Tag Archives: heritage

Work experience opportunities at the University of Exeter: An insight into internships and Graduate Business Partnerships

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A core aspect of heritage work at the University of Exeter is the creation and development of work opportunities within the university and with external heritage organisations and partners. These opportunities can be invaluable for students seeking to learn skills and gain experience alongside their undergraduate or postgraduate degrees. Current Graduate Business Partners Ben and Georgia and heritage intern Eloise tell us about their experiences working within and outside of the university and what they have gained from them.

Becoming Graduate Business Partners:

Since June, Ben and Georgia have been undertaking Graduate Business Partnerships (GBP’s) as Engagement and Campaign Support Officers within the Innovation, Impact and Business (IIB) directorate at the University of Exeter. The Graduate Business Partnership scheme helps recent graduates secure full-time graduate roles, with supportive employers in the South West.

Ben tells us about his experience:

For my GBP role, I provide communications and publicity for the many different research projects and partnerships based in IIB. This involves all sorts activity – from social media, to developing blog posts, to web design. The most exciting thing for me is the scope. IIB is the interface between the university and external organisations, be they charities, NGOs, businesses or the public sector. Because of this, the team in IIB work with academics across all areas of university activity, so the projects I work on are incredibly varied. 

Since starting four months ago, I’ve worked closely with the UNESCO Exeter City of Literature team (a personal favourite as a writer & culture lad), promoted environmentally focused projects (such as EEIST and Green Futures), and supported the university’s strategic partnerships with the Met Office and National Trust. I’ve particularly enjoyed speaking to academics about their work, whether this is ground-breaking research into vaccine passports or community interventions to improve the lives of people living with dementia.

As someone interested in both academic research and creative, editorial work, this role’s been a fantastic, challenging and insightful bridge between the two. I’ve developed a bunch of new skills and experiences (specifically in social media and newsletter engagement, writing and design), but also – by talking to university staff with experience in research, journalism and cultural development – a strong insight as to where I’d most like to work in the future.

An insight into Georgia’s experience as a GBP:

As an Engagement and Campaign Support Officer, I provide communications support for researchers and partners who work with the IIB team. This can be in the form of a blog post or social media content, to event planning or design input. I have recently been working with Ben to create the IIB Year in Review 2020-21, a new campaign that celebrates academic success stories from the past year. Learning about some of the great projects and partnerships which come out of the University has been particularly interesting and insightful.  

Working as a GBP has also allowed me to develop my design skills, primarily via Adobe InDesign. I have been working on ‘The Exeter Entrepreneur’ – a handbook designed to guide people through their entrepreneurial journey, emphasising the key programmes and support that the University of Exeter and SETsquared offers. Additionally, I have created a Press Pack for the Exeter City of Literature group – highlighting the positive impact of the UNESCO title. 

Outside of day-to-day work, the University encourages us to engage with personal development, whether this be developing my skills further or delving deeper into the sections of work that particularly interest me. Within IIB, we also have social hubs that enable local people to meet up and engage with each other out of the office. I found this particularly beneficial when working from home, as the South Devon social hub enabled me to meet co-workers face-to-face in a more informal setting. 

The IIB team have created a well-rounded and supportive environment that has allowed me to further develop my skills and pursue personal areas of interest. Learning about the magnificent projects being researched and developed at the University has been a particular highlight.  

Eloise Speechly: Interning with heritage partner The Charles Causley Trust:

Archaeology graduate and previous Professional Pathways intern Eloise has been undertaking an internship with The Charles Causley Trust throughout summer of 2021. The Charles Causley Trust is an organisation that maintains and raises the profile and appreciation of the work of Cornish-born writer Charles Causley, and has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Exeter after previous collaboration.

Eloise tells us about her work for the Charles Causley Trust Festival of Arts and Literature:

Over this past summer, I was offered the privileged position to peak behind the scenes at what goes into creating an arts and culture festival, and the difficulties the current pandemic has caused. As an intern at the Charles Causley Trust, I was given unique insight into organising a large-scale cultural festival and gained first-hand experience in undertaking a portion of its administration.

 As an archaeology graduate, I was keen to make my mark and help tackle the mammoth task of creating a fun and interactive festival experience for all the family, in many cases from the comfort of their own home. With my trusty sausage dog Sammie by my side, I was entrusted with coordinating and communicating with acts, performers and artists the festival was featuring, ensuring that time tabling ran smoothly and gave visitors a chance to see as many events as possible.

Though working remotely had its set-backs, with interaction being limited to the video chatting format, I couldn’t have asked for better employers or co-workers. The Causley Trust team made sure I felt welcomed with regular video meetings to check in on how my work was progressing. I cannot express in words how unbelievably enriching both personally and professionally this internship has proven to be long term as I go forward with my career!

To find out more about the work of The Charles Causley Trust, see their website.

For new and returning Exeter students looking for internship and work experience opportunities, check out the Handshake careers platform to keep up to date with current opportunities at both the university and with external organisations. With new roles approved every day, students can select their particular work interests to receive personalised job notifications.

Also see https://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/internships/ for more accounts written by students about their work experiences across a variety of degree programmes.

Calling all new Exeter students: An introduction to heritage at the University of Exeter Streatham campus, as the start of the new academic year approaches

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As the new academic year looms, academic staff within the University of Exeter are preparing for new visitors, new projects and new research.

A defining feature of Heritage practice at the University of Exeter is its scope. Through a combination of digital and physical heritage work, particularly in the last year, the preservation of heritage for future generations has become a focal point of heritage work. Encompassing a range of disciplines, heritage practice at the university continues to generate social, political and environmental conversations, as artefacts, research findings and literature help shape the cultural landscape of the south west.

Alongside this, the University of Exeter is part of a wider heritage network. It holds a number of Memorandum’s of Understanding (MoU’s) with heritage organisations in the south west, with a view to developing and generating projects and opportunities within the heritage space. Currently, the university has MoU’s with the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM), Exeter Cathedral, Powderham Castle, South West Fed, The Charles Causley Trust, Wells Cathedral and Cornwall Museums Partnership. In addition, the University has a long standing partnership with the National Trust, that at present specifically focuses on environmental and cultural change, supporting wildlife renewal and improving wellbeing through nature. To find out more about Exeter’s partnerships, see the Exeter Heritage website.

Beginning with physical heritage at the university, you can visit the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum (BDCM), The Northcott Theatre and the Special Collections. Having reopened in May after being closed for several months, the BDCM is open for visitors every day between 10am and 5pm. Home to one of the largest collections of material on the moving image in Britain, the museum documents the development of optical entertainment from shadow-puppets and 17th century books on projection, to the most recent Hollywood blockbusters, including artefacts such as Magic Lanterns, rare books, prints, and an extensive variety of publicity materials. The academic research facility and accredited public museum commemorates British filmmaker Bill Douglas (1934-1991), whose work includes the Bill Douglas Trilogy (1972-78) and Comrades (1987).

Over at The Northcott Theatre, performances have returned, ranging from comedy stand-up shows to dance and drama productions. Having first opened its doors in November 1967 as the first arts centre in UK to have been built on university land, the Northcott quickly built a reputation as a venue that fostered new writing talent and pushed boundaries, playing a key role in the development of the careers of actors such as Celia Imrie, Robert Lindsay, Diana Rigg, Imelda Staunton, and John Nettles. September’s programme includes ‘The Three Musketeers – a Comedy Adventure’ and ‘Infinite ways home,’ a multisensory production that explores ritual, rave and human connection. All of Northcott Theatre’s events can be viewed via their website. The Theatre is located just prior to the top of Forum Hill.

Exeter’s rich literary history is preserved in the university’s Special Collections, which you can find in the Old Library. The Special Collections hold archives, rare books and manuscript resources covering all subject areas. Major highlights of the collection include Twentieth Century South West Writing, Literature and Visual Culture, Victorian Culture and Imperial Endeavour, Arab and Islamic Studies, and Religious and Parish book collections.

Famous writers held within the Archives, many of which were born in the south west, include Daphne du Maurier, Charles Causley, William Golding, Ted Hughes, Agatha Christie and Henry Williamson. Archive material from Special Collections can be viewed in the newly reopened Ronald Duncan Reading Room, Monday-Friday between 10 am and 5pm. Appointments must be made in advance by contacting .

In addition to the physical literary heritage at the university, the Digital Humanities Lab uses digital methods and practices to preserve material and further academic research, making literary texts more accessible and more widely understood. Their current projects include the Thomas Hardy Heritage project, a collaboration with Dorset Museum that has digitised Victorian writer Thomas Hardy’s letters, The Poetry of the Lancashire Cotton Famine, which aims to create a database of digitised poems from this period, and the Exeter Book Project, a joint project with Exeter Cathedral that has produced a new website with accessible images of the ancient anthology of poetry.

Look out for more information via the Exeter Heritage website or follow us on Twitter @UoEHeritage, for updates on the #heritage events to check out during this year’s Fresher’s Week.

How can you support heritage this Summer and Autumn in the south west? Some events to add to your calendar

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It has been three months since the reopening of heritage sites across the UK. At the University of Exeter, the galleries at the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum (BDCM are now open every day from 10am to 5pm and the Northcott Theatre is hosting a variety of theatre productions and stand-up comedy nights, throughout the remainder of the summer and into the Autumn.

In the city centre, The Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) is hosting a mix of online and physical events. In August and September, the museum is running two one-day-only virtual events: ‘Taxidermy explained: Preserving and recreating RAMM’s beaver’ (25th August), and ‘The art of hand-modelled plaster with Geoffrey Preston’ (22nd September). Leading into October and November, the monthly one-day-events include ‘Feathers, Fashion and Feminism with Tessa Boase’ (21st October) and ‘Farthing Breakfasts and Penny Dinners with Julia Neville’ (17th November). On the physical front, the RAMM is hosting a guided mindfulness event every Sunday from the 10th of October to the 28th of November. The six free sessions invite you to explore artefacts in the museum collection using mindfulness. For a wider programme of RAMM’s Autumn events, see their website.

Venturing into the winter, Exeter Cathedral are hosting their annual Christmas Market from the 18thof November until the 18th of December. Follow the Cathedral’s social media pages (@ExeterCathedral) for updated information as the event approaches.

Moving to Somerset, Wells Cathedral are hosting the Festival of the Moon from the 12th of October until the 3rd of November. The ‘Museum of the Moon’ is a touring artwork by Luke Jerram, which fuses lunar imagery, moonlight and surround sound composition created by BAFTA and Ivor Novello award winning composer, Dan Jones. The event will be led by Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut. Tickets cost between £25 and £40 and can be purchased via Eventbrite.

At Powderham Castle, the ‘Forest and Feasts’ art exhibition will take place from the 12th-23rd of September. The event features work from over 400 local artists and art groups in Devon. Then on the 2nd and 3rd of October, the castle will host its Food Festival, an event that has been taking place for ten years. Entry costs £4 for children, £9 for adults and £22 for families and can be purchased via: https://powderham.digitickets.co.uk/event-tickets/35771?catID=28608. Leading into November and December, Powderham is hosting two ‘Music in the Castle’ events. The first, on the 15th of October, features Meraki Duo with Meera Maharaj – flute and James Girling – guitar. The second event, on the 17th of December, features the 8 voices of Powderham Consort with Divertimento and David Davies – organ. In addition to this, the Michaelmas Fair will take place on the 4thof November. For further information, check out Powderham’s event list.

Exeter City of Literature will be continuing their series ‘Quay Words’ into the autumn on the 1st and 15th  of September. The events are held online via Zoom and are free, but places must be booked in advance. Also in September, the Budleigh Literary Festival is returning for five days of literary talks, workshops and readings. The event will run from the 14th until the 18th of September and you can book here.

Be sure to check out the Exeter Arts and Culture exhibition ‘A Language of Seeds’, developed by Devon-based artist Léonie Hampton, which is coming to an end on the 5th of September. Other exhibitions such as ‘Turner’s Travels,’ which digitally showcases a series of 19th century engravings in the University’s fine art collection, are ongoing.

In addition, watch this space, or visit the Charles Causley Trust’s website www.causleytrust.org, for news on our Heritage partner’s upcoming International Poetry Competition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Annual Heritage round up: The University of Exeter’s heritage achievements in the 2020/2021 academic year

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The start of the 2020/2021 academic year marked the beginning of a new hybridity in the heritage sector. As the Coronavirus pandemic shut universities, museums and heritage sites across the UK, the sector launched a commitment to a new age of digital heritage that would prove essential for heritage practice over the next year.

Exhibiting, exploring and preserving heritage has shifted dramatically at the University of Exeter. Beginning with the Hidden Cities project, a collaborative project funded by the university and a number of heritage institutions across Europe, historical monuments and sites were brought to screens. App users were able to explore a series of European cities (including Exeter) and their histories from their isolation at home. At the time, co-creator Professor Fabrizio Nevola, Director of the Centre for Early Modern Studies at the university, said that the project illustrated the importance of digitizing heritage during the pandemic, in order to continue the investigation of spaces that were not accessible.

Where physical heritage work was halted, digital heritage practice allowed for new creative projects. As part of the Arts Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and BBC series, ‘Culture in Quarantine,’ Exeter Professor Naomi Sykes and Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Sean Doherty co-produced an animated film that told the story of one of Britain’s most mysterious animals — the hare. The entire project, which drew artistically from the 1978 film Watership Down, was conducted remotely. The film can be watched via the BBC Arts and culture website.

As creative projects were digitised, so too were heritage events. In April 2021, PhD student Bradley Osborne and colleague Dr Arabella Currie led a virtual symposium on the work of Cornish-born author William Golding. Famous for his first novel Lord of the Flies (1954), some of Golding’s work is held in the university’s Special Collections and archives. In examining a range of papers by national and international academics, the digital event sought to reframe Golding’s work and re-establish it as a viable field of study for future scholars.

In addition to its literary heritage, the pandemic called for further exploration of the heritage within the walls of the university. This year, the Northcott Theatre hosted a virtual event exploring the stories of women newly discovered in the theatre’s archive collection. The live streamed event, which featured a panel of women who are developing Exeter’s current arts and cultural landscape, showcased stories that had been discovered as part of the archival project. From this, the event emphasised how the knowledge collected can be used to shape the future culture of Exeter and the South West.

On the Arts and Humanities front, the University was awarded £200,000 by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to take arts and humanities research beyond higher education to drive social change. The award was given to Professor of Shakespeare and Early Modern Performance Studies, Pascale Aebischer, who will work with a huge range of academics throughout the UK on Covid-19 projects supported by the AHRC with over £16 million. The two-year programme will help connect, support and showcase over 70 AHRC projects which broadly cover three themes: the impact of Covid-19 on the cultural and creative sector; ethical, regulatory and human rights issues in responses to Covid-19; and communication and public health during the pandemic.

On partnership, the university has renewed and formed several Memorandums of Understanding (MOU’s) with south west heritage organisations over the past year. In September 2020, the university signed an MOU with The Charles Causley Trust, following previous work together as part of the Trust’s Festival of Arts and Literature, maximising the Causley Archive held in the University Special Collections and developing partnership working with English Heritage. The university also renewed its agreement with Cornwall Museum’s Partnership (CMP), signed a new partnership with the National Trust and with Wells Cathedral. An MOU with English Heritage is pending.

From January to May 2021, the University of Exeter worked with heritage partner The Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) on a Strategic Priority Fund project to develop collaboration and the way in which heritage and culture is collated across the city with the City Council. In addition to this, alongside longstanding heritage partner Exeter Cathedral, the Digital Humanities Lab at the university successfully digitised the Exeter Book, a tenth-century anthology of poetry. In creating a new website, images of the ancient text are now accessible to view in incredible clarity. The launch of the digitised book took place over Zoom, with colleagues from the cathedral and the university present.

During the last academic year, the university have carried out six Professional Pathways internships and two Widening Participation (WP) internships, one of which has been extended until the Autumn.

To read more about the rise of digital heritage in the sector, see our recent blog pieces written by Exeter students: https://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/heritageexeter/blog/2021/07/14/in-the-age-of-virtual-heritage-do-museums-still-need-objects/. For heritage news at the University of Exeter, see: https://www.exeter.ac.uk/research/heritage/newsandevents/.

What is it like to be a freelancer in the Heritage sector? In conversation with Anna Bryant

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The heritage sector is incredibly dynamic. Throughout the South West, heritage organisations and academic institutions are continually developing research and projects to maintain, preserve and uncover local and national heritage.

Freelancer and museum professional Anna Bryant manages, develops, and delivers heritage projects with a goal of helping heritage bodies reach and engage with new and existing audiences more effectively. This involves working with partnerships, audiences, and storytelling for museums, heritage sites and sector support organisations in the South West and nationally. With over 20 years of experience in the sector, Anna tells us about her experience as a freelancer and the opportunities that arise from freelance working.

After undertaking a BA in History and an MA in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester, Anna began her career in local history in London before moving to Wales to set up the Museum of Cardiff. Since then, she has run a partnership of all museums in Bath and, from 2016 to 2018, was Chair of the South West Fed (SWFed). She is an Associate of the Museums Association.

Anna describes her role as a museums’ consultant as running your own business: “not only do you need to keep up to date with current trends and networking, but also pitching for work — writing proposals as well as budgeting, marketing, and doing your tax return!”

An average work day for Anna currently involves sitting at her desk: “a day might involve planning a project out, preparing certain elements such as surveys and having a Zoom meeting to discuss an element of the work or writing a report.” However, as things are opening up, Anna will soon be able to return to museum site visits, in order to get to know a project better, meet people and support the research.

For Anna, the main benefits of freelance work are that the work is varied and that you’re in control of your schedule: “you choose when you work and what hours or days. I have school children at home so choose not to work in the summer holidays, for example. It also can be fun to see a project through to completion and have the satisfaction of wrapping it up.”

However, there are some challenges to this format of working. Anna tells us that “you have to be able to put yourself ‘out there’ and accept rejection as well as success! Working by yourself can be a challenge in terms of bouncing ideas around or time management, but that can be mitigated by working with project teams at the museums or organisations or having good freelancer networks to discuss challenges with.”

Anna says that she has always enjoyed working in the sector because it provides a very varied working life: “I enjoy its breadth from creativity to research, and particularly the satisfaction of working with or for audiences and engaging them with the stories museums can tell, which is opening up further all the time.” Anna has worked in partnership across all of her museum roles — both across museums, but also with community partners. She says that: “It’s a fantastic way to work, bringing new opportunities to all partners involved and opening up new ways of collaborating to enable a better visitor experience. It’s not always easy, though, and requires time and patience to ensure that all parties get what they need from the process.”

Anna has worked as a University of Exeter consultant, doing research into ticketing and membership at the Bishop’s Palace in Wells. She particularly enjoyed doing a focus group with members because it was: “a great way to challenge preconceptions about what research might throw up!”

To find out more about working in museum freelance, see: https://www.museumfreelance.org/.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Re-opening Heritage: Bill Douglas Cinema Museum Curator Phil Wickham tells us about the museum ahead of its reopening on 17th of May 2021

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The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum (BDCM) is home to one of the largest collections of material on the moving image in Britain. Both an accredited public museum and academic research facility, it has a collection of over 85,000 items. The museum documents the development of optical entertainment from shadow-puppets and 17th century books on projection, to the most recent Hollywood blockbusters, including artefacts such as Magic Lanterns, rare books, prints, and an extensive variety of publicity materials.

The museum commemorates British filmmaker Bill Douglas (1934-1991), whose work includes the Bill Douglas Trilogy (1972-78) and Comrades (1987). Bill Douglas, together with his friend Peter Jewell, was also a collector and after Bill’s death Peter donated their amazing holdings on the moving image to the University to found the museum, which opened to the public in 1997. The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum is a unique resource, Phil Wickham tell us: “Nothing else in the UK has the breadth and depth of our collections, which range from the seventeenth century to the present day or is as accessible. Instead of holding films themselves we focus on the experience of seeing them or engaging with the devices that preceded them. Together then the artefacts that make up the collection form a people’s history of the moving image that demonstrates how moving images have changed the way we see the world around us.”

The museum’s artefacts include programmes, prints, postcards, toys, books or devices, and are all accessible to both researchers and the public, as a source of engaging with this history. The museum also holds archives by independent British filmmakers in addition to Bill Douglas, including Don Boyd and producers Gavrik Losey and James Mackay. The collections continue to grow and the museum acquires material from many members of the public, who know their donations can be enjoyed and explored by all.

Phil says that “the collections are used extensively for research by academics at the University of Exeter and form the basis for a number of funded projects. Over the past couple of years, the museum has been involved in research topics as diverse as Vivien Leigh, Theatre and visual culture in the nineteenth century and the effect of Western gay films on LGBT communities in China.”

The BDCM supplies materials from its collections to over 100 classes a year at the University across a wide range of disciplines; including History, English and Sociology, as well as being central to the Film Studies programme. Alongside Professor Linda Williams, the Head of Film, Phil teaches a module in which students curate an exhibition as part of their assessment. He states that this “teaches them new skills in curation and teamwork – the collection enables innovative learning of many kinds.”

The collections are particularly useful for student dissertations, in order to undertake original research. Phil stresses, however, that the museum is a research resource for the whole of the academy and not just Exeter: “The stipend scheme has meant that scholars from all over the world have been able to visit and explore the collections. You can read Blogs written about their experiences at: https://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/research/research-at-the-bill-douglas-cinema-museum/stipends-at-the-bill-douglas-cinema-museum/.”

Discussing how the museum has adapted during the Covid-19 pandemic, Phil told us that rules have meant that the Museum has been closed to the public for much of the year: “We were open for brief periods in the autumn but much of the usual teaching has not been able to take place on campus. We have still been as busy as ever however, especially in scanning materials to create digital resources from the collection for teaching. This allows students to still utilise our collections and apply them to what they are learning.”

The BDCM hopes to reopen in May when restrictions ease. Phil told us that the team “are very excited to welcome visitors back to enjoy our galleries and for us to share our physical collections. While we have all learnt the importance of the virtual over this period, it has also made clear how fundamental the pleasures of going out to places and seeing objects from the past are to us. It will also be great to welcome back the student volunteers that have been such a big part of the museum’s success in recent years.”

 

To donate to the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum please see: https://store.exeter.ac.uk/product-catalogue/education-student-experience/bill-douglas-cinema-museum/donation-to-the-bill-douglas-cinema-museum, and follow @bdcmuseum on Instagram and Twitter for updates on its reopening.

Uncovering the Northcott Theatre Archive: Q&A with Heritage Project Manager Sophie McCormack about the upcoming ‘The Impact of Women’ Event on the 5th of May 2021.

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On the 5th May at 18:00, Exeter Northcott Theatre will be hosting their ‘The Impact of Women’ event that will explore the stories found in the theatre’s archive collection. The project, which began last Spring was led alongside a team of interns from the University of Exeter who delved into the Northcott’s archive. The event panel will look at the stories that have been uncovered and discuss how the knowledge collected can be used to shape the future culture of Exeter and the South West.

Can you tell me a bit about the history of the Northcott Theatre?

The Northcott opened in 1967 as the first of several important theatres that were built on University campuses in the UK. From the very beginning it was hailed as a ‘theatre for the people of Devon’ and it quickly established itself as a theatre which intended to push boundaries, champion new writing and develop talented creatives. Over the years its many artistic directors have taken the theatre’s identity and mission in different directions – taking on the challenge of what it means to be ‘a theatre for everyone’ and interpreting this in a variety of ways. It has become well known over the years as a training ground for high profile actors such as Dame Diana Rigg, Imelda Staunton, Robert Lindsay, John Nettles and Bon Hoskins, as well as a training ground for theatre technicians and crew. Its annual Christmas Pantomime and summertime Shakespeare in the Gardens are fondly remembered locally and are documented in detail in the archive. The theatre has also lead work with young people through its Young Company, developing creative and artistic skills over several generations.

Has the archival work that has been conducted as part of this project altered or added to that history?

Our work with the collection has enabled us to explore the specific ways that the theatre reinvented itself over the years – and while this was previously looked at as a problem (the theatre having an identity crisis and never quite living up to the ‘theatre for everyone’ mission) we have found that in hindsight this flexibility and ability to change is behind its longevity and ability to withstand and survive some difficult periods in history.

The particular role of regional theatre and how it reflects, engages with and presents work to its community — drawing on local stories and talent in this process — is also gaining new relevance as the current team at the theatre looks to massively change the way it works with and supports its local communities.

How important were the student interns in carrying out this work?

The interns have been central to the archive research. They have identified key themes and trends in the archive and then looked into the detailed records and materials in the collection to uncover the stories behind them. The project focus has been led by them in a very real way: the content relating to theatre productions, projects, actors and theatre staff we are sharing publicly have all been selected and interpreted by our teams of interns over the past year. They have also made the selections of the material we have had digitised by the Digital Humanities department at the University.

Why did you choose Natalie McGrath, Sandhya Dave and Rachel Vowles as your speakers for this event?

Natalie is a real leader in the arts and heritage sector and highly respected locally as the co-founder of Dreadnought South West – an organisation that shares the hidden histories of women and their activism. Natalie is also a wonderful writer and experienced in working with regional theatres, including the Northcott.

Sandhya is a real changemaker in Exeter’s culture through her championing of diverse voices and communities and through her leadership of anti-racist work. Sandhya has worked with the Northcott previously to support better and more meaningful engagement with people with from diverse heritages and works tirelessly to support people locally to be resilient.

Rachel is an education and community engagement expert and well-remembered for her work at the Northcott during 1999-2009 — leading work with hundreds of local young people and developing spectacular large-scale community productions. Rachel is an excellent theatre practitioner with loads of knowledge about the local arts sector and the people that make it work.

What do you hope the event will achieve?

I hope that people will begin to see the archive as a fluid, dynamic resource rather than a dusty collection of boxes. It’s important that history and heritage are opened up to be interpreted by as many people as possible, so we get a fuller picture of the legacies we have been left with today. I hope that by using the archive as inspiration, the panel and event audience will see how history can be used to change and shape what comes next.

Tickets for the event are free and can be purchased via: https://www.exeternorthcott.co.uk/events/the-impact-of-women/

The event is part of a wider project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

To learn more about the Exeter Northcott Theatre, see: https://www.exeternorthcott.co.uk and follow @ExeterNorthcott on Twitter for updates pertaining to the event.

 

Q&A with Exeter Arts and Culture Co-ordinator, Naome Glanville, who tells us about the University’s art collection, current projects and her work.

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Naome Glanville is an Arts and Culture Co-ordinator at the University of Exeter. As part of the Arts and Culture team, she looks after the university’s fine art collection and supports arts and culture projects and activities. Naome also writes articles for the Arts and Culture website, uses the fine art collection to support art history study and advises staff and students in planning exhibitions. 

To begin, can you elaborate on the importance of art commissions for the University?

The main aim of the University’s Arts and Culture strategy is to activate creativity, which involves supporting and the sharing of creativity both within and outside the University. We invite commissioned artists to make connections with research and researchers to inform their work and develop their practices, as well as invite researchers and academics to discover new perspectives to their work through interactions with creative practitioners. This potential for cross-fertilisation of ideas can enrich learning and impact for both parties.

The University of Exeter is an institute that values the arts, and the outputs of our arts commissions have been exciting and thought-provoking. They have ranged from exhibitions, soundscapes, movement with virtual reality headsets, to poetry and films. The commissions have supported the artistic community and increased opportunities for networking and learning.

Can you give an overview of the University’s Fine Art collection?

The University’s Fine Art collection consists of around two thousand items, including sculptures, paintings and prints. It includes works by Barbara Hepworth, Terry Frost, Bridget Riley, Newlyn artist Harold Harvey and a large number of 19thcentury engravings of JMW Turner works. Working with the collection means not only acquiring artworks but also caring for them. We have just developed a new policy for the development of the collection, so that we manage the collection in a more consistent, transparent and strategic way.

What is on display on campus and where can the collection be accessed online?

You may be aware of our sculpture walk on the Streatham Campus.

Figure, 1964 by Barbara Hepworth.

Credit: Barbara Hepworth ©Bowness, Photo: Courtesy University of Exeter ©John Melville

Although currently closed to the public, we look forward to a time when it will be safe for the public to tour the sculpture walk once again.  On our website www.artsandcultureexeter.co.uk you can see images of all the sculptures in the walk, read about the works and download a map showing where the sculptures are. Many of the sculptures date from the 1960s and 1970s and complement the architecture of the University buildings. Each month we are shining a spotlight on one of our artworks from the collection on the Arts and Culture website, so look out for that.

Can you tell me about Arts and Culture’s current art commissions?

The current arts commission is an 18-month partnership project with University partner the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM), called Here’s to Thee. The project seeks to uncover the complex ecology and cultures that surround the art of cider making. This fascinating project is being led by internationally renowned artist Simon Pope, who is collaborating with a team of creative practitioners and also academics at the University of Exeter. The project includes the display at RAMM of a wonderful ‘Wassail bowl’ made of local clay by ceramicist Abigail North. You can see more about Here’s to Thee and check out Simon’s video diaries here.

The In Company of Insects project looked really interesting, can you tell me about it?

In the Company of Insects was an 18-month project with award-winning poet Fiona Benson. Alongside sound artist Mair Bosworth, Benson recorded insect sounds and interviewed entomologists from the University of Exeter and beyond, who were able to shed light on the curious lifecycles and habits of insects. These were all drawn together with poems specially written by Fiona, to make a set of amazing, immersive soundscapes, that you can listen to on the Arts and Culture website. The project then reached out for more insect-related poetry through workshops. Poems composed by members of the public, school children and other poets were recorded and can be heard on the Arts and Culture website.

How have art commissions and projects been implicated by the pandemic?

The pandemic has of course affected the way our work has had to be conducted. Very soon after the first lockdown Arts and Culture initiated a series of 10 micro-commissions in partnership with other city arts organisations, entitled Hyperlocal which invited artists from Devon and Cornwall to create a digital artwork exploring the hyperlocal of their immediate domestic environments. After a public-call out, the 10 selected artists created very different responses to the confined world they found themselves in, including poems, illustrations, soundscapes and films. I am sure that they will be fascinating to revisit in years to come, as a record of life in lockdown.

To find out more about the work of Arts and Culture visit www.artsandcultureexeter.co.uk and sign up for our regular Arts and Culture newsletter. Follow Arts and Culture on social media:

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William Golding: Beyond Good and Evil: Q&A with PhD student Bradley Osborne who tells us about the upcoming William Golding symposium on the 8th April.

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As he approaches the end of his degree, Bradley Osborne and colleague Arabella Currie are hosting a symposium on the work of William Golding. An extensive range of work by the Cornish-born author is held in the University of Exeter Special Collections and archives. These are used extensively by academics and students and, often, inspire teaching modules.

Bradley’s thesis argues that Golding’s novels had a clear goal to reawaken in his readers, a sense of strangeness and mystery in the world, which he felt had been lost as a result of contemporary developments in science and technology. The symposium, which will include talks from academics at the University of Exeter, Chester and Bath Spa, similarly seeks to shed new light on Golding’s works, where the writer’s creative output has suffered from a dearth of serious critical attention in the past two decades.

What attracted you to William Golding’s work as a basis for your PhD?

I was not at all a Golding expert before starting the PhD and in fact I originally had no intention of studying his work. It was only when the university advertised a funded PhD studentship on Golding and the archive that I seriously considered making his writing the focus of my research. I realised very quickly that the study of Golding had been virtually abandoned for several years and that there was therefore an opportunity to do something completely new and fresh. So I applied for the funding and, as they say, the rest is history.

How important was the Special Collections Golding archive to your research?

The archive has been absolutely essential to my research. It’s fair to say that I could not have written my thesis without it. My argument heavily depends on the findings that have come out of my study of the drafts and notebooks held in the archive. On a slightly different note, what else the archive has given me is a genuine sense of discovery that I had never experienced before as a student of English Literature. During my undergraduate and masters degrees, I wrote on texts that I knew well and liked well already, and about which I already had a firm idea of what I thought and what I wanted to say. Whereas as a PhD student, I’ve found that my conception of what Golding’s work is about could change quite drastically from week to week, because of the discoveries I was making.

How did the event come about? Can you provide some insight into your collaboration with Arabella Currie and the Golding estate?

It’s been something of a pet project of mine and Arabella’s for a long time now. On more than one occasion, we discussed the feasibility of putting on a Golding conference at Exeter. I must admit that I was rather pessimistic about the likelihood of attracting a large enough audience and array of speakers to present. It was Arabella’s idea to put on a digital event, and it’s an example perhaps of one of the very small number of positive results that have come out of the current pandemic. What this means for us is we can attract a global audience that might otherwise have been dissuaded from attending, had we organised an in-person event in Exeter. Golding’s name is internationally recognised, so it’s important that we in Exeter stay in touch with fans and scholars scattered across the globe.

Why do you feel that Golding’s creative work has suffered from a dearth of critical attention in the past 20 years?

I can certainly elaborate on it, though I wish I could explain it. Lord of the Flies, of course, suffers from being done (and therefore overdone) at secondary schools, so I suspect that most students are discouraged from reading the rest of Golding’s work. School textbooks are ultimately based on the academic scholarship, and the critical consensus on Golding has not changed very much since the 1960s. Back then, most critics argued that Golding was a pessimist as a result of his experiences during the Second World War, and thus they read his novels as allegories of the human condition. My guess is that the study of Golding collapsed from exhaustion – there was too much being written that had too little that was fresh and original to contribute to what was already known and thought about his work. But this is exactly why there is a huge opportunity now – thanks, in large part, to the archive being made available to researchers – for anybody who is interested in Golding to change the narrative, and this is what we are trying to encourage with this event.

What panels are you particularly looking forward to?

I must admit that I have a favourable bias towards research that is outside my own expertise – so I’m especially excited to hear Cristina Ferreira Pinto and Sofia de Melo Araújo’s paper on teaching Lord of the Flies in primary school and in universities. Otherwise, though, I think we have a nice range of papers, selected from a large number of proposals. The other presentations such as Adam Gutch’s proposal for a film & the conversation with Una McCormack and Nina Allan are hugely exciting too and will be a nice break from the more serious academic discussions which will take up the rest of the event.

The symposium aims to be an important first step in reawakening interest in Golding’s work and in re-establishing it as a viable field of study for future scholars. Exeter professor, Tim Kendall, told us that Arabella and Bradley are both writing ground-breaking books on Golding’s work and that the university are proud to be organising a virtual symposium on Golding’s achievement.

To register for the event and view a full programme see:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/william-golding-beyond-good-and-evil-registration-143746949997?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

Visiting Cornwall’s Museums the Green Way

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Through the Professional Pathways programme at the University of Exeter, intern Nick Collins spent a week in June with Cornwall Museums Partnership…

For many people, working in a museum might sound like a dream job. I was one of those people (and indeed I still am), but in June I was lucky enough to find the only job that is even better – working across several museums, for the wonderful Cornwall Museums Partnership (CMP). My name is Nick Collins and I was with CMP for an all-too-brief secondment from the University of Exeter as part of their Professional Pathways programme. I visited museums and galleries across the county, and below I’m going to share my thoughts on the amazing exhibitions they were running. There’s another theme I’d also like to share. I’ve been trying to show how we can be greener in our museum visits, and help to reduce congestion on Cornwall’s roads, which were as busy as ever this summer. I travelled to all of these exhibitions using nothing more than public transport and my trusty steed (a bicycle, not a horse). But more on that in a moment…

On Monday, I started at Penlee House to see Munnings in Cornwall, an exhibition taking regulars there from the familiar territory of the early Newlyn School into the perhaps less familiar territory of the later Newlyn School, whilst also introducing new visitors to the beauty and humanity of this school of painting. It is that humanity which really shone through in this exhibition – perhaps ironically, given that its principle subject, Alfred Munnings, is best-known for painting horses. But, whatever the paintings show, we have to remember that it was people who made them, and this exhibition told those people’s stories with touching sensitivity. Often, the glimpses we get of artists’ lives are startlingly intimate. Munnings’ painting coat, palette and brushes were there, as were examples of his letters and sketchbooks and his beautiful poem to Jessica Heath. Harold Knight’s portrait of Munnings dominated the entrance to the exhibition, portraying only a few hints of the alleged tension between the two. It is one of three portraits of Munnings, another being a self-deprecating, caricatured self-portrait. Munnings’ contemporaries dominated the next two rooms, with Harold and Laura Knight, Samuel John “Lamorna” Birch, Frank Gascoigne Heath and Charles W. Simpson particularly prominent. They gave us a wonderful insight into the world of the Newlyn School’s less-famous later stages.

Come Tuesday, we made the longest trip of the week, all the way up to Bodmin (yes, by public transport!) to Cornwall’s Regimental Museum. Music was a great morale raiser; the army has known it for centuries – a story told with great insight and originality by CRM’s Citizen Curators, in their exhibition Music, Morale and the Military. There were some fantastic objects, including the D Day dodgers’ banjo, carried by soldiers in Italy in the Second World War in ironic reference to the derogatory nickname forced on them; and a Light Infantry Drum, which tied in very well to the rest of the museum and the superb videos which allowed former members of that regiment to tell its story in their own words. The real highlights, though, were the playable 1920s piano and the new recording of the DCLI Boys Marching Song (a local song probably not heard in almost 100 years), both of which made the exhibition a fantastic place to stay for a while and enjoy the atmosphere. The exhibition was created by the Citizen Curators, a group of five volunteers who put it together over a period of several months. The programme will be running again with new volunteers from October 2019 to April 2020 across several museums in Cornwall. Have a look at this blog post for much more information on that.

The spirit of community curation was alive and well in Falmouth Art Gallery’s exhibition Stuff and Nonsense, which I saw on the Wednesday. There were several pieces of community-curated art, plus the chance for every single person who walked through the door to contribute, with visitors being asked to upload photos of their own “shrines” in response to those created for the exhibition, and also to leave their own found objects alongside those in the exhibition.

The Nonsense half of this exhibition was brilliantly uplifting, featuring illustrations from Quentin Blake, Tony Ross and Edward Lear. There was even a woodblock used in the illustration of Alice in Wonderland, alongside Lewis Carrol’s diary, a real highlight. Several fantastic automata also found their way into the exhibition. The library, housed in the same building, featured more, including an enormous example based on Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast books.

Uplifting Nonsense

To return to the transport theme, Thursday presented an unusual challenge. Many people would see Portcurno Telegraph Museum as inaccessible by public transport, but there is in fact a bus which stops right outside it. Admittedly, the unusual challenge I mentioned was the fact that said bus broke down in St Buryan on the return journey, but I’m sure that doesn’t happen often… If the owner of St Buryan Caterers, who very kindly gave me a lift back to Penzance, is reading, thanks once again!

The escape stairs from the Second World War bunker at Porthcurno Telegraph Museum

The Telegraph Museum itself is today perhaps more relevant than it’s ever been – as we live through our own communications revolution, it becomes ever more important to understand previous ones. At Porthcurno that story is told not only in terms of the technology (which is covered superbly through working objects and demonstrations) but the people who used and made it, whose lives are shown through their photos and possessions. The highlight is the spectacular Second World War bunker, filled with hundreds of artefacts, many of which are still working. The photo here is the escape stairs, a tunnel leading from the bunker all the way to the surface and beautiful views of the valley.

I finished the week at Royal Cornwall Museum for their exhibition Eye to the Skyexhibition, which told the story of John Couch Adams, who predicted the discovery of Neptune, through Manga. It is an incredible story, and a highly innovative way of telling it. The Manga sat alongside more traditional museum objects, including a large celestial globe and the astonishingly-restored portrait of Adams, which has been transformed from quite literally having a hole in the unfortunate astronomer’s forehead to as good as new. Bringing both of these approaches together created something far better than either style could have achieved alone.

So what did I learn during my week? A lot. More than I can really say. I’ve been lucky enough to work in museums before and if this experience has been an exception it’s because it’s been even better than those other times. Museums tell us stories, entertain us and make us think, but never has it been clearer to me that they can also change lives. From the Citizen Curators who put on such wonderful exhibitions, some of whom have gone on to continued involvement in the heritage sector, to the home-educated children who I saw taking part in a workshop in Falmouth, I have come to understand that museums are about more than probably most people realise. They harness history and the arts as a positive force for the present, and it has been an honour to see how much difference that can make.

I would like to thank the University of Exeter for their part in organising this placement and for the stimulating and enlightening training I took part in. Most of all, I can’t thank the people at CMP and all of the museums in the partnership enough. I hope to see you all again sometime.