And Welcome Megan!

Tags

Collections, Museum, News

I am the new Wessex Museums Collections Manager which involves working with Poole, Dorset County and Wiltshire museums whilst being based at Salisbury Museum!

I studied History and Museum Studies at university whilst also volunteering and interning for the National Trust for Scotland and various museums. My background is mainly in collections but I have also worked in conservation, and heritage management. This led me to moving to Salisbury a couple of years ago to work for English Heritage and manage the site up at Old Sarum. This role made me very interested in the history of Salisbury so I’m delighted to be amongst the collections at Salisbury Museum!

My role at Salisbury Museum will involve helping to organise the new store (at the Old Sarum Industrial Park), sorting out loans for exhibitions, and managing the many collections projects – amongst many other things. Please do pop along to my office (down from the Computer room) if you ever need any assistance with the collections, or just for a chat about your projects. I have enjoyed learning about several of the projects so far and would like to hear about all of them so that I can help out whenever needed!

Sue will Look Again..

Tags

Collections, Costume, Fundraising, Museum, News

One of a nationally important collection of agricultural smocks in our costume store

Great news – we have been successful in our application for a Costume Society Museum Placement Award which means that university student placement Sue Martin will be working on the Look Again project part time over the summer, working closely with the Arts Society volunteers.

The Salisbury Museum holds a nationally significant collection of costume and textiles which contains around 5,000 items. For the last two years, a group of 14 Arts Society volunteers (in four groups) have been working through the items in storage to re-catalogue the collection.

In December 2017, the museum was awarded a grant from the Museums Association Esmee Fairbairn Collections Fund for a project, headed up by our own Katy England: Look Again: Discovering Centuries of Fashion, which aims to work with the local community, particularly young people (11-18) to reinterpret and redisplay the costume collection so it appeals to a wider audience.

The Arts Society volunteers are rediscovering many forgotten gems in the collection and will be sharing these with the young people as part of the Look Again project.

Sue will work with each group of Arts Society Volunteers to select and research items to be proposed to the young people working on Look Again.

This project will allow a greater selection of items from the collection to be offered for display in the new galleries. The current Art Society volunteers will be supported to research the items which will result in the artefacts themselves being presented to the young people in a more coordinated and understandable way. The items selected will be shown to the local community through the Look Again project, for example through social media channels.

Sue’s lifelong interest in textiles means she has been involved in the creation of woven, knitted and printed fabrics, but  never worked with historical garments. She is particularly interested in the use of traditional fabrics and construction in historical dresses and accessories, but also interested in how costume collections can reach a wider audience.

 

Take a Fresh Look at Our Cafe

Tags

Museum, News

Amanda and Kevin Daley have taken over the café franchise at Salisbury Museum and we can look forward to new opening times and new goodies!

The cakes looked up to standard when this blogger visited today. Why not drop by and give it a try?

Well Done All Concerned!

Tags

Museum, News, Terry Pratchett

 

Amongst the 2018 winners were:

Temporary or Touring Exhibition Award: The Salisbury Museum, Terry Pratchett: His World

The Salisbury Museum’s Wiltshire Finds Liaison Officer Richard Henry (Curator of the exhibition) together with colleagues and friends, enjoyed a triumphant evening in London last week at the Museums and Heritage Awards ceremony. Nominated in one of the categories for 2018, they came out winners. “It was a fabulous evening” said one colleague on return, and indeed it was.

Regarded as the Oscars of the museums and heritage industry, the Awards ceremony is attended by hundreds of sector professionals who join to celebrate the incredible achievements and groundbreaking projects of the past 12 months.

The Awards are judged by a panel of sector experts including: Maggie Appleton MBE, Chief Executive Officer, Royal Air Force Museum; Stephen Duncan, Director of Commercial and Tourism, Historic Environment Scotland; Bernard Donoghue, Director, ALVA; Diane Lees CBE, Director General, Imperial War Museums; Dr Matthew Tanner MBE, Chief Executive of the SS Great Britain Trust and Sam Mullins, Director, London Transport Museum.

The winners and runners-up in each of the hard-fought categories were announced by Reverend Richard Coles  at the Historic State Rooms of 8 Northumberland Avenue in central London.

Well done all concerned.

 

The Wedding!

Tags

BBC Wilts, Cathedral Close, Museum, News, Royal Wedding

Salisbury Cathedral is hosting the  ‘BBC Wiltshire Royal Wedding Party at Salisbury Cathedral’ from 9am to 4pm on Saturday 19 May.  The event is free, open to all, and will be outside on the West Lawn. The wedding will be shown live on a 50ft screen.   There will be family friendly activities & music from 9am – 12noon – the wedding from 12 – 1pm – and then more family friendly activities & music from 1- 4pm.

Salisbury Museum will be involved!   There will be a museum tent with displays and  games.  Many thanks to the staff and Volunteers who will be there to make it happen. BBC Wiltshire are hoping to have CBBC there, possible characters, and a blue screen.    They will also have Points West/South Today broadcasting and their radio show will come live from the event.   They also expect further media coverage.

Lets hope the sun shines for the happy couple, and the people of Salisbury. Enjoy!

 

One Hundred Years On…

Tags

News, Salisbury

 

A statue of suffragist Dame Millicent Fawcett (see previous weeks’ posts) will be unveiled today in Parliament Square, London. Hers is the first statue of a woman in that place, and it joins those of Sir Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Gladstone, Disraeli and others.

Go here for more details.

Exhibition Briefings

Tags

Museum, News, Volunteering

Volunteer Event

Exhibition Briefings with the Director, Adrian Green, for the Henry Lamb: Out of the Shadows Exhibition will take place on:

Tuesday 1 May at 10.30am and

Thursday 3 May at 2.30pm

in the Lecture Hall.  No need to book.

Hoards from Wiltshire

Tags

Archaeology, Collections, FLO, Museum, News, Volunteers

 

Richard Henry – Finds Liaison Officer for Wiltshire

 

 Special Volunteer Event

On Wednesday 25 April (10.30am – noon), Richard will be presenting our next Collections in Focus Lecture: Hoards from Wiltshire, prior to our forthcoming exhibition: Hoards: A Hidden History of Ancient Britain (13 October).

If you need any more information, please contact Bridget, otherwise, please just turn up on the day. Tea, coffee and cake included.

Shortlisted for an Award!

Tags

DiscWorld, Museum, News, Terry Pratchett

Richard Henry, Curator of the Terry Pratchett:HIsWorld exhibition, tells us…

Terry Pratchett: HisWorld ran from the 16 September 2017 to 14 January 2018 and we are thrilled that the exhibition has been shortlisted for the Temporary Exhibition of the Year Award. It is the first time the museum has been shortlisted for the Museum and Heritage awards and highlights just what a special exhibition HisWorld was. The museum was visited by 21,067 people who came from all over the world, one visitor quit her job in Melbourne to ensure that she could visit HisWorld and meet Paul Kidby. HisWorld was even considered the perfect location for a marriage proposal and it is still my favourite photograph from the exhibition.

To celebrate the shortlisting Rob Wilkins has generously loaned the chavant and bronze busts of Sir Terry sculpted by Paul Kidby. They are on display in the History of Salisbury Gallery.

The Museum and Heritage award winners will be announced on the 16^th May in London.

Congratulations to Richard and to all concerned.

Goliath

Tags

Museum, News, Salisbury

 

 

It was worth the wait….