The working life of Museum of London

We are looking for slam poets (or wannabe poets) aged 14 – 24 to perform at our Gladiatorial poetry slam, Tuesday 28 September 6.30 – 8.30pm. The best performance of the night will be the lucky winner of £100 and be crowned with a (fake) golden wreath!

Jacob Sam-La Rose poet and director of the London Teenage Poetry Slam, Camden Youth SLAM, Metaroar and the Foundry project will be compere on the night. But before then he will be selecting the best 7 slam performers.

To apply to perform at the slam please send an audio file featuring yourself performing one of your own poems, which can be about anything, along with written transcription by Wednesday 25 August. You will hear from us in early September.

Please send your entries to lsawyer@museumoflondon.org.uk

At the Gladiatorial poetry slam in September poets will have 3 minutes to perform an original poem inspired by the theme ‘Londinium.’ Hopefully you have guessed by now we have a bit of a Roman theme going on. Judges will include poet Ross Sutherland (featured in the Times’s list of Top Ten Literary Stars of 2008 and winner of many slams) and our Senior Curator of Roman Collections.

We have prepared some information to give performers inspiration:

The Romans founded London in around 43 AD. The town that grew up was called Londinium and remained part of the Roman Empire for the next four hundred years.

• More about Londinium
• An archaeological perspective of the ongoing discovery of Roman London
• An overview of the history of Londinium
• Find our more about life in London during the Roman period.

Visits:
You can discover more about life if Roman London in our galleries here at the Museum of London, where we chart the history of Londoners from prehistoric times to today. Find us at 150 London Wall, nearest tubes St Pauls or Barbican.

The Guildhall Art Gallery houses the remains of London’s Roman amphitheatre, a fascinating insight into the tastes and leisure time of Roman Londoners.

There are a number of Roman sites in London where evidence can be seen above ground.
Books:
Roman London –by Jenny Hall (our very own Senior Curator of Roman Collections)
Londinium, London in the Roman Empire –by John Morris

Love poetry but writing rather than speaking more your thing? No problem, we also have a written poetry competition – read our previous blog entry to find out more about it.  Loads of great prizes! Deadline is also 25th August.

This is part of our Stories of the World, one of the major projects at the heart of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. The slam event will be recorded and poems from the event may feature in our exhibition in 2012.

If you are aged 14 – 24 (or know anyone who is) and have a way with words, we’ve got the perfect competition for you. In addition there are some great prizes including a digital e-book reader and vouchers to get you motivated.

More about the competition and how to enter…

If you have read any of our previous posts about the Stories of the World project you’ll know we are doing lots of creative work with young people to explore the theme of place. We are focussing on the legacy and influence of the Romans. One of these projects, Speak to Me, looks specifically at language – from exploring how Latin contributed to the development of Roman London, to Latin’s influence on language today.

The poetry brief is: ‘Latin isn’t dead. Prove it by writing a poem inspired by a Latin word or phrase.’

All entries must be original and unpublished. Please send your poem to my colleague Lucy Sawyer, Youth Programme Assistant, lsawyer@museumoflondon.org.uk. Please include your name, age and full contact details with your entry. One poem per entrant, maximum 400 words.

The closing date is 25 August. Entry is free.

Junction, our youth panel, is hosting a Gladiatorial poetry slam Tuesday 28 September 6.30 – 8.30pm here at the Museum. Winners of this poetry competition will be announced at this event (although they will be contacted in advance), and read out either by the entrant or our compere, Jacob Sam La Rose. In addition the evening will include performances by up and coming young London slam poets. The event is free and open to all.

Alice, right and Richelle, left recording their podcasts in the Roman gallery

One of the important parts of Museum of London’s Stories of the World project is our new youth panel, called Junction, which you can read more about here. Junction panellists have the opportunity to take part in a number of training sessions, such as events planning and media for example. The skills gained in these workshops mean panellists can go on to run future events more confidently and gain some great skills for their CVs.

Alice, a Junction panellist, blogs about the podcast training she recently enjoyed…

“In the midst of most of the panel members exam season 3 of us were lucky enough to take time off and attend a podcasting and audio workshop. Under the supervision of Eric from SoundDelivery; myself, Richelle and Nicola along with Lucie (Museum of London Inclusion Officer) spent two days learning the basics of podcasting and each recorded and edited our own podcast.

Nicola, Alice and Richelle editing their podcasts

On the first day we learnt all the theory – such as “what is a podcast?”. Although most of us are familiar with the concept I don’t think any of us knew any of the specifics. When asked if we knew what an RSS feed was we were flummoxed! We all discovered how clueless we actually were but luckily Eric was really helpful and got onto the subject of what made good and bad podcasts. By learning from the mistakes of other podcasters we were able to discuss what we wanted our podcast to actually be. We discounted any fake dramas – as they just didn’t work and all fell a little bit in love with some children talking about a painting in the Tate Modern.

That afternoon we were let loose in the Roman gallery. We each had to choose something that really interested us in there and would each record our podcast about that object. I chose a vessel which still contained a cosmetic paste in it, Richelle chose a comb, Nicola a mortarium and Lucie chose a set of objects relating to Boudicca’s revolt. The discussion in the afternoon led us all to decide how we would relate our object to the present day and how we would plan our podcast. By the end of the day we had plans (for some of us these were pretty vague).

The second day was divided in two parts. The morning was our time to record and then in the afternoon we had to edit our audio. Recording in the galleries was not without its problems. The public in the galleries ensured that the sound levels were changing constantly and we had to keep remembering to record a “wild track”; this is 30 seconds of audio to use in editing to blend tracks. We also had to remember to press record in the first place. A mistake a few of us made – NOT RECORDING! Oops! Then in the afternoon we edited our audio. The room fell deathly silent as we determinedly edited our audio, getting rid of all the “ums” and “ahs” and beginning to hate the sound of our own voices. Editing was tough work but weirdly therapeutic. Once that was all done(ish) we listened to everyone’s finished project. It was really interesting how different people had made them and they were all really unique.

Alice editing her podcast

This training was really fun and rewarding and I had a great time doing it. It was a lot more complicated than I anticipated and I think we all appreciated Eric’s work. Now of course we must all put our teaching hats on and get ready to share our skills with the other Junction members. I think I’ve got a taste for podcasting and it’s a skill I really want to continue using so you’ll be hearing from me again soon.”

If you are aged 16 – 21 and are interested in joining Junction please contact us on junction@museumoflondon.org.uk

Rebecca Lang, Conservator, installing objects into the under floor cases.

As we draw closer to the opening of Galleries of Modern London I’m getting more excited to see what some of the inclusion projects I have worked on will look like. Over the last two years I have been involved in four different projects with Londoners from all backgrounds which will feed into our new displays. Back in summer 2008 I worked on ‘London Beneath’, a really interesting project that allowed me to work closely with our conservation department for the first time.

The participants were then on the Pathways to Work programme, which supports people on incapacity benefit into work. They worked with museum staff including curators, specialists, archive staff, conservators and designers, as well as an artist to research and design two under floor cases of objects. The opportunity allowed them to gain news skills and confidence… and it was great for us to have some fresh perspectives when creating a new showcase. We worked at our amazing archaeological archive and got to spend many hours exploring boxes of finds. The two cases reflect the period of rebuilding in London that took place after the Great Fire of 1666. Several hundred objects were selected including broken domestic pottery, slate, glass bottles, elm water pipes, dice, marbles, gold rings and a desiccated cat.

Two of the group later volunteered with the conservation department. Rebecca Lang, archaeological conservator, writes:

‘The selected objects needed marking (as museum display objects) and basic conservation work. This was carried out by two volunteers from the community group, plus conservation students, supervised by conservation staff. In some cases “un-conservation” was required, such as taking down the occasional fill and removing old joins and tape residues, as the objects needed to look freshly excavated. We did stop short of putting the soil back on, however!

The cases were designed to be well sealed and dustproof, and consist of metal boxes inserted into a false floor. They are lit with fibre optics. The case bases are filled with a layer of black “granular sand”. This is a material used in floristry that we have previously found useful in other archaeological displays such as the display of skeletons.

The granular material is not actually sand, but a manufactured carbon coated polymer. It is inert, dust free, pH neutral and provides good support for objects without scratching them.

The public will be able to walk over the cases, with the archaeological objects directly beneath their feet.’

I can’t wait to see the participants again at the opening event and to see how they react to seeing their work on display for all to see.

I have just started working on the Museum’s exciting London: World City project which is part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Young people all over London will be taking part in creative projects to reinterpret museum collections and put on exhibitions. Other museums involved include Geffyre, London Transport Museum and Horniman. Along with partnering smaller museums, each will look at different theme to explore how London became the amazing world city it is today.

Here at the Museum of London we are looking at the theme of place and focusing on the legacy left by the Romans. Between now and March 2011, we will be doing lots of exciting work with young adults, ranging from films, archaeology, podcasts, art and drama in a series of five key projects. Young adults are at the heart of the project and through this work we hope more of them find our fabulous Museum relevant and fun.

Key to the success of this project is our ability to involve young adults in the planning and development. We are also setting up a youth panel (called Junction) so that members can act as consultants and advise us on what young people want. There are two open recruitment afternoons in early February and we are looking for young adults ages 16 – 21 from all backgrounds.

Find out how you or anyone you know who may be interested can get involved (PDF 142kb, opens in a new window)

A book made by one of the group members.

Click here to see more photos.

I’m Shauna O’Brien, an intern on some of the Museum of London’s inclusion programmes. Today was our last session at Coborn Service for Adolescent Mental Health for My Museum project. Over the last few weeks the group have taken their inspiration from objects from the Museum’s collection. Their ideas have developed to include more modern objects in new creations through making collages, sculptures and films. Today the project artist, Emily Candela, taught everyone how to take old story books and make new accordion books.

Everyone each chose a book from a selection Emily bought in and we had to pull out the pages to leave just the cover board. We then removed the spine, leaving the two outside boards. Then everyone cut up some coloured paper to the height of the board and folded it in a zigzag to create the pages of the book. Once these were stuck down, with the addition of a ribbon to tie the book together, a heavy object was placed on the new book to help it stick.

After the break, the glue was dry and the group had books to fill with pictures from the project and new images from magazines to show their journey through the project. Everyone was so creative, and those that weren’t here from the start had the chance to print pictures of the internet and make an autobiography. The books looked really impressive and could be opened up fully to see the whole story develop.

Lucie Fitton (the Museum’s inclusion officer) also bought along some prizes for competitions to guess the historical period of Museum archive images. Everyone was so good and won some London based stationary and books to say goodbye on our last week here!

Click here to see more pictures.

Photos by Nick Landau

I’m Shauna O’Brien and have been working as an intern with Lucie Fitton (inclusion officer at Museum of London) on some of the Museum’s community projects. Today was our last day working on the Empire project with adult learners from Barnet College. Over the past eight weeks the group have been working on a piece of artwork inspired by Britain’s Empire for an under-floor display case in the new gallery space.

Judith Hope (the artist working on the project), Sousan Luqman (a tutor at Barnet College), Annette and myself worked on completing the waves. We measured out the position of the table and then worked out the placing of the waves. When we had everything right, we used double sided tape to stick them to the base-board. Lots of trimming was required, but at last they were completed, a victory that received a round of applause from the group!

Judith has been embroidering the silk tablecloth for the tabletop and it looked incredible. She used coffee-coloured cotton to stitch with and it looked great with the different sepia tones of the rest of the work. She made Britain much bigger than Africa and India to show the dominance. It fit nicely on the table and the group could see it all coming together.

Lucie, Andre, Maria, Dan and Marion (a support worker at the College) all worked on decorating the crockery with transfers. The blue floral transfers were carefully cut into individual flowers and placed around the crockery. It was really effective, and once glazed with pva glue they looked amazing.

Sousan, Lucie and Marion made some little boats to float across the waves. They used coffee beans, sugar cubes and peppercorns. They will add some interest to the base and are very sweet!

Everyone worked so hard today and it was wonderful to see it all nearly finished. We’ll get back together in a few weeks once the sugar cane table legs have been freeze-dried to finish off the rest of the piece. Everyone’s looking forward to seeing it in the Gallery and it’s been great to be part of the team.

One of the participants, Andre, wrote a blog for today’s session:
‘This was the last day for working on our project and there was a lot to do! We worked in two teams- one with the main display cutting the waves to the right length for the base. Another group worked on the ceramic objects. We stuck transfers on the ceramics to make them look carefully decorated’.

The group discussing ideas for today’s workshop.

Click here to see more photos from the project

Photos by Nick Landau

I’m Shauna O’Brien and am continuing my internship here at Museum of London with Lucie Fitton, the Museum’s Inclusion Officer. This week the students from Barnet College came for the seventh week of the Empire project, making an art installation using goods traded in the British Empire to be placed in an under-floor display case in the new Expanding City Gallery.

Last week the group finished decorating the waves for the base of the display and today they folded them to make the ocean more three-dimensional. Judith Hope, the project artist, worked with Sousan Luqman (lecturer at Barnet College) to cover the case of the case with tea-stained calico for the waves to rest on. The table at the heart of the sculpture is going to have sugarcane legs, and Sousan used a saw to cut them to the right length and angle. They are to be handed over to the Museum’s conservation department now to be freeze-dried for preservation.

Amongst the waves will be some small ships carved from ginger, so the group had a go at drawing pictures of ships, using illustrations as a reference. This will be continued next week. Annette and Sousan and Judith worked at gluing the waves onto the display base and had very coffee-stained feet by the end of it!

Judith had printed some decorative images of shackles onto silk, which will be attached onto the tablecloth edges. Nick, Marion (a support worker at the College) and Maria worked at cutting some bondaweb into circles to stick the tablecloth and images together. Judith had made a template, so it wasn’t too difficult to be precise!

As the session was going, the crockery that Lucie had ordered for the table setting arrived and the group was keen to have a look! The coffee set had a beautiful cream jug and sugar pot, and with them were some decorative transfers that Andre and Daniel cut up into smaller pieces. Next week we can embellish the plain crockery with these to make it more decorative.

Andre, one of the participants, wrote a blog for this week:

‘Today we used our hands to very slowly and carefully bend the waves into place. We had to be careful so that the sugar and tea didn’t fall off! We then looked at the ceramics that Lucie had ordered to place on the table. They were plain white but came with transfers which stick to the crockery when dampened. We had to cut out the shapes we liked to decorate the crockery next week.’

Next week is the group’s last working on the artwork. Lots of things are happening at once and it is so nice to see the group’s ideas become real and placing each element into the case is so exciting. We all can’t wait to see the final piece!

Daniel and Maria decorating the waves with sugar and loose tea.

Click here to see more photos from the project.

Photos by Nick Landau

I am Shauna O’Brien and have been on an internship at Museum of London with Lucie Fitton, the Museum’s Inclusion Officer. I’ve been helping out on some of the community projects, as you may have seen from the previous blogs. Today was the sixth week of the Empire project. The final plans for the art work to be displayed in one of three under floor display cases in the new Gallery were made over the last couple of weeks and today the group continued decorating the waves.

Last week the group painted sheets of card with diluted coffee and today Judith Hope, the artist working on the project, and Sousan Luqman (lecturer at Barnet College) cut out the wave shapes from the stained paper as the rest of the group decorated. We used loose tea and white demerara sugar to sprinkle on the crest of the waves to create a graduated colour effect. The decorating was very relaxing and the group managed to get them all decorated by the end of the session.

Next week the waves will be attached to the base of the display case and the group will have a go at carving ginger, and gluing coffee beans together to make small ships to float in the ocean the group will have created!

Judith, the project artist and Sousan from Barnet College making the table for the sculpture.

Click here to see more photographs from the project

Photos by Nick Landau

Hello, I’m Shauna O’Brien, and as you may have read in the previous community blogs, I am an intern here at Museum of London. Today was our fifth week of Empire looking to create a piece of artwork for an under floor display case as part of the new Expanding City gallery.

Today the students from Barnet College came to the Museum of London again after a week off for half term. In the previous session, they came up with lots of ideas for the sculptural piece made from goods traded in the Empire for the new galleries at the Museum. The final piece was decided on, inspired by Maria’s idea to have a table set up for a tea party, using the sugar, coffee, tea, porcelain, silk and spices that would have been first traded during the peak of the British Empire. Other ideas were used, by having the table in the shape of a ship, to have the table cloth embroidered with tea and coffee dyed thread and to have the sea beneath the table, by way of decorated card. The artist on the project, Judith Hope, had made a little model of the case for everyone to see. It made the visualisation easier and was great for us all to have a look at, especially for the people that were not in the last session.

So, today the group started making the elements for the case, which will be under the floor of the new Expanding City gallery, Judith and Sousan Luqman (lecturer at Barnet College) worked together to cut out the shape of the table from large sheets of foam board. They also made the base for the group’s work to rest on. The rest of us were painting sheets of strong paper with diluted coffee to be cut out for the waves of the sea beneath the table.

It was very relaxing painting with the coffee, and we had the perfect weather outside for them to dry quickly! Judith and Sousan made a template to cut the waves from the group’s dried sheets of paper, and began to cut them out towards the end of the session.

One of the group members, Maria, added that she was looking forward to working with the sugar next week when we come to decorate the waves. The group will also make little ships to ‘float’ on the sea and working on what will be going on the table-top too.