were given a special behind-the-scenes look at some of the interesting objects housed inside the National Archive at Kew. The archive has 100 miles of shelving carrying 10 million documents from the past 1000 years of history. These included documents signed by Henry VIII, and his Royal Seal. 

Another grisley piece of history in Kew's archives is Guy Fawkes' signed gunpowder plot confession. The barely-there scrawl reveals the torture he endured before he finally signed, incuding the use of thumb screws.

If you like this particular breed of horrible history, then Terry Deary's Terrible Tudors at the Liverpool Empire is worth a look, if only for the 3D Boggle Goggles you wear in the second half. Personally I'm a bit of a fan of Henry so it goes against the grain to call him terrible. Having said that, I'm Tudor re-enactor who spends as much time as I can muster at Kentwell Hall in Suffolk so perhaps I'm biased. 

Huzzah for Good King Hal!

Object of the month at the Walker Art Gallery is recent acquisition 'Loophonium', by the late Fritz Spiegl. The loophonium, a euphonium crossed with a toilet, was created by Spiegl for an April Fools' Day concert in 1960. Free gallery talks will be held on Tuesday 1 and Thursday 24 August, 1-1.30pm.

August's Nightwatch feature for World Museum Liverpool higlights sightings of Jupiter, Venus, the constellation of Pegasus, M51 (The Whirlpool Galaxy) and the Perseid meteor shower.

For those wanting to know what the night sky was like in the recent past, our Nightwatch archives date back to the beginning of 2004.

Detail from 'A Horse Frightened by a Lion' by Stubbs

There's only a few days left to catch two major exhibitions at the Walker, A Passion for Fashion and George Stubbs: A Celebration, both of which close on Sunday 30 July. So why not avoid the rain that's forecast for the weekend with a visit to the gallery.

The Stubbs exhibition, which features popular paintings from the Walker's collections including Molly Longlegs and A Horse Frightened by a Lion, will travel to Tate Britain in London then across the Atlantic to the Frick Collection in New York.

While our paintings are away from the gallery, you can still see them on the website in our online featured artist section on Stubbs.

First image from the interactive installation that Airside have created to be shown during the Liverpool Biennial (18 September 2006 - 26 November 2006).

The Walker Art Gallery has commissioned the immersive artwork which will consist of physical objects, wall projections and music composed by Fred Deakin of Lemon Jelly.

Full press release here.

This afternoon I attended the world premiere of 'Food for thought', a new family show at the Treasure House Theatre in World Museum Liverpool.

The action takes place in the Time Travel Café, where the waiter is a man on a mission. He transports the audience back in time to find out how food was caught and prepared many thousands of years ago

The half hour show features ancient treasures from the museum's collections, video footage and, of course, a rather unique time machine. I wont give too much away, but visitors are given plenty of food for thought about where the meals we eat come from.

Have a look at the what's on section to find out what shows and events are coming up in the Treasure House Theatre

The Dock Traffic Office

ITV Granada has announced that it is moving its Liverpool news team out of the Dock Traffic Office and into the Liver Building. This allows National Museums Liverpool to develop phase two of the International Slavery Museum at the site.

Phase one, comprising new galleries focusing on the transatlantic slave trade, will be built in the adjacent Merseyside Maritime Museum building, with a link bridge running through to the Dock Traffic Office. In there will be a resource centre for the understanding of transatlantic slavery. This second phase opens in 2010.

You can learn more about the International Slavery Museum here.

Water coolers across the country have been in great demand this week as we guzzle our way through the heatwave. But our discomfort pales into insignificance when it is compared with those whose survival depends on attaining a supply of fresh water. 

A brilliant partnership between cooler company AquAid and Christian Aid means that 30 pence from every bottle of water sold goes directly to water-related project in Africa. Since it began in 1998 it has raised £1.6 million.

Today AquAid director David Phillips bobbed along to the World Cultures Gallery in World Museum Liverpool to present us with a certificate for our small part. He said, "National Museums Liverpool have saved the lives of hundreds of people and for this we congratulate them."

June McDonough from Office Services received the certificate and was quite rightly thrilled to bits. She said "It's great to think that through this scheme we are helping others to drink fresh water and doing our bit to make a difference".

Well said!

Here's a photo of Paul Finnegan, in full bee keeping gear, containing the bees outside World Museum Liverpool the other day. The full story is here.

Paul contains the bees