West Yorkshire Archive Service

I'm delighted to be starting work with the West Yorkshire Archive Service on their new schools programme, watch this space for more details...

With 1 learning journey already live (Sheffield City Archives and the Autugraph Book) and 3 more on the way, work is progressing well with the Yorkshire Archive Learning Network Mylearning project. Its been great to get back in the searchroom and there is some fascinating archival material out there in Yorkshire about WW1 in Yorkshire. Look out for resources coming up from North Yorkshire County Record Office and the M&S Archive. Already there have been some great submissions from other Archives across Yorkshire. 

With help from Archive staff we've found some great suggestions for creatively interpreting archival collections and working towards the Arts Award. Take a look...

www.mylearning.org

Beginning Yorkshire Archives Learning Network and Mylearning First World War Resources

I have just started work on resources for mylearning.org, working with the Yorkshire Archives Learning Network and Cape UK (Arts Council bridge Organisation). Its been great to get back into working with Archives and archival material and an area of work I feel really passionate about; using archival material as a stimulus for creative work.

I'll be creating 3 learning journeys with mylearning and Archives across Yorkshire and in the process of my early research I've come across an amazing website;

http://picturesheffield.com/

Seeing original archival material is a unique experience but websites like this and of course mylearning are opening that world up to so many people who might not access archives in any other way. You could get lost in browsing though, , there is so much to see.

www.mylearning.org

www.capeuk.org

Scarborough Handling Boxes Completed

I've created 4 new Handling Boxes for Scarborough Museums Trust on the themes of Games, Sports, Entertainment and Transport. They were fun and challenging to produce, especially because I was asked in the brief to create boxes which were as interactive as possible but could be enjoyed while sitting down, as they would be used by people in hospice care. I included board games (such as Formula One - an example of which is held by the V&A) and quizzes from the 1960s and 80s (to see if any of the answers are different!). My personal favourite however was the Box Brownie, I could imagine Edwardian amateur photographers using that exact camera. What a world that opened up for people!

Remembering Scarborough

With the printed resources (copies are available from Scarborough Museums Trust) and the Artefact Investigation Suitcases all shipped off (to Whitby Museum and Pannett Art Gallery, Scarborough Museums, Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre and Beck Isle Museum), I took the Remember Scarborough Resources on tour in November. I visited Scalby School for their immersion day and with Esther Graham of Scarborough Museums Trust led 4 sessions to over 120 Year 8s using photographic, newspaper, film, map and propaganda posters as sources of evidence to determine what they could tell us about the bombardment and how reliable they were. We had a great time and the students were really engaged with plenty of questions for us to keep us on our toes.

I’ll be sad not to be making the trip up to Scarborough for a while (although I nearly took off in the wind on the footbridge a few weeks ago!), but Esther and I already thinking of ways we can work together in the future.

Scarborough Museums Trust

This month I've started work on the 'Remember Scarborough!' project with Scarborough Museums Trust, which is Arts Council Funded. I'll be developing First World War inspired handling resources and activities for the 6 partner sites; Scarborough Museums, Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre, Whitby Museum and Pannett Art Gallery, Heugh Battery Museum in Hartlepool, Beck Isle Museum in Pickering and the Wagoners Museum at Sledmere House with help from the Western Front Association.

The local wartime history of the area is fascinating, I was amazed to see the actual shell holes in the buildings from the 1914 bombardment on my first visit to Scarborough. Its a story I wasn't aware of before so I'm excited to find out more. 

The exhibition at Scarborough will be opening on July 26th, keep up to date with developments at;

http://www.scarboroughmuseumstrust.org.uk/our-venues/art-gallery/exhibitions/168-rememberscarborough.html

Conisbrough Castle Discovery Visits Project

My work on developing the Conisbrough Castle Discovery Visits with Heritage Learning for English Heritage has come to an end now, which happily means the ‘Meet the Medieval’ and ‘Tales from the Keep’ sessions are available now for KS1-3 groups to take part in. They are great hands on sessions with plenty of object investigation, enquiry and role play for younger pupils.

As well as learning a great deal about medieval Britain and the castle in the process, I have acquired some amazing pieces of knowledge during my time working on the projects, for instance did you know there is a festival called Spoonfest devoted to carving spoons?

I’ve also come into contact with some incredibly talented designers, potters, wood turners and embroiderers (see Tanya Bentham of Threads of Time's work above).  Their work has enhanced our sessions immensely. Thank you.

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/conisbrough-castle/education/

 http://www.heritage-learning.com/

http://yourprofolio.com/skaromedia          

 www.trinitycourtpotteries.co.uk

www.douggiethewood.co.uk

 www.threadsoftime.org.uk