Oh, What a Circus! The Pitt Rivers tent on tour

Last week the Need, Make, Use team ran away with the circus! For a couple of days we teamed up with the 1930s-style Gifford Circus - a perfect fit for the project's focus this year on performance and music.

After much preparation for the event ordering and sorting art materials, printing out templates, creating prototypes we loaded up the van with tables, chairs, equipment and miles of bunting and set off for the lovely village of Stadhampton, around 9 miles from Oxford. Our excitement grew as we rounded a bend and saw the Big Top commanding the village green, surrounded by retro caravans. This year, the Giffords performance involves some hilarious puppets, so we thought it was the perfect opportunity to bring along the Museum’s considerable collection of beautiful Indonesian shadow puppets and give families a chance to make their own!

We set up in an adjacent tent, decorating it with bunting and pictures, and laying out our wares in time for the visitors arriving pre-show. The atmosphere at the circus was lovely with our chandelier-lit tent (we might ask to replace our ordinary office lights with chandeliers!), riders rehearsing outside, and the performers putting on their costumes and greasepaint - a great atmosphere in which to demonstrate the playfulness of some of the Museum’s objects. 

We had brought wayang kulit - puppets used in Indonesia, especially on the islands of Java and Bali - to perform shadow plays. Visitors got to touch and play with the intricate puppets - hand-made from buffalo skin, horn and bamboo - and hear recordings of the gamelan music that traditionally accompanies the performances. 

Volunteer Olly with some Indonesian shadow puppets

Our puppets were characters from the Ramayana (you can see some traditional shadow puppet characters here) and it was nice to see recognition on children's faces who knew the story from lessons at school. We also took with us this short video made by UNESCO demonstrating the puppets in action so people could get a real sense of the skill, movement and context involved.

Families could then, if they wanted, make their own versions of Prince Rama, Princess Sita, the demon Ravana, or the monkey god Hanuman and perform with them in our mini, portable puppet theatre. The glorious Midsummer sunshine, although appreciated, did make getting shadows from torches a little difficult at times, but the team were able to improvise using the ready-made theatre of the tent walls and the sun!

Video (90 seconds) of the puppet theatre booth in action!

It was great to take our event to people outside Oxford who might not have heard of the Museum, or realised just how close they are to it, or who maybe needed some inspiration to re-visit. More than 350 people of all ages flowed through the tent over the course of the two evenings, including some of the circus performers who were curious to learn about other performance traditions from another side of the globe. In turn, we had the chance to watch the spectacular circus ourselves before rushing back to take the puppets out to greet people during the interval.

All in all, the event was a great success and a lot of fun, with one visiting parent commenting, "This was an absolute joy – wonderful to have the children distracted during the interval and continuing the creative process! Thank you. More please!"

For more information about shadow puppets, the Multicultural Canada website features an interesting collection held at the Simon Fraser Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Giffords Circus info and tickets here.

Alex Ross, volunteer

A bright start to VERVE's events programme

The end of April saw one of VERVE's busiest weeks in terms of events so far...proving a lot of hard work to make them a success but also a lot of fun too!

A Friday night hosting a group of suited and booted finance managers from the Saïd Business School - introducing them to some of the histories and highlights of the Museum - was followed by a weekend shifting gear to focus on family groups - a nice illustration of the variety of audiences VERVE aims to involve.

We loaded up the van with bells, bunting and biscuits and made our way to Oxford Castle for our first outreach event at Folk Weekend Oxford. It was a beautiful setting in the gardens of the old prison in glorious sunshine. To fit with both the folk theme and the music and performance focus of VERVE in our first year, we offered families the chance to get hands on by making their own morris dancer's knee bell pads or handling some of our global instrument collections - from a Turkish drum to a Chilean rainstick to a West African kora. 

The Pitt Rivers tent at Oxford Castle Gardens

Children chose different coloured ribbons to decorate their knee pads, in the
same way that Morris dancers have distinguishable 'team' patterns and colours.

A Pitt Rivers volunteer demonstrates the silky sound of the kora

Visitors guess how to play some our
instruments and where they're from

Visitors could also watch and listen to demonstrations by our two special guests: Anna Casserley, who introduced vthe Cornish tradition of hand-whittling 'May whistles' from willow branches, and Michael Wright, a renowned authority on the mysterious Jew's harp - an ancient mouth instrument with a surprisingly futuristic sound. We have an extensive collection in the Museum.

We have a busy summer schedule of tent outings so this was a fantastic way to start  - more than 450 people of all ages had a taste of Pitt Rivers in the tent, including many people who had not been to, or even heard of, the Museum before.

Jew's harp expert Michael Wright demonstrates the instrument 

Iron and steel Jew's harp, China PRM 1932.89.248

A few days later we hosted our first Twilight Takeover event, an initiative to work with young people to help them organize and curate a social evening at the Museum. The many weeks of careful planning paid off - more than 200 people came to experience the Museum with atmospheric lighting, music, bellydancing and contemporary dance choreographed by Rosie Kay. The 'Mask Parlour' was particularly popular, buzzing with industry and imagination. It just goes to show, we are all kids at heart! In addition, we were amazed and impressed by those who came with their own masks - everything from carnival ones to Venetian ones to horror ones.

Guess who? Masked guests at the Masquerade event

Videographer Dan Keeble made this wonderful short film of the night (3 mins) and the student organizers will write a fuller account for this blog soon.

Twilight Takeover: Masquerade at the Museum from Pitt Rivers Museum on Vimeo.

Then, with just enough time to draw breath, we hosted our second Skills in the Making workshop in partnership with NSEAD. Artists Caroline Broadhead and Julie Westbury came from London to deliver a full-day session for 16 Oxfordshire art teachers. Participants were asked to bring a few items such as scissors and a sketchbook and a camera to record both their own work and that of other people. The theme was the 'Performing Objects' and people were asked to think about creating a piece that would in some way change the body's appearance, conceal it, restrict its movement or impact on the wearer's 'personal space'. In this the Museum's Body Arts collections were an obvious inspiration.

After the artists showed a powerpoint of their own work and approaches, the participants were let loose with a variety of materials including flexible furniture cane, coloured thread, wax paper, plastic bands, plastic fibres, foil and newspaper. Soon, a plethora of inventive accessories started taking shape, from rings and ruffs, to head-dresses and hats. Julie and Caroline encouraged everyone to think in new ways - "what if you turned it this way?" or "what sort of sound does it make when you move in it?" Many pieces were items that restricted the senses, such as vision, touch or even breathing. Each person explained their pieces to the rest of the group and many reported how uneasy this stifling of the senses made them feel - the voluntary denial of interaction with one's environment.

An alternative fascinator

The wearer said her brain tried to
'fill in the gaps' in her stripy vision

A punky hand ornament, reminiscent of
some of the Museum's knuckledusters

Dubbed an 'isolation bridle' and inspired by cane-work,
this contraption was designed to keep the wearer's
hands in the correct position when making
quills - a mediative, repetitive action.

This striking cone visor started off as a finger
ornament, then increased in scale!

By the end of the day there had been an impressive array of sculptural forms made and everyone took interest in each other's work and discovering new ways of working. Feedback from the teachers was positive. One noted, "a good opportunity to make some work for myself and nice to chat to others about how we can use and recycle everyday objects." After the success of our two Skills in the Making workshops we will be meeting with NSEAD and OAT (Oxfordshire Art Teachers) network to see how we can take the partnership forward. 

So, in little over a week, VERVE has involved more than 750 people from all backgrounds and interests, built relationships with all sorts of new groups, and constructed outreach and workshop models we can take forward into the future. All good stuff, and now the team can put its feet up for a little while before our big summer programme starts - watch this space..!