National Museums Liverpool Blog - Friday, May 13, 2011

Ian Boland with Paul Trevor's photo of him and his friend in the kids' den

Over 30 years later you are invited to the Walker Art Gallery to see an exhibition featuring photographs of your old childhood friends and haunts taken by that stranger from London – who in the intervening years has become a successful photographer. Your name, your photograph and pictures of your friends are adorning the walls where great works of art, from Old Masters to the contemporary stars of the John Moores competition have previously hung.

It must be quite a lot to take in.

This is what happened to Ian Boland yesterday, when he was one of the first people to see Paul Trevor’s Look11 exhibition at the Walker, Like you’ve never been away. Ian was a key factor in kickstarting the idea for the exhibition, as he got in touch with Paul Trevor a few years ago to ask what had happened to his photographs from his time in Liverpool. Some of the photographs had been published in the book 'Survival Programmes' but most of them had never been seen by the public.

The two exchanged many emails and slowly started identifying the people in Paul’s pictures. This grew into the exhibition and a larger – and still ongoing – re-engagement project. Paul has tracked down many of the people by posting his Liverpool 1975 photos on Flickr, then found more through community events in Everton and Granby in summer 2010.

Ian’s part in the process is acknowledged with quotes in the exhibition. You can see Ian and others having a preview of their pictures in the Like you’ve never been away set on Flickr. Do come and see the exhibition yourself, which is open 6.30-10pm tonight for Light Night and continues until 25 September.

A Collector's Eye exhibition catalogue

Alas, the end is near, but Friday's Light Night evening at the Walker is an ideal opportunity to catch the A Collector's Eye: Cranach to Pissarro exhibition before it finishes this Sunday.

And as if that wasn't news enough, the rather excellent exhibition catalogue, featuring all of the exhibition paintings in full-page, glorious technicolour, will be on special offer. It'll be a snip at £5, which considering it was superb value at £9.99 makes this a steal. 

This special offer will be available in our shop from Friday, and also through our online shop. 

Merseyside Maritime Museum won a major award at the 'Oscars' of the museum world last night.

National Museums Liverpool was shortlisted to win two awards at this year's Museum and Heritage Awards for Excellence. These awards celebrate best practice in the world of museums, galleries and heritage visitor attractions. They attract hundreds of entries which battle it out to win one of ten prestigious awards.

The Maritime Museum won in the Classic Award category and Plantastic! was shortlisted in the Temporary or Touring Exhibition category but unfortunately didn't win the top award.

Rachel Mulhearn, director at Merseyside Maritime Museum, said:

"We are thrilled to win this award, which is like an Oscar of the museum sector. The Merseyside Maritime Museum goes from strength to strength and is now welcoming more than one million visits each year. The history of people and the sea is embedded in Liverpool’s heritage and the museum tells the epic narratives in which the city played such a central part."

"Jane" (a Liverpudlian steward) with other crew members onboard the Queen Mary, late 1950s

National Museums Liverpool’s touring exhibition Hello Sailor! Gay life on the ocean wave will make its international debut next week. The exhibition has already been seen by audiences around the UK and now visitors to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Nova Scotia, Canada have the chance to see this fascinating show too.

Hello Sailor! explores the hidden history of gay seafarers from the UK who were onboard passenger and merchant ships between the 1950s and 1980s. During this period, life at sea allowed gay men to be themselves, which stood in stark contrast to the homophobic attitudes back home. The exhibition looks at how the tolerant environment onboard ships encouraged an extraordinary gay culture to develop. The Canadian showing of the exhibition will also give an international, contemporary spin on the subject by exploring the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender seafarers in Canada today.

The exhibition at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Canada is open from 19 May to 27 November 2011. You can still see the original exhibition on the first floor at the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Here's Paul Tyson, our Team Leader at the Aquarium, to tell us about some new arrivals at World Museum...

I'm very pleased that we now have four Atlantic wolf fish, who have come to the World Museum aquarium from the MacDuff Aquarium in Scotland.
 
The Atlantic wolf fish (Anarhichas lupus), also known as the sea wolf, is a marine fish, the largest of the wolf fish family. It has been known to grow to nearly five feet in length. 

I have been keen to bring wolf fish to the aquarium since I started in November. They are extraordinary-looking creatures and I have a bit of a soft spot for them as I have worked with them for 15 years! Feeding time for the wolf fish is fun as these aggressive animals have some serious teeth. However, despite their fearsome appearance Atlantic wolf fish are only a threat to humans when defending themselves out of the water. They also produce a natural antifreeze to keep their blood moving in their cold ocean habitat.

Numbers are declining rapidly due to overfishing and by-catch, making it a Species of Concern for US authorities, and numbers in our own waters are unknown. The health of the wolf fish population is an important indicator for other sea bottom dweller species, such as cod.

If you’ve never seen them before you should come and visit us at the aquarium and take a look!

Norman and his wheels of steel!

As any discerning Liverpool music fan will know, Norman Killon used to be the resident DJ at the legendary Liverpool club, Eric's. We've asked him to share his top ten records with us, which will all no doubt be getting a spin at the Walker Art Gallery this Friday as part of Liverpool Light Night. Norman will provide the soundtrack to the evening, which will also be the opening of our new photography exhibition 'Like you've never been away'. You can see full details of what's on offer at the Walker here...

1. Deaf School – Taxi
This was the biggest and fastest selling single in Probe records. It’s taken from their second LP, Don’t Stop the World,and preceded their sell out concert at the Liverpool Empire. I was co-signature on the contract for the concert and wrote some notes in the programme.

2. The Only Ones – Another Girl, Another Planet
What can you say about this record? It must have the greatest intro and emotional release of any record. Time hasn’t dimmed it's glory.

3. Joe Gibbs  - No Bones For The Dogs
Every week at Probe we would have a delivery of pre-release Jamaican 45 singles. It became an instant favourite of mine and then the Eric’s crowd, in fact in many ways it was the ultimate Eric’s record.

4. Althea and Donna – Uptown Top Ranking
As above. I was playing this for several months before it received a British release. So you could say we paved the way for their only UK chart hit!

5. Flamin’ Groovies – Shake Some Action
Apart from being a magnificent song and performance, my memories of the Groovies are they helped to varnish the counter in Probe the night prior to opening the branch in Button Street. Plus the group coming back to mine after the gig at Eric’s and playing loads of great singles til' the early hours. Deaf School have had the song in their set for over thirty years.

6. The Clash – Complete Control
The greatest of the Punk bands. They played Eric’s twice. The great thing about the Clash is they evolved and had two good songwriters in Joe Strummer and Mick Jones. This a stunning performance and reminds me of their high energy live performances. The Clash were the last great band – controversial!

7. Talking Heads – Psycho Killer
This reminds me of them appearing at Eric’s as support to The Ramones. At this time Love Goes was the only import single by them available, so everything apart from that was new to us. This became an instant classic.

8. The Undertones – Teenage Kicks
The Undertones had a run of absolutely fab singles beginning with this. Still have my original Irish Good Vibrations copy. I remember the Saturday afternoon of the day they played Eric’s, I was having a drink in the Grapes in Mathew street when the door opened and turned to my companion and said "look, Fergal Sharkey" he was immediately followed by the rest of the Undertones.

9. Junior Murvin – Police and Thieves
Another great reggae record produced by Lee Perry and a UK hit. It was also covered by The Clash on their first LP. It always brings back fond memories of my ex-wife Penny.

10. Iggy Pop – The Passenger
Iggy of course had a previous history with the Stooges which influenced the British Punk groups. This came from an LP that was more user friendly. It was then and still is a classic. He appeared at Eric’s and his first number was a 60's cover of Benny Spellmans Fortune Teller, a number that a lot of the Merseybeat groups performed, particularly The Merseybeats.

The three judges take a break.

I’m looking forward to BBC 2 screening Show Me the Monet from this Monday after organising and supervising the marathon filming sessions over a January weekend.

A film crew filled three of our galleries at the rear of the Walker Art Gallery  to film this competition show being screened at 5.15 pm every weekday night from Monday 9 May to Friday 20 May.

In a nutshell it involves artists being grilled about their artworks by three critics – David Lee, Charlotte Mullins and Roy Bolton (pictured left to right). The aim is to be included in an exclusive exhibition at the Royal College of Art, next to London’s Albert Hall.

The show is hosted by Chris Hollins, perhaps better known as a BBC sports presenter and winner of Strictly Come Dancing.

A total of 32 largely unknown but talented artists came to the Walker over the two days. They were first interviewed by Chris before going to the judges with their artworks. After several excruciating minutes of objective criticism the judges gave their verdicts.

Most contestants were philosophical but at least one burst into floods of tears. Ten were successful in getting through to the exhibition.

As I told the critics during a break in filming, this show breaks taboos. Many artists believe passionately that their art should speak for itself.

When we hold the prestigious John Moores exhibition the judges are not even given the artists’ names - the art is judged purely on its merits.

Show Me the Monet also publicises the Walker’s collections. Chris was filmed taking about some of the stunning exhibits including Simone Martini’s Christ Discovered in the Temple and a tiny votive picture painted by a very young Raphael.

Another feature is the artists being interviewed separately in galleries filled with masterpieces.

I went to the private view at the Royal College of Art in March and was impressed by the exhibition of about 30 works. They were still filming - the series starts at the exhibition with Chris describing how it all came together.

Other sequences were shot in galleries in London and Glasgow - most of the exhibited works were for sale.

This was a great experience for all concerned and hopefully none of the artists were too disappointed about not being included. I predict that this will be a big hit and should go to another series.

It gives a totally new slant on TV’s approach to art – I know of no other show where artists face their critics so directly. It blows away the preciousness and mystique that surrounds some art programmes today.

It also allows the viewer to get into the mind of the artist and see how and why they create works.

There are only seven days left before the exhibition A Collector’s Eye: Cranach to Pissarro finishes.

It seems like only last week that Culture Minister Ed Vaizey was giving the opening speech at the private view in February, now there is only a week left before it closes on Saturday 15 May.

If you haven’t seen it yet and want to see works by Rubens, Sisley, Pissarro and Cranach all in the same room head over to the Walker Art Gallery.

There are also opportunities to hear on-gallery talks before it closes. Art historian Julie Robson will be discussing why people collect art on Tuesday 10 May from 1-2pm. On Thursday 12 May from 1-2pm photographer Zoe Richards will be giving advice on how to store your photograph collections for future generations. For both events please collect a free ticket from the Welcome desk or call 0151 478 4788.

Be one of the people who have already enjoyed the work on display in the exhibition

When shopping for footwear, there is nothing more satisfying than getting a new pair of boots. This vintage brown leather pair that I'm wearing today are a particular favourite of mine - you can see them here - a bit Victorian I like to think!

So you can imagine my excitement at being introduced to this fab pair of boots, which will be on display later this month at the Lady Lever Art Gallery. They will be shown as part of 'The Finishing Touch', an exhibition of women's accessories from our collections, dating from 1830-1940.

Ladies boots from the exhibition.

The boots pictured here date from around the end of World War 1 and are very practical but still stylish. Apparently they have a design which imitated men's boots of the time and were pretty hard-wearing. I can't believe how they are in such great condition, despite being so old. The fact that women had started to wear this type of footwear reflected their social situation at the time; women were now going out to work and needed to have footwear that would be suitable for this.

It's certainly shaping up to be an interesting and beautiful exhibition. You'll be able to find out about fashion etiquette and how the place of women in society was reflected through the accessories that they wore. 

It opens on Friday 27 May 2011, but in the meantime you can get a sneak preview of some more of the accessories on our Flickr set here.

Dobby, outside World Museum, with Ryan and Holly Harper, who gave Dobby his name

My name is Dobby. I like salt and vinegar crisps. Nom nom! Anyway, I'm not supposed to talk about crisps I don't think. In fact, I need to tell you something very important. I have come here from a far away land to visit World Museum. Yes, I know! It's very exciting! In our land, we don't have museums or art galleries, so it's a very interesting and strange idea. You have lots of stuff from outside, from all over the world, in your museum. Weird!

I'm a bit scared too, as I've heard there are live animals roaming around. I watched this video, and the lady who works there looks terrified! However, I am a brave blob and intend to slime and groove my way around the museum and find out what all the fuss is about   Don't worry, I'll be on the look  out for strange animals and I can ooze into very small hiding places if I need to.

While, I'm here, I've been told to casually mention that I am the star of a new website just for kids. Yes, I am! Da daaa! It's true. Well, actually, I don't think they wanted me to tell you I'm the star, because my brother and sisters are on the website too. But don't worry about them. They're not as interesting or  green or as cool as me . I just hope they don't read this.     

You can see me (and them) for yourself at: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/kids