National Museums Liverpool Blog - Thursday, March 22, 2007

eBoy, London

I always enjoy a trip to the Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston. Anywhere with quirkily named displays like 'Madder Modes' (looking at the hidden meanings of wearing red, with help from some gorgeous frocks and Vivienne Westwood shoes) and 'Stuck up and Downtrodden' (decorative Victorian and Edwardian tiles) really is my kind of place.

Their latest exhibition, Digital Aesthetic 2, which explores contemporary artists' use of digital technologies, is so big it has spread into 3 other venues in the city. I started my visit with a trip to St John's Minster to see Vince Briffa's 'Playing God', an interactive video installation in which you control the decisions of a girl looking for her lost cat Tini. It sounds simple but it had a group of us completely hooked and baffled as we searched in vain.

Over at the gallery itself the main room is dominated by three huge pixelated cityscapes by eBoy. The tiny image above really doesn't do justice to the impact they have when you first walk in. I also played the most intellectual game of Space Invaders I've ever seen, courtesy of Thomson and Craighead.

There's lots more but I'll leave you to explore it for yourselves. And if anybody finds that cat please put me out of my misery and let me know it's OK.

Miss Everton Courtesy of Cunard

It only seems like the other week when it opened, but the Hello Sailor! exhibition at Merseyside Maritime Museum is due to depart our shores and sail off into the sunset next week.

To see it off in style, Pink Quartet will be providng music and performance from the high seas at 2.30pm and 3.30pm on Saturday and Sunday.

There will also be a final performance of 'Nothing's queer once you have left that pier' at 1pm on the last day of the exhibition, 25 March. This whirlwind story told by Dennis - ship steward by day and diva by night - is a real treat, well worth a trip to the Albert Dock for.

Full events listings are available on the Maritime Museum What's on page.

The exhibition will be touring once it closes here, the next stop will be Southampton, where it opens in a few weeks.

No sooner have Airside left the building, than they seem to be cropping up all over the place, leaving me with a distinct sense of having missed out on something. Airside were commissioned to do an interactive called ‘Insyde’ for the Walker Art Gallery as part of the last Biennial but we were lucky enough to have the installation until last month. I did get along to see it - just once -and intended to go back to fully immerse myself in the experience, but never quite got around to it.

Now I find out that they were also behind the design for pop darling of the moment Mika whose marvellously colourful cd cover is all over the shops. Well, strictly speaking Mika and his sister Yasmine were responsible for the initial ideas but Airside helped them to turn their fledglings into a ‘full visual identity’.

Airside are also running a Flip Book workshop at the V&A museum Friday 30th March. The event is part of Friday Late Animate which celebrates the art of the moving image. And a fine and interesting evening it looks set to be – with the programme covering everything from hand-drawn frames to computer technologies.

If you can’t make it to the big smoke for the V&A workshop, never mind, there’s still time to pick up a few design tips at Animated Adventures  at World Museum Liverpool which will be with us throughout the Summer. But don't dilly dally because the months soon fly by.

And you can still see a little of what Airside got up to at the Walker online 

In her role as office services manager at National Museums Liverpool, June McDonough has seen a lot of stamps passing through the post room over the years, but never one as big as this!

The philatelic giant is promoting a new series of special issue stamps that will be launched by Royal Mail tomorrow to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Transatlantic slave trade.

Each of the six stamps in the series features one of the most prominent anti-slavery campaigners of their time, including Olaudah Equiano on the first class stamp pictured here. The presentation pack of this series includes background information by our very own Tony Tibbles, the keeper of Merseyside Maritime Museum and project leader of the Transatlantic Slavery gallery.

There are lots of events taking place at Merseyside Maritime Museum to celebrate the abolition bicentenary, including a live broadcast by BBC Radio 4's Sunday Programme and Sunday Worship from the museum this weekend (on Sunday, in case you were wondering). Audiences are welcome, but you need to get there for 6.45am for the first programme and 7.45am for the second. So set your alarms early - and remember to adjust them to British Summer Time before you go to bed on Saturday.

A rare treat for footie fans this weekend, when parts of the Everton Collection go on display at Goodison Park. Before non-Blues (you poor people) stop reading I should point out that this collection isn't just important from an Everton persective but is actually the most comprehensive footie memorabilia collection in the world. Currently the possession of life long Evertonian, David France, the collection not only chronicles the club's and the city's football and social heritage, but also that of football itself.

Parts date from the club's founding in 1878, predating the football league, and cover everything from the split that led to the formation of Liverpool FC, to the '66 World Cup and umpteen trips to Wembley, with unique photos, programmes, contracts, season tickets, medals, cash books and tonnes of other ephemera.

The exhibition is on for one day only - Sunday 25 March - from 10am to 4pm in the Captain's Table Lounge in the Park End at Goodison Park. Admission is free.

There's more on the collection on the official website, including David France's favourite pieces which include the tender to build Anfield and Dixie Dean's first medals.

Tug boats attend vessels much larger than themselves, performing a vital role which to me, Stephen Guy, has always been a source of admiration.

The great ships using the River Mersey are attended by tug boats helping to manoeuvre them in and out of the port. As ships became bigger the role of tugs increased in importance, making them a vital component in the vast machinery of the bustling port.

Until steam tugs were introduced in the 19th century, muscle and brawn played a much bigger part in manoeuvring sailing ships alongside jetties and into docks. Energetic crew members helped line up the vessel in the dock entrance before the ship was towed through using a capstan – no doubt to the rousing choruses of sea shanties and popular songs.

During the 19th century sailing gig boats carried out a variety of tasks. Their main purpose was to assist in docking by passing lines between the ship and the quayside. They would also ferry passengers, agents and owners to and from ships lying at anchor. Today’s large ships cannot easily manoeuvre within the Mersey and its dock system. Their turning circles are too large and they can’t maintain enough speed for their rudders to be fully effective. They need the help of tugs and there are several companies providing this vital service.

The power of a tug is expressed in terms of the bollard pull she can exert. Modern tugs with engines up to 5,000 horse-power can exert a pull of 70 tons.

The Brocklebank. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post & Echo

Merseyside Maritime Museum is the only British museum to have a sea-going vessel in its collection – the motor tug Brocklebank (above) dating from 1964. She is crewed by enthusiastic volunteers from the Friends of Merseyside Maritime Museum who are all qualified mariners. When not attending maritime festivals around Britain Brocklebank can be seen moored opposite the museum.

There are several fascinating tug models among the museum collections. The William Jolliffe (1885) was a twin-funnelled, iron screw steam tug. This fine model has some tiny details including copper port and starboard lights and a wheel house with bronze bells. The 96-ft long North Cock was one of the best-known tugs on the Mersey, known to generations using the river. Built by Laird Brothers at Birkenhead in 1903, the sturdy vessel had an amazing 61-year career until she was scrapped in 1964. An oil painting by an unknown artist shows the barque Dicky Sam, supported by Mersey flats (sailing barges), being towed by tugs off New Brighton about 1866.

A beautiful tug boat image features in the current Bernard Fallon exhibition.

A new Maritime Tale appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

As if you would! If you do find yourself stranded without a card though, you could always send your mum a beautiful Mother's Day e-card from our collections. It's free, it's environmentally friendly and it's more original than a bunch of flowers or box of chocolates. What more could she ask for?

For a nice day out, you could take her to see Pedeamun the mummy at the National Conservation Centre - and pop in to see The Long Way Home exhibition while you're there.

Mrs Theresa Kufour, Richard Benjamin, head of the International Slavery Museum, President of the Republic of Ghana , Mr John Kufuor and David Fleming, director of National Museums Liverpool at the Merseyside Maritime Museum yesterday

As I mentioned last week, Merseyside Maritime Museum got the flags out and put a very special Ghanian surf boat on display to celebrate the 50th anniversary of independence in Ghana.

Yesterday we were honoured to welcome some very special guests to the museum, the President of the Republic of Ghana, Mr John Kufuor and Mrs Theresa Kufuor, during a state visit to Liverpool. They were given a tour of the Transatlantic Slavery gallery and heard about plans for the new International Slavery Museum, before a reception attended by members of the local Ghanaian Community.

Our major exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in 2008 looks at the artist’s response to the railway, and will feature such luminaries as Monet, Manet, Hopper, Van Gogh, Pissaro and De Chirico.  We've come up with a few possible titles and would like to know  what you think of them. The options are:

    Painted Stations Whistle By

    Art, Steam and Speed

    Travelling Companions

    Iron, Steam & Speed

Send us an email using this contact form, and include your choice in the 'comments' section. If you want to explain your choice please do, and if you've got something even better in mind feel free to tell us. We may use the subtitle 'The Artist and the Railway' for the exhibition as well so let us know what you think of that.

Extra housepoints if you got the Simpsons reference in the title of this post.

Karen's blog has reminded me - it's Mother's Day on Sunday, and as you'd expect, we have a range of fabulous free Mother's Day e-cards for the occasion.

New designs this year include 'The Fairy Tale' by James Sant, pictured above, from the Walker's collections. Or if your mum doesn't scare easily (and lets face it, most mums are made of pretty stern stuff) you could always send her the 'Mummy of Pedeamun' from the National Conservation Centre.

Make your own dino mask

Yep, the puns on this blog just keep coming...

Anyhoo, lots of lucky kiddiewinks (about 300 of them actually) got stuck into the Dino Days sessions at World Museum Liverpool at the weekend. There are more workshops this weekend (check out the what's on section) where the many delights will include examining fossiled dinosaur poo - a perfect Mother's Day if you ask me.

If you can't get down to the museum (or even if you can) you might want to enter our 'design a dinosaur stamp' competition. The three best get a dinosaur goodie bag. You can download the application form pdf(119kb), which also includes details of how to enter.  

If you'd rather have a posted version contact Mike Graham, Learning Resources, World Museum Liverpool, William Brown Street, Liverpool, L3 8EN or call him on 0151 478 4241. The deadline is 30 March.

'Grain barge', copyright Bernard Fallon

If you missed Bernard Fallon when he briefly returned to Liverpool to open the exhibition of his photos The Long Way Home at the National Conservation Centre, then don't worry. A podcast of Bernard giving a guided tour of the exhibition is now available on the website. Yes, we do spoil you.

For further proof of how much we spoil you, there have been extra talks added for our other photography exhibition, Merchant Palaces at the Lady Lever Art Gallery. Exhibition curator Joseph Sharple's talks about Merchant Palaces have been so popular that 2 more dates have been added on 27 March and 16 April. Full details are in the Merchant Palaces events programme.

Image courtesy of Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

A grim period of Liverpool’s history was when the town was Europe’s leading slave trade port.

Comparatively few slaves were brought to Liverpool - it was the trade itself that generated big profits.

Ships sailed from Liverpool laden with manufactured goods such as pots and pans, guns, alcohol and textiles. These were exchanged for slaves in Africa who were then taken across the Atlantic.

The Africans were then sold and such commodities as sugar, coffee, tobacco, rice and cotton – all produced by slave labour – were purchased.

The slave trade was fuelled by profit and Europeans’ desire for luxuries, creating the demand for captive Africans to do the work. They received no pay and were not allowed any freedom. Millions of enslaved Africans were taken to the Caribbean and the Americas not only on Liverpool ships but from other British and European ports.

It took many years of campaigning by abolitionists such as William Wilberforce, Olaudah Equiano and Liverpool‘s William Roscoe to finally get the trade outlawed in Britain in 1807.

The Transatlantic Slavery Gallery at Merseyside Maritime Museum focuses on this fascinating and thought-provoking story.

A map shows the location of various British slaving ports and the approximate number of slave ship voyages between 1700 and 1807. Liverpool had the greatest number with 5,300 voyages during this period.

A globe shows the triangular route taken by slave ships. First they went from Liverpool to west Africa. After picking up slaves they crossed the infamous Middle Passage over the Atlantic lasting six to eight weeks. The third part of the journey was back to Liverpool.

My ancestor Earl Guy set sail from Liverpool on the Ariadne as second mate in 1802. They picked up 177 slaves at the Rio Pongo in Africa before setting off for Demerara (now Guyana) in South America.

Earl was one of eight crewmen who died on the voyage and was presumably buried at sea.

He may have been named after the Earles, who were a well-known family of Liverpool slave traders. There is still an Earle Street, off Old Hall Street in Liverpool city centre, named after them.

A new Maritime Tale appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

Norman Killen - lost in music

Two Liverpool legends turned 60 this week, both of whom I met when I started working at the Walker Art Gallery a long time ago (we’re talking more years than I have fingers here).

I’ll never forget being introduced to Julian Treuherz on my first day of work as an information assistant at the Walker. He told me that he thought the front of house staff were the most important people working in the building, as we were the first ones the public saw when they came in.

Give him his due though, as the keeper of 3 national galleries (the Walker, Lady Lever Art Gallery and Sudley House) and the brains behind blockbuster exhibitions including Rossetti in 2003 and Alma Tadema in 1997, he wasn’t exactly insignificant himself. Julian retired on Friday but I hear that he'll still be involved with a major exhibition at the gallery next year.

Also celebrating his sixth decade is one of my former colleagues from the info desk, Norman Killen. He spent most of my first weeks tidying up after me, then once he had knocked me into shape he started broadening my musical horizons with some mix tapes that I still treasure. He was well placed to do this, for after DJ-ing at many of the city’s coolest clubs including Eric’s and the Sink, as well as working at Probe Records, he has played a major part in improving the musical taste of the city over the years.

As you’d expect, the music at his party on Saturday was fantastic. The birthday boy himself got behind the turntable, in between live music from the Rocketeers and Deaf School, who were joined for one song by a singer who was truly 'one step beyond'. Happily Norman has no intention of hanging up his uniform, or his record bag, just yet. The Walker just wouldn't be the same without him.