York Museums Trust Blog » Michael Woodward

Yorkshire Museum re-Launch!

Michael Woodward — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:36:41 +0000

Here are some exclusive photos of yesterday’s press viewing of the all new museum.

With 30 minutes to go it was the classic case of everyone running around tidying, brushing, polishing and hiding the power drills. Even the glass was still being put in some of the cases.

(you are free to reproduce these images)

But I think it went amazingly well. Janet, our CEO, and Andrew who has led the project made the introductions standing on the beautiful new floor map of the Roman Empire.

The ladies and gentlemen of the press were then set free to wander around and enjoy the smashing new museum. Some of their stories are here:

Michael Binyon of The Times also gave the museum 4 stars – you can read his review if you subscribe to their site.

A peep ‘Behind the Scenes at the Museum’…

Michael Woodward — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:09:02 +0000

This short video gives an exclusive peek at what on earth is going on inside York’s oldest museum. The Yorkshire Museum is having its first total refurbishment since it opened in 1830. As you’ll see, there’s still a bit to do but we are totally committed to reopening on 1 August, Yorkshire Day – this year!

New Windows of Opportunity

Michael Woodward — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:48:21 +0000

After some delays I am really pleased with the two new digital artworks that we’ve put on the windows of empty shops. One is on Walmgate and the other on Coppergate.

More info is at woo2009

British Museum Exclusive

Michael Woodward — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:46:45 +0000

Behind-the-scenes shots of a press event at the British Museum. It was the launch of the new exhibition ‘Treasures From Medieval York: England’s Other Capital’

All of the treasures are from our own Yorkshire Museum collection. It’s the first time the BM has displayed another museum’s collection in this way. Very exciting.

Prize Winning Exhibition

Michael Woodward — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:16:53 +0000

Lady Cockburn and Her Three Eldest Sons

Yorkshire’s Tourism Event of the Year!

That was the accolade given to the Trust’s ‘Grand Tour in York‘ at Welcome to Yorkshire’s awards ceremony at the Royal Armouries last night.

It was a good night for York all round as the Theatre Royal and National Railway Museum also won awards. And to top it all, prizes were handed out by our very own Archbishop, Dr John Sentamu, who only seemed to lose concentration a little when Pub of the Year was announced (Ye Old Sun Inn at Colton, in case you’re interested).

Gallery of Pots

Michael Woodward — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:55:32 +0000

Images of the new display at York Art Gallery, courtesy of Gelder Harvey Architects

Windows of Opportunity

Michael Woodward — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:19:24 +0000

Every recession brings new opportunities, though usually for scrap merchants, insolvency practitioners and other scavenger occupations. York, England, has opened up some of those opportunities to the wider creative community.

Like most places York’s retail economy has been hit hard lately. The sight of dingy, empty shops is a real problem for a city that relies on its picturesque streets to attract more than 4m visitors a year.

A call went out for ideas and York Museums Trust responded with ‘Windows of Opportunity’. The thinking was: we want to change how these shops look but it’s very tricky to get permission to work inside them, so let’s just work with the surface. Vinyl was our solution. We would cover them up with giant, printed vinyls, like the ones advertising the new exhibition at the Castle Museum.

But what to put on them? These would be big, visible statements on the high street. Initially we played around with using actual statements – literature, poetry, quotations – but then broadened it out to any digital imagery.

We also broadened the pool of potential contributors by going world wide and inviting anyone to pitch in with their design. ‘WOO’, as it became known, was put on the web, initially on flickr and recently on a dedicated site.

The response has been excellent – dozens of brilliant ideas, all very well executed. All of them go on display on the website and a few of them win the ‘prize’ of being posted up in the real world. For the launch we chose three very different pieces of work to demonstrate the potential range of the project, and were ready to go.

But getting the first vinyls actually onto the windows was less straight-forward. It took weeks of haggling with various parties to get the permissions sorted out. In the meantime two of the empty shops found tenants. So another round of permissions was needed. It was sorted eventually and the first three windows were dressed at the end of August, to a universally positive response.

Funding has come from the City Council and the tourism body, Visit York, have put in a lot of the leg-work. You can see why they’re involved, but what’s in it for the Museums Trust?

The answer is a few different things. Some good publicity, of course, and some close working with key partners for the benefit of the city, which can’t be bad.

But what it also does is show that when museums use their traditional knowledge and skills to step outside their walls the results can be really interesting. A world of opportunities awaits…

Pistol Shooting

Michael Woodward — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:10:31 +0000

Shooting a replica pistol from the Dick Turpin era – the early 18th century.

This afternoon was the first time this demonstration was done live in front of visitors and luckily it worked first time (the gun is not that reliable).

No stagecoach customers were harmed – the pistol was loaded with real gunpowder but fired only balls of tissue. Turpin would have used lead shot.

The demos are part of the Summer Fun Events programme at the Castle Museum.

York is Popular

Michael Woodward — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 07:56:42 +0000

York is busy right now. Hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the city and August is a very popular time to make the pilgrimage. And pilgrimage is a good word for it, ever since early medieval days people have travelled to the city from far and wide.These ‘tourists’ as they are now called have always been an important part of the city’s economy.

What is surprising though, is just how many of our visitors come from the UK rather than overseas. Even before the recession introduced us to the ’staycation’ (Brits holidaying at home), 80% of York’s visitors were British.The new Prison exhibition at the Castle Museum is proving popular too, but not quite as popular as when the museum first opened….

Story Time

Michael Woodward — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:06:21 +0000

Fiction in museums? Surely not. But they can be a source of inspiration – and we have a few recent examples to prove it.

Last year Tracey Chevalier curated an exhibition at York Art Gallery and used it to stimulate all sorts of literary activity in a wide range of folk, including some of YMT’s own staff.

In November Kate Atkinson wrote in The Guardian, talking about the Castle Museum:

“The museum was a place of miracles and wonders for me, where the rooms and streets of the past were brought to life in a way that was (and still is) thrilling. My imagination was undoubtedly nurtured by those visits; in fact I am sure that they helped to build the foundations of my becoming a writer.” (full story)

And the wider community of bloggers and online writers are following suit – here, for example, is a story for kids that uses the museum as a backdrop. So if you want to get over your writer’s block perhaps you should get along to your local museum.