National Museums Liverpool Blog - Thursday, August 23, 2007

First the good news: Animated Adventures at World Museum Liverpool has been extended slightly and will now finish on Tuesday 28th August. Also, the Culture Company is organising a family festival on William Brown Street from 12 noon until 5pm on 26 and 27 August, as part of the Mathew Street Music Festival, so you could visit both over the bank holiday weekend.

The bad news is that because of the family festival William Brown Street will be closed from 6pm on Saturday 25 until 8pm on Monday 27 August. Also, because of the 800th birthday pageant which starts and finishes on William Brown Street, the road will also be closed on Tuesday 28th August, so if you were hoping to park there you will have to find an alternative. Check out the World Museum Liverpool visitor information page for alternatives.  Obviously the same arrangement applies to the Walker Art Gallery.

As promised here are some of the radio highlights for the International Slavery Museum launch. Obviously there has been a lot more coverage than this list but a lot isn't available to listen again, or is difficult to isolate within a programme. There's plenty to listen to here anyway.

• Front Row tonight (Friday 24th) will feature Mark Lawson's visit to the new museum. That's Radio 4 at 7.15pm, and hopefully for the week to come on 'listen again'
  
• As I mentioned yesterday Simon Mayo on Radio Five Live interviewed Richard Benjamin for about 20 mins on Wednesday, starting at about 1hr 47 mins into the programme. That programme should be available to listen again until Wednesday next week.
  
• Colourful Radio's Amina Taylor interviewed Richard on 20th August 2007. Just select the date from this page - the interview starts at 1hr 46mins and runs for about 20 mins. 
  
• Colourful Radio obviously like Richard as he was back on the station next day on the Elayne Smith programme. Again, select the date (21st August) and start listening at 1hr 38 mins. The interview runs for about 18 mins. In the interview Richard asked people to send him their comments and thoughts on the museum. You can do that by following this link and completing the 'contact us' form.
  

I was pleased to be able to go along to the Slavery Remembrance Day events yesterday at Otterspool Prom. Thank goodness for the great weather! It was a busy afternoon with delicious Caribbean food followed by the libation ceremony and a mixture of live performances. The libation ceremony was a unique experience - it is a solemn African traditional ceremony, which remembers, acknowledges and honours African ancestors, elders and leaders. Chief Angus Chukuemeka commended the work of National Museums Liverpool and its staff, in producing a museum which he said touched deep seated emotions.

After the ceremony I met Helen Renner (pictured) a resident of Birkenhead, originally from Ghana. I wanted to talk to her because she was wearing amazing traditional dress! She explained that it was made from the commemorative cloth of her school, whose patterns symbolised different aspects of the school and Ghanaian culture. You can see it has a pattern of fish scales and cocoa pods, to represent the importance of the fishing and cocoa industries and is decorated with images of people from the Achimota School that it commemorates. Helen had been around the slavery museum and was planning to go back to have more time to take it all in.

My favourite part of the live performances that followed were the two dancers who performed fantastically energetic routines to traditional African music by the River Niger Orchestra. It was quite moving when they performed a dance to show how the slaves were forced to dance on the ships and how they were whipped as they did so. Everyone enjoyed the poetry performance by Levi Tafari who was met with cheers and got people on their feet. A day of great variety that I enjoyed being part of.

The International Slavery Museum opened today. Pleased to say that there has been lots of positive coverage in the press, on the web, tv etc. I'll post a proper 'listen again' selection of the radio coverage but in the mean time here is an interview from yesterday. Simon Mayo on Radio Five Live interviewed Richard Benjamin, head of the museum. The interview starts at about 1hr 47mins and runs for about 20 mins on either side of the news break. (NB, apparently there are a few problems with the BBC listen again feature so you might have to be patient.)

Also saw today that Anti-Slavery International has digitsed its collection of 18th and 19th century slavery literature and called it Recovered Histories. There are over 40,000 pages so it should be worth a good look. 

Our very own Stephen Guy (he of Maritime Tales fame) gives a little bit of a guided tour around the International Slavery Museum which opens on Thursday (just two more sleeps) in this video on the BBC website.

Marine paintings have always been inspiring for me, Stephen Guy, as they evoke vanished eras with great clarity and detail. It is not just the ships that fascinate but the views in the background, including early Liverpool townscapes.

Liverpool’s artistic community goes back more than 200 years when talented painters worked in the port depicting sailing ships, often with the town’s waterfront as a backdrop. Merseyside Maritime Museum has remarkable collections of paintings which capture not only the romance of the sea but also the growth of Liverpool from a small port to a city of international importance. Most of the paintings are by artists who lived locally. They include atmospheric and inspiring pictures of ships owned and operated by merchants out of Liverpool as well as views of the town from the River Mersey. The majority were painted for the vessels’ owners, builders, captains or crews. They are generally very accurate and give detailed insights into ships and seamanship.

The earliest known Liverpool ship painting is dated 1781. Artist Joseph Parry (1744-1826) depicts a Liverpool privateer returning with a prize. Privateers were armed, privately-owned vessels commissioned for war service by the government.

Joseph Heard (1799-1859) was born and brought up in Whitehaven, Cumbria, and moved to Liverpool about 1833. In his painting of the Elinor Chapman (shown here), the barque is shown with billowing sails and fluttering pennants off the Liverpool waterfront. As was often done in marine paintings of this era, two views of the same ship are included in the picture. The other view of the Elinor Chapman shows her hove to and about to drop anchor. Heard often tilted the vessel slightly, as seen here, to show the crew and what was happening on deck – details which give his works great energy and vitality.  You can download a wallpaper of this image from our main site.

Other artistic peculiarities can be seen in the painting of the Bosphorus by Francis Hustwick (1797-1865). The sailing ship is seen in choppy seas with white horses (foaming waves) churning around her hull. In the distance are the well-known fort and lighthouse on Perch Rock off New Brighton. Hustwick rarely signed his paintings but his work is easily recognisable because he provocatively used a version of the Red Ensign which was scrapped in 1801. In that year the flag assumed its modern appearance when the red diagonal St Patrick’s Cross was added to the Union Jack. It is not known why Hustwick used the out-of-date flag as his hallmark, unless he was harking back to the days of his childhood.

We will look at more marine paintings next week.

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

Do you ever get the feeling that you've picked completely the wrong week to go on holiday? While I'm away next week it looks like I'm missing loads of fun here in Liverpool.

Tomorrow the famous ship from the Pirates of the Caribbean films, The Black Pearl, will be visiting Liverpool and docking opposite the Maritime Museum. Sadly Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom wont be there, but I'm sure it'll still be worth seeing.

Then of course the International Slavery Museum opens on Thursday. Being a nosey type, I had a quick look round this week and even though the displays were still being finished off it already had the wow factor.

To top off the week, visitors are invited to bring in their toys to be x-rayed in the Reveal gallery of the National Conservation Centre on Friday from 12.30-3.30pm. At last, the chance to discover the inner workings of your favourite playthings - don't pretend that you're not even the tiniest bit curious to see what makes your teddy bear growl. See the full details on the Conservation Centre's What's On pages.

Sorry - should have put this up last week but it's still current. John Edmondson has been involved in a new exhibition showing at the Picton LIbrary - that's the round, reading room that's part of Liverpool's Central Library. It's between World Musem Liverpool and the Walker so could easily be fitted in with a visit to either.

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An exhibition opening on 8 August at Liverpool Central Library titled "Spice of Life: Raffles and the Malay World" has been organised by the British Library to celebrate their acquisition of the important Raffles family archive containing the papers, artefacts and natural history drawings of Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore. His relatives lived in Liverpool and after returning to London with specimens of the world's largest flower, Rafflesia (named in his honour) his agent arranged to send a pickled sample to Liverpool. Unfortunately, it seems to have gone missing, possibly in the May Blitz in 1941 which destroyed the natural history galleries at World Museum Liverpool. Research by the exhibition organiser, Annabel Gallop from the British Library, has unearthed correspondence between Robert Brown and William Roscoe concerning the Rafflesia. Some of the natural history drawings, and other objects, will be on display in the Picton Library until October. The exhibition has the enthusiastic support of the local Malaysian community.
 
John Edmondson

Over the summer Strange Cargo arts company have been hard at work in World Museum Liverpool's lower horseshoe gallery. This grand space with its high ceilings is the perfect space for one of the things they do best, which is making giants.

Their have been a number of giant-building workshops over the summer. Now the company are finishing off a 15 foot tall Liverpool giant, which will lead the city's 800th birthday pageant on Tuesday 28 August. You can get a first look at their creation at 1pm on Bank Holiday Monday (27 August) when the giant will be named in a special ceremony in St John's Gardens, opposite World Museum Liverpool.

Have a look at a Flickr slideshow of photos from today's giant building workshop to see how some of Strange Cargo's creations are shaping up.

Planetarium operator, John Moran, was up bright and early the other day for the Perseids meteor shower (rather him than me...)

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As is always the way when I look forward to annual meteor showers, especially the major ones like the Perseids, I was beaten by the broken cloud, which gives you the added frustration of being able to see parts of the sky in between and consequently gives you false hope. This was how I spent the early hours of 13 August in Newsham Park, Liverpool. Fortunately others I've spoken to had better luck than I did. One of our regular visiters to the Planetarium described how she had set her alarm clock for 3am and had trudged off to the nearby woods with her grandfather, and spotted at least 10 meteors, which is deserved reward for the commitment and patience shown by a 12 year old just discovering the wonders of our night sky. The passion and excitment in her eyes was a joy to see as she described how, "one meteor streak went on for ever" and how another, "broke apart mid-flight". This kind of feedback from someone so young is, in my opinion, one of the biggest rewards of being a Planetarium operator.
 
Another successful night of 'Perseid hunting' was achieved by our own Tony Morgan of the Natural History Centre, who along with Wendy Simkiss from Geology and a few friends, organised a star party. As a way of keeping everyone keen and focused, Wendy not only supplied binoculars and star maps, but also created a clever little test where everyone had to find 16 selected objects in the night sky.  This is such a brilliant way of not only keeping interests peaked, but also an opportunity for friends who may not be as familiar with the celestial sky. Another reason why star parties are a great idea is because unfortunately the sky does not always do as predicted, so if you end up disappointed because of clouds at least you are among friends and can still have good time.
 
I always try to imagine what it would be like to witness a meteor shower from the middle of the sea or even a desert, because being a city dweller makes it much more difficult to view events like meteor showers because of light pollution - the enemy of all star gazers. I often speak to retired seamen who are not necessarily familiar with the constellations but talk about how unbelievable the stars were at sea, and how the sighting of shooting stars became commonplace. I can't help but feel a tinge of envy. Of course you don't always need an annual meteor shower to be able to spot meteors, because on any given night of the year there are millions of tons of space debris entering our atmosphere, most the size of a grain of sand. The great thing about annual showers is that you can get prepared for them. The best way to do this is by getting yourself a meteor shower chart (see below) which lets you know what date meteor showers start and finish.

John

Download: Meteor shower chart [.pdf 55k]
Download: Meteor shower chart [.rtf 72k]

For many years the Richard Ansdell painting The Hunted Slaves was a familiar sight above the grand staircase of the Walker Art Gallery. However, sharp eyed visitors will have noticed that the painting is no longer there.

Although it hasn't been on public display, the painting has still been the centre of attention behind the scenes at the National Conservation Centre, where our conservators have examined it and prepared it to go to a new venue.

This morning the painting was taken to the Albert Dock, where it will soon be going on display again in the new International Slavery Museum. As you can see, moving such a huge painting is a big operation as it takes several people just to lift it. It was in safe hands with the museum's specialist handling team though, who soon got it inside.