CAG on museums: The Curious Case of…Philippe the Flip Flop Elephant

During the October half-term, Philippe the elephant made of flip flops, was installed at the Great North Museum: Hancock. The elephant was purchased from the Ocean Sole Flip Flop Recycling Company in Kenya in 2013 as part of the Stories of the World Project of the Cultural Olympiad which took place at the museum last year.

The elephant is made of flip flops that have been recycled as part of a local grassroots initiative in Kenya. The organisation works to educate and innovate, while providing sustainable ecological solutions for the country. Flip flops and plastics are one of the major pollutants of the Indian Ocean. Now Ocean Sole recycles around 400,000 flip flops a year and creates artistic opportunities while providing jobs in Nairobi and other coastal cities.

As a new addition to the World Collections, we decided to display Philippe the elephant in the Living Plant Gallery of the GNM, because it is a gallery that children often see when they first walk in. It is also directly below the World Cultures gallery upstairs, with other pieces from Kenya on display. The interpretation of the elephant was also intended for younger audiences and family. The Project Coordinator for the Stories of the World Project brilliantly offered the chance to give feedback, especially from children, to inform the future interpretation of the object.

The idea is to ask a changing question to audiences and allow them to leave their responses to shape future interpretation of the elephant. The first question was, ‘How do you think Philippe feels about travelling from Kenya to the Great North Museum?’ So far the responses have been quite humorous and sweet.

CAG on museums: Objects in the Great North Museum Mouse House

View of the Mouse House

The Great North Museum: Hancock Mouse House is an area of the museum especially laid out for younger audiences and families and is also the space where the Learning Workshop ‘Museum Mice’ takes place. It is run by a Gallery Interpreter who is very experienced and engaging on Thursday and Saturday mornings. It is a space where under 5 year olds learn through story telling, singing, and play.

 As part of the museum gallery space, it also houses actual objects from the collection such as taxidermy animals, items of general natural history, and ethnographic objects. The other day I had the chance to install a couple of new ethnographic objects while some really cute little kids scampered around my feet. I mostly attempted to choose interesting objects from the ethnography collection, but also rather hearty ones to stand the playroom nature of this gallery particularly.

Display case integrated into the Mouse House bookcase wall

African tourist souvenir mask now on display

Although the Mouse House space is mainly geared for child learning, it is a requirement that all children be accompanied by their parents and in that sense it is also important that museum learning for younger children also accommodates families as a whole. This can be as simple as providing a space where families are invited and welcome, providing interesting things to start conversations, and providing self-led and staff-led learning. There are a lot of factors of course that can aid or hinder family learning, but figuring out these issues has become an impetus of the museum learning programmes.

Glass jar cases

Taking a Nigerian headdress off of display

The goal for the objects that are installed in the children’s space is to provide an outlet for interesting conversations between adults and children that stimulates engagement and exploration.

 

Putting the Ugandan drum made of hide and wood into the glass jar display

Stabilising the object mount (with extra large clown gloves)

CAG on museums: The British Science Festival 7-12 September 2013

Photo by David Scharf ‘Human Lymphocyte’

The British Science Festival is taking place in Newcastle this year and is a celebration of science, engineering and technology. The festival travels to different UK cities every year and offers an array of activities to get the public involved and interested in science. There are so many things going on for the festival, but so far I’ve been concentrating on some of the more artistic displays of art, technology, and science.

Jennifer Allinson giving an artist talk in the Hatton Gallery

I attended the artist talk and opening of Jennifer Allinson’s body armour sculpture show. During her talk she explained how she created her fragile armour pieces through an mix of sewing skills, engineering to create the porcelain pieces and some of their supports, and the manipulation of materials, which is key to sculpting.

Arm bands

Corset/bodice

There was also a piece in the Hatton Gallery foyer called winter flowers, which used a mix of metal, acrylic, silk, and real tree branches.

'Winter Flowers' by Jenny Allinson

There is also the ‘International Images for Science 2013’ exhibition based on a partnership of the Royal Photographic Society and Science and Technology Facilities Council of 100 images from scientists, researchers, and others of science themed explorations, which is on at the Great North Museum: Hancock.

Photo by Robert Hurt ‘Massive star making waves’

Photo David Doubliet ‘World of Penguins, Antarctic Peninsula’

There are some slightly upsetting images for the over-sensitive public such as myself of some human maladies, and the inside of human that made me feel a bit icky, but overall some really interesting photos.

Photo by Paul Whitten ‘Retinal Haemorrhage’

I also went to a display about how barnacles reproduce and stick to surfaces in the sea, watched them feed on prawns, and looked at the kind of paint that is being used to paint ships today to keep barnacles off ship surfaces.

Live sea barnacles

On September 11, I plan on going to a lecture in the Newcastle University Fine Art Lecture Theatre on the ‘Tipping points in nature and society’. Lots happening all around this week.

CAG on museums: The Society of Antiquaries Newcastle Exhibition

This February, after being quickly thrown into the deep end of a new position, I helped put on Newcastle upon Tyne’s Society of Antiquaries 200th anniversary exhibition. Tales of Antiquarian Adventure displays the collections of the Society over 200 years and highlights their commitment to preserving the cultural heritage of Northumberland and the surrounding areas. Specifically, they helped save Hadrian’s Wall.

Artist Dawn Knox installing her work for the exhibition

Working for the Great North Museum has definitely been an experience in hands on work and I’ve actually seen an exhibition being built from scratch now. Although I do think I prefer to be the big champion who turns up in the end and gets all the credit, actually installing an exhibition was fun.

Before

After

The exhibition is definitely family friendly and has a few really cool objects, such as a cow bone model of a guillotine made by prisoners, and a giant man trap. That’s right…Man trap!

Guillotine

Man trap, in the grass on the right

The ‘Adventures Around the World’ section includes some very beautiful Chimu pots from Peru, and an Egyptian mummified hand. It’s pretty gruesome, but cool.

The exhibition is on until 30 April 2013.