A Year at...
Yorkshire Museum
The rich collections of science and archaeology in the Yorkshire Museum have been the stimulus for a programme of events and exhibitions. The main exhibition during the year was Ice Age which had an innovative approach in the design specifically with families and children in mind.
Children playing in the Ice Lab’s igloo
Ice Age was an interdisciplinary project which established a style and approach we hope to develop for the Yorkshire Museum. It demonstrated the potential of our wide collections, drawing from Geology, Biology, Astronomy, early Prehistoric Archaeology, and Social History to create an object-rich exhibition with a serious message, presented with a light touch in an engaging and accessible manner. Ice Age weather reports on television and a fridge mountain were some of the interpretive techniques employed. Atmosphere was added by a specially commissioned soundtrack from sound artist Craig Vear, who was an Arts Council artist in residence in Antarctica. Ice Age presented the opportunity for us to showcase the important material from Kirkdale Cave which opened the 19th century process of questioning the accepted view of Creationism. Staff worked with colleagues at the Quaternary Research Association, the Ice Age network and People, Landscape And Cultural Environment of Yorkshire (PLACE) to develop the exhibition content. Ice Lab was an interactive learning area with hands-on activities for all age groups which has been developed as an integral part of the exhibition experience. We also had a summer of practical activities on Cave Art, Freezing, Hot Savannahs and Beasts which were enjoyed by visitors and were well attended.
Later in the year we developed two specific Learning Spaces at the Yorkshire Museum, the ‘Curia’ – a Roman themed space – and the Lab - which focused on science and have computers and an electronic white board. The Observatory has been the venue for a programme of talks, demonstrations and has held open evenings. All these additional activities are building audiences for future events.
With the Renaissance funding we have also been able to build curatorial capacity in the Yorkshire Museum. The location audit of archaeology and geology collections is now complete, the library of historic volumes has been reordered and basic conservation work completed, with voluntary assistance from members of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society which we greatly appreciated. Great improvements in collection storage have been made, and the majority of collections at risk have been re-housed. The Yorkshire Museum store has been completely reorganised giving the curatorial staff easier access to the collections in store.
The Portable Antiquities Scheme has been running its monthly finds day at York and Hull and the team have recorded 400 finds from major metal detecting rallies in our region.
This year’s Archaeology Live training excavation, was a partnership with York Archaeological Trust, took place in the Museum Gardens and the finds were displayed in the Yorkshire Museum.
The Fridge Mountain, centrepiece of the Ice Age exhibition