‘Best.Day.Ever’ or a visit to the Pitt Rivers Museum with my 6 year old son

My 6 year old son and I visited the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford this afternoon. This world famous museum (voted no 11 in the The Times Top 50 Museums of the World list) houses the University of Oxford’s ethnographic and archaeological material from around the world.  It was founded in 1884 when General Pitt Rivers gave his collection of 18 000 objects to the University.  The Museum now has over half a million objects!

Swimming dolphins – interior of the Natural History Museum

We entered the Museum via the Natural History Museum and walked past lots of intriguingly shrouded skeletons covered whilst the Museum is closed undergoing refurbishment.  We peeked at bits of dinosaur, admired the beautiful stone columns and carvings, each one made of a different type of rock and walked around to the entrance of the Pitt Rivers Museum.

View from the totem

We walked though the door into a darkened, almost magical setting; lots and lots of dark wood and glass cases filled with unusual and intriguing objects from all over the world.  We picked up the ‘World Famous Museum Mouse Trail’ and were loaned a magnifying glass by a helpful Visitor Assistant and began our exploration.

My son loves exploring, so we followed the trail and wandered around the Museum. We quickly spotted a sign for family activities in the Lower Gallery and found our way to the Clore Learning Balcony (I just love that there’s a Learning Balcony!) to see what was on offer.  A lovely volunteer welcomed us and explained that we could make a Japanese fan.  My son decided it was a bit ‘girly’ for him (his words, cue eye roll from mother!), so we continued with our mouse trail.

The following images are his favourite objects in the Museum, funnily enough most are linked to natural history, my bug boy’s first love.

Base of Haida totem pole – Ground Floor

Middle of Haida totem – 1st Floor

2nd Floor – at the top!

Mouse hiding under a bell

Teeth necklace

Carved ivory apple

Ivory carvings

Interlocking balls

Vegetable ivory?!

Section of Narwhal tusk

Ship models

Mouse hiding with the ship models

Lakota head dress

Beautiful bird

Mouse!

Glass spear heads

Bows and arrows

Puffer fish helmet

Crocodile armour

Our prize!

Time slipped by and soon we heard the bong of the closing bell and a disembodied voice telling us that the Museum would be closing in 10 mins.  We quickly found the last mice and ran down the stairs to collect our Mouse Collector sticker, and visit the shop.  No museum trip is complete without a trip to the shop!  Sadly we never saw the witch trapped in a bottle, or the shrunken heads for which the Museum is famous (to some!), but that leaves something for next time! On our way back to Oxford station, my son announced he’d had the best.day.ever! What a result! Thank you Pitt Rivers Museum for such a brilliant family adventure.

Swim Little Fishies

Today I am running my last under 5s sessions Swim Little Fishies at the Ashmolean and I’m feeling quite reflective – a reflective practitioner perhaps as I was taught in my teacher training. We’re making the fishing game above: little tissue paper fish, paper clips, magnets and fishing rods (art straws!)

I have been at the Museum for nearly a year running the family programme, and I have had the best time ever! Wonderful collections and fabulous colleagues. My time here has been short, I’m doing a maternity cover and like the fish, it’s time to migrate! Yes, I know the octopus pithos is technically a cephalopod, but you get my drift!

I had worried about finding another job, but am trying to live much more in the present. It’s fair to say the arts education world is currently one of short contracts and uncertain times. I relish each new experience, learn, give passionately and whole heartedly to the role and then move on when the time is right. Until then, I’m making puppets and singing with small children in the galleries!

A Frozen tale or how I love Disney but still have qualms about their female role models.

Queen Elsa
copyright Disney

Like many parents, over the Christmas holidays we took our two kids 7 & 4 to see Disney’s Frozen.

We’re big Disney fans in our house, my husband worked ‘for the mouse’ for many years. Like many people working in the cultural sector, previously I had used Disney as a pejorative, sneering at exhibits which had been Disneyfied or were Mickey Mouse. I’m pleased to say I have ‘seen the light’ and can appreciate some of the great things about Disney, and some of the lessons it can offer the cultural sector, but I digress…

As a mum to a four year old girl, I worry …perhaps I should say that again, I worry 🙂 Like any parent, I am concerned for both of my children: are they eating the right things, are they happy at school.

But when I had my little girl, there was a whole other world of concern around helping her grow up into a positive, secure and strong woman counteracting unrealistic body images and the sexualisation of young women.

I am a feminist and believe in choices and positivity for girls and women. Being happy with who you are, your choices, your rights and responsibilities.

When I had my son, I encouraged him to play with dolls as well as cars, tea sets as well as train sets. It’s true, children make there own choices; he loves playing with building blocks and anything with wheels, engines or wings, as well as the tea set and the dolls.

When I had my daughter, I was a little dismayed and somewhat stumped at her love of dolls, clothes, and all things pink and princess-like! Rather than make an issue of it, we’ve tried to show other options and choices.

But back to Frozen…in recent times I’ve been pleased to see that in both Tangled and Frozen the female leads don’t dance with a prince, get married and live happily ever after. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against getting married and living happily ever after, I’d just rather it wasn’t the only choice offered.

Sadly my little girl is already enamoured with Cinderella and has announced that she is going to have 2 babies, but first she must find a price to dance with. Cue mother’s anguished face somewhat similar to Munch’s The Scream!

In Tangled, Rapunzel does dance with Flynn but keeps putting him off as far as the wedding goes (she has other things to do, at least until Tangled Ever After when Disney couldn’t resist the big wedding scene – gah!) Frozen’s message about true love (spoiler alert!) means that Princess Anna realises that it’s the true love for her sister Elsa, rather than a prince that saves the day – hurrah!

However, it seems we must take 2 steps forward and 3 steps back, as this is mitigated by the old obsessions with how ‘princesses’ must look. Boo! Back in the summer Disney back-tracked from adding a sexualised Merida to its Princesses website in favour of the original tom boy, more real version. Cue this season’s Frozen, still some issues with how princesses (see the Guardian’s film blog Frozen in time) look but what really bothered me was how Princess Elsa changed when she became the snow queen. Granted she has reached her majority, so 18 or 21; she has hips and breasts, but at unrealisitic Barbie proportions. In addition, her dress becomes split to the thigh and she walks with a definite sashay.

Whilst it may be said that in the older Disney films Walt was referencing the Edwardian female stereotypes and looks he grew up with, in the more modern films John Lasseter is perhaps referencing 60s/70s female stereotypes and looks. I’m trying here, i really am. It still doesn’t make it right though.

For me, Disney is a trusted brand. I am happy to let my children watch the Disney channel, films etc. I know that my four year old is in safe hands, or thought I did. When Disney make a film like Frozen they should recognise that their audience is young and impressionable. More Merida, less Jessica Rabbit please.

Renaissance Christmas – Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

This gallery contains 15 photos.

Chicken clucking – family learning activities

Royal County of Berkshire Show 2011 – University of Reading museum volunteers demonstrating chicken cluckers!

This video, taken by a colleague and copyright University of Reading, features yours truly. I’ve been thinking about activities for families that I’ve developed and delivered over the years, and the chicken clucker never fails to raise a smile!

The activity took place at the University of Reading’s stand at the Royal County of Berkshire Show, Newbury, Berks. and was linked to the University’s Museum of English Rural Life’s 2011 special exhibition Everyday stories of country folk: Celebrating 60 years of The Archers and MERL, 1951 – 2011.

For those of you who don’t know, and there may be a few of you out there :-), The Archers  is a soap opera about a fictional farming community, airing 6 days a week on BBC Radio 4; it is also the world’s longest running soap opera.

The challenge was to recreate some of the sound effects used in the studio so visitors could have a go, alongside a real Archers script if they wished.  Some effects were fairly simple – boots walking on gravel, umbrellas opening etc, others a little more complicated.  Thanks to the Archivist on the Archers and courtesy of the nice people based at Archers HQ , my favourites were the chicken clucker (above) and a lamb being born – I think I’ll save the lamb for another day! As hint it involves wet tea towels, rubber gloves and yoghurt…

Islands of Expertise

Today I got to see Kevin Crowley’s Islands of Expertise in action.  It’s a family learning theory I’ve known about for some time but I always love it when I see it in action. Here’s a link to the article.

It’s half term this week and the children are off school. I was catching the train into London this morning, along with many families with children.  On the platform I bumped into the family of one of my son’s school friends – mum, dad, son and daughter. They were heading into London to visit the Natural History Museum (NHM) to see the dinosaurs.  Mum and dad told me that they thought their children were now of an age when they could ‘appreciate’ one of the large London museums, and perhaps not get too bored/tired.  They had chosen the NHM because of the dinosaurs.

I asked the little boy if he liked dinosaurs and both he and his sister said ‘yes’.  I told him that my son also loved dinosaurs too and often asked me to read to him from his dinosaur book.  With that, the little boy asked his mum to get out his favourite dinosaur book from her bag.  He then started to show me his favourites, saying he liked T-Rex and Stegosaurus the best.  He started to point at the pictures in the book showing where the dinosaurs originated from and the family had a conversation about where the dinosaurs were found and what they ate when they were alive.

Before my eyes, Crowley’s theory of Islands of Expertise was unfolding – when a child develops an interest in something (often, but not always linked to something studied at school), builds knowledge in that area (reads books, watches tv programmes, finds info on the web) and then draws the rest of the family into the interest/hobby through visits to places linked to that interest (museums, galleries, zoos, railway stations etc).  The child’s knowledge builds and builds, until it reaches a peak, cuts off and then they sometimes move on to something else, and often the cycle can start again.

My brush with Bond – 50 Years of James Bond

So, what has museum learning got to do with James Bond?  Well, the stories on the news about the anniversary reminded me of one of my ‘from the vault’ tales.

The Museum of English Rural Life at the University of Reading holds objects and archives relating to the Women’s Land Army*.  Whilst working there I was privileged to take part in an oral history project recording the oral testimonies of women who had been in the WLA during the Second World War. Photographer Rory Carnegie and I travelled around Berkshire taking photos of these inspiring women and recording their testimonies for the Museum.

On one such outing, we arrived at some stables in rural Berkshire and met a delightful lady who told us all about her time as a Land Girl; the hard work, doing ‘your bit’ for King and Country, the enjoyment.  As Rory took her photo, she went on to tell us about her son, who worked as a stuntman in the film industry, and how she had travelled around the world with him and his family on location. She was obviously very proud of him and keen to tell us about his work.

To be honest, I think both Rory and I were a little surprised, and perhaps not too sure about the stories. She started to show us pictures, maps, photos and memorabilia.  It was the photos that did it for me – the penny eventually dropped!  The photos were of none other than Sean Connery, among others, as James Bond.  Our delightful ‘land girl’ was mum to none other than the famous Bond stuntman, Vic Armstrong!

When I got home that evening I told my husband about the wonderful lady I’d met and how she’d given both Rory and I a jar of home-made marmalade and entertained us with stories of her life in the WLA, as well as being mum to James Bond’s stuntman.  My husband looked at me and said, ‘You mean Vic Armstrong?’.  “Yes, I think that was him, I replied’.

My husband is a huge James Bond fan, and also a huge fan of all the special effects created over the years (along with the stunts).  He couldn’t quite believe I’d met Vic Armstrong’s mum, had seen and heard all her wonderful tales and yet still hadn’t been quite sure about who he was or what he did!  Well, I do know now!  I salute Vic Armstrong for his amazing contribution to the James Bond films, but most of all I salute his mum for her un-sung work in the WLA as well as her fantastic marmalade!

*Women’s Land Army http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women’s_Land_Army

Conversations in a taxi

Learning can take place anywhere. As a museum educator, I know this more than most. Learning is not something which is measured by exams or only takes place in schools, it can and does happen anywhere and at anytime. In the following tale, it occurred in a taxi in Slough – the place that gave us The Office and David Brent.

I was on my way to a secondary school in Langley, just outside Slough to discuss some possibilities for using archives in teaching, specifically the English department were interested in Charles Dickens works held by the archives I work with and how we might use them to stimulate the students’ learning. This in itself was novel, as the school is one of the new academies and the only school in the country to have museum learning as one of its core aims.

I was going to drive to my meeting, but I thought ‘no, let the train take the strain!’ or rather, be more environmentally friendly and use public transport. I got to the station in plenty of time but, as so often with railways in Britain, the train was late; 2 minutes, then 4 minutes, and then 10 minutes with no announcements. Eventually it transpired that a car had struck a railway bridge and many trains were delayed. I was advised to get on a train to Slough and take a taxi to Langley.

The taxi driver was very chatty and wanted to know where I was going, why, what did I do etc. We talked about museums and he asked me ‘do museums have real things in them or, are they all fakes or copies of real things?’ I explained that museums have the real thing! This led on to a discussion about where things come from before they enter a museum. If you found something could you sell it? If it was on your land, if it was someone else’s land? How can you prove you owned it? A discussion about portable antiquities ensued.

He told me he was interested in Egyptian mummies. How did they survive so long? What did the Egyptians take to the afterlife and why? Did they really mummify animals to go with them? I found myself explaining the process of mummification, what happens to the body and how I knew. Yes, I have mummified a fish!

One of the family sessions we run at the museums where I work, and also demonstrations for National Science and Engineering Week (NSEW) Science Busking in Reading town centre, is Fish Mummy. We prepare a mackerel about a month beforehand, weigh the fish, cut it open, and remove the swim bladder and other organs. The fish is placed in a plastic sandwich box, surrounded by bicarbonate of soda (closest in composition to Natron, the naturally occurring Nile salt). The lid is put on and the box left (preferably in an outside shed!) for approximately one month until all fish is dry and stiff. The organs are put into the bicarbonate of soda pots, which can be decorated to look like Canopic jars. Canopic jars, which were decorated with the heads of Egyptian gods, contained the organs that had been removed from the body.

When the taxi driver dropped me off at the school he asked me if I knew where he could see real mummies. I suggested the British Museum in London, saying he could look them up online if he couldn’t get there in person. He asked me how much it would cost him and was amazed when I said he could see the mummies for free!

Remember, remember the fifth of November…

Remember, remember the fifth of November…
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see know reason why gunpowder treason,
Should ever be forgot.

I love this time of year, I always have. As a small child, I loved the first frosts of autumn, the leaves falling, blackberries and 5th November. When I was younger we didn’t celebrate Hallowe’en in the way we do in Britain today, it was always Guy Fawkes Night and fireworks.

Perhaps it’s just that I’m getting older, but I’m more aware of the seasons and the marking points in the year than I was when I was younger. Since working in my current job, primarily with museum collections relating to rural life, I have become more aware of customs, folk traditions and the seasons, the rhythm of the farming year and seasonal produce.

I look forward to Guy Fawkes Night. Not many people burn ‘the guy’ on top of the bonfire now, nor do you see kids begging for ‘a penny for the guy’ in the way they did when I was a child. My Mum never let me do it, it was begging, but plenty of other kids did, enjoying making ‘a guy’ or effigy of Guy Fawkes and then collecting money to spend on fireworks which would be let off whilst the guy burned on top of the bonfire.

In Yorkshire, where my husband is from, Guy Fawkes Night is known more often simply as ‘Plot Night’. It’s a time when people get together and watch fireworks, but being Yorkshire, it’s also about food! People eat pie and peas (hot pork and mushy peas), parkin (that glorious Yorkshire version of ginger cake) and cinder toffee.

Guy Fawkes Night commemorates the failure of the catholic conspiracy to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605. Poor Guy (or Guido, as his real name was) Fawkes was the one left holding the fuse, so to speak, and the one who is remembered (sort of) amongst all the fireworks whilst his effigy is burnt on the bonfire.

I don’t think I was that interested in Guy Fawkes or his supposed catholic conspiracy (although later I did go on to specialise in English 17th century history at university!) Like most children even now, I just loved the fireworks and sparklers and I still do. There’s something magical about standing out in the cold and dark, huddled together peering up at the sky and making ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ noises as the fireworks go off. Some things you just don’t grow out of!

Pumpkin carving with Anne Diamond on BBC Berkshire

Pumpkin carving live on radio was not something I ever thought I’d be doing!  It struck me, as I was doing it, that perhaps this was a dream or some strange reality show!  When we started working on the pumpkin trail for the Museum, little did we know that it would lead to this!

As part of the trail we’d included a series of facts or talking points about the customs and traditions of Hallowe’en, explaining why pumkins are now the carved vegetable of choice (!) and how Trick or Treat has come from the twin customs of Mischief Night (playing tricks on your nearest and dearest) as celebrated in the north of England and ‘souling’ from All Souls Day (2^nd Nov), the tradition of making and eating special cakes, performing plays or ‘mummers’ and collecting money and treats from neighbours.

The local BBC radio station phoned to ask if we’d go and talk to their listeners about Hallowe’en, as many people now celebrate it.  In the course of the conversation they said ‘Can you bring a pumpkin and carve it on air?’  It may have been one of my more foolish moments, but I heard myself saying ‘Why not?’

So on the Friday morning before Hallowe’en, I found myself in the radio station office, before going on air, frantically cutting the top off a pumpkin and scooping out the seeds.  It was quite warm in the office and the smell of the pumpkin was strong, but they didn’t seem to mind.

By the time I got into see the presenter, Anne Diamond, I had a pumpkin ready to go with the tools for sawing and cutting.  I’d met Anne the previous week when I’d been asked to go in on behalf of a colleague and talk about Apple Day.  I’d been very nervous and Anne had been very kind, name-checking the museum I work for and the university of which it’s part several times, as I’d said that the press office would kill me if I failed to mention both in my terror!

Anne Diamond remembered me as ‘the terrified apple lady’ and kindly name-checked the museum again before we got on to the serious business of carving a pumpkin.  I showed her how to stick on the template and mark it out with a pouncing tool, pronounced ‘poncing’.  She raised an eyebrow when I told her this and I hurriedly explained that it came from the Elizabethan way of copying portraits.  Use a template, go over the lines with a pricking or pouncing tool, lift off the template and complete your work.  Anne managed to saw away most of the eyes and nose of the pumpkin before our time was up, and in between time we’d chatted about customs and ideas and the best ways to carve.

I left with a half carved pumpkin and a sigh of relief to go back to the museum to continue carving pumpkins with families for the festivities.  As Anne Diamond had noted, ‘you’ve done this quite a lot before, haven’t you?’.