Exploring Weather: Artspace, Leeds Art Gallery

WHAT IS ART? 
This question came into my mind whilst volunteering at Leeds Art Gallery’s most recent Artspace. Artspace is an open access area with playful and creative activities inspired by artworks within the Gallery’s collection or temporary exhibition. 

For one week of the Easter school holiday we transformed the Gallery’s White Room into a space for exploring the weather and emotion, in particular how you can use weather as a way of meeting with and thinking about how you feel. We’d been inspired by the David Shearing’s Weather Café installation, which had been across the street from the 1 - 20 March (theweathercafe.co.uk). 

We selected three paintings from the collection to display: 'Blackpool Siesta' by John L. Cooper (1894-1943); 'Leeds Canal' (1914) by Charles Ginner; and 'The Café Suisse' (Café des Arcades, Dieppe) (1914) by Richard Walter Sickert. All offered insight into aspects of our project. They were hung at the very front of the White room and acted as a lure into the rest of the space which we designed to be as visually stimulating as possible.  

Artspace: Weather Moods invited people of all ages but especially children and their carers to use watercolour to paint weather images over weather stories they had written. There was also an immersive mood room with a series of projected images and sounds of different weathers and comfortable seating to encourage reflection on weather experiences.  

Other activities invited thinking about feelings as weather related phrases e.g. a face like a thundercloud.  These were displayed as if raindrops falling from an umbrella. 

Inflating Balloons we hoped would support playing with air and promote reflection on aspects of wind.

Whilst a paddling pool with books for reading about weather stories aimed to inspire children to imagine the weather when they can use such pools 

As Artspace filled with participant artworks and ideas, I couldn’t help thinking about how we were making our very own artwork as-installation-in-a-gallery, and from that I began to reflect on the question ‘what is Art?’.  Or perhaps more precisely, how do we value art? 

Artspace: Weather Moods was installed within the same room as exhibitions generally accepted and understood as Art by formal art institutions and audiences. I wondered, is the space we had created through the interaction between ideas, materials, participants and staff any less Art than what had been displayed in the room before? 

Our mood room, a sound and video combination, was shown in the same space that had previously housed a film for British Art Show 8. Did occupying this space make this installation Art? In a previous blog post I wrote about socially engaged artists such as Martino Gamper and Ciara Phillips who involve the public in their artistic processes, could our holiday Artspace be another example of socially engaged Art?

The more I began to think about the question what is Art and how we value it, the more I recognised that there is no one fixed answer. Reflecting on my thinking I have come to the conclusion that formal art institutions place value on Art for the rigor of the ideas, intention, and imaginative labour that went into its creation. (They may also value its historical significance, or because it is brand new and never seen before). In the education office we value our installation because it evidently inspired creativity, reflection and play. We value what is made by participants because it expresses their exploration, imagination and learning. I am now wondering whether comparing and contrasting these two frames may help unpack what is seen as ‘Art’.

As an Art History student I’m constantly thinking about questions like these, frequently I have more questions than answers. After my day in Artspace I came away with a renewed belief that there are many ways to value Art, and it is the multitude of possibilities that makes it so incredible. 

By Corinne Fosky, Placement Student

A successful Women's History Season at Leeds City Museum!

Women in Leeds doing embroidery

After nearly two months of events, talks, workshops and study days we have finally finished our Women’s History Season. We’ve heard fantastic speakers talk about a great range of subjects, and lots of people came along and learnt more about a wide range of women's histories. We’ve learnt about women of different ages, in many centuries, leading varied and interesting lives – and also a fair bit about the resources that can help us understand more about this history. 

 My personal highlight of the season has to have been getting to learn about the lives of Medieval women in a one-off study day run by Liz Mylod, Sophie Harwood and Kirsty Day. Having studied both Ancient and modern history but not much in the middle, it was fascinating to hear about how nuns set off on pilgrimage getting as far as the Holy Land in a time where moving from one village to the next was a logistical nightmare.

It was also wonderful to hear about so many local women and how they have made a name for themselves. We heard about suffragettes and suffragists like Mary Gawthorpe and Isabella Ford, alongside women like Elizabeth Moxon (local author of an 18th century cookbook) and the Barnbow lasses as well as finding out about broader topics like Girl Guiding and Jewish fashion. I was also thrilled that some of our other local services like Leeds Libraries and the Feminist Archive North based at the University of Leeds were able to come and talk about the material in their collections, and the possibilities this opens up for researchers.

I couldn’t possibly write about everything in one blog as it would go on far too long, but I did want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who was involved. Whether you gave a talk or ran a session for us, whether you worked wonders behind the scenes or whether you were one of the audience - thank you for your support and for making the season such a success. 

 And if you didn't manage to catch any of our events, why not book a place on our Leonora Cohen study day at Abbey House Museum on 9th June. The day costs £10 including lunch and runs from 11-3. Places are limited so please call 0113 3784079 to book. Full details can be found on our What's On website.


By Nicola Pullan, Assistant Curator of Leeds and Social History

Museums and extinct species

Natural science museum collections contain some of the huge biodiversity that we share our home planet with. A particular jewel of museum collections that curators are keen to shout about are specimens of extinct species.

Despite the promises of technological advances, once species have become extinct, we will never again share our planet with them. Millions of years of evolutionary history, billions of generations and iterations of natural selection are irretrievably lost.

Museums holding specimens of these lost species then become the only place where we can see them or learn from them. If we’re really lucky, there may even be recordings of their sounds held elsewhere. But that’s a poor substitute for enjoying them in the wild, and certainly no use in filling whichever ecological niches have been left empty by extinction.

While researching for my Bird Name of the Week tweet, I came across our Kōkako study skin. First of all, enjoy that name. Kōkako. There are two types of Kōkako, both from New Zealand. Some consider these to be two distinct species, while others consider them two subspecies within the same species. The bird skin we have in our collection had been catalogued simply as ‘Kōkako’ (I’m going to keep using this word while I have the chance!). When researching the meaning behind this name, it became obvious that our Kōkako is, or was, a South Island Kōkako. The North Island Kōkako (Callaeas wilsoni  (or Callaeas cinereus wilsoni)) is dark grey bird with characteristic blue wattles, visible in our two taxidermy mounts of this species.

North Island Kōkako

In contrast, the South Island Kōkako (Callaeas cinereus (or Callaeas cinereus cinereus)) has orange wattles, as seen in our study skin specimen.

 South Island Kōkako

As well as their wattle colour, the North Island and South Island species of Kōkako have another very important difference. Although they are endangered, it is still possible to see a North Island Kōkako in New Zealand. However, the South Island Kōkako is now thought to be extinct, the last confirmed sighting being in 2007.

So, it seems that Leeds Museums and Galleries can add another species (or subspecies) to our list of extinct animals in our collection. The extinction of the South Island Kōkako has made this sad-looking specimen precious. It will be vital in the future, perhaps to research the genetics and conservation of the surviving North Island Kōkako, but certainly to teach us why we need to look after our planet, and what we risk losing if we don’t.

Rebecca Machin, Curator – Natural Sciences

A WW1 Writer in Residence at Armley Mills

Robert held writing workshops at Armley Mills, Leeds, focusing on local First World War stories.

As a writer of children’s books I normally take workshops with the under elevens. But my short Writer’s Residency at Armley Mills Industrial Museum last week enabled me to work with the over elevens for a change! Some participants in my creative writing workshops were over fifty years over eleven! 

Whilst children often have few inhibitions about creative writing us grown-ups are sometimes reluctant to put pen to paper. But over two days, after slow, reluctant starts some truly exceptional writing and poetry was created inspired by the Women, Work and War exhibition and the stories it tells. 

Inspiration and WW1 history
A visit to Armley Mills Industrial Museum more than two years ago inspired me to write my up and coming novel, Troublesome Aunts, and last week the exhibition inspired people of all ages to write accounts and stories based upon their own knowledge of World War One, how it affected family members and the social and economic impact that the conflict had on women in the UK. 

The Barnbow Munitions Factory features heavily in the exhibition as it does in my book and it was amazing to meet someone who had worked at Barnbow, albeit in the 1970s when the site produced tanks for Vickers. The tragic events of December 6th 1916 were really brought to life by the exhibition for me and the visitors and I really hope Leeds Museums will commemorate the anniversary of the tragic loss of the 35 lives later this year. 

Discovering WW1 stories
During the final session one lady who found writing difficult wrote a moving piece about how the exhibition opened her eyes to what women, not only in Britain but in her home city of Leeds, went through and achieved in World War One. But she finished by stating that she wasn’t surprised about what the women in Leeds achieved as she knows that women can do anything!

You can visit the Women Work and War exhibition at Armley Mills until 24 September 2017. Find out more on our website.

By Robert Bullock

Treasures of the Herbarium Collection

During my placement at the Discovery Centre I have been documenting the Herbarium collection donated to Leeds Museums by the University of Leeds. 

Conserving delicate plants

The herbarium sheets, cones and seeds that I am working with are stacked in groups by the species to which they belong and groups of species folders are then placed together into larger folders by genus. The genus folders are then sorted by taxonomic family. 

The sheets have been temporarily stored in plastic wrapping and so I am unpacking the bundles and re-storing them in new conservation-grade boxes. Some of the specimens have been mounted on newspaper like the one above and you can see how the paper has become discoloured over time. I will have to re-mount some of the specimens on to acid-free paper to preserve them for the future.

Why do we preserve herbaria?

Herbaria are important for studying plant taxonomy, studying geographic distributions and in cataloguing the flora of a certain area. 

(Osmunda regalis)

Having a large collection from a single area can help us to understand the natural distribution over which plants grow and can provide a historical record of plants that have become extinct in one area. This information helps environmental scientists who track climate changes and human impact on the local species.

This example I found in the collection is Osmunda regalis a species of deciduous fern collected in York in 1877. If you look closely at the handwritten note above the label, in 1927 (forty years later) 

'In spite of reports that Osmunda was all gone from Askham Bog, I am glad to learn that it still survives on one spot, in small quantity….but strictly preserved.'

Another note below this says 'Happily increasing by protection 1936!'

This Osmunda regalis (above, left) is a perfect example of herbarium specimens being used to keep track of plants over time.

(Antirrhinum Majus)

Pictured above is Antirrhinum majus, collected by Ida M. Roper in 1829. These plants were often called ‘snapdragons’ and were thought to have supernatural powers to provide protection against witchcraft. This is probably because when the flowers die they leave behind seed pods that look like skulls. This specimen has some interesting newspaper clippings that show these macabre seed pods.

Finally, these are my favourite specimens found so far in the herbarium collection. I think they are beautiful and delicate, they could almost have been painted in watercolours. 

By Gemma Bailey, Herbarium Work Placement Student, University of Manchester

The Mystery of the Dinosaur Bone in a Rock

Something new turned up in Conservation needing cleaning for the up and coming ‘There’s a Dinosaur at the Museum’ display, (30th May to 6th June at Leeds City Museum).  It looked like a rib in a piece of stone, but was covered with a heavy layer of sooty deposits, that made it look black. We believe it came from a large reptile, possibly a dinosaur, but it has not yet been identified.



Before Conservation

The rib was acquired in 1866, so it is not surprising over the years it has acquired a layer of industrial pollution. It came into the Conservation Studio looking very indistinct and not very exciting. As you can see in the photograph you can make out the rib but that is about it. After a quick inspection to see if there were any obvious breaks or damage, we decided to steam clean it with our new steam cleaner.

The Cleaning Process

We use a dental steam cleaner with deionised water. This is water that has had the impurities filtered out, a bit like the filter jugs that you can get for your own kitchens, but a bit more refined. We can adjust the pressure coming out of the nozzle so can do very fine cleaning. Steam cleaning is one of my favourite jobs, as it can be really satisfying. This one turned out to be very satisfying indeed!

Half Way Through



During Conservation

In the photograph above you can see a half cleaned and un-cleaned section. As you can see the dirt layer lifts of very easily without damaging the underlying surface. The oval shapes beginning to be seen just under the rib are fossilised sea shells. It took a couple of hours to clean this up, including the back. Sometimes if fragile paper labels are present we have to protect them otherwise they would be obliterated.  

The Final Stage



After Conservation

As you can see from the last picture the finished article looks radically different from the first time it came into Conservation. The removal of the surface deposits, which are most likely industrial and quite acidic in nature, will ensure the continued longevity and enjoyment of this object. We can also see that part of the end of the rib has been damaged but is still partially preserved in the matrix of the stone. Additionally, the sea shells will help our Geologist to date the rib more precisely and hopefully help to identify the dinosaur.

Cleaning can yield up more information, protect an item by removing harmful industrial deposits and enable you to see more of this dinosaur.

Find out more about the forthcoming 'There's a Dinosaur in the Museum' display on our What's On website (opens as new link).

By Emma Bowron, Conservator