The working life of Museum of London

Late:Create is an exciting monthly workshop where members get creative using our collections for inspiration.

The workshop was lead by poet Meryl Pugh, and here, our regular blogger Liam, tells us more:

‘This months Late:Create was poetry. We were taught that there are different ways of writing poetry – some rhyme and some don’t. We learnt how about consonance, which means using similar sounds in words.  For example, bored and board. We also talked about assonance, which means using the same sounds such as ‘ard’ in lard and hard.

Next we started writing. We each had an object from the museum and had to describe its features, what it was used for and who used it. We went into the galleried to collect this information. Next we were ready to write a poem. Meryl helped us by writing the first word or two of each sentence and we filled in the rest using the ideas and words we had gathered.’

Late: Create is free and takes place 6 – 8pm on the 1st Thursday of every month and is for people who are currently out of work. Future workshops include sculpture and hat-making. The sessions are coordinated by the Museum’s Inclusion Officer, Lucie Fitton. To find out more contact community@museumoflondon.org.uk

Late:Create is an exciting monthly workshop where members get creative using our collections for inspiration.

Photographer Fil Gierlinski lead August’s Late:Create session, and the group learned how to create that perfect picture.

Our regular blogger, Liam, tells us more:

‘This month’s Late:Create was photography. Fil, the photographer, showed us how a picture captures the texture and shape of an object. When learnt how to take pictures close up using the camera’s macro setting. We paired up and went outside taking close-ups of anything we could find. We took photos of walls, railings, pavements, stairs and anything with an unusual surface. We produced some eye-catching images. We then took the cameras into the museum galleries and from different angles captured an object that would tell us a story about it – its shape – its texture – and what it was. Finally we watched a slideshow of everyone’s work.’

See more photos of the workshop here!

Late: Create is free and takes place 6 – 8pm on the 1^st Thursday of every month and is for people who are currently out of work.  Future workshops include creative writing and sculpture.  The sessions are coordinated by the Museum’s Inclusion Officer, Lucie Fitton. To find out more contact community@museumoflondon.org.uk

Late:Create is an exciting monthly workshop where members get creative using our collections for inspiration.

Writer Rachel Warrington lead July’s Late:Create session and a group of budding scribes were born.

A group member, Liam, tells us more:

‘This month’s activity was creative writing, lead by Rachel who gave us some simple tasks to get us started. We jotted down answers to questions about our journey to the Museum, such as what we did before we arrived and what we thought at the time.  We turned these answers into a poem and then turned the poem into an artist’s book using old maps of London as covers.

Next we each chose a painting from the collection and picked a person out of the image. We wrote down the thoughts of that person regarding what’s going on around them. After that we jotted down what we know about the picture and tried to relate own experiences to those in the picture.  We combined what we thought the person was thinking and our own perception of the picture to create sentences together to give us a poem or story.’

Poems will be posted here soon!

See more photos from the workshop here.

Late: Create is free and takes place 6 – 8pm on the 1st Thursday of every month and is for people who are currently out of work.  Future workshops include creative writing and photography.  The sessions are coordinated by the Museum’s Inclusion Officer, Lucie Fitton. To find out more contact community@museumoflondon.org.uk

On Thursday 5th June we held our first Late:Create workshop, an exciting creative session for participants to use our collections as inspiration for mini-masterpieces . Each month we work with a different artist, and this month 15 Londoners worked with artist Tunde Akkiniranye to create ceramic African masks. We looked at the bronze Yoruba busts in Museum in Docklands London Sugar & Slavery exhibition for ideas. You can see the Yoruba busts here.

A group member tells us more:

‘The theme was to create African tribal clay masks, with help from Tunde a professional ceramicist. He showed us the techniques like how to make the base and to add the nose, eyes, and lips. After that we were free to add our own patterns and designs.’

This link takes you to more photographs from the workshop.

Late: Create is free and takes place 6 – 8pm on the 1st Thursday of every month and is aimed at Londoners who are currently not working. Future workshops include creative writing and photography. The sessions are coordinated by the Museum’s Inclusion Officer, Lucie Fitton. To find out more contact community@museumoflondon.org.uk

On Wednesday night (7th May) myself, Clea Relly, Vicky Lee and Annette Day had the pleasure of drinking champagne and eating yummy food… as well as picking up a prize or two at the Museums and Heritage Awards, part of the Museum and Heritage Show at Earls Court. The Museum of London had been short-listed for three awards – Temporary or Touring Exhibition for Belonging, Education Initiative for HLF Inclusion Programme, and Marketing Campaign for London, Sugar & Slavery.

The HLF Inclusion Programme won the award for best Education Initiative, which was fantastic recognition for all the hard work of many museum colleagues, dedicated freelancers and the participants from the new audiences we have reached with these projects over the last three years.

The Inclusion Programme involved 13 three month projects over three years which worked intensively with small groups of adults at risk of exclusion to engage them with their heritage. The projects involved getting creative – art and poetry exhibitions, oral history and photography websites, films, performances, and many more. Importantly the projects provided the participants the opportunity to gain skills they could take into their futures , but they also helped us learn more about real Londoners lives.

We also received a highly commended certificate for London, Sugar & Slavery press and marketing campaign – so it was a successful night all round for the Museum!

Find out more at ‘Museums & Heritage Awards for Excellence 2008 Winners Announced‘.

Lucie Fitton, Inclusion Officer, Community & Audience Development