Welcome to the 24 Hour Museum news in brief page for the week ending May 13 2007.
11.05.2007 - Natural History Museum hands over Aboriginal remains
London's Natural History Museum (NHM) has handed over the remains of 17 Tasmanian Aboriginal people after reaching agreement with the Tasmanian Aboriginal Council (TAC).
The museum and the TAC had been in dispute over the fate of the remains as although the NHM agreed to repatriate them in November 2006, it was keen to carry out scientific tests on them before returning them, which the TAC strongly opposed.
After three days of mediation it was agreed that the remains would return to Tasmania, with some of the material to be preserved under the joint control of both the TAC and the museum pending further discussions over the feasibilty of data collection and testing on them.
The museum is keen to complete its tests as the remains provide a unique DNA sample, representing a group of people who were isolated from the Australian mainland around 12,000 years ago, but the TAC says that this abhorrent to Aboriginal culture and beliefs.
The remains were handed over at a private ceremony at the museum on May 11.
11.05.2007 - SS Great Britain wins prestigious European museum award
Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdon Brunel's SS Great Britain has been named Best Industrial or Technological Museum 2007 at the European Museum of the Year Awards.
The ship, based in Bristol, was one of only three museums to receive an award. It was competing against more than 30 other shortlisted venues across Europe including World Museum Liverpool and the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea.
Museum Bremerhaven, in Germany, which is dedicated to emigration, picked up the top European Museum of the Year Award.
The SS Great Britain also received the Gulbenkian Prize for best UK museum or gallery in 2006 and the Large Visitor Attraction of the Year 2007 in the EnjoyEngland Excellence Awards.
10.05.2007 - Museum of English Rural Life unveils new-for-old Clayton and Shuttleworth engine
A 19th century portable steam engine which was lovingly conserved after being left for scrap in the 1950s is to be unveiled this month at the University of Reading's Museum of English Rural Life.
The single cylinder portable steam engine was built by renowned agricultural machinery manufacturers, Clayton and Shuttleworth of Lincoln in 1877. It was one of the first objects to be collected when MERL was founded in 1951 and was last owned by an Oxfordshire farmer.
It was bought from a farm in Adderbury near Banbury for the scrap metal price of £3 per ton, carriage paid! Most of the engines of this type were exported so MERL is both extremely fortunate and delighted to add this rare engine to its fascinating collection.
Now it has been brought back to its former glory and will go on display from May 23 at MERL in London Road, Reading.
10.05.2007 - Debate tackles a burning issue for modern museums
Should museums be made accessible to everyone or preserved as hallowed spaces for quiet contemplation? Are collections more important than people or should visitors be the primary consideration? A debate to be held at Merseyside Maritime Museum on May 17 2007 explores these thorny issues currently facing museums in the UK.
Speakers at the debate include writer James Delingpole, National Museums Liverpool Director David Fleming, Kids in Museums Director Dea Birkett and David Barrie of the Art Fund.
The debate promises to be a vibrant exploration of the issues, chaired by the Telegraph’s radio critic and National Museums Liverpool trustee Gillian Reynolds.
Spaces are limited, for a free place please contact rsvp@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk or call 0151 478 4402 (24 hour answerphone).
09.05.2007 - Tank Museum's new £multi-million display hall moves closer
The Tank Museum has appointed constuction company Norwest Holst to design and build a new 5,000sqm display hall in a contract worth £10m.
The new display hall is a key element of The Tank Museum’s £16m Heritage Lottery Fund-sponsored redevelopment project, entitled At Close Quarters. The project will also see Norwest Holst rebuilding and significantly improving the Tank Museum Arena, and other external facilities.
“This is an important milestone for the Museum as it means that building work on our New Display Hall will now begin," said Museum Director Richard Smith. "It will provide a world class home for our world class collection of tanks."
Norwest Holst built the award winning Ondaatje Wing of the National Portrait Gallery in London and the RAF Museum in Hendon. The Tank Museum's new building is due to open to the public in 2009.
09.05.2007 - Liverpool museums’ visitor figures rise for 6th consecutive year
National Museums Liverpool has released visitor figures that show over 1.69 million people visiting its museums between April 2006 and March 2007 representing a rise of over 5% on last year’s numbers which were just over 1.6 million.
The Walker Art Gallery (pictured) enjoyed the biggest rise with numbers almost doubling last year in an increase of over 43%. Big Art for Little Artists, the dedicated children’s gallery opened in April 2006, has made a massive contribution attracting a new audience of families and young people to the Walker.
"It’s exciting to see the museums becoming more and more popular with such a wide range of people," said David Fleming Director of National Museums Liverpool. "These visitor figures prove that we were right to change things around at the Maritime Museum, the Walker Art Gallery and the Lady lever Art Gallery."
"Our plans for the future, with the new International Slavery Museum and the Museum of Liverpool, mean that there will be even more reasons for people to visit our museums."
The first phase of the International Slavery Museum opens later this year and the Museum of Liverpool is due to open in 2010.
08.05.2007 - Stephen Willats' docklands artwork acquired by Museum in Docklands
Museum in Docklands has acquired Working Within a Defined Context, a significant work from artist Stephen Willats, which is on display now in the museum.
The multi-media panels depict working life in the docks during the 1970s and comprise of photographs, gouache, ink on card, letraset and photographic dyes.
Willets, one of the most significant British conceptual artist of the 1960s and 1970s, worked in close collaboration with everyone from residents on housing estates to employees in the workplace, to create a participatory art designed to demand an active, rather than passive response.
The purchase was made possible with a donation of £5,000 from The Art Fund, the UK’s leading independent art charity and £4,000 from the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund.
08.05.2007 - Tudor drama to be performed at Hampton Court after 480 years
A Tudor drama that was probably last performed in front of Henry VIII in the Great Hall of Hampton Court Palace 480 years ago is to be recreated in the same venue.
John Heywood's courtly play, The Play of the Weather, written around 1532, will be performed by a professional theatre company led by Gregory Thompson, Director of Tron Theatre, Glasgow.
The project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), aims to perform selected scenes from the play in the Great Hall as part of an experiment to produce a full-scale production of the play in the Hall during 2009, the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's accession to the throne.
The performance will take place on May 10 before an invited audience of historians, literary scholars, and experts from Historic Royal Palaces.
