A quick announcement before I go on leave, and fingers crossed I haven’t broken anything, but site pages on the LAARC will now display maps again.
They’re only static maps, I’ll add dynamic maps (so you can zoom, move around, etc) if I get a chance when I’m back from holiday.
A display of stunning photographs of the self-governing Maroon community in Jamaica are on show at Museum in Docklands until 31 August as part of the London, Sugar & Slavery gallery’s rolling community exhibition space.
The display of over 50 photographs in a montage and a short film draws attention to the forgotten story of the Maroons who refused to be enslaved, survived in remote parts of the Caribbean islands and helped destabilise the plantation system.
The project is the brainchild of hip hop photographer, Jennie Baptiste, who guided a group of six young Londoners who call themselves the Linx, teaching them research, communications and photography skills. The group of 14 to 19 year olds then researched the history of African resistance to slavery and visited the Maroons in the town of Accompong in the Jamaican mountains to take the photographs.
Linx member and 19 year old art student, Asia Bharj, said:
‘Never in my life did I think I would be part of this amazing project, being with the Linx I overcame personal challenges which allowed me to grow mentally and to become a better person.’
Don’t miss out – the display closes on August 31! There’s information on how to plan your visit to the Museum in Docklands or find out more about the community exhibition in our newsroom article, Journey to Accompong. Entry to the display is free, but there is a charge for entry to the Museum in Docklands itself.
Watch it at this link: Victorian London, Jack the Ripper, Museum in Docklands video.
There are more videos at the Museum in Dockland’s Jack the Ripper and the East End exhibition playlist.
You can also view (and buy) images of Victorian London at the Jack The Ripper & The East End section of the Museum of London print site or find out more about the exhibition at the Museum in Docklands.
If you’re in London before November 2, 2008 then watch to the end of the video for a discount code for 20% off the full ticket price for the exhibition.
Mandela in London, 1962
Nelson Mandela will be celebrating his 90th birthday on 18 July 2008. To honour this occasion Museum of London remembers his first visit to London in June 1962 in a small photographic display that opens on 20 June 2008. The collection of 17 striking black and white photographs show a youthful Mandela in London – these were some of his last days of freedom.
This was Mandela’s first trip to the capital and it was to be his last for more than 30 years. Mandela returned to South Africa in August and was arrested and later imprisoned for 22 years.
Curator Cathy Ross says: ‘These photos are terrifically evocative: not only a reminder of London’s role in the anti-apartheid struggle during the 1960s, but also of Nelson Mandela’s extraordinary story. Despite being a wanted man, his optimism and warmth really shine through.’
You can view ‘Mandela in London, 1962′ for free at the Museum of London, London Wall, EC2Y 5HN, until 3 August 2008
Find out more in our newsroom article, Mandela in London, 1962.
You can read more and vote for your favourite at Adam’s post on the archaeology blog, but as a sneak preview, June’s objects selected by LAARC volunteers are:
In response to Nigel’s post, ‘Life as a medieval and later pottery specialist in the Museum of London Archaeology Service‘, mary lane garmon said:
What an incredibly interesting article! I recently visited London and found some pottery shards on the banks of the Thames, in particular a pie shaped piece of white clay, very rough, covered on all sides with a translucent green glaze. It looks like something used in a kiln. Do you have any idea about what this might have been used for? Thank you.
addendum: a pie piece shape, triangular I meant to say, as if it had been cut from a circle, and fits in the palm of the hand. It is less than an inch thick.
Nigel responds, “is it possible to send an image? If not, then your observation could be correct, between the 17th to the 19th century, the south bank of London had many pot houses making stoneware and tin-glazed wares. The waste products from these industries are commonly found on the Thames foreshore, something I’ve witnessed on my own wanderings on the banks of the Thames”.
While I had Nigel in my office, I asked about the difference between sherds and shards – are they the same thing? Yes, was the simple answer. Shards is jargon from the antique trade, and sherds is an archaeological term.
Each month, three artefacts are taken from the archaeological archive’s stores and put up for public vote. Your vote decide which goes on display in the Archive’s temporary exhibition case. The winning object for this month will be announced on Friday 6th June.
To celebrate the launch of MoLAS’ new book – London’s Delftware Industry, part written by LAARC’s very own Roy Stephenson, the three selected objects are all fine examples of this fine ceramic.
Go check out LAARC Object of the month – Delftware to view and vote for your favourite object.
If you have questions about the Museum of London, Museum in Docklands, LAARC, or museum and archaeology jobs, I’ll do my best to get answers for you. You can leave questions in comments or via the email contact form.
Previously, someone asked “who edits museum exhibit text?”.
The answer from Roz in the Department of Early London History and Collections was:
“The text is written by whichever curator(s) is/are responsible for the gallery or exhibition in question. Then various other people have a look at it – usually the Director of Public Programmes, Design and Exhibitions (or the external designers, if used), and Community and Audience Development/Learning. For some temporary exhibitions, Outside Edge, for example, the text is written by an external curator, then edited in-house.”
You can see some of the other jobs curators do in these photo sets.
You might also be wondering which LAARC object was chosen as April’s Object of the Month – the answer is on the archaeology page.
Yesterday Bilkis (web content manager), June (diversity manager) and I (IT analyst/programmer) went to Kingston University to talk to students from the Faculty of Computing, Information Systems and Mathematics about the role of the IT professional in museums. This was part of a course on ‘Culture and Heritage Informatics’ with Dr Chris Hutchison.
We each talked about our background, gave an idea of what might happen in a typical day in our role, and about how we came to work at the Museum of London/Museum in Docklands. You can read some previous posts about our paths into the cultural heritage sector: Bilkis, June: and me (Mia).
I talked about some of the rewards of working in IT in a museum – the great people and rich content, the chance to have a privileged experience of museum objects or archaeology, the sense of achievement when you help people access or create new knowledge, the variety of work, the ability to explore new technology and ideas – basically I look forward to going into work (nearly) every day.
I forgot to mention that while the money isn’t great, the jobs are often more stable than the commercial sector – something which might be very important over the next few years.
June spoke passionately about the impact that museums can have on a visitors’ sense of self and their understanding of their place in society. She also spoke eloquently about the danger in speaking “on behalf of” and about the need to consult with the relevant communities when ‘representing’ them.
As she said, “the museum belongs to the people of London” – this made me realise that being able to enable interactions between the people of London and their museum is one of the best things about working on our digital projects.
Some of the students talked about their projects, and I was impressed by the technical range and the thought that had gone into them.
The students also asked some really good questions and made some insightful comments, some of which showed a real appreciation of the complex ways in which museums interact with ‘representative’ communities and how the authoritative voice and collecting policy of a museum can operate – not necessarily something I’d expect from computing students, even though I was one once!
Selfishly, I’d love to hear some more questions from them and other students; and perhaps get some answers to our questions.
One of our on-going challenges is thinking about how we can become more open and inclusive as a museum. Could we use social software to become more transparent – for example, to put out a call for comment on a blog when we’re looking for community representatives; or to invite feedback on our exhibitions and collections?
How can we engage with our audiences? How would you challenge us, as a museum, do to a better job? Is there obvious stuff we’re missing? Do you have an idea for a project a museum could work with you on? Do you want to contribute to our work? Do you have any more questions about museum jobs?
On a more theoretical level, what effect might new methods of collecting objects or stories have – does it create a new kind of visibility for content from IT literate people with reliable access to the internet? How can we engage with people who aren’t comfortable online?
What do you think?
I’m really excited to be able to tell you about a new project that’s recently gone live – ‘Podcasts from the past‘. It’s a series of ten audio descriptions of objects in the London before London and Medieval galleries at the Museum of London.
You can find Podcasts from the Past on iTunes with this link (or search for “podcasts from the past” or for artist “museum of london”), or point your browser at the RSS feed. You can also find out more about the individual podcasts and download the files directly at Podcasts from the past.
This project is part of the Museum’s Community & Audience Development Inclusion programme, and is managed by Inclusion Officer Lucie Fitton. I’ll let Lucie, our Inclusion Officer, introduce it in her own words:
Here at the Museum of London we wanted to do two things through this projects. One, make a step towards providing more resources for our visually impaired visitors (existing and potential). Two, by working with a group of real Londoners (by that we mean normal people living in this city, and not museum staff or specialists) to create them, we would be offering an interpretation of the collections that would be relevant and interesting to more people. Yes, these podcasts aim to describe museum objects to people who may not be able to see them clearly, but by opening your ears everyone can understand London’s story in a new way.
It was a huge task for anyone, let alone a group of people who hadn’t met, hadn’t visited the Museum before, hadn’t created audio description and hadn’t used recording and editing technology. The 10 podcasts were created in eight weeks, with just one day of workshop time each week.
Luckily we had some fantastic help from the experts. A couple of our curators showed the group around the galleries and provided invaluable advice about the objects. We then had training with Vocaleyes who showed us the basics of describing for visually impaired people. We also got the chance to meet Kirin, who is visually impaired and helped dispel myths around what it is like. Once the scripts were written we then worked with podcast producers from SoundDelivery to record and edit the final podcast. It was lots of hard work, but great fun.
The seven participants of this project come from a wide variety of backgrounds and had many skills and talents to add to this project. We hope they walk away with many more. Thanks to Charles Clark, Ivan Bello, James Kelly, Keith Allen, Liam McAtamney, Simon Allen and Warren Thompson. Also a big thank you to Tony and Kirin from Vocaleyes, and Jude, Mark and Lee from SoundDelivery.
Lucie’s also previously written about her role as Inclusion Officer and Community projects at the Museum of London. You can also see photos from the podcast workshops, including photos of the objects, on our Flickr page.
I think it’s a lovely way to find out more about some objects you can visit in our galleries, so check them out and let us know what you think.
