Design4Life

Had the first workshop at Leeds City Museum with Roundhay School, quite daunting and nerve racking but a successful day. The work is supported by the V&A and their push to have design taught within schools, using museums as a key resource within this process. Spent the morning creating drawings from the Heroes and Heroines exhibition and the afternoon doing a series of design work shops to show the potential for design within headwear and how you develop ideas. Working with Secondary and Primary schools is always so inspiring as the questions and ideas come with few preconceived beliefs.

What was also exciting were the range of head wear that was brought in as inspiration as well. Both the 1930's hats from Textiles and the Nigerian caps from the Other Cultures section. I love being in museums and it was particularly great to be there at 8.30 before anyone else.

New Arrivals

The Enchanted Palace

Kensington Palace has an exhibition on whilst 'they have the builders in'. I had heard great things about the exhibition and wasn't disappointed in the slightest except that you couldn't take pictures and there isn't a good book of the exhibition but those are my only quibbles, it was wonderful. I won't divulge any more in case anyone makes it down. Some excellent curating and creating moods and ideas.

Then for the science bit of the day off to the Science Museum as there was an identity exhibition on organised by Wellcome. Exceptional.

More stuffed creatures.

Lunch at Victoria and Albert Museum then a guided tour round Highgate Cemetery, what more can one ask.

V&A Late Night

Love the Victoria and Albert Museum and going in at 6.30pm was wonderful, really vibrant and full of people. I hope that the present government visits occasionally to see how key to society museums are. There were a lot of activities set up for Design Week , we attended a show on shoes with improvised jazz, I will say no more. I had hoped to be inspired by some ideas to develop the hat work, I now know how not to do it. The bee experiment was interesting and it was a good way to spend the evening.

Showstudio

Dolls...................

Haunch of Venison

I had been eager to visit the Polly Morgan's Psychopomps exhibition after reading about her work several years ago,  also it is relevant to my Context work at MMU about looking at the identity that we give to objects in different places. There are only 4 pieces in the exhibition and a definite moth ball odour. The work is thought provoking and she does take taxidermy to a different level to make you think and look at the pieces closer. They were also reminiscent of the Isabella Blow piece created for the 'When Philip met Issy' exhibition and recently donated to the National Portrait Gallery created from rats, crows and a Manola heel.

The other exhibitions were 'I will survive' Joana Vasconcelos huge textile pieces and utilising a miriad of techniques and processes. Also the 'Loud Flash' British Punk on Paper which made me feel very old as I was 12 when most of the posters were created, all the people photographing the posters were definitely under 20........

British Library

Chose to wonder up to Wellcome Foundation Gallery along Euston Road so went to British Library as they have some interesting exhibitions, sadly the maps exhibition had finished but there was an exhibition on about design and the invention of ideas through solving problems. A wide range of ideas, from a 3 year old who created a double broom to a father who had devised a new eye test process that didn't involve needing eye drops after his son lost sight in one eye because he couldn't do drops, very humbling.

The exhibition at Wellcome was Skin. The way that they combine art and science was incredible, very thought provoking and a lot of ideas to take away about exhibiting and using materials in different ways. Sadly couldn't take photographs but worth a visit to the foundation as has a good cafe too.