Crafternoon at Pitt Rivers

Crafternoon has recently come to an end at the Pitt Rivers Museum after a successful three-month stint as part of the Need / Make / Use project. The outcome of our congregations is a Pitt Rivers-inspired quilt, which has been donated to the Museum.

© Pitt Rivers Museum

What is Crafternoon?
Crafternoon began in Oxford in 2012. We are a group of parents/caregivers and young kids who meet once a week. Crafternoon combines childcare with co-working for parents and caregivers who have a creative practice or an interest in crafts. These crafts are undertaken at various levels from hobbyist to professional. This rich mix of experience and expertise has led to the transfer of skills and sharing of ideas. The aim of Crafternoon is to normalize the idea of having children present while adults are productive in another task, taking the popular idea of "co-working" to another level by including our children. 

Crafternoon and Pitt Rivers

Holding these sessions at the Pitt Rivers Museum couldn't have been a better fit. Not only do many of the objects in the Museum’s collection have a direct connection with parenting and childhood, many of the objects will have been produced by hand, in community settings, in the presence of children.  

For our residency at the Museum we worked on a group project - a quilt. The imagery depicted in the quilt was inspired by objects in the galleries which relate to parenthood, childhood and co-working. With the help of Maya Herbolzheimer, VERVE Activities and Outreach Officer, we were introduced to these objects through object handling and tours of the displays. We used a series of questions to think about the 'biography' of these objects and brainstormed some possible visual representations of these biographies.

With the help of our expert seamstress and quilter, Caroline King we depicted our chosen objects using appliqué and embroidery techniques. Each participant worked on an individual square which was then sewn into one large quilt. Some of us had experience sewing and some had none – we even had contributions from some of the kids themselves! 

Every Crafternoon session is an experiment. We are never sure what the dynamics of the group will be like. But the stars were well aligned for these sessions! As the adults worked, the children got on with playing or contributing to the creative process alongside the adults. It was a calm enjoyable atmosphere. 

Our quilt has thirteen individual squares depicting baby carriers, a wolf's tooth amulet, moccasins, and a Haida totem pole - to name a few. A wolf's tooth amulet was the first object we looked at and discussed. It originates from France and was worn by children to ward off febrile convulsions caused by high fevers that can occur during teething. One of the Crafternoon participants was very familiar with these seizures as both her children had them. She chose to depict the wolf's tooth in a very creative way: using coloured squares of fabric she represented the heat of fever contrasted with the coolness provided by the amulet, "The warm colours represent fever, which is spreading and taking over the body, until it comes up against the amulet - then it disappears and we're left with a tiny, calm, cool colour." 

A personal favourite is this 3D baby carrier. Here's the maker's account of her handiwork:

"My quilt piece was inspired by a small (15 cm) model of a Saami cradle made of wood covered with leather and cloth from Sweden. I was super happy to find it; it brought back happy memories of Sweden were Abel is born on the first day of snow during a cold but beautiful winter. We spent those days outside walking in the snow or skating on the ice, and Abel napped outside, tucked in a sheepskin blanket to keep him warm in the freezing cold (it sounds funny, but many mothers do this in Scandinavia). For me, the little cradle became a symbol of happy times carrying, nursing and caring for my newborn in nature, while being free to go anywhere."


This Pitt Rivers Crafternoon quilt is a tactile educational object as well as a testament to what can be achieved together in the presence of our kids! If you visit the Museum this spring, please do check it out!

                                              

Crafternoon is now back at home in the Jericho Community Centre on Tuesdays from 2–4pm. Check our website for information and updates.

Sarah Cullen, Crafternoon

Oxfordshire Travellers' Stories Project

"Socks", belonging to the Collins family at the Redbridge site.

Over the last six months, the Museums Outreach Office and VERVE have been working alongside Oxfordshire County Council's Family Learning team (Oxfordshire Skills and Learning Service) and the Museum of Oxford with four of Oxfordshire’s Traveller communities: Redbridge, Middle Ground, East Challow and Bloxham.

The collaboration aims to capture something of the lives of these different local Traveller communities - encouraging them to tell their own stories, relate their families’ cultural tales and represent themselves through objects, pictures and oral history. All these things are integral to their values, history and lifestyle. 

Traveller groups are under-represented museum visitors, so this ASPIRE-funded project aims to raise awareness of the local museums among these communities, and encourage further engagement and visits in the future.

Diana makes blankets for any new babies
born at East Challow, Wantage (her
grandmother taught her how to make them

Initially, each of the four groups spent some time with the Family Learning team discussing which objects reflected their Traveller community and history. Now the groups are developing work for display in an exhibition this winter to be held jointly at the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Museum of Oxford. While each of the four groups have chosen to represent themselves through different objects - taking photographs, writing and telling stories, making model wagons, knitting blankets and decorating 'Crown Derby' papier mache plates - they have also been working on their literacy and computer skills. As the exhibition takes shape, Family Learning will continue to work with the groups by creating trails, captioning work and presenting their story. 

The Oxford University Museum’s Outreach team have been busy visiting the four sites, joining the local Children Centres and Mobile Children’s Centre bus, taking museum handling objects out, and meeting different members of each community. They have particularly enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about Traveller culture and lifestyle, which in turn has highlighted how many misconceptions exist with regards to education, jobs, lifestyle and sites.

Chantelle collects porcelain dolls and displays
them on her trailer at Middle Ground site, Wheatley

During the Easter holidays, the Redbridge and Middle Ground groups visited the Pitt Rivers Museum to have a guided tour, handle objects from the collections, and take part in craft activities such as drum and mask-making. The majority of the group had never visited either museum before, so it was an eye-opener to many!

Several weeks later during the summer holidays, one of the Middle Ground families visited the Museum of Oxford and took a tour behind the scenes. They spent time exploring Oxford’s stories through a wide range of objects. Some of these were surprisingly familiar like the Victorian stove from West Oxford, which reminded a group member of her mother’s old stove:

“It’s amazing, everything here has a story. We used to have a stove just like that. It was my Mum’s when we were travelling. I love stoves like that.” (Chantelle, visit to the Museum of Oxford).

Other objects were less familiar and even a little spooky, including 'Giles the Skeleton' and one of the Museum’s old wax dummies! The youngest member of the group was particularly interested in the Museum’s Civil War collection and was inspired to paint himself dressed up as a Cavalier soldier (see photo). The group enjoyed exploring the gallery space where their work will be displayed later this year and the Museum is looking forward to welcoming other families from the project once the exhibition is in place. Do come and visit us then!

Work with the four groups will continue in the autumn in preparation for the exhibition at:

• Museum of Oxford                                                   21 November 2014 – 10 January 2015

• Pitt Rivers Museum                                                   5 December 2014 – 18 January 2015 

Maya Herbolzheimer (Pitt Rivers Museum)
Antonia Harland-Lang (Museum of Oxford)
Nicola Bird (Oxford University Museums)

Sarah Levete (Oxfordshire County Council, Oxfordshire Skills and Learning Service, Family Learning Tutor Coordinator)

The Lion, The Princess and The Samurai: carnival board captures flavour of Pitt Rivers

The latest - and most popular - addition to the VERVE: Need / Make / Use outreach events this summer has been our colourful 'carnival board'. These colourful 'peep-through-boards' or 'head-in-the-hole' boards are a staple of the seaside and funfairs. The Museum is full of wonderful characters and objects with faces, so we thought we'd have a go at creating our own. It's fun but also acts as a great 'advert' for the Museum, encouraging photographs and sharing on social media, and reinforcing the identity of the Museum in peoples' minds.

So far it has travelled with us to Florence Park fete, Cowley Road Carnival (where it was the flagship image of the Oxford Mail's coverage), Larmer Tree Festival near Salisbury, and on Thursday this week, you can find it at Marriotts Walk shopping centre in Witney. Hundreds of people of all ages have given it a go...even other species, the lowest hole proving tempting for dogs!

Dogs and babies enjoy the carnival board's first outing at Florence Park Fete, June 2014 © Pitt Rivers Museum

To make the board we needed an expert helping hand or two. Charlotte Orr is a freelance illustrator based in Oxford, graduating from Falmouth University in 2013. Sukie Trowles is a recent History graduate from Edinburgh University with an interest in museum studies. Here Charlotte talks us through her inspiration for, and production of, the carnival board...

Charlotte with the Snoopy-esque
blank board. Image: Charlotte Orr 

I was asked by the Pitt Rivers Museum's VERVE project to paint a carnival board for their Need Make Use outreach events. It took a few weeks to shape up with the help of my friend Sukie, but it's now finished!

We wanted it to be colourful and stand out so we chose to depict outfits or costumes that were bright and bold, yet also iconic objects in the museum. For the rest of the design, I took inspiration from the architecture of the museum itself such as the beautiful beams and pillars which I used to frame the board along with the lettering in the archway of the entrance to the museum. I also decided to paint an impression of the museum's pillars and cases in the background to put the artefacts in context and add more depth to the piece. 

Sketches to test design and colours. Images: Charlotte Orr

When it came to painting, it turned out Sukie and I coincidently dressed in the colours we were painting in! On the left is a woman wearing a Hawaiian cloak displayed in the Court area of the museum. These 'Ahu-ula' were worn by high ranking individuals and this one was probably one of the last to be made in about 1840.  The cloak is made from bird feathers - the red feathers come from the 'i'wii bird and the yellow and black come from the (now extinct) 'Ō'ō bird. The woman wearing the cloak is based on a painting of the Hawaiian Princess Nāhiʻenaʻena. She is holding a Royal Kāhili which signifies power granted from the divinities. 

Hawaiian feather cloak PRM 1951.10.61 Images: Charlotte Orr

The figure on the right of the board is the samurai general from the collection of Japanese armour in the Upper Gallery. This suit of armour dates from around AD 1750 during the peaceful years of the Edo period when armours became more decorative than functional, and were often adorned with sacred and cultural symbols. 

Samurai armour PRM 1901.46.1 Images: © Pitt Rivers Museum and Charlotte Orr

Lastly, in the middle of the board, is a Chinese carnival lion mask from the Education department's handling collection, which I thoroughly enjoyed painting because of its expressive face! This type of mask formed part of Chinese New Year celebrations, and is believed to bring good luck to the places it visits. In Chinese culture the lion looks fearsome and scares other animals, but is kind and tame at heart. Two skilled acrobats wear the lion mask and mimic the lion’s movements using martial arts techniques and agility - one wearing the head, and the other the tail.

Chinese New Year mask. Images: Charlotte Orr

Image: Charlotte Orr

This year I have worked on numerous commissions and exhibitions, and have recently been shortlisted for the AOI Illustration Awards 2014 for my book cover design for 'The Dynasties of China' (The Folio Society). I was happy to take the opportunity to do work for the Pitt Rivers as I have always been inspired by the collection; when I was studying Foundation in Art and Design at Oxford Brookes, I based my final major project on the museum. I decided to do an illustrated map of the galleries, picking out specific artefacts, some well known and others less so, and positioned them where they can be found in the museum. The idea was that people could follow the map to find each artefact. Here is a photograph of the piece.

It was great to paint a large scale piece such as the Need / Make / Use carnival board. This project has helped to broaden my portfolio, and I hope it brings people lots of pleasure!

http://www.charlotteorr.com
http://cargocollective.com/charlotteorrillustration

Puppets at the Circus

Louisa Birkin from Giffords Circus on 2013's collaboration with the VERVE team at Pitt Rivers Museum...

The title of the show was decided: ‘Lucky 13’. We had a theme and an inkling of a show. Superstition, gypsies, chaotic Eastern European music, puppetry, shadows, the clash between the west and the east were all ideas conjured up. It was cold and snow lay thick on the ground at our remote base in Gloucestershire, but Giffords Circus were thinking of the long hot days of summer and planning our 2013 tour.

Working closely with Nell Gifford, I began to explore these themes. Responsible for the art department, I was looking for design ideas to help tell the story and visual references to use. Nell had been exploring puppetry in the early days of the shows’ development, and in particular shadow puppetry, so this seemed an interesting avenue to explore. We visited Pitt Rivers Museum to see their collections of shadow puppets from the Far East, as well as London to the V&A Museum of Childhood. I loved the effect of the silhouettes, and the idea of these dark figures in motion, on a journey and telling some sort of story. 

It was in these first stages of planning that we were approached by Pitt Rivers to work together in collaboration to extend our audience bases. It was somewhat of a coincidence that we had indeed already looked to the Museum for inspiration, as at the time they were unaware of our puppet theme. So it seemed only natural to form this friendship and use puppetry as our tie. Over the summer, staff from the VERVE team at Pitt Rivers came out to several of our touring grounds and created a children’s workshop area for families to interact in between show times. This added a new dimension to our site and proved very successful. 

If you missed this summer's show you can get a taste of it in this short video: 

After our season was over, we were offered the opportunity to put on a Giffords Circus display in the Museum. Happy to showcase the prop-making and design aspects of the show, I worked on ideas to include our initial puppet research and demonstrate how it influenced ‘Lucky 13’ and its final design. I incorporated elements of the set design with part of our scenery backdrop, some unusual costumes from the show and humanette puppets that we made and which were used to great comic effect by several of the performers. 

As well as being an interesting case to look at, hopefully it will teach a little of the behind-the-scenes work of the circus and, with any luck, reach some new audience members for Giffords. And conversely I believe some of the trusted fans of the circus may now be enticed to visit Pitt Rivers.

"Puppets at the Circus" is free to view on the Lower Gallery until 17 November 2013.

NMU Day 2013: Sunshine, Yarnbombing and Drums galore...

© Pitt Rivers Museum Source

So our inaugural Need / Make / Use Day is over and what fun it was! The NMU team arrived bright and early to set up and our excitement - plus, if I’m honest, our trepidation  - built as demonstrators, wokshoppers and craft makers started to arrive. Would the public show up? Would it rain? Did we forget anything? Where were our balloons? Have we collected enough ‘rubbish’ for the junk workshops?

© Pitt Rivers Museum Source

Thankfully, the weather was on its best behaviour, we found supplies were ample, volunteers were prepared to undertake a variety of tasks, and the public were fantastic, turning up in healthy numbers throughout the day. We had hoped for perhaps 1000 people but in the end we had more than 1600. We were really pleased with this, especially as on such as sunny day, people might have chosen a million other places to go and we were competing against a local beer festival, a food festival and an Oxford United home game! Interestingly, it was the adults who sometimes got more enthused by the instrument-making, weaving, face-painting and craft activities, which is great - VERVE is all about trying to get people in touch with their creative sides and thinking about the making skills they have, have forgotten or might want to develop.

© Pitt Rivers Museum Source

The first event of its kind to be hosted by the Pitt Rivers, NMU Day 2013 was a bit of a test year – a practical and theoretical space for the NMU team to work in collaboration with some fantastic partners in order to explore what public outreach on a large scale should include. Most of you know how short we are on space inside the Museum so an outdoor event seemed the best way to allow as many people as possible experience a little of the Pitt Rivers magic. New things were tried and tested and on the whole, everything went well - all of the workshops and making activities went smoothly; 'dressing up for survival' produced some interesting sartorial creations (we love the mini 'Livingstone in Africa' below!); craft sellers helped make a lovely handmade market atmosphere; kids with baked bean tin drums made their debut with the brilliantly entertaining Sol Samba musicians; highlights tours and architecture talks were well-attended; and finally, we learnt that kiwi coffee, freshly baked pizza and ice cream are fantastic accompaniments to crafty and ethnographic fun!

© Pitt Rivers Museum Source

© Pitt Rivers Museum Source

Flicking through the Need / Make / Use Day visitor feedback book, my heart sunk as I came across a comment opening with ‘RUBBISH...’ However, reading on, the author finished with ‘…is great! What fun’. Phew! It was fantastic to see so many people – young and old, locals and those from further-a-field – so engaged by the interactive activities on offer. You can find lots of photos from the day on our Flickr site.

Thank you to all of you who took part  - it wouldn't have happened without you. For a full list of participants, see our previous post. If you made it to NMU Day 2013, do leave a comment below and let us know what aspects you got involved with. If you didn't make it, we look forward to seeing you next year! 

Keep an eye on our website for the date of NMU Day 2014. In the meantime, feel free to email me (Jozie) for further info. 

Jozie

Feeling the beat (and the heat!) at Cowley Road Carnival

The project's summer of outreach and collaboration with fellow University museums continued last month with the Cowley Road Carnival - a popular event that's become something of an Oxford institution. Here, one of the cross-museums' interns reports:

Under the brilliant sunshine on Sunday 7th July, an estimated 35,000 people took part in the Cowley Road Carnival, either watching the procession, shopping in stalls and participating in activities. Cowley Road itself came alive as locals sat on balconies to watch the procession of schoolchildren and community groups - 600 people in total - dance their way down to Saint Mary and Saint John Church. 

There in the churchyard, “Museum Music Madness” reigned as some 440 children and adults enjoyed taster drumming sessions and made recycled instruments at the Oxford University Museums and Collections (OUMC) tent. The crafts and handling activities were designed and led by the HLF museum education trainees as part of our training across the OUMC. In keeping with the 'green' theme of the carnival, all the instruments were made out of recycled plastic and cardboard kindly donated by museum staff and decorated with old promotional materials. 

Each trainee also worked with artists and a Cowley school group to create costumes and to choreograph dance moves inspired by museum visits for the procession. After our visit to the Museum of Oxford my group from St. Christopher’s School were inspired to build a “Bullnose” Morris car, first produced here in Oxford 100 years ago. By working with the group over 2 months I had a chance to really get to know the kids. Seeing them gain confidence in their new skills as they learned the Charleston and sewed costumes was a wonderful experience. For me, the outpouring of support from the crowds as the kids jived and drove their model car in the procession really summed up the community involvement and sheer fun of the Cowley Road Carnival. 

The museums also got a nice profile boost by being part of BBC Radio Oxford's coverage of the event. PRM Head of Education, Andy McLellan was interviewed and explained why it was important the museums took part, commenting, "It’s everyone’s city and everyone’s museums so hopefully people who come to the carnival today will also come and see us."

See these links for BBC Oxford's coverage and more information on the HLF training programme

Liz Danner, HLF Museum Education Officer Trainee