Curatorial dilemma no 1: how to defend against zombie attack

On September 18^th, UCL Museums and Collections participated in a worldwide event on Twitter: Ask a Curator day.  The plan was to have a handful of curators on call to deal with questions as they flooded in from a curious public. The reality was that we didn’t have many queries sent directly to our feed, so we went out into the Twittersphere to seek out interesting questions to answer. As Keeper of the Institute of Archaeology Collections, I spent an hour manning the virtual desk, and found it an interesting experience. (more…)

Firstly, I need to apologise for the lack of immediacy in writing a blog about the year 8 “spring school” that I ran on behalf of UCL’s Museums and Collections last week. With my teenage years a distant memory, a bit of R and R was required to recover from the energy of 38 constantly excited 13 year olds.

Reconstructing the look of a plague doctor

That aside, it was certainly a week to remember! Participants witnessed a barber surgeon in action, analysed animal poo, and created their own alien dissection, all in the name of education.  They discussed the ethics of human display, philosophised over what makes us human, and took great pleasure in analysing the “worth” of a dismembered foot that had been consumed with dry gangrene. (more…)

Guest Blog Post by Bolognese, Aydon, Phelan, Cox & Bin

TRAVELS.2013.VOL.II
AN ACCOUNT
of what Seem’d most Remarkable in the Two Day Peregrination
of the Following Five Persons
Bolognese, Aydon, Phelan, Cox & Bin. Begun on Saturday February the 23rd. 2013 and Finish’d
On the 24th. Of the same Month

In 1732 Hogarth, Scott, Thornhill, Tothall and Forrest departed from the Bedford Arms inn in Covent Garden and began a five day tour around the North of Kent. Their expedition was documented in a manuscript now residing in the British Museum. They recorded the details of their trip, as well as the accounts, and also included ten illustrations to accompany the text. The manuscript was printed by Richard Livesay in 1782 while he was a lodger at the home of Hogarth’s widow. One of these printed versions resides in the UCL Art Museum and it was this item that we chose to research for our Collections Curatorship course.

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With the days lengthening and the bleak Beowulf-like nights withering we can start to revel in getting home from work in glorious sunshine (/grey illumination) and wend our commuter way with the street lights still off. Returning to my theme of spring (and Ancient Egypt), I’m now intrigued by the new affectation in the heavens:  the sun!

Our sun is about 4.6 billion years old, comprising of 99.86% of the solar system’s mass. Probably the starkest visual image we can experience, the sun has inspired civilizations over millennia, and continues to affect our notion of time, season and even our emotions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/sun_and_planets/sun#default

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The entire team at UCL Art Museum wish you a prosperous and Happy New Year! We will return in 2013 with an exciting programme of events and exhibitions so watch this space!

Ever wondered what happens behind the scenes at the Art Museum? Well, over the past couple of weeks we’ve been busy with filming and photo shoots. This may sound glamorous until you realise just how much hard work is involved, with an entire morning’s work often whittled down to a just a couple of minutes.

Film crew setting up for filming in UCL Art Museum

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Guest Blog by Rebecca Gleichenhouse

I’m a student at Wake Forest University in North Caroline studying History of Art. I’m in my third year and was very excited to have the opportunity to study in London for a semester. I’ve been interning at UCL Art Museum for the past month now and I’ve been doing a wide variety of activities within the museum. Other than the day-to-day work that I help with, my main project has been to sort through and catalogue new prints that have come in to the Museum through a major donation.

William Hogarth, Industry and Idleness – The Good ‘Prentice

Thus far, I’ve looked through a box of about 70 William Hogarth prints, as well as material by little-known caricaturist C.J. Grant, and these have been interesting boxes to sort through because both artists criticise social and political aspects of their time. They made art not only for wealthy patrons, but made prints that were more affordable for the growing middle class. So far I’ve found Hogarth’s prints the most interesting – most of them are satirical images that criticise the lifestyle of different classes during his time. (more…)

UCL Museums and Public Engagement have been awarded funding from JISC to make 150,000 digitised objects from UCL Museums publicly available and to develop a range of new e-learning resources. The project team are looking for students to participate in focus groups to discuss this and are offering a light meal and book tokens in return for participants’ time.

Portrait of The Elector John Frederick I, The Magnanimous, Monogrammist M.R., UCL Art Museum 1581

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GUEST BLOG: DAVID JONES

Old London Bridge: Recovery from Disaster

On Tuesday 9th October David Jones, Paper conservator, UCL Special Collections, curated a Pop-up display ‘Old London Bridge: Recovery from Disaster’. Sections of a 17thC panorama of London before and after extensive conservation treatment were presented and discussed in the context of the Art Museum’s current exhibition ‘One Day in the City’. Below is David’s account of this fascinating object and the process involved in bringing it back to life following severe flood damage.

UCL Libraries’ Special Collections hold not only a vast amount of extraordinary bound materials, but also treasures like this London panorama. This is Robert Martin’s 1832 lithograph copied from the Wenceslaus Hollar engraving published in 1647 A View of London from Bankside.
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UCL Art Museum Presents The Haldane Room

Highlights in British Art from the Slade Painting Collection 1900s – 1950s

UCL Art Museum will be opening up spaces on the UCL campus that are rarely accessible to the public to present a selection of prize-winning paintings from the Slade Painting Collection. The Haldane Room in the Wilkins Building will be open to visitors on the first Friday of the month between 3-5pm, starting from this Friday, 5th October.

The paintings in the Haldane Room represent a selection of prize-winning works of art by leading British artists whose work can be found in UK and international museum collections. Importantly, these paintings were made  when the artists were students at the UCL Slade School of Art and before the originality of their creative output was recognised by the establishment.

The Haldane Room is open to the public as a temporary extension to UCL Art Museum on the first Friday of every month (till March 2012) between 3-5pm.The Haldane Room is located in the North Cloisters of the Wilkins Building, access via main UCL entrance on Gower Street.

UCL Art Museum is located in the South Cloisters and is open to the public Mon – Fri 1-5pm.

www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/uclart