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Wrexham Museum Diary - December 2010

John Exhibitions
Karen Education
Archive

John Exhibitions

December 1st

Work on the maps for the Wrexham Your Town database. Rough object illustrations for the prehistoric timeline interactive arrive, but no decision yet on the final design.

December 2nd

Unsuccessful search for a better brewery smell for Smelly Old Wrexham. We all know the smell, but it is very hard to reproduce.

December 3rd

Progress meeting – we all realise how much we have to do by February 14th! Start work on the Change & Continuity interactive. Big discussion with EDM and Bright 3D on how to make the prehistoric timeline.

December 6th

Layouts arrive for the maps in the Wrexham Your Town database.

Example of how the interactive maps will look in the Wrexham Your Town database
© Wrexham Heritage Service/Bark Design/Heritage Interactive Ltd.

December 7th

Plans arrive for the massive central case which will contain the Wall of Images. It has gone through several versions, but the design has improved each time.

December 8th

Meet with the designers, Bright 3D; the interactive manufacturers, EDM; and the case manufacturers, Armour Systems. Modern technology is great but nothing beats a face-to-face meeting for making decisions!

December 9th

We agreed the final design for the Prehistoric timeline interactive yesterday, so briefed the illustrator and work has already begun.

December 10th

Draft designs for Zone 20 of the main gallery arrive. Have a look:

Draft designs for one of the walls in the gallery.
© Wrexham Heritage Service/Martin Tilley/Bright3D

December 13th

Move back into the museum building. We have all gone soft after nearly eleven months in the Arts Centre. Now we’re back enjoying Victorian standards of architecture and… insulation.

December 14th

Both today’s and yesterday’s entries were written later as we were cut off – no computers. Proof the Prehistoric Timeline artwork with Bark Design.

Draft artwork for the console that operates the Prehistoric Timeline interactive.
© Wrexham Heritage Service/Bark Design

December 15th

Christmas meal at the Pant yr Ochain. Great location, not so sure about the turkey though…

December 16th

Draft design for poster arrives as quite a few people think the museum is open, whereas it’s a building site with the fit- out contractors hard at it building partitions in the main gallery.

Draft designs for temporary information poster.
© Wrexham Heritage Service/Martin Cartwright.

December 17th

I have got a cold – first gear all day. I am moving house and more snow is on its way!

December 20th

Still struggling to agree the final design for the console for the Prehistoric Timeline interactive.

December 21st

Battle through the snow to work with Bark Design on the Roman map and the 1950 map of Wrexham for the touch screens in the main gallery.

December 22nd

Gather references for new souvenir artwork for the museum. Burst pipe at Bersham. Esther and David lead the clean-up operation.

December 23rd

Burn the midnight oil with Bark Design to finalise the English and Welsh versions of map of Wrexham in 1950. Hats off to the Ordnance Survey as they do the whole country!

December 29th

Another burst pipe at Bersham and false alarms at the museum store as the sensors struggle to cope with the cold. Luckily Steve the manager is on that call out list!

December 30th

Gathering and organising images for the Wrexham Your Town database. It’s going to be big… Happy New Year everyone! We’d best leave our celebrations till February 15th.

Karen Education

1st July

Visited Penley Madras School to do a workshop on Toys in the Past. The children designed a mini-museum with the toys and had the opportunity to make a thaumatrope. Great fun was had by all.

3rd July

Took the main road show to Scientriffic at Glyndŵr University to show our zoetrope and to make more thaumatropes. People were fascinated by the weight of the chain mail and just how fit you had to be to be a ‘knight in shining armour’.

6th July

Took the main road show to the International Eisteddfod at Llangollen. The children enjoyed trying on the costumes, designing what they would like to see in their favourite museum and making thaumatropes.

13th July

Visited Victoria Junior School to work with some parents and children. We looked at Toys in the Past and had a good time playing with the replica games.

In the evening I visited the Acorns Youth Club in Penycae and met some children I had worked with when I visited Ysgol Penycae. This time we looked at Toys and Games. The children enjoyed the skipping and playing dominoes.

19th July

Visited Ash Grove Care Home to work with the residents. Took along some artefacts relating to life on the Home Front. Very interesting discussions about rationing and having evacuees to stay.

22nd July

Took the main road show to Ty Mawr Community Fun Day. A damp day didn’t deter the visitors from making thaumatropes and having a good time.

25th July

Took the main road show to Bellevue Park to help celebrate it’s centenary. Happy Birthday!

26th July

Visited the Buddies After-school club in New Broughton to look at Toys and Games in the past. The children created their own museum display and then had a good time playing with the replica toys.

27th July

In the morning I visited Victoria School holiday club to look at Toys and Games in the past. Again the children created their own museum display and especially enjoyed playing with the marbles and making thaumatropes.

In the afternoon I visited Gwern Alyn Care Home with the Toys and Games. Not much playing but a lot of discussion.

28th July

Visited Garth School to look at childhood in the past. The children dressed in costumes from different ages and then played with replica toys from those periods.

31st July

Bersham Heritage Centre hosted a World War I road show which was very interesting.

1st August

Attended ‘History Alive!’ at Bersham Ironworks with the main road show and a big thank you to all our helpers for their assistance with this.

3rd August

Visited Garth School to look at the work of J.C. Edwards and the children then designed their own tiles.

10th August

Visited Garth School to look at life during the war. The children had their own identity cards and we made model Anderson shelters.

11th August

Visited Friends After-school group at Acton Park School to look at life during the war. We made model Anderson shelters and talked about what it was like to be an evacuee.

13th August

Visited a group of Home Educators. They were also working with some loans boxes and having a good time washing the clothes and practising their best handwriting.

August 20th

Took the big road show to Bangor-on-Dee racecourse and had an object lesson in how to put up a gazebo (and take it down again) in a howling gale. Thank goodness for chainmail to weigh everything down on the tables.

August 22nd

Went with the road show to Brymbo Sports and Social Club to help Rowlands Chemists celebrate their 200th anniversary. The thaumatropes went down well, the star attraction here were the photographs.

August 24th

Visited Garth School holiday club with the mini ‘Museum on Wheels’ and looked at the Romans. The children enjoyed trying on the helmet and then we worked on some mosaic patterns of owls.

August 30th

Enjoyed a lovely day at Gresford Fete with the big roadshow. The sun shone and people enjoyed looking at the photographs and trying to match up famous Wrexham characters and the objects associated with them.

September 13th

Back in the office after a week learning about the Tudors and wondering how many meetings I can fit into a day!

September 15th – 22nd

Useful meetings with various groups to make progress with the corridor cases and with the audio-visual elements to the new gallery.

September 25th

Attended the launch of the Young Roots project at Caer Alyn.

September 27th

Attended a really good training day about the Foundation Phase which will be continued next month.

September 29th

Went to Alexandra School to work with Years 5&6. We looked at the Gresford Colliery Disaster.

Week beginning 4th October

Members of the Education Team from the National Library Wales are in town delivering workshops based in Ysgol Morgan Llwyd. It would have been nice to hold the workshops in the Museum but we are still officially designated as a building site.

5th October

Visited Alexandra School to work two groups of children who looked at some old toys and became mini curators creating their own displays which they ‘opened’ to the visiting public (the rest of the group). They also played with some replica toys.

7th October

Took the ‘Museum on Wheels’ to Ysgol Cynndelw After School Club. We looked at childhood through the ages and the children had the opportunity to dress up in the replica costumes and play with the appropriate toys. ‘Marbles’ were very popular but ‘Merrills’ was considered hard!

Week beginning 11th October

Members of the Education Team from the National Library return to deliver their second week of workshops. The participants are really enjoying this opportunity.

12th October

Met the group of pupils from St Joseph’s School who are going to help with the Corridor Case project for the refurbished museum. They started to think about the objects on display in a museum and what visitors would need to know. Next time I visit they will vote for their theme.

14th October

More training about the Foundation Phase and how the museum can enhance work done in schools.

15th October

Meetings about shop stock!!! Why did that make me think about Christmas lists?

19th October

Visited Bwlchgwyn After School Club to look at Seasonal Traditions of bonfires and ‘guisers’.

21st and 22nd October

Visited Cefn Mawr Primary School to deliver two World War 2 workshops to Years 5&6. The children designed some great gas mask masks amongst other things.

27th October

Visited Owls Out of School Club at Garth School to look at Seasonal Traditions, the ‘guisers’ won.

November 2nd

Lots of meetings regarding the corridor cases that various groups are helping to curate.

Visited Barker’s Lane After School Club to look at what life was like for the people of Wrexham during the war especially if you were a child. Very colourful Anderson Shelters were made as well.

November 3rd

Took part in a workshop which is coming to the museum in the new year. Great fun!

November 4th

Visited St Joseph’s School to find out the theme for their corridor case which is Childhood. The group are really looking forward to choosing the objects now.

November 5th

Final preparations for a pilot workshop to be delivered in school next week.

November 9th

Delivered the pilot workshop on the theme of the Tudors at St Mary’s Catholic School. Very interesting to see the children designing an outfit fit for a King and Queen.

Visited Darland School who are helping with the Corridor Case project to find out their theme. The group will be focussing on coalmining and in particular the Gresford Disaster.

November 11th

Joined in a poignant two minutes silence.

Attended the National Library of Wales President’s Evening and the opening of their exhibition in the Library.

November 13th

Took the big Roadshow to a Family and Local History Day at Yale College. No children but some very interested and knowledgeable adults.

November 15th

Lucky enough to have been invited to attend the filming of one of the films which will be shown in the new main gallery. Very interesting!

November 16th and 17th

Two very good days with Years 5 & 6 of Victoria School looking at Britain since the 1930’s but particularly Wrexham during the Second World War.

November 18th

Very interesting meeting with some participants in another film for the new gallery. There are some great stories just waiting to be told.

November 20th

Took the mini Museum on Wheels to Cefn Mawr. The photographs were a big success.

November 24th

Visited Victoria School to judge their Historical Wrexham project. Some excellent work had been produced and the decision was tough. Congratulations to all concerned.

November 26th

Interesting afternoon viewing the ‘directors cut’ of the film shot last week about the making of the Rossett Hoard! Very Hollywood! Thanks to Ancient Arts for all their help in making this such a success.

November 29th

The museum mascot has been named … welcome to BRYN. Many thanks to the pupils of St Mary’s Brymbo for all their help.

December 1st

Visited St Joseph’s School to start looking at objects for their corridor case and to think about the placing of the objects on display.

December 2nd

Took the ‘Museum on Wheels’ to the After School club at Ysgol Cynnddelw to look at traditional Christmas Crafts. The children produced some lovely cards and tree decorations.

December 7th

Davies Community Films at the museum to film some contributions for the ‘Hippodrome’ section of the new gallery.

December 8th

Took the ‘Museum on Wheels’ to Bwlchgwyn After School Club to look at Victorian Christmas Crafts. The children tried sewing some lavender scented tree decorations and made some cards, very creative and all that lavender smelled lovely.

December 10th

Took the museum mascot, Bryn, to meet the children at St Mary’s School, Brymbo, who had named him and who go to school just a few streets away from where ‘he’ was discovered in 1958.

Started to pack boxes as the office is being moved back to the museum building.

December 13th

More packing and the mini move back is underway! Wait until the turn of the year when the great move begins!

December 14th & 15th

Meetings and yet more meetings! Auditioned voiceover artists able to speak English and Welsh for one of the new audio visual presentations.

January 27th

Rhosnesni School visited the museum to make the final choice of objects for the Corridor Case and had a really good discussion about rationing. The rationed goods didn’t make the final display.

January 31st

The Friends of the Museum visited to make their final choice of objects for the Corridor Case. Who can remember the price of drinks in the 50’s?

February 1st

Oh my goodness, it’s February already! 13 days to go! At least the Corridor Cases have objects in them now.

February 2nd

Ideas for the panels in Gallery 2 sent to Martin for some design magic to happen.

Visit Bwlchgwyn Out of School Club to look at the Tudors. The children enjoyed dressing up and trying on the pattens (wooden over-shoes to keep your feet out of the mud). They all contributed to making a clove and orange pomander. Great fun!

February 4th & 5th

First drafts of the panels for Gallery 2 arrived, some minor tweaks but they look good.

Took some of the Roadshow activities to the Wrexham Histories Festival at Glyndwr University.

February 7th

Went to Ysgol Rhiwabon to lead an object handling session about Brymbo Man and the times he lived in. No, we didn’t take his skeleton just some replica artefacts.

February 8th

Give talk on Toys in the Past to Parciau Ladies Club. A few ladies tried the skipping ropes and the cup and ball and they were better than me.

February 11th

Start to clean the shirt holders ready for the cases in Gallery 2.

February 12th

Finish off the cases in Gallery 2. The first exhibition showcases some of the items from the National Football Collection of Wales. Who would make your Hall of Heroes?