National Museums Liverpool Blog - Friday, July 10, 2009

Across the National Museums Liverpool website, we have loads of great games, e-cards, online-only exhibitions, videos, interactives and podcasts for you to enjoy. And we've just launched our new VIP Zone as a hub for all these cool features that really bring our collections and exhibitions to life.

You can watch a video of a Pharaoh talking about life in ancient Egypt or download a talk by curator Pauline Rushton and photographer Francesco Mellina about our Sound and Vision exhibition - photographs of Liverpool music and fashion from 1978-82.

This multi-media stuff gives people from around the world the chance to get a better experience of what we have in our venues, even if they can't come along in real life.

You can also find all our social networking sites in the VIP Zone. So if you want to follow the new Museum of Liverpool on Twitter or join the Walker Facebook group then you can find links to our social sites there too.

Here's one of the latest videos we've put online featuring George Holt, the former owner of Sudley House, in the dining room. He talks about dinner parties, his plans for improving the city of Liverpool and describes some of the paintings in the room.

John Lee's Sweetheart and Wives (1860) makes way for paintings returning from Stockholm

Regular visitors to the Walker Art Gallery may have missed some familiar faces from the Pre-Raphaelite room in recent months. Such is the enduring popularity of the Pre-Raphaelites that from time to time our works go travelling around the world on loan to other galleries. This time it was to an exhibition at Nationalmuseum Stockholm, but I’m happy to tell you they are now back where they belong.

You may well be seeing even more of one the returning works, Lorenzo and Isabella, as it is featured in the new BBC drama Desperate Romantics.

There's less than a day to go now so I thought I'd take the opportunity to remind you to please vote for the International Slavery Museum in the National Lottery Awards before noon tomorrow.

There are lots of reasons to vote for this fantastic and groundbreaking venue, many of which were outlined by the head of the museum Richard Benjamin in his latest blog post. You only have to look at a few of the comment cards from the museum's visitors to see how the incredibly moving and poignant stories told within the galleries have affected people.

Further proof of the museum's importance and value is the standard of international speakers that it attracts. For example, US civil rights activist Diane Nash will be giving this year's Slavery Remembrance Day memorial lecture on Friday 21 August.

If you can't wait until then, Benjamin Nicholas Lawrance, the assistant professor of African history from the University of California, Davis will be giving a free lecture in the museum this Monday, 13 July, at 12 noon. Entitled 'All we want is make us free?' the lecture will look at the voyage of Amistad's children through the worlds of the illegal slave trade. Here is his synopsis of what he will be talking about:

"In Steven Spielberg's 1997 dramatization of the infamous US Supreme Court trial of the occupants of the Spanish-Cuban slave ship Amistad, Cinqué, the African leader of the survivors, in a trance-like state, stands up, faces the judge, and begins chanting "Give us, us free!" It is a powerful and deeply persuasive testament to man's inhumanity to man and an unmistakable and universalizing call to correct past injustice.

It is also a complete and utter fabrication. Not only was Cinqué (a European rendering of the Mende Singbe Pieh) imprisoned in New Haven and thus not present in the courtroom, but the utterance itself is a corruption of the penultimate line of a letter penned by Ka-Le, one of four child captives from the Amistad, to former President John Quincy Adams. Film critics and historians have rightly rounded on the spurious ethnic formulations deployed with such great dramatic effect in the prison.  As if to anticipate an onslaught of criticism, Steven Spielberg claimed to be telling "everyone's story."  Notwithstanding the absence of "African agency," as Robert Harms points out, it is quite "unfortunate that the Africanness of the Amistad captives is shown largely through untranslated utterances and stereotyped inter-tribal conflict."

But a second, and I would venture more deleterious silencing is also enjoined in this scene, that of the voices of the four African child captives aboard the slave ship, and of Ka-le in particular. A number of kidnapped children were on board the Tecora when it sailed from Sierra Leone in 1838-9. After arriving in Cuba, where many of the slaves were sold, a group were boarded on the Amistad and set sail for another port town. Included in this group were at least five children, and the ship's crew included at least one. The status of these five children featured prominently in the trial of the Amistad captives. Among other matters, there were separate habeas corpus hearings for the three girls involved, and a separate ruling regarding ownership of the ship's cabin boy and slave, Antonio. Four African children returned to West Africa aboard the Gentleman in the Fall of 1841. And one of these, a girl called Mar-gru, subsequently returned to the U.S. and graduate from Oberlin College.

In this lecture I would like to reconsider historical evidence from the famous trial of the men and women found on board the Cuban-Spanish ship La Amistad. Documents from this unlikely and well-trodden source provide a rare window into the historical contexts of child smuggling in the nineteenth century. They also serve as a vehicle for helping historians navigate the complicated legal terrain of child slaves lives."

The Doorway - etching and drypoint, 1879-1880 by James McNeill Whistler. © The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow

Venice divides opinion. It can be far too busy and commercial, but if you are like me you will forgive such a truly beautiful place anything.

It would seem Whistler also appreciated the lure of Venice. There are four etchings of a Venetian doorway in the exhibition Whistler: The Gentle Art of Making Etchings at the Lady Lever Art Gallery. They are of the same scene but with small alterations. Hung together they convey a determination by Whistler to perfectly capture the charm of the place.

The artist found much of the inspiration for his etchings in the major European cities of the time including Liverpool. The exhibition features a lovely etching of Speke Hall from 1870.

The exhibition, organised by the Hunterian Museum & Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, runs until 20 September 2009.

If you’re heading into town for Beatles Day on 10th July stop off at The Beat Goes On to see its fantastic array of Beatles memorabilia - but don’t neglect the Walker Art Gallery. The Walker may not stand out as major landmark on the Beatles trail but it is actually a rather interesting (and not insignificant) footnote in the Beatles' story.

When Paul McCartney’s exhibition of paintings at the Walker was planned, he recalled how he and John would spend 'many a pleasant afternoon’ in the gallery. It’s difficult to get your head round - the young two mates swaggering through the galleries, fooling about, mulling over the paintings. Boy, would I have loved to have been a fly on the wall, listening to what they said about the pictures - I have a suspicion they may have had a few things to say about the nudes, for one!

John Lennon on a visit to the Walker Art Gallery .. come on, work with me here!

In fairness to John it makes perfect sense that they spent time in the Walker. Art was a recurring theme that ran throughout his life and here was this highly-acclaimed gallery right on the doorstep. John was at art school after all and he had a talent for sketching that he later shared in his books, 'In His Own Write' and 'A Spaniard In the Works'.

Another major artistic link in the chain was of course Stuart Sutcliffe. Stuart was John’s best friend and they were at college together. Such was Stu’s talent that he exhibited a painting at the Walker in 1959 and artworks by Stu remain in the gallery's collection. The way history tells it, Stu used the money from the sale of his painting to buy a guitar. When he set off to Hamburg with the band he met photographer Astrid Kirchherr and her boyfriend Klauss Voorman. The couple had a big influence on the style of the boys giving them their trademark ‘mop tops’ (and coincidentally Klauss went on to design the Revolver album cover). Stu and Astrid became an item and the young artist swiftly returned to his true calling of painting. Sadly he died prematurely of a brain haemorrhage before he could fulfil his potenital. He is buried locally in Huyton.

Despite Stu’s passing, art continued to play a decisive role in John Lennon’s life. It was in an art gallery (the Indica) that John met Yoko Ono, herself a credible and well-established avant-garde artist. It’s clear that Yoko stimulated John creatively and intellectually. John had loved and admired Stu but he may well have felt inadequate in his shadow. Yoko on other hand  gave him the confidence to take himself seriously in artistic terms and validated his ideas outside the field of music. I sometimes wonder if it the loss of Stu that later propelled John into such an all-consuming and intense relationship with an artist. All I can say for sure is that art had a pivotal role to play in the lives of John, Stu and even Paul – and I’d like to think that the Walker played some small part in that.

Note: You can see the pictured Beatle suit as well as other garments and memorabilia in The Beat Goes On exhibition at World Museum until 1 November 2009.The photograph shows the suit in the Walker's Craft & Design gallery in a previous display.  

The 15 - 21 June 2009 was Refugee Week, a national event which encourages people to celebrate the positive contributions that refugees and asylum seekers make to the UK. Ann-marie McGoughey, our project worker for engaging refugees and asylum seekers, tells us how it went:

Detail of Simple Acts banner

This year, the Simple Acts campaign was launched to inspire people to use small, everyday actions to help change the perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers. Refugee Week organisers have developed a list of 20 simple actions, that anyone can do, such as 'smile', 'cook a dish from another country' or 'learn to say a few things in another language'. The full list can be seen on the Simple Acts website.

Here at National Museums Liverpool, we supported Refugee Week and the Simple Acts campaign, by delivering a series of events for staff and visitors. Events included a drawing workshop with artist Charlotte Brown, linked to the 20 Simple Acts. Participants chose their favourite act and drew a picture to represent it. Charlotte then joined all of the pictures together to create a Simple Acts banner, which measured over 9 metres in length! Staff also had the opportunity to contribute to this enormous piece of artwork during a lunchtime event at World Museum Liverpool.

We also had a number of events in the museum’s Treasure House Theatre, including African Beats workshops with Chaba. During these workshops, visitors learnt how to drum, sing and also tried African travelling dance. Also in the theatre during the week, we showed two films created by groups of young refugees and asylum seekers: Visitor & Samurai and Make Your Own Liverpool.

The week ended with a celebration event involving groups of primary school children and students from EMTAS (Ethnic Minority & Traveller Achievement Service). The pupils had been working with EMTAS in the run-up to Refugee Week and treated us all to a show of performances, films and artwork that they had created. The grand finale included a balloon release outside of World Museum Liverpool, during which the children released their positive messages for refugees and asylum seekers.

All in all, a very enjoyable week, with over 560 simple acts completed by National Museums Liverpool staff and visitors! I can't wait for next year!

The Beat Goes On at World Museum, celebrates a wealth of Liverpool music across the ages right from the 40s until today, and not one decade has gone by when a Liverpool act hasn’t topped the charts.

One thing’s for sure, the exhibition is packed with fascinating objects and memorabilia charting the city’s musical heritage to date, but talent is still emerging daily and tomorrow’s stars could one day find themselves becoming part of Liverpool’s history, adorning i-pod screens and the walls of new Museum of Liverpool alike.

Yes, there is the idea that you have to be in the right place at the right time, but sheer hard work and determination is often necessary for a band or artist to gain access to the ‘right place’ at the ‘right time’, and our city offers some great opportunities to get noticed by the decision makers in the business.

As the Guinness Book of Record’s ‘City of Pop’, Liverpool avidly supports its emerging talent to climb the ladder of musical success, and those on the city’s youth music scene will be pleased to hear that the annual Streetwaves competition - doing just that - is back again for 2009.

This year, the competition is offering two lucky acts the chance to play a 25 minute outdoor set at the legendary Mathew Street Festival! Acts aged 14 – 25 can apply to audition by Tuesday 14 July, so be quick and visit www.liverpool.gov.uk/culture for an application form...and good luck!

Following up on our own competition, we’re also pleased to see that some of the artists voted for on The Beat Goes On’s Myspace are coming on in leaps and bounds since they’ve been featured on the digital jukeboxes in the exhibition:

A firm favourite in the votes, Dave Tyrell is releasing his debut album on 1 August, and band Jessica’s Ghost has also released an album, The Winning Hand with various gig dates in the coming months including Heebie Jeebies and the Mathew Street Finge. GK & The Renegades have sadly gone their separate ways, although GK (Gavin Kaufman) has announced he will be launching solo projects, so we look forward to hearing more from him.

Type VII German u boat. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.

I like to think that the courtesies of life can be observed in even the most challenging situations so this particular story is very appealing to me. A pair of threadbare khaki trousers stand testimony to a compassionate wartime gesture after a German U-boat submarine sank a British ship.

On display in the Battle of the Atlantic gallery at Merseyside Maritime Museum, the overall trousers belonged to a crew member on U-41.

They were given to James Kearon, of Arklow, Eire, a crew member of the steamship Darino of Liverpool after she was sunk off Spain in November 1939. He was one of 11 survivors who were taken on board the U-boat for three days before being transferred to an Italian ship bound for England.

Sadly, such acts of humanity by captains were forbidden by U-boat command later in the war.

In the late 1930s Karl Donitz, officer commanding U-boats, had estimated that Germany would need at least 300 U-boats in the event of war with Britain. In September 1939, however, Germany had just 57 subs with less than half having the range to operate in the Atlantic.

Until early 1945 all the German U-boats were based on First World War designs. By this time more than half (704) were of the Type VII (pictured) or its variants, the largest class of warships ever built in numerical terms.

Together with the larger Type IX, the Type VII Atlantic boats spearheaded Germany’s war at sea. The diesel–electric type VII was designed as a submersible, ocean-going torpedo boat.

In its original form it was only some 218 ft long with a displacement of 745 tons. This small size made it manoeuvrable and difficult to locate.

The Type VII had a fast surface speed of 16 – 17 knots, submerging in just 30 seconds. Its average range was more than 4,000 miles making it well-suited to ocean-going operations. Until mid-1943 these subs enjoyed remarkable successes in the Atlantic campaign.

Up to June 1940, U-boat operations in the Atlantic were limited because no more than 10 boats were usually available at any one time. Faulty torpedoes and the withdrawal of some boats to support operations in Norway were other handicaps.

German High Command, fearing American entry into the war, also placed strict limits on U-boat activities. Despite this, U-boats sank more than 200 British, Allied and neutral ships in the Atlantic during this period at the rate of 22 per month.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from the Mersey Shop website (£1.50 p&p UK).

Tracey Emin, In You, 2009. Embroidered cotton. 13 9/16 x 16 1/8 in. (34.5 x 41 cm) © the artist. Photo: Stephen White. Courtesy White Cube.

She might ignite controversy wherever she goes, but Tracey Emin's artwork - particularly her sewn work - has an amazing skill that often seems to be overlooked. I checked out her latest exhibition 'Those who suffer Love' at the White Cube in London , which showed a range of neons, drawings and several sewn pieces.

Even if you don't 'get' what she is trying to say, I think you'd have to try pretty hard to not appreciate the skill involved in sewing what looks like a sketched drawing on a six-foot piece of cloth. You get up close and there are hundreds of small and precise stitches which create something that appears to be quite devil-may-care. One of the tiniest pieces of cloth seemed to hold the most emotion - a sewn 'sketch' of a kneeling figure, with the words 'no, no, no, no' stitched above it. 

I guess a lot of people find her work hard to relate to as it's so personal and she is always wearing her heart on her sleeve. But I think the things she shares seem quite universal; love, lust, loss, pain - they're all things most adults have experienced. I don't think you have to try too hard to find these emotions in her work either - what you see is more or less what you get. It's explicit (sometimes in both senses of the word!), simple, sometimes ugly and sometimes beautiful.

I'm biased of course because as you will see from one of my previous posts, I am really into her anyway. But if you're in London in the next few days (it finishes on Sunday 5 July) I say go, give it a try and make up your own mind, rather than listening to the critics!

We'll be looking at the rich variety of work produced by well-known and lesser known female artists in our forthcoming exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery; 'The Rise of Women Artists'. You can see it from 23 October 2009 - 14 March 2010.

Hello there

We've had some really good news - the International Slavery Museum has been shortlisted for a National Lottery Good Causes award under the Best Heritage Project category. If you are a regular reader of my blog or indeed this is your first time, we need your vote to make it into the final. Votes can be made online by visiting the National Lottery Good Causes website or by telephone on 0844 686 6957 (calls costs 5p from BT land lines and as they say on TV don't forget to ask an adult or whoever pays the bills!!).  Voting ends Friday 10 July. Every vote counts so we really do appreciate your support. I realise that blog readers are located around the globe (as well as my dear old Yorkshire) so please tell friends, family members and colleagues.

For the International Slavery Museum team it is not just about the financial award alone though, it is about raising awareness of the issues which the museum challenges and causes that we champion. In my last blog post I explained my despair at the success of a political party in the European elections which spreads disinformation in an attempt at being seen as a legitimate alternative on the political landscape. In recent weeks I have also been reminded of the daily incidents in the UK of a racist nature such as the racist attack reported by the Liverpool Daily Post under the headline African men assaulted in Liverpool race hate attack and the disgraceful behaviour towards members of the Romanian community in Northern Ireland.

So voting for the International Slavery Museum is not just a vote for a museum which is visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors; which has a successful community exhibition programme; incredibly dedicated local volunteers or even because we have one of the most extensive collections in the world of transatlantic slavery related objects. However important they are it is also about actively challenging racists and racial discrimination; people trafficking and various other human rights abuses which unfortunately live with us today. So please, spend a couple of minutes to vote.

Bye for now.