Drawing on the archives

Last week we had two groups of primary school children come for a drawing workshop with David Birtwistle and Fran Prince. Rachel (who leads on Community and Outreach) organised this with Number 8 in Pershore. As well as drawing what they see at Croome now, they will also be drawing their ideas of how Croome might look in the future. There are a number of schools taking part in this, and the best 5 will be deposited as a formal deposit at The Hive in Worcester.

This is not the only drawing that will be taking place at Croome, however. The plan is to introduce some tables into the long gallery which are inspired by Robert Adam's tables (other examples are here and here - scroll down a bit). They will have glass tops and copies of archive material, such as the Adam's designs for the long gallery under the glass. There will also be pencils and paper available for people to draw what they see in the room or through the windows, or to create designs for the room itself.

Perspectives

Because of all the different people involved with Croome, there are, inevitably, a wide range of perspectives. This number of people is increasing all the time, adding more, new perspectives to the perspective pot. And that's not to mention the visitors. This photo was my view as I left the building yesterday at about 4pm, and it struck me that although others use this entrance, that exact view, with that lighting and dampness, and those bins and board, was unique to me. It'll be familiar to many others, but never quite the same. It is so important that we keep reminding ourselves that everybody has a different view, and nobody has a monopoly on the 'right' one.

Shoes #3

Just before Christmas I visited a shoemaker in Bethnal Green, located under the railway arches there. His name is Thomas Rowe and he recently started the Parachute Collective - a collective of shoemakers - with workshop space, machinery and a shop. It's a very contemporary space, but with all manner of traditional shoe-making equipment, such as a Lockstitch Blake Machine.

Thomas studied shoemaking at the Cordwainers College (now part of the London College of Fashion), and a recent graduate is Maud van den Broecke. We expect to be working with both of them on our upcoming Soul to Sole project: making shoes, giving demonstrations and running workshops. I have also had a brief conversation with the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers about a possible partnership with them.

I also met with Helen Wyld - a National Trust employee who is working at the Met Museum in New York, undertaking research on the tapestries which once hung at Croome.

Turn of the year

I went to snowy Norway before Christmas, one of the reasons why I've not posted for a while. I lived in Oslo for a number of years, but that was many years ago, and it is always curious to see how a place has changed, or not, over a long period of time, and of course you always have a different perspective with the passing of time.

I visited the National Gallery, and it struck me that these are the places to understand how a

country/nation sees itself. Or perhaps how it likes to present a idealised view of itself. The main Norwegian artists here are Krogh, Dahl, Cappelen, Tidemand and Fearnley. I wonder how far the traditional presentation of a National Trust property is a similar way of creating an idealised view of a very English mythology.

I also had a look around the National Academy of the Arts, in particular the metalwork and

jewellery department. It's a fabulous place to study, with lots of space in very modern workshops, set in an old sail-making factory. Education is still free in Norway - they've made good use of all their oil money, securing a very long-term future with the largest investment fund in the world.

In the week after I got back, I had a meeting with Jack Nelson and Nicola Shipley (of GRAIN) back at Birmingham Library to discuss a GFTA bid to work with Jack on a photography project with teenagers. We also had a visit from Tom Godfrey to discuss working with young artists in the Midlands, and Ann Jones from the Arts Council to look at where we might show Grayson Perry's The Vanity of Small Differences when they come to Croome in 2016.