A blog written by Precious Cargo Digital Journalists in Yorkshire. This project is part of London 2012 Cultural Olympiad programme which presents exciting new museum exhibitions across the UK, created by young people. The project is led by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) in partnership with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG).

Touching History

 

Hi, my name is Calum. On Wednesday the 4th of April I took part in a photography session where we picked some of the items we might want in our exhibition, ‘Treasured! Smuggled, Stolen, Saved?’ This sounds exciting enough, getting out hundred year old objects and setting them up for photos, but Wednesday was especially special to me. On that day, we got out the Arms and Armoury collection! I have studied the history of war for about five years now, and  I watched military documentaries before I even thought about taking up history. When it comes to the study of history, there is a difference between reading about these great, but also tribal, wars, and actually touching the parts of history that made them. This is why I love museums so much. When holding an nineteenth-twentieth century M1 Enfield, knowing that it may have been used in any number of wars, or when you’re holding an axe, from and maybe used by the head hunter tribes, you know you are holding an item that has seen so much history. These items feel like a link to the past for me and are the closest thing I would ever get, next to a time machine, to actually being a part of the history I love and enjoy.

 

It was amazing to see what the museum actually has in its collections behind closed doors. The amount of arms and armour would make any number of people have to pick their jaws up from the ground, after they dropped from amazement. It was also kind of sad to see the amount of weapons, the amount of history and the amount of beauty, that many of the people of Leeds will probably never see, and may not even care about. This is why I am so glad that, with the Precious Cargo project, I am helping to brush the dust off these objects and get them up on display for the thousands of people who we hope will come to our exhibition. Seeing all these objects was fun and a great experience and will be something to tell the kids.

 

‘Treasured! Smuggled, Stolen, Saved?’ is open from July 19th and will feature Calum’s favourite weapons along with many other fascinating objects that have come to Leeds from all over the world.

Inspirational Visit to Freeman College in Sheffield

Posted by Clare Starkie (Senior Curator of Humanities - Museums Sheffield)

Visited Butcher Works last week to have a tour of the workshops and meet students and tutors. Some of the students did a World cultures handling session with us a few weeks ago and are now making Preccious Cargo related objects- some will be displayed in Treasures, with the rest shown alongside some of our objects at Butcher Works next spring. Very inspiring!

Mohammed Ali - Exploring Grafitti

The past and the present melded as Young Ambassadors involved in the Precious Cargo scheme took influence and ideas from old material designs from Bradford’s textile era and transformed them into graffiti with stencils and spray cans.

(Video by Sarah Senior)

Discovering Precious Cargo

 

Museums Sheffield’s Youth Partnership Coordinator, Graham Moore on the Precious Cargo Discovery Day

 

During the October Half Term holiday, Museums Sheffield gave visitors to Weston Park their first introduction to Precious Cargo, a major project linked to the London 2012 Olympics Stories of the World initiative. The project will result in a complete redisplay of the museum’s Treasures Gallery to open in March next year.

  

Across the UK, Stories of the World sees young people working with curators, film makers, artists, writers and musicians to explore and reinterpret museum collections, giving a new perspective on the stories they tell us about our place in the world.

 

In Sheffield, Museums Sheffield is collaborating with young people to tell the stories of objects that have found their way across the globe to the city. Precious Cargo links Sheffield’s collections to its people, looking at what they treasure and how these objects came to the region. Showcasing material from across the World Cultures collection, Precious Cargo explores Sheffield’s cultural past and celebrates the diversity of the contemporary city.

 

The Precious Cargo Discovery Day saw Weston Park play host to a day of family craft activities, curator-led object handling sessions, gallery tours and a chance for community partners to show their precious objects and share their stories.

 

As soon as the activity room doors were opened children and their families packed out the space in a flurry of creative activity, producing masks and kites inspired by original Chinese designs. Downstairs, curators led family groups through some of the World Cultures objects giving them a unique opportunity to handle of some remarkable objects.

 

During the afternoon more than 50 community partners shared a range of inspiring stories, objects and music. By the end of the day more than 450 people had learnt about Precious Cargo and participated in activity across the museum.

 

The word on Precious Cargo is out – we’ll keep you updated as we work towards the big launch in March!

Digital journalists interview Gregory, a museum weaver at Bradford Industrial Museum 25.9.2011

Digital Journalists and rest of Precious Cargo workshop team having a well earned lunch break at Bradford Industrial Museum on 25th September!

Digital Journalists and rest of Precious Cargo workshop team having a well earned lunch break at Bradford Industrial Museum on 25th September!

Digital Journalists interview workshop leader, Jo at Bradford Industrial Museum 25.9.2011

Workshop feedback at Bradford Industrial Museum 25.9.2011

Bradford’s Young Curators Week (Day Five: Sun 31st July)

Continuing the journey of the Young Ambassadors work forPrecious Cargo: Golden Threads project and in preparation for the final exhibition in March 2012…

Graffiti Workshop led by Mohammed Ali, Graffiti Artist

Graffiti artist Mohammed Ali gave us a tour of his current exhibition at Cartwright Hall, giving us an insight into his ideas, designs and techniques. Using the stencils we created in June, Mohammed Ali and his sidekick Matt supported us in producing our very own artistic graffiti boards. We used small canvases to assemble and merge our designs. Then we worked on a larger scale bringing all of our ideas together to create one large graffiti panel.

Bradford’s Young Curators Week (Day Four: Fri 29th July)

Continuing the journey of the Young Ambassadors work forPrecious Cargo: Golden Threads project and in preparation for the final exhibition in March 2012…

Discussion session for exhibition ideas (Sofia Maskin)

“The choosing of the colours for the exhibition was fun and it was great to see lots of ideas coming together to create a brilliant exhibition.” (Sofia Hussain)