The V&A is an utterly gorgeous museum. There's such a wide range of stuff - renaissance sculpture, Victorian architecture and loads of modern art. As befits a museum of fantastic design, the whole feel is that of a design student's scrapbook made 3D.
What really interested me about today was going to see the conservation labs and talking to the scientists who work with the V&A. (We also got to see the Surrealism exhibition being dismantled, which was awesome).
Everything will decay over time, organic materials more quickly than inorganic materials. Interestingly, many modern synthetic materials decay fastest of all. Sandra Smith, head of conservation, talked about the problems in conserving modern materials designed to be biodegradable, something that had never occurred to me.
Every decision about conservation has to be VERY carefully researched before anything can be done. The last thing you want to do is to damage the very object you're trying to protect (a lot of modern conservation work involves removing varnishes and over-painting done as part of failed conservation work in the past). Forensic analysis is also often used to determine the age of objects and where they originated from.
Insects are also a much bigger problem than I had ever realised: people kept talking about pest traps and the dangers that feathers and bed bugs can pose to objects.
I think working down in the labs would be a lot of fun and great experience (labs!).
The BM tomorrow.
Thursday, 26 July 2007
Wednesday, 25 July 2007
Day #3: The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
The Petrie is a fantastic hidden gem, simply two rooms at the back of the UCL Science Library stuffed to the brim with Egyptian objects. There isn't much in the way of information available, and all in all the place has the feel of an old Victorian curiosities collection.
That's actually what it is. William Petrie collected and organised the objects in the collection during the Victorian era. He was the first ever professor of Egyptian Archeology, aided in his quest by Emilia Edwards - an amazing Egypt nut who founded the Edwards chair for archaeology at UCL.
Bizarrely, Petrie's head is preserved in a pickle jar in London. He donated his skull to medical research, but he died abroad during the war and it had to be preserved (flesh and all) to be shipped back. It has apparently remained in this state ever since. This sparked a really interesting discussion with Mads (the museum manager and really interesting pot maniac leading the day) about whether the display of human remains can be justified.
A new museum and location for the Petrie is currently being planned, with more space, more information and more stuff for school groups. It'll certainly render the museum more informative, but I worry that it may loose some of that unique, slightly kooky atmosphere.
The Petrie focuses more on the everyday artifacts (like jewellery) rather than the big statues. It also has material from all periods in Egypt, something which the curator Stephen Quirke deems very important. He spoke for a while about how often context and the idea of continuity in history is utterly overlooked.
We were also able to talk to some of the people involved in current projects at the museum.
Marwa, originally from Egypt, talked about her work with the Hidden Histories project - looking at objects in order to discover where they come from, how they were made, who owned them and many other hidden stories. She also had a lot of interesting things to say about the quality of Egyptology in Egypt itself: as an Egyptian she had to go to Belgium to study the history of her own country, which is more than a little ridiculous.
Two women involved in the conservation of objects also talked to us.
Basically there are two types of conservation: preventative (preventing the objects from being damaged) and active (repairing previous damage or reconstruction). They talked about re-stringing some of the collection's beads in preparation for new exhibitions in the new building, and about re-designing the storage with polythene foam cut around the shape of the objects so that the objects are better protected and so that draws can easily be seen by visitors.
The Petrie looks like a fab place to intern: small and friendly with loads of interesting, hands on stuff to do. The competition for the spaces looks like it'll be fierce, though.
V&A tomorrow.
That's actually what it is. William Petrie collected and organised the objects in the collection during the Victorian era. He was the first ever professor of Egyptian Archeology, aided in his quest by Emilia Edwards - an amazing Egypt nut who founded the Edwards chair for archaeology at UCL.
Bizarrely, Petrie's head is preserved in a pickle jar in London. He donated his skull to medical research, but he died abroad during the war and it had to be preserved (flesh and all) to be shipped back. It has apparently remained in this state ever since. This sparked a really interesting discussion with Mads (the museum manager and really interesting pot maniac leading the day) about whether the display of human remains can be justified.
A new museum and location for the Petrie is currently being planned, with more space, more information and more stuff for school groups. It'll certainly render the museum more informative, but I worry that it may loose some of that unique, slightly kooky atmosphere.
The Petrie focuses more on the everyday artifacts (like jewellery) rather than the big statues. It also has material from all periods in Egypt, something which the curator Stephen Quirke deems very important. He spoke for a while about how often context and the idea of continuity in history is utterly overlooked.
We were also able to talk to some of the people involved in current projects at the museum.
Marwa, originally from Egypt, talked about her work with the Hidden Histories project - looking at objects in order to discover where they come from, how they were made, who owned them and many other hidden stories. She also had a lot of interesting things to say about the quality of Egyptology in Egypt itself: as an Egyptian she had to go to Belgium to study the history of her own country, which is more than a little ridiculous.
Two women involved in the conservation of objects also talked to us.
Basically there are two types of conservation: preventative (preventing the objects from being damaged) and active (repairing previous damage or reconstruction). They talked about re-stringing some of the collection's beads in preparation for new exhibitions in the new building, and about re-designing the storage with polythene foam cut around the shape of the objects so that the objects are better protected and so that draws can easily be seen by visitors.
The Petrie looks like a fab place to intern: small and friendly with loads of interesting, hands on stuff to do. The competition for the spaces looks like it'll be fierce, though.
V&A tomorrow.
Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Day #2: Tate Modern and Tate Britain
The morning at the Tate Modern was very chilled. To start off we have an informal chat with the Young Programme Manager, someone in the Education Department and a Gallery Educator. The internship opportunity is split between the Tate Modern and the Tate Britain, so the differences and similarities between the two are quite important.
We then move up to the current Dali exhibition in the Tate Modern to have a look around and do some group work with the gallery educator. It's a little patronising, but still a lot of fun. I really recommend the Dali exhibition. You have to pay (but not too much) and it runs until 9th September. There are lots of studies for the dream sequence in Alfred Hitchcock's "Spellbound", as well as a video of the sequence itself. The images are really haunting, especially the giant eye dripping over a desolate landscape, and I've been convinced to watch the rest of "Spellbound" at the next available opportunity.
After that we have some lunch (food at the Tates is always brilliant), and then it's time to catch the Tate-to-Tate boat (which a lot of the staff take daily) to the more traditional Tate Britain.
At Tate Britain we first have a more formal talk given by Caroline Collier, head of national initiatives and someone who asks exactly the right questions.
The Tate consists of four galleries serving the country (Britain, Modern, Liverpool and St. Ives) with a mission of increasing public knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of art. The Tate website (www.tate.org) is, apparently, the number one art site worldwide, getting 18.5 million hits a year.
Something really interesting is the fact that all of the Tate buildings are rebuilt, re-used, defunct or derelict buildings. The Tate Britain used to be Millbank prison (apparently when they changed it into the Tate all the prisoners were sent to Australia. This is supposed to be the origin of the term "pom" - Prisoner Of Millbank.), Tate Modern is an old power station, Tate Liverpool and old dock building and Tate St. Ives a former gas station.
One thing that I've really taken away from this talk is the role of place in the display of art - some people argued that the art work is the art work and would mean the same thing and have the same effect whether it was in the Tate or stuck on the side of a London building. I'm not so sure: obviously the work is important and elements of it remain constant, but surely the context and space it is shown in will alter it's effect and meaning. Won't an installation on the tube lend a different meaning to a work than that same installation in a traditional gallery?
This kind of ties into the other Tate Britain talk from Christina Bagatavicius, head of interpretation, about her work on the 1807 room (very interesting links drawn between Blake, radical thinkers and the slave trade). Interpretation is basically the art of deciding what objects to include in an exhibition, how they should be set out and what information should be available about them. So they decide the story that an exhibition tells, the links that are drawn and how everything is presented.
Trawling through all of this archived material to pull out useful information and then presenting it in a way that is understandable sounds fascinating.
I'm not sure the Tate internship is for me (it sounds a tad too much like shadowing), but the Tate itself sounds a lot of fun. I'm going to look into the Raw Canvas scheme, which lets "young people" like me act as mini curators to put together events for other "young people".
Petrie Museum tomorrow.
We then move up to the current Dali exhibition in the Tate Modern to have a look around and do some group work with the gallery educator. It's a little patronising, but still a lot of fun. I really recommend the Dali exhibition. You have to pay (but not too much) and it runs until 9th September. There are lots of studies for the dream sequence in Alfred Hitchcock's "Spellbound", as well as a video of the sequence itself. The images are really haunting, especially the giant eye dripping over a desolate landscape, and I've been convinced to watch the rest of "Spellbound" at the next available opportunity.
After that we have some lunch (food at the Tates is always brilliant), and then it's time to catch the Tate-to-Tate boat (which a lot of the staff take daily) to the more traditional Tate Britain.
At Tate Britain we first have a more formal talk given by Caroline Collier, head of national initiatives and someone who asks exactly the right questions.
The Tate consists of four galleries serving the country (Britain, Modern, Liverpool and St. Ives) with a mission of increasing public knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of art. The Tate website (www.tate.org) is, apparently, the number one art site worldwide, getting 18.5 million hits a year.
Something really interesting is the fact that all of the Tate buildings are rebuilt, re-used, defunct or derelict buildings. The Tate Britain used to be Millbank prison (apparently when they changed it into the Tate all the prisoners were sent to Australia. This is supposed to be the origin of the term "pom" - Prisoner Of Millbank.), Tate Modern is an old power station, Tate Liverpool and old dock building and Tate St. Ives a former gas station.
One thing that I've really taken away from this talk is the role of place in the display of art - some people argued that the art work is the art work and would mean the same thing and have the same effect whether it was in the Tate or stuck on the side of a London building. I'm not so sure: obviously the work is important and elements of it remain constant, but surely the context and space it is shown in will alter it's effect and meaning. Won't an installation on the tube lend a different meaning to a work than that same installation in a traditional gallery?
This kind of ties into the other Tate Britain talk from Christina Bagatavicius, head of interpretation, about her work on the 1807 room (very interesting links drawn between Blake, radical thinkers and the slave trade). Interpretation is basically the art of deciding what objects to include in an exhibition, how they should be set out and what information should be available about them. So they decide the story that an exhibition tells, the links that are drawn and how everything is presented.
Trawling through all of this archived material to pull out useful information and then presenting it in a way that is understandable sounds fascinating.
I'm not sure the Tate internship is for me (it sounds a tad too much like shadowing), but the Tate itself sounds a lot of fun. I'm going to look into the Raw Canvas scheme, which lets "young people" like me act as mini curators to put together events for other "young people".
Petrie Museum tomorrow.
Monday, 23 July 2007
Day #1: The National Portrait Gallery
The first day and we all arrive at the National Portrait Gallery (after a brief visit to the adjacent National Gallery for those of us more directionally challenged). Nervous but excited, we are directed into one of the many hidden rooms that seem to hide behind every gallery. We find ourselves in a little basement studio, the walls lined with boxes of art supplies and dressing-up clothes. Tea and biscuits are in the back.
All is well.
Six people speak to us before lunch. They say some very interesting things:
Liz Smith: Head of Learning and Access
First to speak, Liz attempts to give an idea of what the National Portrait Gallery is all about (portraiture plays a big role).
One thing that sets the NPG apart from many other Galleries is it's very active acquisitions approach. A lot of time and effort is put into commissioning new portraits to be made of "important" people, and more modern works are also being encouraged.
Learning and Access involves organising events for school groups, special needs students and hospital schools, as well as adult courses. There are one hell of a lot of courses and events that go on throughout the year - I really suggest checking out the NPG's website or getting your hands on some leaflets to find out more. If you're 14 to 21 (both "young" and a "person") you can even take part in some activities completely free of charge (yay!).
Robin Francis: Head of Archive and Library
Now, I'm a bit of a library nut, so you'll have to forgive me if I wax a tad too lyrical. The Heinz (no relation to beans) Archive and Library is a bit of a hidden gem, as are most of the libraries and reading rooms associated with museums. Getting only 2000 of the gallery's 1.6 million visitors per year, the public study room is really an underused resource. That said, most of the people who use it are undertaking some pretty serious research into books, new exhibitions and the like - helping them find what they need must be a learning experience in itself.
There are eleven staff in the department, who are aided by quite a few volunteers. They acquire about 500 new books a year and have a budget of only £700 a year for new prints and drawings (although they already have 80,000 prints and drawings, only 20,000 of which have been catalogued).
The library at the NPG isn't really a library of books, it's a visual research tool. It's essentially a library of anything that could possibly be referred to as a portrait.
They take auction house catalogues apart, mount the pictures of portraits on card and file them. Any pictures of portraits that are sent to them are immediately filed. They even dismantle duplicate books in order to file the pictures they contain into this vast visual repository.
They process about 15,000 images a year, and here's the kicker: it's all completely manual. A lot of the museum's collections are catalogued in a computerised database, but technical and copyright restrictions mean that this visual library is only searchable physically, only in one place on the whole planet can you look through it's contents to find the image that you want.
It must be enormous.
Denise Ellitson: Marketing Manager
The marketing department of the NPG has two main tasks: Communications (promoting the gallery) and Development (raising money). The gallery only gets about half of what it needs to actually function from the government, the rest comes from sponsorship, lottery-like grants and rich individual contributors.
Denise says herself that marketing is marketing, no matter where you do it, so I'm not going to go into too much detail here about that. There are plenty of good marketing (and design) blogs out there if you do want to find out more.
One very interesting idea that comes out is that the NPG is seen my many as "schizophrenic in a good way". It is stuffed to the brim with old, austere, historical portraits but then has loads of modern exhibitions (Four Corners, Face of Fashion) and oodles of photography. It really is hard to place it into one definite category.
Eddie Otchere: Inspire Fellow
Eddie is currently working as assistant to the contemporary curator, and part of his job is to commission portraits and negotiate with potential sitters to work out who will paint them.
Before becoming an Inspire Fellow (an Arts Council initiative to employ people who wouldn't normally follow a career in museums and galleries to bring in new ideas) Eddie worked as a graffiti street art curator, doing guerrilla shows. Sounds like a fun job.
The latest thing he's been involved with is "Devotional" by Sonia Boyce. It's kind of a conceptual room with the names of influential black songstresses printed on the walls, surrounded by bubbles of blue colouring pencil. He picked out images from the museum's existing collection to illustrate it.
The most striking idea from his talk is his claim that he can't imagine anyone having just one career anymore. I think he might be right. There are so many interesting things in the world, and it's so much easier to connect to people and ideas, it seems like a waste not to explore every interest in as much detail as possible.
Claire Zammit: Head of Visitor Services and Security
Claire runs the public face of the gallery: the VSAs (Visitor Services Assistants) on the gallery floor, ticket sales, distributing marketing material, looking after school groups. This is basically the part of a museum that people are most familiar with, and seems like a good way to get a feel for working in museums. (I'm planning to look into a Saturday job as a VSA, actually...)
Rachel Moss: Young People's Programmes Manager
"Young People" is a phrase I detest with the fire of a thousand suns, but Rachel is lovely and actually has some really interesting ideas.
I'm not sure that events at the National Portrait Gallery are really up there on the list of things that young homeless people and young offenders really need, but the heart is clearly in the right place.
The content of a placement at the NPG is tempting: researching and designing a guide for the pop art exhibition in October, doing a podcast/audio guide thing about a favourite portrait, and the promise that we can build into the placement the things we're interested in (read: as much time as possible down in that library).
There's also the opportunity for a two day practical photography course, which I'm really interested in. After lunch we had a taster of what that would be like, and it was pretty amazing. Half the group went out and took photographs of London, and my half had a tour of some of the important 18th/19th century portraits and then wend downstairs and used some very imposing, giant cameras to take black and white pictures of ourselves wearing silly fancy-dress. (Hopefully I'll soon have a link to some scans).
Both a lot of fun and a perfect example of the NPG's lovable schizophrenia.
Tate Modern and Tate Britain tomorrow.
All is well.
Six people speak to us before lunch. They say some very interesting things:
Liz Smith: Head of Learning and Access
First to speak, Liz attempts to give an idea of what the National Portrait Gallery is all about (portraiture plays a big role).
One thing that sets the NPG apart from many other Galleries is it's very active acquisitions approach. A lot of time and effort is put into commissioning new portraits to be made of "important" people, and more modern works are also being encouraged.
Learning and Access involves organising events for school groups, special needs students and hospital schools, as well as adult courses. There are one hell of a lot of courses and events that go on throughout the year - I really suggest checking out the NPG's website or getting your hands on some leaflets to find out more. If you're 14 to 21 (both "young" and a "person") you can even take part in some activities completely free of charge (yay!).
Robin Francis: Head of Archive and Library
Now, I'm a bit of a library nut, so you'll have to forgive me if I wax a tad too lyrical. The Heinz (no relation to beans) Archive and Library is a bit of a hidden gem, as are most of the libraries and reading rooms associated with museums. Getting only 2000 of the gallery's 1.6 million visitors per year, the public study room is really an underused resource. That said, most of the people who use it are undertaking some pretty serious research into books, new exhibitions and the like - helping them find what they need must be a learning experience in itself.
There are eleven staff in the department, who are aided by quite a few volunteers. They acquire about 500 new books a year and have a budget of only £700 a year for new prints and drawings (although they already have 80,000 prints and drawings, only 20,000 of which have been catalogued).
The library at the NPG isn't really a library of books, it's a visual research tool. It's essentially a library of anything that could possibly be referred to as a portrait.
They take auction house catalogues apart, mount the pictures of portraits on card and file them. Any pictures of portraits that are sent to them are immediately filed. They even dismantle duplicate books in order to file the pictures they contain into this vast visual repository.
They process about 15,000 images a year, and here's the kicker: it's all completely manual. A lot of the museum's collections are catalogued in a computerised database, but technical and copyright restrictions mean that this visual library is only searchable physically, only in one place on the whole planet can you look through it's contents to find the image that you want.
It must be enormous.
Denise Ellitson: Marketing Manager
The marketing department of the NPG has two main tasks: Communications (promoting the gallery) and Development (raising money). The gallery only gets about half of what it needs to actually function from the government, the rest comes from sponsorship, lottery-like grants and rich individual contributors.
Denise says herself that marketing is marketing, no matter where you do it, so I'm not going to go into too much detail here about that. There are plenty of good marketing (and design) blogs out there if you do want to find out more.
One very interesting idea that comes out is that the NPG is seen my many as "schizophrenic in a good way". It is stuffed to the brim with old, austere, historical portraits but then has loads of modern exhibitions (Four Corners, Face of Fashion) and oodles of photography. It really is hard to place it into one definite category.
Eddie Otchere: Inspire Fellow
Eddie is currently working as assistant to the contemporary curator, and part of his job is to commission portraits and negotiate with potential sitters to work out who will paint them.
Before becoming an Inspire Fellow (an Arts Council initiative to employ people who wouldn't normally follow a career in museums and galleries to bring in new ideas) Eddie worked as a graffiti street art curator, doing guerrilla shows. Sounds like a fun job.
The latest thing he's been involved with is "Devotional" by Sonia Boyce. It's kind of a conceptual room with the names of influential black songstresses printed on the walls, surrounded by bubbles of blue colouring pencil. He picked out images from the museum's existing collection to illustrate it.
The most striking idea from his talk is his claim that he can't imagine anyone having just one career anymore. I think he might be right. There are so many interesting things in the world, and it's so much easier to connect to people and ideas, it seems like a waste not to explore every interest in as much detail as possible.
Claire Zammit: Head of Visitor Services and Security
Claire runs the public face of the gallery: the VSAs (Visitor Services Assistants) on the gallery floor, ticket sales, distributing marketing material, looking after school groups. This is basically the part of a museum that people are most familiar with, and seems like a good way to get a feel for working in museums. (I'm planning to look into a Saturday job as a VSA, actually...)
Rachel Moss: Young People's Programmes Manager
"Young People" is a phrase I detest with the fire of a thousand suns, but Rachel is lovely and actually has some really interesting ideas.
I'm not sure that events at the National Portrait Gallery are really up there on the list of things that young homeless people and young offenders really need, but the heart is clearly in the right place.
The content of a placement at the NPG is tempting: researching and designing a guide for the pop art exhibition in October, doing a podcast/audio guide thing about a favourite portrait, and the promise that we can build into the placement the things we're interested in (read: as much time as possible down in that library).
There's also the opportunity for a two day practical photography course, which I'm really interested in. After lunch we had a taster of what that would be like, and it was pretty amazing. Half the group went out and took photographs of London, and my half had a tour of some of the important 18th/19th century portraits and then wend downstairs and used some very imposing, giant cameras to take black and white pictures of ourselves wearing silly fancy-dress. (Hopefully I'll soon have a link to some scans).
Both a lot of fun and a perfect example of the NPG's lovable schizophrenia.
Tate Modern and Tate Britain tomorrow.
And so it begins...
Welcome to Curators and Curiosities!
This summer I am lucky enough to be taking part in the YGMG3 programme, run from the British Museum, which gives kids my age (17 or thereabouts) the chance to do a two-week internship in one of several London museums.
Here's the thing: I know nothing about museums. Zip. Nada. What I know about museums could be written in capital letters on the back of a postage stamp, leaving plenty of room for my name and address.
That's where this blog comes in. I'm going to use this internship (and the open days/training days that precede it) to learn more about how museums work, and then I'm going to try and write about it.
Hopefully I'll learn something. You might even find something interesting too.
Today is day#1: an open day at the National Portrait Gallery.
Wish me luck!
This summer I am lucky enough to be taking part in the YGMG3 programme, run from the British Museum, which gives kids my age (17 or thereabouts) the chance to do a two-week internship in one of several London museums.
Here's the thing: I know nothing about museums. Zip. Nada. What I know about museums could be written in capital letters on the back of a postage stamp, leaving plenty of room for my name and address.
That's where this blog comes in. I'm going to use this internship (and the open days/training days that precede it) to learn more about how museums work, and then I'm going to try and write about it.
Hopefully I'll learn something. You might even find something interesting too.
Today is day#1: an open day at the National Portrait Gallery.
Wish me luck!
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