Over the summer, as part of the York Mystery Plays, a raffle was drawn with many fabulous prizes, writes Adam Parker, Curatorial Assistant for Archaeology.

One such prize was the chance to be a Curator for a Day (for the prize winner plus up to three others) with the staff at the Yorkshire Museum. The idea being that the prize-winners would receive hands-on experience of museum collections and get a taste of day-to-day life as a curator for York Museums Trust.

Fast forward to the autumn, and David, Michael, Jacqueline and Adrianne arrived for their day at the Yorkshire Museum. They were promptly given detailed tours of our collection stores in the Museum basement by both myself and Isla Gladstone (Curator of Natural Sciences).

As giving tours of the stores is a relatively rare occurrence for Curators, we sent them away with a hands-on  task -  the designing and installing of two archaeological displays which utilised cases in the Yorkshire Museum Finds Lab to be used in future sessions by the Learning team.

Divided into two teams, the keen curators were set the task of producing one Roman and one medieval display, and with only an hour to do so. By the time they broke for lunch, the weird and wonderful collections in the strong-room had been whittled down to just forty objects (20 each) representative of each time period.

Returning to their duties, and once again under my guidance, the objects were installed in their temporary new homes with due thought and attention divided between the need for aesthetics and good collections care.

Once the cases were closed, the Curators for a day were set the much harder task of designing labels. Describing objects in no more than forty words in a way that is accessible to all museum visitors is harder than it seems, as the four found out.

A final afternoon session involved a fascinating crash course in the correct identification of Roman coins, ran by Rebecca Griffiths (Finds Liaison Officer).

Whilst the prize seems an unusual one, by Friday morning we had received a letter from our guests detailing how grateful they were for the experience and that they were very glad to have been involved. Four satisfied customers.

From tessellating tiny squares into mini mosaics to folding flowers out of fancy napkins, paper crafts have been a passion of mine since childhood.

I’m constantly looking for inspiration so this month I visited Manchester Art Gallery to see their exhibition, The First Cut. Having been a fan of Rob Ryan’s intricate cut-outs, I was keen to see what he and other paper artists could create. The result was an impressive array of art that celebrates the possibilities of paper.

Not only was the exhibition inspiring for my own work, but it also reminded me to revisit York Museums Trust’s own collections.

Many of my favourites at York Art Gallery are works on paper. I love the two pieces by John Stezaker where photos of famous faces have been covered with old-fashioned postcards, challenging our expectations of what printed images should be used for.

Henry Furniss’ drawing The Pantomime features as part of the Art and Music exhibition. The delicate freehand skill of the sketching gives a real energy and atmosphere to the scene – you can feel the excitement as hundreds of people gather in the grand theatre.

The Community Chest currently contains an array of fairytale creatures to coincide with the recent Wonderland-themed Illuminating York event. From tiny pixies to luxurious landscapes, I love opening up the drawers to take a peak at the magical scenes inside.

It’s been fascinating seeing our exhibition, Gordon Baldwin: Objects for a Landscape shown in different galleries around the country, writes Helen Walsh, assistant curator of decorative arts.

You can see the changes which appear in different locations in these pictures by Philip Sayer.

At Gallery Oldham the pots were displayed in a very light gallery, which looks out onto the hilly Pennine landscape to the east of Oldham.

The exhibition at Gallery Oldham

At the National Centre for Craft and Design, in Sleaford, which is currently showing the exhibition, the gallery is more of an industrial building with a low ceiling.

The layout has changed slightly each time, giving a slightly different perspective, with different relationships developing bewteen the pots.

We are very grateful to Phil for taking these pictures for our records. He has photographed many of Baldwin’s sculptural ceramics and his photos were used to illustrate the book which accompanies this exhibition.

He also took the landscapes of North Wales which are on display in the exhibition, which show Baldwin’s inspirational “Place of Stones”.

For more about Baldwin’s work, watch him on film talking about his creative process.

The exhibition at the National Centre for Craft and Design in Sleaford

Part of the Wonderland mural

As the Vic Reeves Wonderland draws the crowds in the Museum Gardens next door, another wonderland is being created in the Studio at York Art Gallery.

During the half-term holiday families are invited to drop in to the gallery and draw or paint fantastical images inspired by paintings and drawings from our collection.

Evie Burnett, 8, with her illuminated image

They can then see them projected onto the walls in our own mini-Illuminating York display!

Vanessa Langford, who is leading the Big Draw workshops, said she had already worked with a group of adults on the Big Draw Wonderland at the gallery as part of her work with York-based Magnetic Arts.

The adults not only created their own paintings, but started a huge mural on the wall which children have completed this week.

Come and join us during half-term and have a go yourself! All welcome, just a £1 charge per person, open 11 – 1pm and 2 – 4pm, open tomorrow (Thursday ) and Friday 2nd.

Find more details of other events this week, including live music and late-night opening on the York Art Gallery website.

Scarlett Burnett, 4, stands by her image

Illuminate York 2012 opens to the public tonight in the Museum Gardens, which have been transformed into a Wonderland designed by Vic Reeves – or rather Jim Moir.

Vic Reeves . Wonderland

Jim is Reeves’ real name, and the name under which he works as a visual artist.

Twelve of his surreal paintings make up the colourful projection which will light up the front of the Yorkshire Museum every night until Saturday this week.

Vic Reeves, or Jim Moir, in front of the Yorkshire Museum

Journalists were invited to a sneak preview of the show last night and to meet the man himself. Photographer Kippa Matthews took these shots of the museum and a second projection which lights up the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey.

National Dancers

Visitors can actually appear in the  St Mary’s Abbey projection, which is called National Dancers. All they have to do is volunteer to be filmed dancing, and then their image will appear on the ruins!

Looking down on St Mary's Abbey ruins

Yet another projection can be seen on the walls of the Hospitium, featuring the winners of a competition for York children to design a monster.

You can also ride on a bike with illuminated wings, explore hidden pathways and pick up a warm drink, beer or sausage tent in the food area.

To book tickets visit York Theatre Royal box office. For more information about other festival events, visit the Illuminating York website.

Saville’s chemist shop on Kirkgate, our Victorian Street at York Castle Museum, now has some new temporary residents in the form of leeches, writes Sarah Mortimer, Assistant Curator of Social History Learning.

They are there as part of our Kill or Cure Victorian medicine week during half-term (October 27 – November 4) to show visitors some of the weirder things that were seen as everyday 150 years ago.

Guide Melissa Bailey shows a customer the jar of leeches...

The use of leeches in medicine dates as far back as 2,500 years ago, when they were used for bloodletting in ancient India. Many ancient civilizations practised bloodletting, including Indian and Greek civilizations.

The animals were found in fresh water, mostly by women who paddled in rivers, allowing leeches to adhere to their feet before plucking them off to store in small cages or boxes, and then sold on to doctors or pharmacists who kept them in jars.

Losing blood was considered to be beneficial to health. The practice of bloodletting was the most common procedure performed by surgeons for almost two thousand years. They did it to balance the humours, as a surplus was thought to cause ill health.

All four classical elements – fire, earth, water and air – were thought to be present in the blood, and so bloodletting was believed to return the patient to general good health.

Fevers, apoplexy and headache were thought to be a result of too much blood, so the surgeon would tie the arm to make the veins swell, cut the patient and drain out a certain amount of blood, a process which was called ‘breathing a vein’.

These leeches can survive for months after feeding on blood. They have come back into use in the last 30 years and are bred specifically for medicinal purposes.

The employment of leeches became so common that their use very often out-stripped supply.

When applied to the vein of a host, the starving leech clung on by the use of the teeth in its anterior suckers from which it released anti-coagulating enzymes that not only numbed any swelling and pain but also prevented the sucked blood from clotting – until the leech became so swollen that it simply released its grip and ‘dropped’ off.

At that point the wound would be cleaned and bandaged, though it may continue to bleed for hours, and sometimes even days. The bandages were then washed and dried and used again. There were occasions when patients were allergic to the treatment, feeling faint or dizzy, or having great difficulty in breathing, and some even died from loss of blood.

The use of leeches in Europe peaked between 1830 and 1850 then fell into decline. This was partly a result of the invention of ‘mechanical leeches’ (such as scarifiers with their multiple blades).

The use of leeches in modern medicine made its comeback in the 1980s after years of decline and they are sometimes used today in plastic and reconstructive surgery, because a natural anticoagulant they secrete fights blood clots and restores proper blood flow to inflamed parts of the body.

Guide Rob Wake is pictured chatting to a customer about cures and potions sold by Victorian chemists, but he said the main talking point in the shop at the moment was definitely the leeches!

Rosamund West, a Guide at York Museums Trust, looks at works of art used to promote the views of the Temperance Movement, which campaigned against the drinking of alcohol.

Pay a visit to the newly refurbished Kirkgate, York Castle Museum’s Victorian Street, and you will find a new Cocoa Temperance Room.

Within the room, you will see two interesting posters of temperance art. These two posters used to be part of the old education collection and were unframed and tightly rolled up in the stores. They were worked on by conservator James Caverhill before going on display.

The two posters are by J.F.Weedon and are part of a series, Temperance Pictorial Diagrams.  The two posters are entitled Soldiers, which is number 9 in the series; and In The Laundry, which is number 12 in the series. They both carry important moral messages about the virtues of temperance.

Soldiers by JF Weedon

Soldiers carries the caption underneath: “A “Portage” in the Red River Expedition, Canada (1870), under General Wolsley, who says: “The men worked as I have never seen men work before but from the time we started till the time we got back, not a drop of grog was drunk.”

The British Army was the backbone of the British Empire, and had to be efficient, disciplined and in health. Weedon’s soldiers are shown as fit, active men, fighting in Canada for the Empire.

For soldiers to be commonly drunk would weaken the army, threatening Britain’s governance in far flung parts of the Empire.

In The Laundry by JF Weedon

In The Laundry carries the caption, “Of all domestic operations in which women were employed, Laundry work is, perhaps, the most trying and fatiguing. The testimony of both the employers and the women is that the work is best and most easily done without alcoholic liquor of any kind”.

Alcoholism was rife amongst women as with men. Drunken women contradicted the perfect Victorian image of womanhood and drinking could have devastating effects on the health and wellbeing of their children.

Weedon shows these women, due to their temperance, as healthy and industrious women, working in a clean and bright laundry room. Weedon shows us that temperance avoids drunken deprivation and squalor.

Both of Weedon’s posters on display in the Cocoa Room were published by the United Kingdom Band of Hope Union, a temperance group for children, first begun in Leeds.

They carry the message so strongly fought for by The Society of Friends, the value of temperance. The Society of Friends wanted to promote the consumption of drinking chocolate as an alternative to alcohol as they saw the harmful effects of alcoholism, particularly amongst the poor. Hence the opening of cocoa rooms like the one on Kirkgate, as an alternative to the public house.

Temperance Cocoa Room

The Temperance movement was strong in York, a city with a significant Quaker presence. The York Temperance Society, set up in 1830, held enlightened views on the dangers of alcohol and campaigned on such issues as the sale of alcohol to children.

They were fighting against the established view that beer was a good, healthy drink.

Beer was also a relatively cheap alternative to sometimes contaminated water. It was seen as a patriotic drink, conducive to industriousness and was seen as a healthy alternative to gin, another curse of the disadvantaged. Doctors even recommended beer to nursing mothers.

This attitude is seen in Ford Madox Brown’s Work, painted earlier in the century, where we have a central group of strong, hard-working navvies, nourished by a tankard of British beer.

Ford Madox Brown said: “Here are presented the young navvy in the pride of manly health and beauty; the strong fully developed navvy who does his work and loves his beer”.

This was a view which the Society of Friends did not share. The captions on The Soldiers and In The Laundry explain how these men and women work best and most industriously without alcohol.

Far from aiding ‘manly health’, they saw that alcohol was a destructive force in Victorian Society.

Come and see them for yourself in Kirkgate and see if you are inspired towards temperance…

Photojournalism student Lily Hartley spent a week working with York Museums Trust’s press officer Lee Clark and left us with some great images taken during her short stay.

For the past week, I have been stationed in the York Museums Trust marketing office, acting as an in-house photographer. As a Photojournalism student at Staffordshire University, I am required to experience the real world of work once in a while, and to participate in a stint of ‘work experience’.

Whilst a little nervous at first (I was, after all, just a student in a place full of professionals!), I’ve found that this week has been both educational and very enjoyable.

Everyone seemed to want something photographed, and I’ve been kept very busy this week, documenting everything from Tansy beetles to WW1 machine guns! Here are some of the highlights…

John Hoyland poses for a press photograph with a First World War machine gun outside York Castle Museum

A Tansy Beetle in York Museum Gardens. The rare species has been introduced to the gardens recently and the local press were invited to a photo call

Natalie McCaul holds a rare silver boar badge, worn by supporters of King Richard III, which has been acquired by the Yorkshire Museum

A sunny shot of York Museum Gardens taken for the marketing department's publicity materials

This picture of a shell comes from Lily's trip to the trust's natural sciences stores

Lines of neatly arranged butterflies - another shot taken during the trip to the store

Volunteers at work in the York Observatory, taken by Lily for our the trust's Volunteers Co-ordinator

Another volunteer hard at work, this time in the Yorkshire Museum's library

I want to thank everyone in the marketing department for making me feel welcome and giving me the opportunity to learn about what will (hopefully) one day become my field of work!

Artist John Smyth, who created the York Mystery Plays 2012 poster artwork, joined us at York Art Gallery during the summer holidays to help create a mural inspired by the plays.

Children who visited our drop-ins helped paint giant brightly coloured sections for the mural, which has gone on display in the marquee in the Museum Gardens, where they plays are being performed until Monday.

Gaby Lees, assistant curator of arts learning, said the sessions had proved a huge success.

John’s original artwork went on display in York Art Gallery earlier this summer,  next to a painting by Stanley Spencer, whose work inspired the stage and costume design of the 2012 production. (See article and picture from the York Press)

Artist Kirstie Blything is in the gallery Tuesday to Friday this week and next week  (until 31 August) creating small collages themed on our main summer exhibition Art and Music - all welcome to these friendly drop-in sessions – just £1 per child to cover our costs.

For more details visit the York Art Gallery website.

Here’s some pictures by Gaby of the mural painting in progress:

John Smyth at work in York Art Gallery

Young artists hard at work on the Mystery Plays mural

Helping to create our Mystery Plays mural

Half way there...

A completed mural panel

Another finished part of the mural

Throughout the summer, we have been running lots of hands-on activities for children at all of our sites, writes Amy Lang, Volunteers Co-ordinator.

In our Collections Studio at York Castle Museum, volunteers and guides have been running a peg doll making activity, one of several Victorian themed activities across the museum.

Parade of peg dolls

All of our visitors (adults and children alike) have loved the activities and got stuck in. Our volunteers have even found themselves having a go……

We had no idea of their creativity until we saw these pictures of their handiwork!

Laura Trott, double Olympic gold medallist

Our own Dave Cree, deputy senior guide at York Castle Museum, complete with radio!

Ballerina in pink

Visit York Castle Museum’s website for details of all our summer holiday activities.