I'm back!

Hello! It's been quite a while before I've even given this blog a second thought, but I'm feeling super motivated to start up again. Work and volunteering is going really well and my dissertation is taking unexpected, interesting turns. The past few weeks have been inspiring for me and this blog gives me a place to talk about it. Yesterday, during an oral history interview I was asked "well, what's your opinion?" I realised I don't yet really know my own opinion. I have such a vague opinion of what I want, at the same time as knowing I want whatever it is. Hopefully soon I'll be able to use this little space on the internet more productively. Whether it's shared on twitter or not, it will be a good place to talk about work, volunteering, visiting and studying.

School of Paris Invigilation

Over the past few weeks I have been invigilating the School of Paris exhibition at the Manchester Jewish Museum. This exhibition has pieces from infamous artists such as Chagall and Soutine, with Soutine's work La Soubrette as the highlight of the show, and image of the advertisement campaign. As a personal favourite, the work Apocalypse in Lilac was perfectly suited to the Synagogue space. The works were loaned from the Ben Uri gallery, amongst others, to display works in the north and to gain visitor opinion from the northern Jewish community. This time spent invigilating was enjoyable, adding something a bit different to the CV!

National Football Museum

Apologies for the awful quality of photograph, iPhone problems! This is a short update with my very happy news that I've got a job as a Museum Assistant at the National Football Museum. It is wonderful to be in a paid position in a museum, even if I can't stand football. These photographs were taken on the day of my induction, a few hours of powerpoints of what to expect, I'm really looking forward to getting started and meeting the people I work with. Also, what an incredible building to be working in! 

New tours/ volunteer Party

To celebrate the opening of the new history tours, the Manchester Jewish Museum held an event for volunteers from other museums and institutions to come along and test them out! The museum had really good feedback of the tours, with all the visitors claiming to really enjoy listening to the tours, especially engaging in the characters!

After this day of tour giving, there was a party for all the new and existing volunteers to get together and have food, wine and hot drinks, followed by a quiz with glow in the dark hats and drawing on balloons! It was a really enjoyable night, despite everyone learning in the quiz how little they know about geography! I am really looking forward to giving these tours more often in the upcoming weeks, once I've learned them a bit more

Starting at PHM

I'm very excited to announce I've started volunteering at Peoples History Museum, it's been my favourite museum ever since it took me so so long to find my way there when I first moved to Manchester (I seriously have no idea how it took me that long looking back!) I really enjoyed the day, the gallery assistants are so laid back and welcoming and there really is a sense that the opportunity to do what ever you want to. I'm really looking forward  to being there once a week and getting to do lots of different things in such a lovely environment.

Red Saunders

These are photographs from the Red Saunders exhibition, entitled Hidden, as displayed at the Peoples History Museum. As a social historian, I found the re-imagined photographs to be a fascinating, creative insight into the world of the people they depict. The exhibition fit into the context of the museum perfectly, focusing on events that are displayed in the main gallery spaces. Ideas of power, struggle and revolutions are the key themes of both the exhibition, and the museum, so the collaboration is both inevitable and fitting. Red Saunders is clearly an intelligent, talented photographer, well versed in the contexts of the images he created.  

Raquib Shaw

I love a visit to an art gallery, there's nothing quite like it to remind you of the beauty in the world. I went to the Manchester Art Gallery to see the Raquib Shaw exhibition, a really beautiful show of pieces that show the links between magic and animals. The mixture of rhinestones and raw animal strength had produced some really beautiful pieces I'll definitely visit again before the end of May.

(Disclaimer: I know nothing about art, I am aware of this)