National Museums Liverpool Blog - Monday, July 31, 2006

Apparently today is National Yorkshire Day.

This reminded me - on a recent web team outing to Tate Liverpool to see the Bruce Nauman exhibition we also stumbled across the collection display, Henry Moore: Natural Form, which I thought was quite beautfiul. Must go back and spend some more time there. Visitors to the Tate might also want to take a trip to the Walker Art Gallery, to see Moore's sculpture, Falling Warrior. (NB. Actually I've just found out that it's currently at Fundacio "la Caixa", Barcelona and won't be back at the Walker until November - so you might want to wait until then!)

I can't let the moment pass without  congratulating rugby league team Huddersfield Giants who beat fellow Yorkshire heavyweights Leeds Rhinos this weekend in the Challenge Cup semi-finals. They will be joining Merseyside's very own St Helens in the final at Twickenham in August.  (You can recognise Saints by the Capital of Culture logo on their shorts).

Other favourite Yorkshire things (Sean Bean aside) include Leeds Armouries, West Yorkshire Playhouse and the Brontes' Haworth.

Falling Warrior ... or could it be a Leeds player overcome by a Huddersfield tackle?

Today - 1 August - is the anniversary of the law coming into force that prohibited the slave trade throughout the British Empire. The Slavery Abolition Bill itself received Royal Assent on 29 August 1833 but came into force on this day in 1834.

Slavery Remembrance Day is later this month - 23 August. The date was chosen by UNESCO as on that day in 1791 began an uprising of enslaved Africans on the island of St Domingo (modern Haiti and the Dominican Republic). This revolt was a crucial event in the fight against slavery, and stands as a reminder that enslaved Africans were the main agents of their own liberation.

For more on the transatlantic slave trade visit our website.

Congratulations to Stuart Ian Burns, ex-employee of the Walker Art Gallery, on five years of feeling listless.

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

"I was completely blown away.

Entering the two small rooms which housed the display, I counted 25 of his photographs. A small display perhaps, but each and every one of them was absolutely beautiful.

The way in which Parkinson used the landscape to bring out the beauty of the subject is astonishing. But Parkinson doesn’t restrict himself to conventionally beautiful landscapes; the Grand Canyon or a Scottish mansion provide as dramatic a backdrop as the New York skyline or a rainswept Parisian street."

Read the SewStylish review in full here.

Norman Parkinson: Portraits in Fashion continues at the Lady Lever Art Gallery until 24 September 2006.

The New York clipper moored by the Maritime Museum before the start of the race in September 2005

The latest news from the Clipper 2005-2006 round the world yacht race is that the New York Clipper crossed the line to win the New York to Jersey leg of the race this morning. This will boost their position on the leaderboard, and could cost the Liverpool Clipper their podium position of 3rd place overall.

After racing 3070 nautical miles across the Atlantic the crews will have a few well-deserved days off in the Channel Islands this weekend. Liverpool then have a chance to catch up in the final stage of the race, which sets off from Jersey on Tuesday 25th July and arrives back in the Albert Dock on Saturday 29th July.

In the ten year history of the race only one clipper has ever won a race into their home port, a phenomenom known as the home port curse. Lets hope that Liverpool beat the curse and return home triumphant.

Win or lose, after an incredible 10 months of racing almost 35,000 nautical miles around the globe, I expect all the crews will be celebrating their achievement in completing the race. There will be lots of events to welcome them back to terra firma, including a packed weekend of activities at the Merseyside Maritime Museum.