Evening lecture - 6.30pm

When: 9 May 2013

Royal Albert Memorial Museum (01392 265858)

Tickets: £4.50 (£3 concession)

The nineteenth century was truly the great ‘Age of the Museum’. Municipal museums in Britain sprang up after the 1845 Museums Act. But they were already being founded throughout the colonies of the British Empire.

The lecture will be given by Professor John Mackenzie, historian and pioneer of the study of popular and cultural imperialism and environmental history. will discuss why this was the case, what form some of these extraordinary museums took, what they tell us about the global spread of European culture, and the role this played in the development of national identities.

The Basketry and Beyond festival weekend and supporting events will provide plenty of opportunities to be inspired and get active with the craft of basketry.

Friday 17 May 2013  2pm – 5pm

Saturday 18 & Sunday 19 May 2013  10am – 5pm

Spend the weekend discovering the art and the craft of basketry and the many, many varied ways to make a basket and the uses of basketry techniques; from housing bees to catching crabs.
Highlights include demonstrations of the craft by international craftspeople, a seminar session to discuss basketmaking in contemporary practice, a basket, craft and produce market, drop in workshops for children and adults and much more.

Get making
At the heart of the festival are numerous ways to learn about and have a go at making baskets. During the week of the 13 – 17 May 2013 there will be a variety of courses ranging from those suitable for beginners to specialised masterclasses offered by passionate and creative artists and craftsman.  Beginners may make a simple round platter basket or work with rush, leaves and bark. For those with some previous skills they can challenge themselves to making baskets in the Perigord style, where the skill of holding a 100 willow rods in one hand is needed.

Light Fantastic Wearable Basketry Parade
Make a costume and join the Light Fantastic Wearable Basketry Parade in the medieval courtyard of Dartington Hall in the afternoon of Sunday 19th May.

‘From Bare Stems’
Basketry and Beyond are planning an exhibition, ‘From Bare Stems’, which focuses on the theme of fishing, farming and fashion. This is curated by Hilary Burns, who will show traditional and contemporary work side by side together with information about materials and techniques.

Images showing how baskets have been used and in some places are still used in everyday lives will put the work into context. High Cross House is a stunning location for the exhibition that will run from 8 March – 1 June 2013.

For further details contact Veronica Johnston Veronica@basketryandbeyond.org.uk

Friday 23 July 2010

CALL FOR PAPERS, PRESENTATIONS, AND EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

This colloquium will be the third meeting in an occasional series founded and organized by a loose association of researchers with interests in the visual traditions of Eastern Africa. The first meeting, organized by Hassan Arero at the Horniman Museum, was held in October 2003 under the title ‘East African Visual "Traditions": New Perspectives' and led to the publication of East African Contours:

Reviewing Creativity and Visual Culture (Arero and Kingdon (eds) 2005). The second meeting, organized by Chris Spring and Elsbeth Court, was held in September 2006 at the British Museum (in conjunction with the inaugural conference of AEGIS (Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies) held at SOAS) under the title ‘Mbili: Sharing Visual Traditions of Eastern Africa'.

This third meeting has been organized to take advantage of the full reopening of the Pitt Rivers Museum's permanent displays (on 1 May 2010), after ten years of redevelopment work at the Museum and its associated facilities, as well as the opening of two relevant special exhibitions: The Burial of Emperor Haile Selassie: Photographs by Peter Marlow, which opened in the Long Gallery on 22 April, and Wilfred Thesiger in Africa: A Centenary Exhibition, which will open in the Museum's new Special Exhibition Gallery on 4 June 2010 (see Morton and Grover (eds) 2010). Those attending the conference will have the opportunity to see both special exhibitions and the permanent displays.

Given the nature of these two special exhibitions, we would be interested in receiving proposals for papers and presentations relating to visual representations of Eastern Africa in photographs and other media, but offers of papers and presentations on any topic relating to current research into the historic or contemporary visual traditions of the region will be welcome. Offers of papers should be emailed to Jeremy Coote at jeremy.coote@prm.ox.ac.uk by 31 May 2010.

Jeremy Coote (Joint Head of Collections) and Chris Morton (Head of Photograph and Manuscript Collections)

Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

References and Links

Arero, Hassan and Zachary Kingdon (eds) 2005. East African Contours:

Reviewing Creativity and Visual Culture (Contributions in Critical Museology and Material Culture), London: The Horniman Museum and Gardens.

Morton, Christopher, and Philip Grover (eds) 2010. Wilfred Thesiger in Africa, London: HarperPress

http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/

http://southernsudan.prm.ox.ac.uk/

http://photos.prm.ox.ac.uk/luo/page/home/

http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/pdf/MarlowFlyer.pdf

http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/Titles/49563/wilfred-thesiger-in-africa-alexander-maitland-9780007325245

This policy explains how human remains are treated within the museum environment and attitudes towards public access and repatriation.

For further information please click here

28 August 2009 - 28 February 2010

Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany 

The British explorer, navigator and cartographer James Cook (1728 -1779) achieved world fame for leading three expeditions into the vast and unchartered waters of the Pacific Ocean. He was the first to survey and map New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific Islands, completing our modern image of the world and finally defeating the idea of a mythical Southern Continent.

The exhibition includes around 500 original exhibits presenting the voyages of James Cook and the international team of scientists and artists accompanying him. Their work during the European Enlightenment period contributed new insights to a host of disciplines (from navigation and astronomy to natural history, philosophy and art. It even led to the birth of a new science: the field of ethnology and ethnography.

As early as the end of the 18th century many of the ethnographic and natural history objects from diverse Pacific cultures, which were collected during the three Cook voyages, were spread into various collections all over Europe. Now, for the first time, they are being reunited for this exhibition in Bonn. Many of the objects are of incalculable value to art historians since comparably exquisite feather ornaments, wooden sculptures and other Oceanic artefacts can no longer be found in the Pacific region.

The Royal Albert Memorial Museum has loaned three items from its ethnographic collection to this exhibition; a Tongan club, an Easter Island staff of authority and a decorated Nuu-chah-nulth working plane from the Northwest Coast Canada.

Token Values showcases items from RAMM’s World Cultures collection alongside modern interpretations from a selection of Guild members. 

RAMM has an important collection of objects from many parts of the world. Some of these items were collected as memories of a journey, as curiosities and gifts of friendship. Traditionally given as gifts to family and friends, items are also acquired because of their perceived beauty or their commercial value.   

Souvenirs are fragments of a time and place but they are also containers of culture, identity and expressions of traditional values. They offer a deeper understanding of the people who made and collected them.   

Inspired by the museum objects, South West makers have used similar craft skills to produce a range of modern pieces, which are for sale. 

The display can be found at  The Devon Guild of Craftsmen in Bovey Tracey, Devon.

Admission is free T: 01626 832223

E: devonguild@crafts.org.uk 

W: http://www.crafts.org.uk