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Museumaker Commissions Major East Midlands Artworks
By Caroline Lewis
03/04/2006
Image: a photograph of an installation of silver objects placed in a woodland
Rebecca Newnham, Seed. © the artist
Nine designers have been commissioned to create artworks inspired by museum collections and buildings as part of the East Midlands creative collaboration, ‘museumaker'.
The £310,000 museumaker programme brings together British craftspeople and 20 museums across the region in a partnership that aims to attract new audiences for both contemporary craft and museum collections.
Commissioned work consisting of four temporary and five permanent pieces will be sited at nine museums in the East Midlands. The temporary works will be installed by April 27 2006 and the permanent commissions by January 2007.
“The museumaker programme is leading the way,” said Arts Council Chair Christopher Frayling. “It illustrates well the importance the Arts Council places on partnerships between the museum and heritage sector and today’s makers.”
A trail of 90 new pieces by Edmund de Waal, strategically placed to surprise and intrigue, has been commissioned for Millgate Museum in Newark. De Waal has also invited groups of local young people and artists to work with him to create an exhibition inspired by objects in the extensive museum stores.
Image: a photograph of a woven and weaved object resembling a nest
Laura Ellen Bacon, Fallen Nest. © the artist
Responding to displays on the history of local crafts like coppicing and basketmaking, Laura Ellen Bacon is making a series of large woven willow and locally coppiced dogwood sculptures. The works are intended to reflect the richness of the collections, which the artist imagines bursting out of the museum.
Rebecca Newnham will create two works for museumaker. Inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Trees design at 78 Derngate, Northampton, ‘Seedlings’ consists of a group of three tall strings of sacked leaf forms. For the launch at New Walk Museum, Newnham is presenting a flower-shaped sculpture in lapis blue mosaic entitled Lotus – again inspired by the museum’s natural history and cultural collections.
Derby Museum and Art Gallery will receive permanent works by Carl Clerkins – fashioned from traditional upholstery which has been morphed in some extraordinary ways. It will live in the gallery holding the world’s largest collection of works by 18th century painter Joseph Wright of Derby – Clerkin’s inspiration.
Pending planning permission from English Heritage, Claire Curneen will fill the empty niche on the exterior of St Mary’s Guidhall, Boston.
Image: a drawing of a buildings with a blob shape emanating from one of the windows
Laura Ellen Bacon, Pouring form: design for Charnwood Museum. © the artist
The ‘smallest museum in the UK’ will get its very own landscaped outdoor meeting space, complete with interactive sculpture that will respond to rain, sun and wind. Robert Frith’s commission is a fresh response to Flintham Museum’s idiosyncratic collections, which celebrate the former village shop and its owner, who kept a daily log of the weather.
A footprint will be the leading motif in 24 Design’s seating space for Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, which houses the world’s largest collection of boots and shoes, reflecting on the town’s past as a centre of footwear design and manufacture.
At Creswell Crags a new visitor centre will be created by architects OMI, who will collaborate with other designers to create the Museum's Education Centre.
The museumaker project is the first time Arts Council England, East Midlands, the East Midlands Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (EMMLAC) and Renaissance East Midlands have worked together.
Edmund de Waal, installation blue and 1. © the artist
“Contemporary crafts can play a significant role in bringing historical collections to life,” said Sir Christopher Frayling. “Makers can offer a new gateway to history, encouraging visitors to engage and learn more about the past. I am sure museumaker will be a creative catalyst for all the partners involved. It should encourage more visitors to museums and provide new opportunities for makers.”
Northampton Museum & Art Gallery
Guildhall Road, Northampton, NN1 1DP, Northamptonshire, England
T: 01604 838111
Open: Mon-Sat 1000-1700
Sun 1400-1700
Closed: Open Good Friday and Easter Monday
New Walk Museum & Art Gallery
53 New Walk, Leicester, LE1 7EA, Leicestershire, England
T: 0116 225 4900
Open: Open 7 days a week: Mondays - Saturdays: 10.00am - 5.00pm; Sundays: 11.00am - 5.00pm.
Closed: Closed 24, 25, 26, 31 December and 1 January.
Newark Millgate Museum
48 Millgate, Newark, NG24 4TS, Nottinghamshire, England
Open: Winter hours October to March
Tues to Friday 10.30am to 4pm
Saturday and Sunday 1pm to 4pm
Closed Mondays
Summer Opening Hours April to September
Tuesday to Sunday 10.30am to 4.30pm
Closed Mondays except summer bank holidays (open 10.30am to 4.30pm Easter Monday, May bank holidays, August bank holiday)
Closed: Closed Mondays
Christmas Day
Boxing Day
New Year's Day
Derby Museum & Art Gallery
Derby Museum & Art Gallery, The Strand, Derby, DE1 1BS, Derbyshire, England
Open: Mon 1100-1700
Tues-Sat 1000-1700
Sun & bank holidays 1300-1600
St Mary's Guildhall, Coventry
Bayley Lane, Coventry, CV1 5RR, West Midlands, England
Open: Open Easter-October
Sun-Thurs inclusive
10:00-16:00.
Closed: Closed Fri,Sat
October-Easter
Flintham Museum
The Reading Room, Inholms Road, Flintham, NG23 5LF, Nottinghamshire, England
Open: Bank Holiday Mondays, Easter-August 2-5pm
Sundays after Easter to end of October 2-5pm
For details of group bookings at other times please contact the museum
Closed: 1 November to Easter Sunday
Creswell Crags Museum and Education Centre
Creswell Heritage Trust, Crags Road, Welbeck, Worksop, S80 3LH, Nottinghamshire, England
Open: February-October
Every Day 10.30am-16.30pm
November-January (inclusive)
Sundays Only 10.30am-16.30pm
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