Welcome to the 24 Hour Museum news in brief page for the week ending December 9 2007.
07.12.2007 - Cadbury invites local artist to mark Bournville refurbishment
Chocolate manufacturer Cadbury is launching a search for local artists to produce new works of art to be placed in a brand new £30 million office development at Bournville.
Three new pieces of art, including a sculpture, photographic set and wall-based painting will be commissioned to coincide with the grand opening of the newly refurbished office space in 2008, which will accommodate more than 600 staff at Bournville.
“Cadbury has long been part of the local community and we wanted to invite artists within that community to celebrate with us," said Cadbury spokesman Tony Bilsborough. "The chosen work will serve as a permanent celebration of the past, present and future relationship between Cadbury and Bournville."
Artists can download an artistic brief from now by visiting www.cadbury.co.uk/bournvilleartsproject and will have until Friday January 11 2008 to submit their ideas.
The commission process has been bolstered by funding from Arts & Business, which seeks mutually beneficial partnerships between business, the arts and the public sector.
07.12.2007 - Hertford Museum scoops grant from HLF
Hertford Museum has received £985,000 grant for a major revamp from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The grant will be used to pay for improvements to access, including the installation of a lift, together with exhibition space improvement.
The museum will close in September 2008 for one year while work is carried out.
06.12.2007 - Welsh slavery exhibition wins top UK award
Staff at Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales and other heritage organisations across Wales are celebrating after this year’s “Everywhere in Chains” project picked up a top UK award.
Birmingham-based Black History Foundation selected the National Waterfront Museum’s exhibition on Wales and slavery, together with its wide range of associated events and community work, as the “outstanding contribution to black heritage in Wales for 2007”.
The exhibition commemorated the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act of 1807 by looking at the roles played by Wales in both opposing and supporting transatlantic slavery during the three centuries before.
The award will be presented at the UK Black Heritage Fair on Saturday December 8.
06.12.2007 - Coveted five star grading for Shetland Museum
The Shetland Museum and Archives, managed by the Shetland Amenity Trust, has gained the highest grading possible through VisitScotland’s Quality Assurance Scheme, five stars.
The Museum joins only ten other museums in Scotland including Kelvingrove in Glasgow and National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh which have attained this grade.
“Receiving this type of recognition not only shows what a fantastic service the Museum and Archives provides but also helps to raise the profile of Shetland’s Heritage and Culture, which is one of our key objectives," said Jimmy Moncrieff, General Manager of the Shetland Amenity Trust.
"It also reflects the quality of visitor attractions in Shetland and the importance we put on ensuring our visitors have the best experience possible. I would like to thank everyone involved in achieving this.”
05.12.2007 - Manchester Craft and Design Centre raise £2,000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care
The Manchester Craft and Design Centre celebrated its 25th anniversary on Saturday December 1 with an open day that raised £2,000 for the charity, Marie Curie Cancer Care.
More than 2,000 visitors crowded into the centre during the day for a variety of activities and entertainments ranging from food and drink to a community choir and jazz quartet.
In the evening the centre's new director, Kate Day, hosted an auction of 27 commemorative pieces specially made by Craft Centre tenants with proceeds going to the Marie Curie charity.
05.12.2007 - National Galleries of Scotland secures massive sponsorship for its Vanity Fair exhibition.
The National Galleries of Scotland has secured the largest ever sponsorship deal in its history for its forthcoming Vanity Fair photography exhibition.
Lloyds TSB are to sponsor Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913 - 2008, with a six-figure sum. 150 images from the magazine's first period (1913 - 1936) will be displayed together with works from the contemporary Vanity Fair (1983 - present).
04.12.2007 – Temporary export bar placed on 14th century astrolabe quadrant
Culture Minister Margaret Hodge has placed a temporary export bar on a portable astrolabe quadrant, unearthed in 2005 in Canterbury where it had lain undiscovered for over 600 years.
The engraved astrolabe quadrant is a multi-functional instrument useful for such diverse tasks as timekeeping at day, surveying and determining latitude. It is also a pocket calculator and much more. It would have belonged to a highly educated person well versed in the secrets of the sky.
The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, administered by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, recommended that the export decision be deferred on the grounds that the astrolabe quadrant is of outstanding significance for the study of the history of science.
The decision on the export licence application for the astrolabe quadrant will be deferred for a period ending on 3 February 2008 inclusive. This period may be extended until 3 June 2008 inclusive if a serious intention to raise funds with a view to making an offer to purchase the astrolabe quadrant at the recommended price of £350,000 excluding VAT.
03.12.2007 - Members of the public rally to save Cogges Manor Farm Museum
People in Witney Oxfordshire have begun a campaign to save Cogges Manor Farm, after Oxfordshire County Council revealed it is proposing to close the working farm museum.
A petition has been signed by hundreds of people calling for the museum to be saved. It will be presented on Wednesday December 5 at a meeting of the county council's social and public services scrutiny review committee.
The council is looking to save £250,000 in its museum service budget and the 20-acre site is earmarked to be sold off as part of an overhaul.
03.12.2007 - Work begins on Bexhill Museum redevelopmemt
Work has started in preparation for the Bexhill Museum extension project, which will provide new galleries, storage, office space, educational facilities and a café overlooking the park.
The project, which will be finished in 2009, will also bring together under one roof the Bexhill Museum and the Bexhill Museum of Costume and Social History at the former's Egerton Park site.
Museum patron Eddie Izzard will open the new development upon its completion in 2009.
03.12.2007 - Strange heads turn up at Holyrood Park In Edinburgh
Historic Scotland is calling for public help to solve the riddle of two mysterious stone heads discovered in Holyrood Park in the centre of Edinburgh.
One of the bodiless heads, which is male, came to light following the partial draining of St Margaret’s Loch while the other female head turned up on grassland near Spring gardens.
“The male carving has distinctive rustic tooling and may be from a statue of a faun or similar mythical creature," said Peter Yeoman, Historic Scotland senior archaeologist. “But we don’t know where it came from and are not yet certain of its age."
Mr Yeoman added that the style of the second carving is quite different, and could have come from a garden ornament. "It is certainly an unusual coincidence for two stone heads to turn up in the park," he said. “If anyone has any ideas we would be fascinated to hear from them.”
Anyone with suggestions about the origins of the Holyrood Park heads can write to Peter Yeoman, care of Media and Marketing, Historic Scotland, Room 4.5, Longmore House, Salisbury Place, Edinburgh, EH9 1SH.
