: Museums, Exhibitions and Events

We have over 250 breeding ewes in the flock and we expect over 350 lambs – so this a very busy time of year for the team that care for our sheep. There are experienced staff on hand throughout the day and night once things get going in the lambing shed.

So, what does a normal birth look like? Lambing is an unpredictable business, so it can vary wildly – but here are some of the things you might see:

Labour:

• Water bag (intact or burst) and mucus hanging out of the back of the sheep before birth.
• Pair of feet protruding from the ewe’s back end.
• In early labour, the ewe will be restlessly getting up and down and pawing at the ground.
• As labour progresses, she will usually get down to push and stay down. Her contractions will get stronger with lots of physical effort visible.
• She may have her head thrown back, eyes wide and top lip curled back. This all normal and means that birth is hopefully imminent.
• Normal labour can take anything from 30 minutes to many hours. The farm team try to keep the shed quiet and calm and allow the sheep to lamb naturally where possible. They will only intervene to protect the welfare of the ewe and her lambs.

Birth:

• If the ewe has lambed naturally – both her and the lamb may lie still for a bit after the lamb is born. It’s been hard work for both of them, and all the lamb needs to be doing at this point is breathing. Ideally without the bag (amniotic sac) over its head.
• As part of the birth, the bag will normally break and be pulled back off the lamb’s nostrils. Sometimes the farmers may nip in to help this process.
• Lambs will be born covered in mucus, bits of the bag and sometimes smears of blood. This is all normal – the ewe will lick it clean, which will help stimulate the lamb to breathe and warm it up.
• Sometimes they come out with a yellow or greenish coating. This is called meconium (first poo) where the lamb has opened its bowels before/during birth.

Newborn lambs:

• Newborn lambs often twitch/shiver and thrash about. This is normal, and a good way to get the ewe’s attention. It’s also preparation for getting up and walking within minutes of being born. If you are a prey animal rather than a predator you need to be born ready to run (or hidden away in a den/nest).
• Lambs will also twitch/sneeze repeatedly as they clear the birth fluids from their noses and throats. Sometimes the farmers stick a bit of straw up the lamb’s nostrils to make it sneeze and help this process. They will also pat the lamb, or ‘cycle’ one of its front legs to stimulate the coughing/breathing reflex.
• If this doesn’t work - sometimes the farmers will swing a lamb by its back legs. This uses centrifugal force to help clear the lamb’s throat and get it to start breathing.
• Newborn lambs get a squirt of disinfectant spray on their navels. This helps to stop them getting infections from the shed floor through the newly severed umbilicus.

Moving from the lambing shed to the nursery area:

• After they have given birth, all ewes and their lambs will be moved out of the lambing shed.  
• The farmers carry lambs by their legs:
  • Because they have much stronger legs, and are much lighter than human babies.
  • It avoids covering the lamb with human scent when they need to bond with their mothers.
  • The kindest way to move a ewe that has just given birth is to get her to follow her lambs. Sheep’s instinct is to run away from humans – not follow them. But they will usually follow their new lambs when the farmers hold them like this.
  • Each new family ges off to a bonding pen to get to know each other and be safe from the action in the lambing shed.
• Ewes that are less keen to follow their lambs (or ones that just run off after giving birth) are usually yearlings lambing for the first time.
• The yearlings are also much wilder, as they are less used to being handled with the flock. You might see the farmers use a different technique to move these sheep and their lambs:
  • They will remove the lambs first, so they don’t get trampled.
  • Then catch the ewe – which can still run fast even thugh she has just given birth!
  • They will walk these sheep out with their legs astride the ewe’s shoulders. This the best way to control the sheep and stop it doing a complete runner. (They are NOT sitting on them).
  • The whole family will be reunited in a bonding pen – where everything usually settles down quite quickly as the ewes come around to the idea of motherhood.

You can find out lots more about our sheep at lambing time in these blogs from previous years:

Lambcam 2021 - FAQs:   | National Museum Wales

A guide to lamb presentation - aka ‘what’s going on in there?’ | National Museum Wales

The exhibition is free to visit at the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea, from 12 March through to 17 July 2022.

Trawsnewid, meaning 'Transformation', explores and celebrates Wales' history of queerness and social change. Objects on display have been taken from the Amgueddfa Cymru LGBTQ+ collection held at St Fagans National Museum of History to be compiled in a brand-new narrative, alongside new queer Welsh artworks. Visitors can walk through this often forgotten aspect of our past and see how the movement for social change continues into the present. With objects on display taking queer history as far back as the late 1700s, and even as recent as during the current Covid-19 pandemic, there is a wide breadth of communities, identities and movements represented in the exhibition.

The objects that are highlighted in this exhibition were selected by the participants of the Trawsnewid project. The participants are young people who host and attend various workshops that explore history of Wales' LGBTQ+ people and culture and have come together to develop the theme of this exhibition, focusing mainly on queer art and creations. Over several weeks the participants have gone through the collection and selected which pieces stand out the most as important markers of queer Welsh history.

Integrated in the display is a collection of new artworks made by some of the volunteers. Each piece has been inspired by some aspect of Wales' queer history, be it a piece from the LGBTQ+ Collection, or by the communities around them. A variety of artistic mediums come together to bring this often forgotten history right into the contemporary modern day.

Also showing at the exhibition is the Queer Cabaret – a series of short films created by Trawsnewid participants exploring their experiences and connection to Wales and queer identity. The entire cabaret is available to watch on YouTube, but at the exhibition you will be able to enjoy it while immersed in the culture and history curated by everyone on the Trawsnewid Project and the LGBTQ+ collection.

The National Wool Museum Exhibition of Hope was launched in April 2020. This was of course during the beginning of the national lockdown and I think it is safe to presume that no one could have predicted how successful it would be!

With support from the Ashley Family Foundation and Community Foundation Wales, the aim was to collect enough 20cm or 8inch rainbow coloured squares in order to weave together a substantial rainbow blanket to be displayed in the National Wool Museum, and then eventually at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea.

The idea of the rainbow colours was of course in accordance with the rainbow image, which during the national lockdown had became an important emblem.  The rainbow symbolised light at the end of the tunnel after a dark and uncertain time. The blanket would therefore hopefully become a symbol of peace, hope, community and spirit.

The project surpassed all expectations and collected in the range of 2,000 rainbow square pieces from all over the country. These squares were knitted, felted, woven or crocheted not only from wool, but from cotton, silk and other wonderful fibres that people had to hand.

Due to the overwhelming response and the restrictions placed on volunteers in meeting and creating one single blanket, a decision was made to make many blankets instead. As a result, museum staff and volunteers began joining the squares from home!

With now many blankets in the making, the project took off to a new level and purpose! Not only were these blankets going to become works of art, they would also be donated to charities, such as the homeless charity 'Crisis'. The project grew further when the South Wales branch of the 'Crisis' Charity shared the exhibition on their Facebook pages and even going as far as providing people with physical packs of wool and instructions.

The project further snowballed when it was featured in Adult Learners Week 2020, when two videos were released of National Wool Museum Craftsperson Non Mitchell showing how to create a felted and woven square.  Finally, maybe the biggest influence was when the Connect to Kindness Art Project, working alongside the Connect to Kindness Campaign and Carmarthenshire Association of Voluntary Services showcased the project in a collage of photos.

When I visited the exhibition recently, what I found fascinating is how, from humble beginnings, the project took on a life of its own and became more than simply helping create a blanket. Along with being beautiful pieces of art that could be enjoyed on their own merit, the blankets would now also help people in a physical and practical way!

In my opinion, what was lovely was how the exhibition has captured the array of positive feelings it had stirred in the volunteers and museum staff who took part in the project. I’m sure this was a somewhat unexpected or underestimated result of the project!

It was clear from the messages and notes received with the blanket squares, that it had brought many a sense of joy, achievement, comfort and a feeling of purpose. The blanket had brought people a sense of belonging and highlighted the feeling of community and what can be achieved when people "pull together" 

This is perhaps the most interesting factor of the project for me - the stories of those creating the squares. I am delighted that the exhibition is reflecting this by showing "stories of the squares" in a video to go along with the exhibition, which will also be available online.

I had the pleasure of watching the video when I visited the exhibition in Drefach Felindre, and it was amazing to hear of the different stories of those behind the squares. There were stories of the project uniting family and friends along with chapels and schools. The exhibition includes an image of rainbow hands by the children of Ysgol Penyboyr.

The effort which some had gone to was also amazing. A big shout out to Elwyna who knitted 350 squares!  One lady had even naturally dyed her wool in different rainbow colours.

One of the stories I found touching was of a lady who had recently lost her mother and who had left her a stash of yarn, mostly from America. Her mother had taught her to crochet and she felt the project was an amazing way to honour her mother's memory.

Crocheting also helped her deal with the grief during this time as she found it therapeutic and relaxing. Others also spoke of the art of crocheting and making the squares as being a therapeutic and relaxing process.

Another heart warming story was of how someone struggled with her memory and was overjoyed to discover that she remembered how to crochet.

These stories and indeed the whole exhibition being so visually bright and beautiful was very uplifting in what is still a fairly uncertain time.  The words of one volunteer perfectly summed up the meaning of the project for me - although we couldn’t "be together, we could work together".

The exhibition can be seen in the National Wool Museum of Wales until mid January 2022. A walk around the exhibition will also be available online. The Exhibition will move to Swansea’s Waterfront Museum in July 2022 - October 2022.

National Wool Museum’s Exhibition of Hope… Exhibition Launch Date! 

We are very pleased to announce the Exhibition of Hope will open to the public at the National Wool Museum on the 2nd of October 2021 and will be on display until mid-January 2022. The opening will form part of the Museum Wales digital Celebration of Wool Event taking place between the 2nd and 3rd of October. Click here for more details about the event. Celebration of Wool | National Museum Wales 

The Exhibition will also be displayed at the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea between July 2022 and October 2022. 

Thank you to all those who contributed to the creation of rainbow coloured squares. Contributions for the Exhibition of Hope closed at the end of March 2021. Since the initial call out for squares in April 2020 at the beginning of the nation’s Covid-19 lockdown, we have received nearly 2000 squares! Participants used any materials which were readily available to them at the time such as wool or acrylics to create their squares. From knitted squares to crocheted squares, the response has been fantastic!  

Crisis charity (South Wales), which supports homeless people, shared the Exhibition of Hope information on their Facebook pages and created physical packs including wool and instructions to send to services users to support them to take part. The Exhibition of Hope was featured in Adult Learners’ Week 2020 and two videos were released of National Wool Museum Craftsperson Non Mitchell giving a demonstration on how to create a felted and woven square. A collage of photographs documenting the Exhibition was submitted as part of the Connect to Kindness Art Project, a project which is run in partnership with the Connect to Kindness Campaign and Carmarthenshire Association of Voluntary Services, which aims to capture community kindness and support during the pandemic.  

Nothing about this past year has been predictable and we have all had to adapt to huge changes. While we had originally planned to create one giant rainbow blanket from the squares, we have, on reflection, decided to create a number of smaller blankets instead. This is because we have received such an amazing number of squares and due to Covid-19 restrictions volunteers were unable to meet at the Wool Museum. National Wool Museum Volunteers and Museum Wales staff have therefore been joining the squares from home, creating wonderful unique blankets.   Following the Exhibition, we still plan on donating the blankets to charities to be used as they wish, whether that be for example, as blankets or as pieces of artwork. More blankets mean more flexibility for display, and we are working on some exciting display plans! 

Whilst our wonderful volunteers and staff have been busy creating the blankets, we have also been working on another aspect of the project. Over the past year we have received so many varied and beautiful squares from people up and down the country and it has been lovely to hear from many who have found that creating the squares has helped during the unprecedented and challenging times. We have therefore decided to capture some contributors’ experiences of taking part in the project. ‘Stories behind the Squares’ will be a brief interpretation video within the Exhibition and available online, documenting the thoughts and feelings of those taking part in the Exhibition. 

We are thankful to Ysgol Penboyr, the local school in the village of Dre-fach Felindre, where the National Wool Museum is located who have created a beautiful rainbow handprint artwork which will be displayed in the Exhibition too. 

Rainbows are often used as a symbol of peace and hope and as we know, they often appear when the sun shines following heavy rainfall. They serve to remind us that following dark times, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. The Exhibition aims to reflect spirit, hope and community during these challenging times. It is designed to be an immersive experience, a symbolic hug of kindness of the love that has been placed into every stitch and is created as a tangible embodiment of hope. 

As part of the Exhibition, there will be an online page on the Museum Wales website. The page will include, amongst other things, the Exhibition of Hope ‘Stories of the Squares’ video as well as a brief walk ‘round of the exhibition itself. 

We look forward to welcoming you to the Exhibition very soon. In the meantime, here is a brief video about the Exhibition of Hope, documenting some of the photographs that have been taken since the Exhibition was launched. 

Keep an eye out on our social media pages to find out the latest information. 

Thank you to The Ashley Family Foundation and Community Foundation Wales for their support with this project. 

Pitch Black: a recap and review

Pitch Black was a weekly festival that occurred over a month in association with the National Museum Wales. It was a showcase and celebration of Black artists and their work. I attended these sessions, and this blog post is a recap and personal review.

Education is a cornerstone of life with aspects of this coming not only from schools but also museums and other institutes which play a very important role. Heritage is a part of the education in which museums teach and Pitch Black aimed to showcase this in a more unusual and interactive way.

How ‘great’ is Britain?

Our education system fails us all. Schools do not clearly explain the atrocities that led to the UK we know today – one built off the back of slavery and colonisation. Built in prejudice which stems from colonialism perpetuates myths of Britain’s ‘greatness’, to the expense of hearing the histories and experiences of Black and non-Black people of colour. Many white people experience some degree of discomfort when Black people challenge this status quo, are these two experiences connected?

Pitch Black, in my opinion, was a platform to allow Black artists to express themselves and force the audience to question certain aspects of our collective past. It is meant to make us see the Black narratives and experiences in what we perceive as mostly white history.  Most people want to ignore and hide away from the past, but this festival is taking place to showcase to everyone that Black artists are taking a stand and will not be silenced.

A range of beautifully dynamic and thought-provoking pieces were completed over the four weeks of the Pitch Black showcase, ranging from a cine-poem to dance and visual arts pieces. Each piece had a distinctive voice and message that the artists was trying to purvey, and this came across clearly and very visibly. The artists Q and As also allowed the audience to be further involved with the process and history of the performances.

The Black art and artefacts tours that investigated the museum’s collections, highlighting previously neglected stories, was also highly eye opening as it showed just how two dimensional complex museum collections have been curated and viewed. Even though I feel I had quite a good education about Black History, the slave trade and issues of colonialism. I had very little knowledge of to the deeper meanings behind the paintings and artefacts that were explained and described in the tours. Education in the United Kingdom does not prepare you for the harrowing sides of British history and culture. From David Hockney to Henri Gaudier- Brzeska the art world has many Black influences which are never discussed and are basically hidden from public consumption. Is this simply the United Kingdom’s way of systematically ignoring the country's past? Education is key and through art, education is what the viewer receives.

This education needs to be delivered in the right way - representing the viewpoints of those it affects the most. Not watered down, not worrying about people's reactions, but true, raw and honest. The artists, their families and ancestors had to go through so much to be where they are today and yet many of the workshops and pieces still had one central message: Hope.

Pitch Black showcased that while colonialism and slavery are essentially white heritage – a legacy of what Britain and other colonial forces did, the heritage and legacy of Black communities is resilience;  the will to keep fighting, to celebrate their strength and beauty and retain Hope. Pitch Black did not dwell on the negatives. Yes, these artists could have focused on this aspect of their journeys, but the beauty was more prevalent. Of course, discrimination and racism was presented to the viewers but also ideas of home and family, which all came across as a beacon of positivity.

The platform of Pitch Black has allowed Black artists to showcase their stories and work. Having many voices from many differing backgrounds allows for a richer life experience. Every aspect of everyone’s lives can benefit from a multicultural input and art, heritage and culture are no different. The UK is a melting pot for different nationalities and races, this comes with difficult historical legacies and everyday challenges that we need to work together to acknowledge, challenge and overcome.  We need to recognise how uneducated many of us really are on Black history and experiences, we need to challenge our own prejudices and deepen our insight and capacity for empathy – art and in particular the Pitch Black showcase can provide new experiences and insights, help us to broaden our horizons.

As for the individual pieces I took something different away from each one. June Campbell – Davies’ piece made me very emotional. The story that was told was so honest and heartbreaking. It was very contemporary, and the message was subtle but so much history was packed into the short performance. With the camera panning to some of the portraits surrounding the room I got a real sense that this performance in this room was reclaiming space that had for too long been denied to Black people and their stories. This piece being called ‘Sometimes we are Invisible’ was a very apt name as when the performance was over the materials and chairs which were used were all that was left. The complete removal of June from the scene made the set even more atmospheric. There was also a voice over to the piece which had snippets about Britain from the past. The whole performance was a little unnerving as you never knew what exactly was going to happen next. It was so well presented and really resonated with me and made me think of so much, not just whilst watching but also after. This piece really left you asking questions and rethinking everything.

Gabin Kongolo had his work focused on in week two. His cine poem entitled ‘Ndáko’ which means ‘Home’ in Lingala focused on the journey of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Wales. Even though the start was more down beaten as the piece went on it became more and more hopeful. The issues were shared it in such a personal way. Also, the mix of Lingala and English tied the piece to the artist's roots, and I felt like this gave a better insight to the culture and made the piece even more hard hitting. Even the music throughout mirrors the happiness of the family. What I loved about this piece is the joy you can see on the families faces and the stories that Kongolo told in the artists Q and A, they were so lovely, and I am sure made the whole audience think of home.

‘The ocean is always looking for a way into your boat’ by Omikemi puts you on edge from the minute it starts. The sounds of waves and percussion made you worried for the characters involved. This spoken poem highlights the idea of loss and the struggles in life, but also how you are able to dream beyond this and find yourself and others. I personally felt that the whole piece was quite organic and natural. I went away from watching the video feeling slightly saddened but understanding that the artist was looking for an improved future. I love the root of this piece as it is an interesting starting point, looking from a care background but I feel that this adds to the effect of the piece on the viewer but also with links to the LGBTQIA+ and disabled communities there are many accessible aspects for many different groups of people.

For the final week Yvonne Connikie was in the spotlight with her piece entitled ‘A time for new dreams’ which focused on the Windrush generation in South Wales. The inclusion of actors of multiple ages and genders gave this piece a unique twist as it tried to give some insight to a whole community and made the piece interesting to watch. From the little child to the elder individuals I felt many different emotions as you reacted differently to every person included in the piece. The idea of dreams is so open, and it really allows the viewers to see the people better and dreams are so personal and sharing them feels almost like you are now holding a secret with these people. The changing of season and backgrounds which can be seen in the video gave you a real sense of time. Dreams are not granted overnight but rather dreams are the future. I think the biggest take away with Connikie’s work for me was the sense of peace.

Overall, Pitch Black was an eye-opening experience for me. It perfectly highlighted the duality of being Black in Wales and was a highly accessible way of learning more about Black lives and art. For more information on the showcase please go to: https://museum.wales/whatson/digital/11289/Lates-PITCH-BLACK/ 

This blog was written by one of our Amgueddfa Cymru Producers. Youthled projects across the museum are part of the Hands on Heritage initiative, made possible by the National Lottery Heritage Fund's Kick the Dust Grant.

To see more of Pitch Black and other projects we run, follow us on Instagram @bloedd_ac https://www.instagram.com/bloedd_ac/ and check out our website to find out more about how young people can get involved Young people | National Museum Wales 

Thanks to The Fund and all our National Lottery Players - keeping our fingers crossed for you!