Welcome to the 24 Hour Museum news in brief page for the week ending July 22 2007. This page is updated every weekday.
20.07.2007 – National Trust opens house of straw in Lake District
The National Trust has opened a new education centre in an eco-building near the valley of Troutbeck in the Lake District.
The Footprint Building, as it is known, has aimed to use as many local, natural and recycled materials as possible along with historical building practices. The walls are made from straw, cob, clay and lime plaster, and sheep’s wool from nearby Trust estates serves as insulation.
A camera took time-lapse photographs throughout the building project, and the resulting film is now part of the Trust’s Exposed touring exhibition. Exposed: Climate Change in Britain’s Backyard records how climate change is affecting the Trust’s properties, and what is being done about it. It features work by leading UK photographers.
Currently at Penrhyn Castle (until September 2), it will move on to Bristol City Museum (November 10 – December 9) and Waterfront Hall in Belfast in January 2008.
20.07.2007 – Channel created by catastrophic flood, say experts
New research shows that a ‘megaflood’ of Biblical proportions created the English Channel, separating Britain from mainland Europe.
The evidence was gathered as part of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project, overseen by Professor Chris Stevens of the Natural History Museum in London.
A team made detailed studies of the sea bed off the coast of Sussex using sonar imaging techniques. A huge valley seven miles wide, scour marks and piles of rock discovered down there led experts to conclude that the Channel could only have been created by a huge torrent of water, rather than slow erosion as previously thought.
The torrent is surmised to have come from a massive lake created by glaciation. Lying in the region of the North Sea, it overflowed over a high chalk ridge, ripping through it towards the Atlantic, the study argues. The Channel would have been carved out between 450,000 and 200,000 years ago.
20.07.2007 – Hunt for oldest family in Liverpool extended
The closing date of a competition to find Liverpool’s longest established family has been extended due to popular demand.
Genealogists have flooded into the city’s record office, increasing visitor numbers by 150 per cent since the competition opened earlier this year. With organisers overwhelmed with calls for assistance, the July 31 deadline has been extended to 5pm on August 7 2007.
The prize will see the winners treated as VIPs in the city’s 800th birthday celebrations. For more information and competition rules, see the Visit Liverpool website.
Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher (pictured) was at the Royal Airforce Museum on July 18 to officially open the new Chinook exhibition.
A versatile and powerful helicopter, the Boeing Chinook is used for troop movement, artillery emplacement and battlefield re-supply. It was first procured by the RAF in 1980 and has seen operational service in the Falklands War, the first Gulf War and the current Gulf conflict.
Based around the frame of an actual Chinook forward fuselage, the new permanent exhibition allows visitors a ‘walk-in’ experience and includes a full cockpit with controls, along with additional display materials including interactive kiosks and audio-visual presentations on wide-screen monitors. The exhibition is fully accessible by ramp and is supported by a number of graphics panels.
19.07.2007 - Artist to perform death-defying high wire stunt in Glasgow
A death-defying high wire walk by visual artist Didier Pasquette is due to take place in Glasgow on Saturday July 21.
The stunt is part of a collaborative venture between Artangel and Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Visual Art and will see Pasquette take to the wire 90 metres above the ground stretched between three of the tower blocks in Red Road, North Glasgow - weather permitting.
Tony Benn has backed a new report on the positive impact of community archives. The report, published by the Community Archives Development Group, shows that two million people used archives in 2006 and learning about local history promotes understanding, tolerance and respect between communities.
“Records are very important because they provide understanding and reassurance, of your friends, culture, and your life,” said former Labour MP Benn. “Take that away from people and they are lost.”
The report also highlights the opportunities for learning that archives can provide, citing the 300 people who have acquired skills in digital technology thanks to the My Brighton and Hove initiative as an example.
The report was funded by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, The National Council on Archives and The National Archives. For more information visit www.communityarchives.org.uk.
19.07.2007 - Somerset County Museum acquires Glastonbury Abbey painting
Somerset County Museum has acquired George Arnald's unique painting of the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey.
The work, which cost £24,700 at auction at Christie’s in London, is one of the best known images of the Abbey, completed around 1810 by one of England’s most talented early 19th century artists. The painting illustrates a romanticised view of the ruins enveloped in a striking and dramatic storm.
The purchase was made possible with a grants from The Art Fund and the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund.
18.07.2007 - Tate asks young musicians to create music in response to artworks
Tate Modern is launching a major competition, Your Tate Track, asking 16 -24-year-olds to create music inspired by art from the Tate Collection.
The inititiative is the latest part of Tate Tracks, in which leading musicians such as Klaxons, Chemical Brothers and The Long Blondes, recorded original tracks in response to Tate works.
From July 19, entrants will be able to visit Tate Online and choose an artwork from a selection on display at Tate Modern this autumn and then write a track in response.
Tate Modern is working in partnership with MySpace to allow musicians to register entries via the MySpace player on their profile, and with BT, Tate Online’s creative and technical partner.
The public will have until August 31 to vote for their favourite track at www.myspace.com/tategallery and the 20 most popular will go before a judging panel which will include, among others, Graham Coxon, Roll Deep, Basement Jaxx and Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens.
The winner will be announced at Tate Modern on September 17 and their track will be installed in the gallery on a listening post next to the work which inspired it and will be streamed on Tate’s website. The competition is open to both bands and solo artists and entries can be from any musical genre.
18.07.2007 - Family Archaeology day reveals secrets of Harbottle this Sunday
This Sunday, July 22, visitors to the village of Harbottle in Northumberland National Park will be able to explore the archaeology of the famous Harbottle Castle and the surrounding landscape from the earliest times, through the turbulent middle ages to recent industrial history.
Coquetdale Community Archaeology Group has organised the day of activities for families to celebrate National Archaeology Week.
The day will include walking tours, children's activites, an exhibition and tours of the castle. For more information or to book a place on a tour call or email Elanor Johnson on Tel: 01669 622068 or ejohnson@nnpa.com
18.07.2007 - Public meeting called by Rotherwas Ribbon camaigners
A public meeting has been arranged by the campaigners trying to stop a road being built over the Rotherwas Ribbon.
Now called Save the Dinedor Serpent Campaign, the campaigners have organised a meeting for Friday July 27 at the Assembly Rooms, Shire Hall, High Town, Hereford at 7pm.
The meeting will follow on from a meeting of Full Council at 10.30am that morning.
The 60m-long curved ribbon of stones dates from the early Bronze Age and is a surface of cracked stones believed to be of ritual use. It was recently discovered as a result of archaeological investigations carried out prior to the construction of the Rotherwas access road, located just south of Hereford city.
The campaign has now been launched to stop Hereford Council from encasing the find in a protective layer and continuing with their road building plan.
17.07.2007 - 18th century Cornish dictionary now online
Geirlyer Kyrnweig, the Cornish dictionary compiled by Welshman Edward Lhuyd, has been put online for public viewing by the National Library of Wales, who holds the original book.
The 172 page notebook was completed in 1702 after Lhuyd spend four months travelling around Cornwall, talking to native speakers and recording their vocabulary.
It was written in black and red ink in Lhuyd's own handwriting and contains a large number of corrections and several words have been crossed out.
The Library also holds other important Cornish manuscripts, including Beunans Meriasek, a drama in Middle Cornish written in 1504, and Beunans Ke, a copy of the second half of the 16th century drama of the life of Saint Ke, which have also been digitised.
The survey is available until August 6 2007 where users can tell the UKNIWM how they are doing and what they want to see in the future.
"This HLF funded survey is a vital contribution to our continued work to nurture the appreciation of the people and events that UK war memorials commemorate," said Dr Alan Borg, chairman of the UKNIWM trustees.
The survey is in the Help Us section of the war memorial website.
17.07.2007 - Barnsley Town Hall to become new museum
Barnsley Town Hall is set to become a new social and industrial history museum after the Heritage Lottery Fund earmarked £2.6m to the venture.
The Grade I Lottery Pass means that the Experience Barnsley project now needs to submit a detailed proposal to secure the cash and go ahead with developing the museum.
Experience Barnsley plans to transform the 1930s Grade II listed building into a hub for community activities across the borough and to chart the town's history from prehistoric times to the present day.
Collections which include artefacts relating to Barnsley's mining, linen, printing and glass-making trades are currently in storage, with some of the town's archaeology stored in Sheffield and Doncaster Museum.
The borough's archive will also be brought together under the same roof as the local studies department along with a National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) archive.
16.07.2007 - Last chance to see Eastney steam engines this summer
The Eastney Beam Engine House in Portsmouth opens for the final weekend before its summer break on Saturday July 28 and Sunday July 29 from 1-5pm.
An impressive Victorian building in Portsmouth's Henderson Road, the Beam Engine House contains a pair of classic Boulton and Watt beam engines and pumps restored to their original 1887 condition.
Run by Portsmouth Museums and Records Service and maintained by volunteers, the Beam Engine House is open for the last complete weekend for ten months of the year from 1pm-5pm. After July's weekend the Engine House will be closed for August but open again in the last weekend of September.
Contact (023) 9282 7261 for more information.
16.07.2007 - Museum of History of Science hosts mental calculation world record attempt
On July 24, the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford will host the attempt of 27 year old French mathematician, Alexis Lemaire, to beat the world record for mental calculation by working out the 13th root of a 200 digit number.
The official record, currently set at 4 minutes and 77 seconds is already held by Lemaire, but he wants to beat this record, and is hoping to get the time down to under a minute.
The 13th root of a number is deemed to be the most difficult mental calculation to perform because 13 is a prime number whose roots cannot be obtained by combining those of any other number.
“It’s just like learning your times tables really, but the numbers are bigger," said Lemaire. "I have a map or matrix in my head of thousands of tables that I have learned side by side. I can scroll through them and pick out the numbers I need. It’s all about thinking visually. “
16.07.2007 - Human Rights online exhibition launched by National Archives
The National Archives has launched a new online exhibition tracing the evolution of our human, social and civil rights from Magna Carta to the establishment of the Welfare State.
Travelling through time via documents and images, the exhibition looks at the struggles and milestones which led to the rights and liberties often taken for granted in our everyday lives.
"Britain has a rich history in relation to ordinary people seeking to develop rights and freedoms," said Dr Paul Carter, historian at The National Archives. "This new online exhibition is a great illustration of those struggles, and a testimony to those who fought for the freedoms we benefit from today."
The online exhibition is part of Freedom and Liberty, the 2007 Archive Awareness Campaign www.archiveawareness.com.
16.07.2007 - Has archaeologist discovered St Petroc's Well?
An amateur archaeologist who has discovered an ancient well near Padstow in Cornwall believes he may have uncovered the source of the water brought to the area by Cornwall's patron saint - St Petroc.
St Petroc is said to have travelled with a small band of followers by boat from Wales to Cornwall in the 6th century. On his arrival he won over the locals by providing a source of water.
Jonathan Clemes made the discovery while on an archaelogical dig in the grounds of Prideux Place, an Elizabethan manor house near Padstow. Near to the ancient well he found a papal bulla (lead seal). He is hopeful that this discovery points to the well being a Holy one - and indeed the fabled well of St Petroc.
16.07.2007 - Weekend Fair at historic Hove windmill
The Friends of West Blatchington Windmill in Hove, East Sussex, will be holding their annual fête on Sunday July 22. Based on a traditional English country fair, the fun starts at 2pm with free entry to the fête, and normal admission charges for tours of the mill.
Patcham Silver Band will provide the entertainment and strawberry cream teas and refreshments will be on offer in the North Barn. Attractions for the whole family include stalls of all kinds, face painting, a bouncy castle and pony rides. Vintage and classic cars will also be on show.
16.07.2007 - National Trust hosts Wicken Fen working weekend
The National Trust is promising a fun-packed weekend at Wicken Fen on Saturday July 21 and Sunday July 22.
Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire is one of the most important wetlands in Europe, supporting over 7,000 species including internationally rare plants, insects, birds, and mammals.
On the working weekend visitors will have the chance to meet one of the country’s few remaining eel catchers, local man Peter Carter, see Wicken’s wonderful wind pump in action, take 45 minute boat tours up and down the fen as well as other activities including pond dipping, t-shirt printing and building insect homes.
Phone 01353 720274 for more details.
16.07.2007 - New Saatchi Gallery to be completely free to enter
A new partnership between the Saatchi Gallery and contemporary art auction house Phillips de Pury & Company was announced on July 16 2007. The deal will allow the Saatchi Gallery to offer completely free admission.
All visitors to the new Saatchi Gallery, when it opens its new premises at Duke of York’s HQ in Chelsea, will now not be charged admission to any of the Gallery’s exhibitions, including its changing programme of curated shows.
"I am thrilled that our partnership with Phillips de Pury enables us to offer totally free admission to all shows at the gallery," said Charles Saatchi.
"I have tremendous admiration for Phillips de Pury because of their single-minded commitment to contemporary art, and I am certain that over the coming years we will see them grow into the major force in this area."
The opening of the new Saatchi Gallery on King’s Road is now scheduled for early 2008 in order to allow the creation of a further 20,000 square feet of space on the top floor of the gallery. This building work will create 70,000 square feet of exhibition space making the Saatchi Gallery one of the largest museums in the world devoted to showing contemporary art.
The Saatchi Gallery website, which boasts over 60,000 artists and art students from across the world displaying their art on the site, will also link to a new Phillips de Pury website to offer an interactive Q&A guideline for art collectors to navigate the contemporary art market.
