Rossendale garden launch...

Lots of exciting things have been happening whilst I've been on my holidays. Last week saw the launch of the medicinal herb garden at Rossendale Museum. Over 150 braved the rain to come and celebrate at the event which included an opening speech by BBC The One Show's garden expert Christine Walkden, stalls by local food producers and guided walks around the park with local herbalists. Local group Incredible Edible who have planted a community garden next to the herb patch did a great job organising the event, you can see what they do and how you can get involved with them here. The garden is looking great, and you can now buy a DIY medicinal herb kit for £1 from the museum shop, which invites you to go and pick the herbs for yourself. We are so pleased with the response we are busy planning another event in October, more details as it is confirmed!

Rossendale picnic postcards...

Below are the postcards we will be distributing to advertise the Rossendale picnic. I think one of the highlights will be the guided walks by local herbalists Tim and Tracey who they will take you around the park to pick wild plants and then, working in the museum, they will show you how to turn them into an ointment. Places are strictly limited so best to ring up and book your place soon (01706 260785)!

Another picnic!

Another date for your diaries...July 20th, we will be launching the medicinal herb garden at Rossendale Museum, planted by artists Kaspar Wimberley and Susanne Kudielka as part of the work they were doing with the New Light on Old Bones project. The garden will have a joint launch with local group Incredible Edible who are opening a community garden project that they have planted in the museum gardens. There will be lots to do from activities with local herbalists to meeting local food proucers and generally having a nice picnic! I'll post more details closer to the time...

New Light on Old Bones...

You can find a link to the NLOB project paper produced by Renaissance North West here.

Rossendales new medicinal herb garden...

For a full up date on the herb garden planted by Kaspar and Susanne at Rossendale Museum, pop over here.

Lancashire Evening Telegraph....

Article about Kaspar and Susanne's project at Rossendale Museum here.

Fish and chips...

We launched the fish and chip shop community newspaper on Friday in the rain - there's nothing quite like chips in the rain! Susanne and Kaspar have been working with the communities of Rossendale to develop these papers, asking questions about how people relate to nature in modern society. Many of specimens in the collections at the museum are there because of how the Victorians liked to collect natural history and their fascination with the outdoors - we were interested to see how people relate to this subject now. The first paper, entitled 'dust never hurt anyone' was developed by the lads at Belmount School, and their workshops were based around their allotments, and building structures out of what they found there. One of my favourite extracts from the first newspaper:
"I like bugs - because they have to defend themselves against bigger creatures"

Some of the lads from Belmount school who designed the first paper came down to pose for the cameras.

The are 500 copies of each newspaper edition being used at Tony's fish and chip shop in Rawtenstall and there are 6 editions, with each one being released on the first of the month.

The Victorian medicinal herb garden...

Yesterday saw artists Kaspar and Susanne working with the students of Alder Grange School to plant up the Victorian medicinal herb garden in the grounds of Rossendale Museum. Inspired by the books housed at the museum outlining cures for ailments (which I could do with testing out today as I'm sat here with a stinking cold!), they have developed a herb garden that will be the source of inspiration for activities in the summer when the plants have had time to bed in.

I'm looking forward to the launch of the community newspaper tomorrow that will be used to wrap up fish and chips at Tony's Fresh Fishmongers in Rawtenstall. We'll all be there at 11.30 to see the first edition launched if you need an excuse to have fish and chips for you dinner!

X-cellent way to revisit Rossendale Museum exhibits...

Article in the Lancashire Evening Post about the Rossendale project here. Some lovely images of the artists and Dr Pat Morris!

All wrapped up...

These were the some of the larger taxidermy exhibits all wrapped up and waiting to make the journey to Manchester this weekend to get their x-rays. You can read a more detailed update of the project here.

What every child wants to know...

So now we've seen the x-rays of the specimens at Rossendale Museum, this morning we took apart two old birds to see what they actually look like inside...

Preview...

I've just spent a very interesting afternoon at Rossendale Museum with artists Kaspar and Susanne and taxidermy expert Pat Morris. They were x-raying some of the smaller taxidermy specimens which I had to share a few of with you, they are quite amazing...

Behind the doors...



Victorian whimsy ... The Village School by Walter Potter. Photograph: Benjamin Stansall/Rex Features
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There will be interesting things happening at Rossendale Museum this Sunday and Monday while the museum is closed. Objects from the taxidermy collection will be temporarily liberated from their displays to under go an x-ray. Britain's most prolific taxidermy authority, expert Pat Morris (more info here and here) will be working with artist Kaspar Wimberely and Susanne Kudielka, who are on their final month long visit to Rossendale, to find out what secrets are hidden inside the stuffed animals. We are hoping that the process will reveal how the animals were stuffed and the structures inside, as well as telling us abut the techniques people used. A selection of the resulting x-rays will be presented on light boxes as part of the 'New Light on Old Bones' redisplay of the natural history collection at Rossendale Museum.

NLOB debate...

Balasana, Patricia Piccinini

There are some interesting debates going on over on the NLOB blog

Rossendale artists looking for stories...

As the 'New Light on Old Bones' project gets well under way in Rossendale, artists Kaspar and Susanne are looking for people to talk to about their memories of the natural history collection at the museum. They have discovered some fascinating stories about the collection through newspaper archives, apparently the polar bear is named Phyllis and was quite a celebrity when she came to the museum. As part of their research, and potentially for new audio in the museum, they need to collect the communities memories of the collection. Below is the press release that has gone out to the local press. There are all sorts of exciting possibilities being discussed at the moment, but I will update on these soon

Press release - Do you remember Nellie’ the elephant?Creativity Works would like you to share your memories and stories of the animals at Rossendale Museum. As part of a project called ‘New Light on Old Bones’ Rossendale Museum are working to reinterpret the fantastic natural history collection that the museum houses. Working as part of the research team, international artists Kaspar Wimberley and Susanne Kudielka are collecting stories from the Rossendale community to record and use as research and for new audio displays in the museum. Whether you visited the museum as a child, bring your grandchildren now or are a taxidermy enthusiast, Kaspar and Susanne would love to hear your stories of the museum. Do you remember ‘Nellie’ the elephant or ‘Phyllis’ the polar bear, or do you just like spending time in the natural history room, they want to hear all your stories!

The project, which will finish in March, will offer a new way to look at the museums’ collections whilst preserving the atmospheric environment that makes the natural history room such a memorable place to visit.

If you are interested in talking to the museum about your memories or finding out more about the project, please contact them on 01706 260785 or call into the museum.