An illuminating Piece….What Do You Call A Hedgehog……News & Review From Stromness Museum….
by Bernie Bell - 09:28 on 23 December 2023
An illuminating Piece….
…from Sigurd Towrie….
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/importance-of-place/
I particularly like the photo of ‘Midwinter sunrise from the side of Trench P’ – complete with protective tyres!
My tuppenceworth...
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What Do You Call A Hedgehog……
…with no prickles?....
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67780254
I’m reminded of the rhyme…
‘Fuzzy wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
So Fuzzy Wuzzy
Wasn’t fuzzy – wuz ‘e?‘
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News & Review From Stromness Museum….
“Winter Exhibition
Our newly opened winter exhibition offers a glimpse into life and aspects of trade in Orkney from the late 15th to the early 18th century. The exhibition is part of the Looking in from the Edge (LIFTE) research project - a three-year programme involving the UHI Archaeology Institute, the University of Lincoln and the German Maritime Museum (DSM), in Bremerhaven. The exhibition was funded by the LIFTE Project and curated by Siobhan Cooke-Miller (Stromness Museum and DSM International Research Fellow 2021-22).
From the 15th to 18th centuries, a system of trade gradually brought much of the globe within its influence. In Europe, it led to rural communities such as Orkney and Shetland becoming closely tied into continental European trade networks, transforming their largely subsistence and low-level trading economies to commercialised, surplus-producing ones. At the forefront were the Hansa — an organisation of German merchants, formed around 1150, and which expanded into the North Atlantic in the 15th century.
The Hanseatic League’s influence in Shetland has been extensively documented. Less is known about early modern trade in Orkney and so the project has used archival documents and archaeology to discover traders and some of the goods being marketed between Orkney, the continent, Scandinavia, Scotland, England and Shetland.
The exhibition explores the themes developing from the research project so far and looks at the goods imported and exported and the people who were involved.
Looking In From The Edge: Early Modern Trade in Orkney opened on 25th November and runs until 28th April 2024.
Museum launches collection-inspired
retail range
This year, the museum teamed up with five local Orkney artists and creative practitioners to develop a new retail range inspired by the Museum’s collections.
This project was made possible through the Museum’s involvement in ‘Steps to Sustainability’, a National Lottery Heritage Fund programme delivered by the Social Enterprise Academy which supports heritage organisations in becoming more resilient, forward-thinking and ambitious.
Creative practitioners include, fashion designer Kirsteen Stewart, illustrator Britt Harcus, artist Colin Kirkpatrick, 3D model maker Mark Newton and creative practitioner Claire Kirkpatrick.
From a Buddo-inspired keyring, illustrated cards, to printed scarves and purses inspired by our natural history collections, it has been fantastic to see each practitioner's creative process and the result is a diverse range of modern, quality products.
A 10% of donation from sales of any of these products goes to Stromness Museum.
All collection-inspired products are in stock at the Museum and available to purchase at the Museum or via our online shop.
Creative Climate Assembly
The arts and cultural sectors, including heritage organisations have a unique and important role to play in communicating the climate emergency to the public. Creative Carbon Scotland have launched a new project called ‘SPRINGBOARD’ this year to bring together these sectors alongside their environmental peers. Together with Creative Carbon Scotland, THAW Orkney and EMEC, Stromness Museum organised Orkney’s first creative climate assembly at the Pier Arts Centre in July. We have since had a follow up meeting in October online with around 30 participants.
If you would like to join this network, please contact Katy (k.firth@stromnessmuseum.org.uk) and you can be added to our online ‘Mighty Networks’ forum.
Recycle & Return Orkney
Stromness Museum was selected as a chosen charity for the Return & Recycle Orkney project which ran from the 10th of July to the 16th of August 2023.
For every container recycled, 20p was donated to one of three local charities.
A total of £1971.40 was raised for the museum, equating to a collective effort of 9857 containers recycled. It was a fantastic effort by everyone involved. Thank you from all at the Museum.
In the Spotlight: Ruairidh McCallum
This year, the Museum had valuable support from Classical Studies and Museum Studies graduate Ruairidh McCallum, who volunteered with us during the summer to gain experience in museum work and collections practice. Within his month of volunteering, his contribution ranged from supporting the museum’s school outreach activities during Orkney International Science Festival, digitising Ted Kellock’s geological slide collection to taking an inventory of museum donations.
Reflecting on his experience of taking inventory of a donation from a former curator of the Museum in the mid-twentieth century, in his blog he writes:
“When I first sat down to dive into the selection of mysterious old biscuit tins, I felt like a child on Christmas Day, and I was not disappointed. I could not have imagined how varied and fascinating this donation would be. These objects could only be described as weird and wonderful, ranging from natural history specimens like giant hollow bird eggs, seal teeth and whiskers, a dried seahorse, whale baleen, and several sets of animal jaws, to archaeological material, like pottery from Egypt, polished stones, seashell money, and more axe and arrow heads than I could count. It was a joy to examine and research these objects and I felt very privileged to do so.”
Museum Outreach
We’ve been busy getting out and about beyond the walls of the museum this year to offer outdoor educational experiences as well as collaborating with some great local partners on interesting initiatives. Here’s a run down of some of this year’s activity:
April:
- Bag the Bruck beach clean at Warbeth in partnership with Greener Orkney
- Launch of Summer Exhibition: Nature in a Changing World, which involved collaborating with organisations including RSPB, Orkney Native Wildlife Project, Glaitness Primary School, ICIT Heriot Watt, Project Seagrass and individuals such as Raymond Besant and Keith Johnson
May:
- Orkney Nature Festival: delivery of our first of five shoreline ramble walks
June:
- Museum stall at the Orkney Seagrass Gathering hosted by Project Seagrass
July:
- Stromness Shopping Week
- Supported EMEC’s big Shopping Week Extravaganza, providing jellyfish crafts for kids
- Hosted ‘Night at the Museum’ with free guided tours
July & August:
- Organised two snorkel safari experiences in partnership with Kraken Diving and Karen Boswarva from Seasearch in Stromness and Finstown
September:
- Orkney International Science Festival
- Delivered workshops on The Sun and its effects on the natural world with help from RSPB’s education officer
- Two school workshops and a talk with Dr Chris Thomas on the Quekett Microscopical Club-funded project about Ted Kellock’s microscope slides
November:
- Eco-crafts at Stromness Primary School Parent Council’s school fayre
Interested in collaborating with the museum?
Museum delves into digital experiences
The Museum is delighted to be one of the institutions chosen from within the Highlands & Islands to incorporate Smartify into our visitor experience. Smartify is a free informative app that allows visitors to access additional information about artefacts on display in the Museum using their own smart phone. You can also save items scanned on your phone into a personal collection which you can share with other Smartify users.
The opportunity to bring the stories associated with our collections to a worldwide audience and the ability for Smartify users to enrich their visit using the app, will help raise the Museum’s profile as a ‘must visit’ destination in Orkney. It is hoped this will further increase our visitor numbers.
The Museum has developed an audio version of the Blue Plaque Trail which is available on the Smartify platform. Narrated by BBC Radio Orkney presenter and Stromness local Cameron Stout, the digital trail offers a unique audio experience to navigate through the town, creating a new way for visitors to engage with us and connect with our collection beyond our building doors. The team at Smartify and XpoNorth have guided our staff through every step of the process of integrating the platform into our collection and we are delighted with the result. We will be promoting our Smartify association in the New Year and look forward to enriching our visitor museum experience in the coming season.
You may recognise some of the voices! Listen here
Winter Opening Hours & Seasonal Closure
The Museum is currently operating 11:00 – 15:30 Monday – Saturday, Closed
on Sunday.
The Museum will close on Friday 23rd December, reopening to visitors on Monday 5th February in the New Year.
Festive opening: The Museum will reopen on Friday 29th December 11:00 - 15:30 as the annual Trustee open day.
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The recent ‘weather’ – we really need to make a new name for what’s been happening out there! – brought this to mind…..
https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/12/07/stormy-weather/
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