You can’t but help notice the bright blue hoarding that has been erected around the art gallery declaring to all that York Art Gallery is changing!

Over the past seven weeks Conlon construction have been working on the first stage of the gallery project and have been conducting the enabling works which will allow us to progress to the main contract works in September. The enabling works entail stripping back and getting to know the building. Allowing the architects, engineers, and project team to investigate and assess whether their initial investigations and surveys are correct. It also allows us to look at the building much like blank canvas and get a feel for the space and protect the areas that are specific to the grade II listed building.

Behind the hoarding façade the gallery has changed so much in a matter of weeks. Layers of the gallery are gradually being stripped back to reveal some pretty impressive details such as these magnificent columns in the reception area.

Gone is hulking great behemoth of air handling unit in the picture store that made me weep some days!

The floors have been removed in the main gallery to clear the asbestos.

To make way for the huge web of scaffolding that has been erected to gain access to the 1950’s glass ceiling.

Which has now been removed to reveal the true magnificence of the secret gallery.

…not so secret anymore as this will be the Centre for British Studio Ceramics.

The 1950’s block to the rear of the building that used to be the rabbit warren of offices, library and our friendly mess room has also been stripped back to it’s bare bones and has revealed itself to be a huge bright space ready for the changes to take place in the next phase of the redevelopment.

We are on the verge of taking down the little gallery to reveal the view from the reception area to the secret gallery and works will be starting in the archives in July. This will clear the space and make way for the new North wing to the gallery.

Watch this space…

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could zoom along on Google Street View to a well known place, like the Ouse Bridge in York, and see what it looked like 200 years ago – from the perspective of a well-respected contemporary artist. A bit like this:

York’s Ouse Bridge – photographed by Google

York’s Old Ouse Bridge – painted in the 19th century

With the help of a dedicated group of volunteers from the Friends of York Art Gallery, YMT’s Digital Team has been taking all the topographical artworks from York Art Gallery’s Evelyn Collection and pinning them to a map of York.

Here are all the images pinned to the map so far!

Click here to go to the Historypin website and see all the works uploaded so far. By clicking on the small images on the map you can navigate around the collection.

With a few clicks you can travel to High Petergate

Find out what it looked like in 1849

And find out more about who painted this picture

We currently have just over 100 images pinned to the map and we plan to get around 700-1000 uploaded. The volunteers have been working really hard. As well as locating the images, they have been adding additional information to our catalogue records by leaving comments.

This project is still in its early stages, but we are going to expand the number of volunteers soon, so watch this space as YMT’s Historypin site develops.

Jet beads – YORYM : 2012.779.3.8

In October 2011 York Museums Trust received an exciting collection of Bronze Age objects excavated by a father and son in the pioneering days of post-war archaeology. David Lamplough, then a young boy, and his father William, a secondary school teacher and amateur archaeologist, carried out rescue excavations on Bronze Age barrows and occupation sites across North Yorkshire along with their friend John ‘Ronnie’ Lidster. There are several things about this unique collection that make it extremely interesting.

The collection

Lamplough artefacts in storage

So what’s in the collection? The bulk of the collection encompasses flint tools, reconstructed ceramic vessels and the cremated remains of individuals, but we also have a few, considerably less day-to-day objects. There are a series of worked bone artefacts, including a very rare scabbard hook and a fine pin. We also have a few fragmentary pieces of copper alloy that came from cremations as well as some jet beads.

Putting the objects in context

The accompanying paper archive is what give the objects their context and, as any archaeologist will tell you, context is the most important thing! William Lamplough’s records provide a crucial insight into archaeological practice in the 1950’s. As an amateur archaeologist he had no formal training, yet he meticulously recorded what he found at every site, seemingly adding to his archive and modifying it as more discoveries were made and new conclusions reached.

Along with these records is what might be described as a series of essays on the Bronze Age in Yorkshire and Britain in general. William writes extensively about subjects ranging from the palaeoenvironment (how the environment might have looked like in the past) to what the prehistoric cultures he was studying might have been like themselves. He quotes various contemporary scholars who were writing in the 1950s, but also draws on historical sources such as the Domesday Book and Gildas.

What’s next for the Lamplough collection?

The next logical step was to talk to the people who were around when all of this was happening, and to allow their experiences to contribute to our knowledge of this wonderful archive. David Lamplough agreed to being interviewed about his experiences of early archaeology. To me it seems that this will open up a whole conversation about the way that archaeology was practiced in the 1950s. Below is an introductory video from this interview, in which David introduces himself and gives us a bit of information about how he and his father found themselves digging on the moors.

Lamplough Collection Introduction from dtymt on Vimeo.

By blogging about this research, I am hoping to show just how organic a process this sort of endeavour is. Hopefully I will be able to delve deeper into the histories of the artefacts and perhaps into the way that David and his father (along with others who are mentioned in the archive) conducted archaeology in the 1950s, how they became interested in such an important subject, and how archaeology was perceived by the wider public before it became a formal science.

A bit about me

My name is Emily and, as a Masters student studying Digital Heritage at the University of York, I am primarily concerned with the dissemination of archaeological knowledge using digital media and other forms of narrative. I am currently on placement with York Museums Trust, working on this exciting project.

York Museums Trust look after some of the city’s most popular attractions, but behind our buildings’ facades are a team far extending the people you’ll see day to day.

Last week, our Finance, Human Resources, and Health and Safety departments moved in to new offices on York’s most famous street: the Shambles, known for its timber-framed buildings, traditional cobbles and butcher’s shelves (originally called ‘Fleshshammels‘).

After much banging and knocking, lifting and shifting, the offices are now fully occupied, and I’m daily indulging in lunchtime trips to my new neighbours – a butchers, sweet shop and bakery.

Having spent years looking after collections, it feels like the Shambles has collected us – a place with so much history, you can’t help be enveloped by its unique charm.

York Art Gallery is closed and we have launched our packed programme of events for the interim, until the transformed Gallery re-opens in 2015, writes Jenny Alexander, Assistant Curator of Fine Art.

We are collaborating with local artist, illustrator and general magpie, Mark Hearld, who is fresh from his wonderful exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

An exhibition of his illustrations from A First Book of Nature is currently on display in the Yorkshire Museum.

Mark is working with all of YMT’s collections to create new work and develop an exciting exhibition at York Art Gallery using our collections in fantastic new ways.

Over the next few months, Mark will be visiting the YMT stores, seeking inspiration (which is not hard to find) and generally getting very excited about the “stuff” that we have here.

Here he is at one of the social history stores enthusing over some carousel horses.

We will be tweeting and blogging over the next year with images and interesting discoveries and Mark will maybe even post the odd sketch as his new work develops. So stay tuned!

This week I visited York St. Mary’s, our historic space for contemporary art located just next to the Coppergate Centre in York. The current exhibition showcases the shortlisted art works for this year’s Aesthetica Art Prize with an eclectic display of pieces ranging from video and photography to sculpture and textiles.

My favourite piece is ‘The Family Meal’ by the winner of the 2013 Student Prize Poppy Whatmore, which features a kitchen / dining room setting exploding out of a frame.

Prize-winning artwork by Poppy Whatmore

The piece reminded me of work by the artist Cornelia Parker, whose ‘Thirty Pieces of Silver’ featured at York St. Mary’s in 2011. I loved the captivating magic of Poppy’s sculpture – as if someone had waved a wand and suspended time.

Why not visit and see which piece captures your imagination? The exhibition runs until 28 April 2013 and entry is free.

The dark, smelly tallow candle factory on York Castle Museum’s Kirkgate has inspired one visitor to write an atmospheric poem which sends shivers down the spine….

Sarah Mortimer, one of our assistant curators of social history learning, was so impressed by the piece by Nathan Firby that we have decided to publish it here.

Nathan is a member of a York adult learning group called Ekphrasis who visited the museum as part of a creative writing project led by Lizzi Linklater.

Sarah says:  ”Ekphrasis come here for a session involving a tour round Kirkgate and some object handling to inspire their writing and Nathan was clearly inspired! I think it’s wonderful.”

Tallow candles were made from animal fat and the factory in Kirkgate contains items from Marfitt’s tallow dip factory in Pickering, North Yorkshire, which was established in about 1830.  At its peak this factory produced over 7,000 tallow candles a day.

The Tallow Candles

by Nathan Firby

While walking out across the moor,
the traveller lost his way,
for he was blind without the moon,
as he knelt down to pray;
when in the darkness, to his right,
as if in answer to his plight,
appeared a window filled with light.
The traveller was saved.

Three tallow candles proudly stood
upon the windowsill.
They snapped and crackled, popped and hissed;
beyond, the room was still.
As he peered in, he saw her there:
the pox-marked maid sat in her chair.
She stonily returned his stare,
which gave his heart a chill.

She then stood up, smoothed down her hair
and forced a brittle smile.
She bade him “come into the house
and rest here for a while.”

Within the cottage, by the fire,
he took a glass of ale
and answered her enquiries with
a terse and witty tale.

He told her of his journey, though
he left out all the scandals
and finally he thanked the maid
for having lit the candles.
“Else I would still be lost,” he said.
“And I,” said she, nodding her head
towards a box, beneath the bed,
with shiny metal handles.

The ornamental box was then
pulled out – put on display.
“It’s not just beautiful,” she said,
“it keeps the rats at bay.”
“My husband carved,” she said with pride,
“this candle box before he died.
Come, let us take a look inside!”
and opened it part-way.

And pausing there, she whispered thus:
“Is not a father’s mission
providing shelter for his kin
no matter the condition?”

She opened up the wooden box
wherein the candles lay
in three compartments lined with silk;
in each, a small bouquet.

“The smallpox took my little ones,
it robbed me of all three,
though first it took my husband and
it almost finished me.”
Then, following her line of sight,
he saw the candles burning bright.
“My babies were my shining light
and they still are, you see.”

The candles fizzled, popped and cracked
upon her love shrine hallow.
They spat out fat and spewed forth soot.
Her voice came soft and shallow:
“At first I tried to use for wick,
their braided hair. It burned too quick.
But sinew seems to do the trick
in adolescent tallow.”

Aghast, the traveller gaped at her
and saw to his surprise,
reflections of the ghostly flames
and madness in her eyes.

Then drawing back towards the door,
impelled by abject fright,
with trembling hands he turned the catch
and fled into the night.

An amazing number of flowers are already out in York’s Museum Gardens as the first signs of Spring begin to appear.

Alison Pringle, our Gardens Manager, has done a count of how many plants are in bloom and intends to repeat the exercise every year on 1 March, so eventually we may be able to spot trends in how flowering time is affected by winter weather.

You can have download her list of species here, admire some of her beautiful pictures below – or, better still, come and visit the Gardens. They’re bloomin’ lovely!

Aconites and the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey

Cornus mas

Helleborus argutifolius

Snowdrops flowering in front of The Hospitium

Who said Half Term’s just for kids? School’s out and playtime’s in, with excited children accompanied by travel-weary parents flocking to York for a taste of the city’s history, heritage and happenings.

With an array of activities going on – from famed locomotives to pillaging Vikings, chocolate tasting to Roman ghost sightings – my personal choice would have to be the new Toy Stories exhibition at York Castle Museum.

There’s something about seeing a much loved teddy bear, a well-worn wooden train or a delicately clothed peg-doll that evokes happy childhood memories in adults and sparks inquisitive questions from children – ‘what, no computers?!’

One of my favourite childhood toys was Weebles – those little chubby plastic people who wobbled but never fell down. With an 18-month old nephew to entertain, I’m currently on the hunt for his very own Weebles to enjoy (and possibly for my own enjoyment too!).

What was your favourite toy as a child?

The doors of the Yorkshire Museum’s historic library were opened to the public for the first time today.

Museum guide Matt Buy and YMT volunteer Ana San Sebastian Blanco welcomed visitors into the room at the top of the museum which is usually closed off from public view.

The library was first established in 1823 by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society (YPS), which later went on to open the Yorkshire Museum itself.

It (together with some surrounding storage areas) now houses 42,000 books and journals  about the natural world and human history, many dating back to the 1800s and before.

Visitors can see the library and hear about its history by coming to one of our open afternoons on Tuesdays and Fridays (please check the Yorkshire Museum website for details).