Take a tour of Bradford's heritage

Today was the first day of the new program of volunteer led tours of the Bradford Industrial Museum, and I think it went rather well, if I do say so myself!

Marco, my fellow tour guide, and I, led three tours round the museum, two of the mill owner's house and the back to back cottages, and one of the spinning and weaving galleries. Hopefully we taught the visitors a few new things; I shared my newfound knowledge of the spinning process which I've been revising all week! And we learnt a thing or two ourselves - what a siren suit is, for instance (a warm woollen 'onesie' worn over your PJs when the air raid siren went off), and Marco looked rather embarassed when a group of ladies tried to explain to him what a pawn shop was. They thought his misunderstaning of the term 'pawn' was quite hilarious!

There should be volunteers running tours of the different aspects of the museum every Sunday afternoon from now on, so if you're interested in our industrial heritage, steam power, vintage cars, or simply how people used to live in the olden days, come along and see us at the Industrial Museum in Eccleshill.

'Performance' at Abbey House

At ten o clock this morning I found myself in the slightly bizarre situation of being part of a large group of people pouring cups of tea and nibbling on biscuits, in the middle of a Victorian high street. There was a big table laden with coffee cups and milk jugs, just outside the greengrocers and the pub! I was at the Abbey House museum in Kirkstall, just across the road from Kirkstall Abbey, for a private view of their new exhibition for 2012.

An unusual setting for a mid morning brew!

Entitled ‘Performance’, the exhibition covers many diverse aspects of this theme and includes cases on local sporting heroes and some rather scary Punch and Judy puppets, as well as there more obvious theatre and dance. There is a collection of fascinating local theatre posters, the oldest of which dates from 1789 – the year of the French Revolution! These were, I was told by curator Kitty Ross, in a sorry state – stained orange, stuck onto acidic boards and even covered in sticky back plastic – but have been expertly restored for this exhibition thanks to funds from the Friends of Leeds Museums. The posters, showing prices, performance times and detailed descriptions of the plays being advertised, give an insight into the theatre going habits of the people of Leeds over the years. Strangely, in an exhibition on performance in Leeds, there is no mention of Opera North which has its headquarters in the city.

Abbey House benefits from working collaboration with design students from Leeds Met University, who have assisted with elements of this exhibition. Visitors are welcomed with an art deco style banner which proclaims the exhibition title ‘Performance’ in flashing lights, and twinkling lights and mirrors in the cases create a sense of space and theatre in this quite narrow, restricted gallery. A recurring motif is the strip of tickets which appear in many of the cases, and also on the invites to this morning’s private view. This helps tie together all the disparate cases, reminding us that even when going to a rugby match we are paying to watch a performance. The only negative aspect of the exhibition design that I noticed were the translucent text panels on the glass of the cases themselves. These panels gave simple information on each of the items in the case, which is of course necessary in any exhibition, but were difficult for some people to read and in the smaller cases they obscured the view of the objects themselves.

All in all, an interesting exhibition about an aspect of local social and cultural history. Now I can’t wait to start my placement at Abbey House next month, and start working with Kitty to think about next year’s exhibition, ‘Fate and Fortune’. Watch this space!

Salts Mill - Identity Crisis?

Yesterday afternoon I visited Salts Mill, an old industrial space which now houses a collection of cafes, shops and galleries. It’s a popular place for a weekend trip out, especially now the neighbouring park has been done up and includes a lovely new children’s play area.

I want to think about the first main space that the visitor enters in the Mill, the ground floor 1853 gallery. The heavy door opens onto a huge room, broken up with antique tables, vases, huge potted plants and postcard stands. Light falls through the massive windows. There is an overwhelming smell of lilies, and piano music gently drifts through the space. The walls are hung with works by David Hockney, but what struck me yesterday is that almost nobody was looking at the art. Although the space is described as an art gallery, in fact most of the visitors were wandering, chatting, and perusing the various books, art materials, posters and postcards on display.

This is clearly a place where people come to soak in the calm, relaxed atmosphere, maybe have some lunch or buy a book, but also (whether consciously or not) to increase their cultural capital. It is a self-consciously intellectual place, and the items for sale in both the gallery and the bookshop have been carefully chosen to add to the feeling of the visitor being part of a cultural elite. Heavy, richly illustrated art books, address books covered with liberty patterns, paints and brushes all suggest that by buying something from this gallery/shop, you will be buying into and becoming a part of this intellectual, creative society. This Moleskine notepad will be the one you write your bestselling novel in, that set of brushes will inevitably lead to the Turner Prize.

It’s Bourdieu’s Love of Art in action – and yet no-one is looking at the art! They are flicking through books, pointing out birthday cards to one another. So, my question is, is it an art gallery, or is it a shop?

Seven Days in the Art World

I was roaming the Brotherton Library, picking up some books that I needed for my essay and wondering why all the others that I didn’t have to read looked so much more interesting, when I made (yet another) New Year’s Resolution. So as well as doing more interesting and unusual things with my friends, swimming more often, and eating less crisps, I’m going to try and make the most of having access to the university libraries and actually take home and read some of the random books that catch my eye.

I’ve made a good start, with Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton. I’d seen this book before in gallery gift shops and thought it looked interesting, so when I spotted it in the library I thought I’d give it a go. Thornton describes it as an ethnological survey into the world of art – which almost put me off having spent the last goodness knows how long working on an essay all about ethnology in museums. Ethnographers traditionally study geopraphically distant, exotic cultures, so I was interested to see how a study of a specific section of western society would work.

Basically, the book is a fascinating insight into the lives of collectors, dealers, curators and artists. Thornton has chosen seven aspects of the Art World and dedicated a chapter to each. It’s like getting the chance to follow these people around, a host of unusual characters from the mega-rich collectors at a Christie’s auction, to the artists nominated for the 2006 Turner Prize, unsure about what the prize will do for their career. Basically, through Thornton’s research, interviews and ‘participant observation’ – getting involved with the art world herself, writing for Artforum and attending auctions, ‘crits’, prizegivings and the Venice Biennale, you as the reader get to enter into the slightly bizarre world of art. Whether you have a strong interest in art or not, it is the people who are really interesting in this book and the insight into the contrasting cultures of those who buy, sell and display art, and that of the artists themselves.