Artists in the Atrium

Wakefield One Atrium Case Commission

We have recently been successful in securing funding from Arts Council England for a project to commission an artist or cultural organisation to create an installation using Wakefield Council’s museum objects in an innovative and exciting way - a special showcase in the Lower Atrium of Wakefield One. 

We are looking for an artist to use our collections as inspiration to create a beautifully engaging display. Combining artistic practice, be it sculpture, multimedia or painting, with museum objects to wow, thrill and surprise our visitors. Take this opportunity to amaze us with ideas that allow people to engage with museum collections in a different way. As long as the objects are safeguarded we will consider anything…

The prominent atrium case (currently contains a printing press)

We have pre-selected two areas of our collections to choose from to act as the centre point and inspiration for the installation. They are either:

·         Architectural stonework - The museum collections include numerous examples of feature stonework from now demolished buildings across the district.

·         Painted bath - A late Victorian painted and stencilled metal bath

Project budget: up to £4000

An example of the architectural stonework available

Painted bath - the inside is painted to look like marble!

Project timetable:  Closing date for proposals 1 July 2013. Display to open in October 2013.

For full details of the commission and how to apply please e-mail 

All in a flap!

Vote for your favourite 1920s dress

The 1920s are coming to Wakefield Museum but we are all in a flap!

Historic costume enthusiast Nicola Townend has been back with us to start preparing a 1920s display in our Dress to Impress case. Beaded flapper dresses are the order of the day, but Nicola can’t decide which one to use.

We have a short-list of three dresses, all from the 1920s, when jazz and the Charleston came to Wakefield.

Our current Dress to Impress display explores a night out in Wakefield in the 1820s

Nicola examines one of the dresses - we are spoilt for choice!

Pick your favourite by ticking the 'funny', 'interesting' or 'cool' reaction boxes under the dress picture you like the best. The dress with the most reactions by  Sunday 30 June will go on display at the end of July.

All in a flap - Dress 1

Vote on your favourite 1920s dress by clicking on any of the cool / interesting / funny buttons below!

Dress option 1

A plain black dress decorated with bead patterns and fabric strips, 1920s

All in a flap - Dress 2

Vote on your favourite 1920s dress by clicking on any of the cool / interesting / funny buttons below!

Dress option 2

Black dress with underskirts decorated with explosions of white beads

All in a flap - Dress 3

Vote on your favourite 1920s dress by clicking on any of the cool / interesting / funny buttons below!

Dress option 3

 

A pink dress decorated with glass beads and sequins, forming stylised flower  patterns,  1924-1927

Fun for 2-5 year olds!

Yesterday was full of fun out of the sun for the Crafty Crocs at Wakefield Museum.  Our theme this month was shapes.  We looked in the museum for squares, rectangles, circles and triangles using squishy shapes as our guide.

Back in the learning zone our crafty crocs designed some shape monsters and created a collage of shapes on to a picture of a Cayman.

The best fun was had when we experimented with sticking foam shapes to a window with water – here are some of the pictures we created using our foam shapes.

The next Crafty Crocs sessions are on Tuesday 2 July 10 – 11am and 1:15 – 2:15pm booking on essential as places are limited.  Call 01924 302700 or e-mail 

West Yorkshire Textile Heritage Project

From April to June this year the West Yorkshire Textile Heritage Project team has been working with Wakefield Museum to preserve and share textile history collections.

The project is an innovative collaboration between Wakefield, Bradford, Kirklees and Calderdale local museum services and is funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund. Over the coming year the project will create a Heritage Trail, a searchable online collections portal and a legacy of shared knowledge. The idea for this project came from local museums’ commitment to celebrating the region’s industrial heritage and sharing museum collections with the widest possible audience.

Wakefield Museum’s collection offers an insight into over 200 years of textile production. A review is currently underway which will create a clearer understanding of the collection’s significance to the Wakefield area and to the wider national and international story of industrial textile production.

In the nineteenth century Wakefield and it surrounding regions has a strong textile manufacturing sector with companies dealing in raw wool, spinning yarn, weaving cloth and producing reclaimed wool known as ‘shoddy’. Some of the great objects in the museum’s textile heritage collection include fabric samples, sample books, advertisements, packaging and photographs which document everyday life on the mill floor.

A particularly interesting object is a Fowler & Co. Textile Calculator. This pocket-watch like object would have been used by weavers to calculate the relationship between ‘weft’, ‘loom’ and ‘dent’ and shows the intricacies involved in producing a piece of cloth. Fowler & Co. Calculators was a Manchester company originally founded as the Scientific Publishing Company in 1898 by William Henry Fowler. They were a well known manufacturer of circular slide rules and made a range of instruments for use in the textile industry. Today computer scientists study Fowler & Co. products as they investigate the history of computing.

Fowler & Co. Textile Calculator

Another highlight of Wakefield Museum’s collection are knitting patterns printed by companies based in the region, including: Sirdar, George Lee & Sons and Readicut Wool. This archive has been interesting to work with as it demonstrates the skill and pride which home-knitters brought to producing their own clothes. 

We’ve really enjoyed wondering at some of the fantastic models’ poses and sometimes impractical woollen outfits! 

Readicut patterns

Anyone working on their own pair of cable knit trousers? These patterns have inspired us to start planning some knitting activities for Wool Week (14-20 October) so have your knitting needles at the ready!

Take a look at the West Yorkshire Textile Heritage blog for more information about the collections review and textile history. 

You can also find the West Yorkshire Textile Heritage Project on Facebook and Twitter.