Behind the scenes

 It’s a very handling objects themed blog today. Hence the gloves. By that, I mean that I’ve been considering the importance of letting our visitors access our handling collection. 

 Plans for the John Gray Centre are rolling on. For those of you who don’t know, the JGC will be a new museum, library, archives and local history centre in the centre of Haddington.

 At the moment Studioarc, who are designing the museum part, have asked us to come up with more detail about what should actually go in the museum. We’re down to details such as the objects that will go with each display. More bizarrely they’ve asked me to come up with different smells relating to fishing. Any suggestions? It’s part of a multi-sensory display where people will be able to smell and feel what it’s like to be a fisherman. Lovely!!

We had a talk by Bobby Anderson, ELC Countryside Ranger, at Prestongrange Museum on Friday 15th May. The original idea for the event, called Creatures of the Night, was to have a walk outside but of course, that day it was heavy rain and strong winds so all the creatures, including ourselves, were in hiding. Instead he brought lots of stuffed animals and animal props into the Visitor Centre. One visitor got a fright when he produced a live mouse! It was amazing seeing things like a bat up close, and really made me think about the importance of presenting people with objects that they don’t normally get to see. On the other side of this, I was recently at Deep Sea World and got to touch a starfish. Do you know they are hard?! I really wasn’t expecting that! Any suggestions about things you all want to touch in the JGC are therefore most welcome!! Leave your comments as usual.

Finally, some of our wonderful volunteers are assisting with the improvement of our handling collection. Ken is writing up information to go out with our loan boxes so that those borrowing them know a little about the history of the topic. Jenny will be joining us over the summer to help whip our loan boxes back into shape and Catherine is working to develop and extend our costume collection. To quote our Prestongrange Museum Assistant Julie Anne; “Exciting times!”.

That’s it from me for the time-being. Now get out there and touch some museum objects (only those that you’re allowed to, of course).

   On Monday and Tuesday (30th-31st March), I had 6 Italians and 3&1/2 Hungarians visiting Dunbar as part of a EU funded project on collecting family photographs. The 1/2 refers to the son of Viki, one of the main organisers, who kept us all entertained during dull moments!

At the meeting we discussed our different activities taking place around the fotomemoria project. All the partner’s projects have been slightly different, some using Flickr to collect family photographs, some creating their own databases. It’s been a really varied project and it draws to a close in June. If you’re a regular blog reader, you’ll remember I went to Compton Verney last year as part of the same project.

 It was interesting having them in Dunbar and showing them Dunbar Town House, especially the Local History Society room as they said they didn’t have those types of groups in their own countries. They were fascinated by the Brrrr video about Dunbar’s outdoor pool (yes, I said outdoor pool) and couldn’t believe people would actually venture outside in anything less than scarves, gloves and a hat! And it was quite a warm day on Monday too!

They were encouraged by Gordon in the Town House to try the fish-based dishes at dinner on the Monday night, and they certainly did. The Smoked Haddock and Scampi and chips were very popular! On Tuesday before they left, we had fruit scones with jam and cream. They all agreed that Dunbar had been a lovely place to visit and that the scones were one of the highlights!

 Homecoming, pah, try Scone-coming, we’d bring in huge numbers…

 We’re obsessed with all things Scottish at the moment with 2009 being the year of Homecoming. I was at Knox Academy a few weeks ago doing sessions with their S1 pupils as they are creating their own exhibition for Homecoming. The pupils struggled to come up with famous Scottish people they actually wanted to research straight away. Many shook their head at David Tennant and pulled a face when Lorraine Kelly was mentioned! The queen of breakfast tv indeed!

 So the topic opened up to include a more general Scottish theme. What they came up with was interesting insight into how we view ourselves as a nation - Irn Bru, Haggis, Whisky, Tam O’Shanter, Sir Henry Raeburn, Andy Murray, William Wallace, and so the list goes on…I’m going tomorrow night to view the finished versions so I’ll report back (and hopefully add some photos to our Flickr site too).

John Muir’s Birthplace is also going Homecoming crazy this year with their programme of events. Their exhibition on at present is about John Muir’s links with Robert Burns. You should make a little trip along to see it, and if you’re lucky and can shove the children off it, you might get a chance to re-enact Tam O’Shanter on a stage. 

Wow, that’s twice I’ve managed to mention Tam O’Shanter during this post. But no one does Scottish better than the Americans so here’s my favourite version of the poem on YouTube. I like the fact Tam is wearing a baseball cap and that it got them extra credit in English lit.

Other museum news….Sheila’s been off to the Brunton to find all our paintings hanging about there, Ken is now working on a brand new loan box on fishing, the John Gray Centre plans roll on, and we’re about to recruit new seasonal Museum Assistants. Exciting times! If there’s any news in particular you’d like to hear about, let me know!

 Big news from the Museums Service…Kate is now back from maternity leave as our Principal Museums Officer! We are therefore nearly back to full strength now, although we still have a post vacant for our Assistant Museums Officer.

We will also be recruiting for seasonal Museum Assistants soon so we’ll have a whole new selection of faces. And we have a few new eager volunteers (more are always welcome!). I will endeavor to get at least one other person to write a blog. That’s my aim for the next year!

Holocaust Memorial Day

Did you know it’s Holocaust Memorial Day on the 27th of January? The theme for this year is ‘Stand Up to Hatred’. We’ve worked with Knox Academy to put photographs online of the models a Second year History class made to do with the Holocaust.

  P6 and P6/7 at King’s Meadow Primary in Haddington are also hosting an assembly on the day as part of a wider project. The pupils will be working with an artist and writer to create an exhibition which will be shown at Prestongrange Museum later in the year as part of the Slave Trade Exhibition.

February beckons…

February is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month. We’ve put together a programme of activities for the month, which you’re more than welcome to come along to. In fact, we’d love it if you came along because as it’s the first year the Council have marked LGBT History Month we’re not sure what kind of turn out we’ll get! You can come along to the concert by Edinburgh Gay Men’s Chorus, or join OurStory Scotland for a fun afternoon of storytelling around a ‘camp’ fire. 

 Anyway, as part of this, I am trying to identify either people or places in East Lothian which have a connection to the LGBT community. Any suggestions? (Just to beat you to it…Rhona Cameron.)

It’s time to open window number 10 on your advent calendar….

Oh look, it’s a bell! The bell from Haddington’s grammar school, which closed in 1879,  to be more exact. Ding-dong merrily on high.

Thanks to everyone who left comments on my last blog. It’s great to know there are people out there who read this!

So back to museum news….as part of the development of the John Gray Centre, a few of us visited Callendar House in Falkirk on Monday. It contains a Museum and Archives and we discussed with Peter Stott, Head of Heritage and Learning, and Elspeth Reid, Archivist, the benefits and pitfalls of having two services within the one building. The working kitchen within Callendar House is amazing and we were given the opportunity to taste some old-fashioned Christmas Pudding! We also visited the Print Maker’s shop, which was based on Johnston and Son’s shop from Falkirk Town Centre - now Johnston Press who produce East Lothian News!

North Berwick High School held a Slave Trade exhibition in their library, supported by the Museums Service, over the first week in December. Georgina Brownlee, from the school’s History Department, organised the exhibition with her classes. The exhibition included objects, panels and images from the recent ‘Ports, Prisoners and Pirates’ exhibition at John Muir’s Birthplace alongside pupil’s work. Pupils wore ‘Happy to Help’ sashes at breaks and lunchtimes to answer visitor’s questions and a comments book reflected the enthusiasm of the school towards the topic. The pupils created a wonderful display. Photos should be available soon on Flickr!

And finally, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all at the Museums Service. Speak to you again in 2009!

It’s only 9 weeks until Christmas. Bet that scares you more than Hallowe’en! We are planning our Hallowe’en party at Prestongrange Museum at the moment. I delivered a pumpkin for Claire to carve yesterday so I’m waiting to see what wonderful images will appear - perhaps a Beam Engine?!

Jo, Sheila and I went to the Museums Association Conference from the 6th-8th of October. It was held in Liverpool, the current European Capital of Culture, and we were based right at the Albert Docks. The International Slavery Museum gave us lots to consider for our exhibitions planned for 2009 on the same topic. I thought the sections on present day music being influenced by African traditions were really thought-provoking.

It’s also Black History Month at the moment and we’re very proud that in the official BHM magazine, we are listed as one of the only museums in Scotland hosting an events programme. Any of you who attended our talk by Professor Geoff Palmer and Dr David Anderson, called ‘Slavery Past, Prejudice Present’ will agree that it’s a fascinating topic!

I suppose that’s quite a brief summary of what we’ve been up to in the museum service recently, only the highlights really as otherwise I’d be here all night! Happy Hallowe’en….

 The fact I have to open my office window every day and my cactus looks as if it’s dying tells me that summer is finally here! Only a few weeks until the school summer holidays start in Scotland and most people are sunburnt already.

At Prestongrange, David’s Red Hot Pokers are looking lovely and survived the hectic Three Harbours Arts Festival. The opening night saw the museum play host to wonderful choirs, dancers and musicians. Staff also got into the swing of things by dressing up as characters from the museum’s past. As Christine and Claire walked across the site it looked as if we’d suddenly gone back in time! Unfortunately we didn’t make it into the East Lothian Courier’s photographs. Better luck next time!

 In Dunbar, John Muir’s Birthplace continue their hectic schedule with a visit this week from pupils from Yosemite Valley School in California. A huge thanks goes to all the host families who have went out of their way to make the children feel at home whilst they are here! 

 Dunbar Townhouse is currently in a state of flux as the next exhibition, Band of Brothers, is due to open this week. If you happen to be passing, don’t let the scaffolding put you off, there’s lots of great things to see inside.

 Apart from that, plans for the John Gray Centre march on. Our online survey is now ready to roll. If you want to have a say in how the centre develops (it will include a museum, library and archives) then complete the online questionnaire.

As part of our Grundtvig Project I went on a trip to Compton Verney, an art gallery in Warwickshire, from 27th-29th of April.

The gallery is set in picturesque grounds and has a specially built learning centre - which I was very envious of! The gallery is a charity, funded by the Peter Moores Foundation, and only opened in 2004. As well as meeting with other partners from Italy and Hungary who are part of the project, we also had the chance for a tour of the galleries. At present their temporary exhibitions are by James Coleman and Alberto Giacometti. Both were presented really well and, although the James Coleman piece included a very strong Irish accent, all nationalities seemed to appreciate both!

Now onto the actual work of the Grundtvig project, the creation of the Our East Lothian website. Have a look and add your comments about one of our photographs - at the moment the focus is on World War Two.