National Museums Liverpool Blog - Thursday, October 14, 2010

Are you bored of chasing Professor Plum or have you had to buy yourself out of jail one too many times?

If you have maybe you’ll enjoy playing a Banyan Wari Game this Saturday 16 October at the International Slavery Museum as part of the Black History Month programme.

Between 11.30 - 12.30 pm and 1.30 – 2.30pm visitors can play an ancient and modern number, thinking, and strategy game. Through forced migration, enslaved Africans took Wari to the Americas. It is played in the USA and some Caribbean countries especially Antigua, Barbuda and Barbados.

If you want to know more come along and learn how to play Wari. To book your free place please e-mail learning@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk or call 0151 478 4543

The Banyan Wari Game workshop is part of the Black History Month programme

Here is our World Museum fact for the day in our daily countdown to all the 150th birthday celebrations happening this weekend:

Did you know... that the museum was bombed during World War II? It happened on 3 May 1941 and you can see the extent of the damage in the before and after images below.

Before and after the museum was bombed.

The new work by Bob and Roberta Smith

Another new art work has been released this week as part of the Save the Arts campaign. We have been following the campaign on our blog over the last few weeks in the run up to the announcement of cuts later this month. This latest work is by British artist, Bob and Roberta Smith (aka Patrick Brill).

As you can see, the work shows a sign on an art gallery door with the following text:

ART GALLERY CLOSED
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
ADMISSION £17.50

Bob and Roberta Smith, currently lives and works in London. He is known for artwork that incorporates text - often commenting on art, politics, or popular culture - in his unique, brightly coloured lettering style on banners and discarded boards of wood. He became a Tate Trustee in 2009.

Two challenging new works by artist Mark Titchner have also been unveiled this week across two UK cities as part of the campaign. The Turner Prize nominated artist’s work uses direct language in strong political graphic forms. His lead artwork demands ‘DON’T LET THEM DESTROY ANOTHER BRITISH INDUSTRY!’ tying the debate on cuts to the arts to other vital large-scale industries currently and previously under threat. The striking graphic works will be visible on a quarter of all available official city poster sites across Birmingham from 12 October to 26 October 2010.

You can support the campaign by signing the online petition on the Save the Arts website.

Artist Steve Proudfoot discusses his work in exhibition

Liverpool-artist Steve Proudfoot launched a programme of artist talks in the John Moores Painting Prize exhibition today.

Talking about his popular painting 'The Party' Steve told his audience that a main source of inspiration was the 60’s artist Gerhard Richter. He also discussed how he conceived and created the painting, as well as giving an idea of his career to date.

The audience were fascinated to learn that this was the first time Steve had entered the competition. John Moores project manager, Angela Samata, revealed more about how the selection process works and even reminisced on the discussion the judges had over ‘The Party’ and how they came to a unanimous decision to include it in the exhibition.

More artist talks are programmed for the run of the exhibition. Much like the exhibition itself the talks will reveal the versatility of painting and the varied approaches artists take creating their work:

Nicholas Middleton: 'Protest, 1st April 2009' Tuesday 9 November, 1pm

Sigrid Holmswood: 'Butchering a Pig' Tuesday, 16 November, 1pm

Tim Ellis: 'United in Different Guises XXXXIII' Friday 3 December, 1pm

Jason Thompson: 'Refractions (Robert Hooke)' Monday 6 December, 1pm

A study for A Summer Night

A new display at the Walker Art Gallery will help those of us mourning the passing of the summer (what we had of it), cope with the transition.

'A study for A Summer Night', acquired for the gallery with assistance from the Art Fund charity, has gone on display alongside an accompanying preparatory watercolour and the final oil painting, both from the gallery’s permanent collection.

Seen together for the first time the trio reveal Moore made several changes to the composition, but that the vivid colours remained constant: primrose yellow and nocturnal blue. The lazy summer evening scene is a typical example of the Aesthetic movement, in which artists would strive to combine colour and mood.

The drawing was the earliest in the series (1884-6), followed by the watercolour (1890) with the final oil finished and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1890. Moore laid down the ideas in the initial sketch and used the watercolour to mark up a grid so that he could size up the study to oil painting dimensions. His dedication was such that he worked solidly on the painting for around three years.

It was his last major work before his death in 1893.

Our 150th birthday weekend is drawing closer... here is our World Museum fact for the day in our daily countdown to all the celebrations:

Did you know... that in 1867 a large number of collection items were handed over to the museum by the collector Joseph Mayer. This haul of treasures included the 'Kingston Brooch' which dates back to Anglo-Saxon times. This item is currently on display in the Ancient World area of the museum.

The Kingston Brooch

'Perseus and Andromeda' by Frederic Leighton, 1891 - An example of the type of work Howard Jacobson will talk about in the programme

This morning I saw a familiar face on the TV as I ate my soggy cereal.

Last night Howard Jacobson had won the Man Booker Prize for his novel 'The Finkler Question' and there he was on BBC Breakfast giving his acceptance speech.

Only a few months ago I was supervising filming at the Lady Lever Art Gallery and the Walker Art Gallery where he was filming a documentary for Channel 4.

Coincidentally this programme will be on this Sunday at 7pm. Mr Jacobson was speaking about the way British artists depict sex and desire, and argues that the most compelling expression is to be found, perhaps unexpectedly, in the art of the Victorians.

I was looking forward to watching Sunday’s programme and turning to my housemate to boast I’d met that man on the telly – it seems my opportunity has come quicker than expected.

The fab Plantastic! exhibition at World Museum enthralled visitors until 5 September and during this time visitors had the chance to populate our very own Plantastic! garden on Flickr with photos of all the weird and wonderful wildlife in and around Liverpool. All entrants were in with a chance of winning a month's supply of tasty organic veg bags from Windmill Organic of Smithdown Road, and now the lucky winner has been chosen.

We had a dazzling range of interesting photos but after much deliberation the team at World Museum chose Snails Trails by Cyran Dorman, which you can see below.

Snails Trails © Cyran Dorman

Cyran's entry caught the team's eye because they loved the way the characteristic snail shape was echoed in the decoration on the wall, and the contrast of the dark shell and body with the atmospherically-lit cream whirls and swirls which the snail appears to approach with some trepidation - it could alternatively be titled 'Snail's Trials'! View the photo here.

Keep an eye on liverpoolmuseums.org.uk as well as on Twitter and Facebook because there are always exciting new competitions coming up!

We are counting down to the World Museum's 150th birthday celebrations which are happening this weekend on 16 and 17 October. Each day we'll be giving you a fascinating fact from the 150 year history of the museum in our countdown to the big day!

World Museum fact for the day:

Did you know...that on 8 March 1853 the museum opened for the first time on Slater Street in Liverpool. It was then called the 'Derby Museum of the Borough of Liverpool' in honour of the Earl of Derby’s bequest of over 20,000 natural history specimens.

The museum later moved and was re-opened for the first time on William Brown Street in 1860 and this is the anniversary we are celebrating this year!

Slater Street, the location where the museum first openend.

Are you red or are you blue? This is one of the big questions we ask in our football immersive experience Kicking and Screaming in the new Museum of Liverpool. The film celebrates and explores the city’s passion for football and takes the visitor on a journey through all the key moments that have shaped it.

A scene being filmed outside the Sandon pub in Anfield, for the football immersive in the new Museum of Liverpool

For the past few weeks production company Centre Screen have been out and about in Liverpool with museum curators and Creative Director Roy Boulter, filming some of the big scenes.

Joining them have been football mad TJ, a Liverpool fan, and Charlie, an Everton fan. They appear throughout the film and help reveal some of the momentous events that took place in the city’s football history.

Last week, the boys stepped back in time to film scenes at the Sandon Hotel in Anfield, where in 1892 a meeting took place that changed football in Liverpool forever.

Museum of Liverpool curator Paul Gallagher explains:

“As many reds and blues know, in the early 1890s Everton Football Club used to play their games at Anfield. On 12 March 1892, a committee meeting took place in the upstairs room of the Sandon Hotel - owned by club president John Houlding - that changed everything. Trouble had been brewing for some time and Houlding clashed with the committee led by George Mahon over the direction the club was heading in, in particular the proposed increase in ground rental. Mahon and most of the committee left to find a new ground for Everton and Houlding set up his own club, Liverpool Football Club.

“To capture the period when the meeting took place, the filming for this historic event was shot in the style of a silent movie. The actors had to express emotion and communicate through their facial expressions and gestures, so you can imagine the animation that was required to portray the heated discussion, and they certainly rose to the challenge!”.

The experience has really caught everyone’s imagination and we have received tremendous support from both football clubs, gaining unprecedented access to the stadiums, their archives and collections. In addition, Liverpool Football Club Museum and The Everton Collection have both have kindly lent us an array of memorabilia to use during the production, in order to make history come to life for the visitors to the Museum of Liverpool, and lead them to answer the question “Are you red or are you blue?”

Keep checking back to keep updated on filming progress.