Shw'mae! I’m Rachael, one of the graphic designers here at Amgueddfa Cymru.
Branding an event or exhibition is one of my favourite parts of my role across our museums. The project team often meet and throw ideas around, seeking sources of inspiration from our collections and the public connections people have with whatever exhibition or event we’re preparing.
We knew that Burton was going to mean a lot to visitors, but how to approach it was an important focus for this project. There are plenty of people who know who Burton is, but an early exit from Hollywood meant that he didn’t get his “final act”. As such, a whole generation missed out on seeing him act through his twilight years, and we found that Burton is an unknown name in young audiences in particular.
We experimented with a 1960s mid-century feel at first, playing with Burton’s profile in a traditional theatre style. Because of his changing life, we found that while some people recognised the illustration instantly, others didn’t see “their” Burton.
Taking those bright colours on black we began to try adding photographs from Burton’s life, giving a representation of the Burton who people knew, and who they would get to know in the course of the exhibition. However, our leading man needed a larger centre stage and we went back to our original favourite images to find a strong image which represented the iconic years.
Our final option, against the poster you are now familiar with, was a later-in-life image of Burton, shot by the photographer Douglas Kirkland. This was a personal favourite, but rather than remembering Burton for the tabloid headlines view of an aged, world-weary actor we wanted to show Burton as that and more, the family man, the Welshman, the author.
A final addition of the red, to symbolise the Hollywood red carpet and Burton’s Welsh roots, made the poster complete.
The Becoming Richard Burton exhibition opened in November, but the exhibition and the museum have been closed due to government guidelines regarding the COVID-19 pandemic since December. We hope that the museum and the exhibition will reopen to visitors again soon. In the meantime, visitors can see some of the photos and personal papers from the exhibition on the Becoming Richard Burton digital platform. Visit the platform now.
When a UK-wide lockdown came was announced on 23 March of this year, we were in the final stages of delivering Becoming Richard Burton, the first major exhibition anywhere, about one of Wales’ most iconic names and faces.
The exhibition was due to open on 4 April after nearly four years of planning, but with ten working days left until opening, the Museum was closed to the public, the staff sent home and the exhibition mothballed until it was safe to reopen.
With its origins in a partnership between ACNMW and Swansea University, where the Richard Burton Archives are held, the original scope of the exhibition sought to bring together as much material from around the world as could be gathered, to tell the story of Burton’s fame, wealth, success, decline and legacy.
It quickly became apparent that the objects, images, and media associated with Richard Burton, are still a lucrative source of income for those people and organisations in possession of the collections, copyright, and licenses for that material.
Very quickly, costs escalated beyond what was feasible or achievable to deliver, which required a revision of the agreed approach and for us to ask ourselves, what story can we tell about Richard Burton at ACNMW that hasn’t been told before?
Following some evaluation testing with target audiences, it also became apparent that Burton was almost an unknown to younger people born after his death at 59, in 1984.
Despite having been the most famous and photographed man in the world at the height of his fame, his death at a young age meant denied him the opportunity of a third act to his career, as an older actor.
There were no Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter or Marvel superhero films to provide the later life profile afforded to Burton’s contemporaries, such as Richard Harris, Robert Hardy, Alec Guinness, and Christopher Lee.
Presented with this revelation, we set ourselves the challenge of ‘rebooting’ Burton’s legacy for a 21st-century audience, whilst also serving an older audience already familiar with him, by providing new insights into the life of the man behind the well-known myths.
Focusing the story in this way became the key that unlocked the puzzle for ACNMW Curators, as they researched the contents of the Richard Burton Archives and found the less well-known father, son, brother, friend, writer, reader, and fiercely proud Welshman.
The contents of the archive are largely two-dimensional paper objects, which brought another set of challenges in designing an engaging, three-dimensional exhibition experience, leading to a decision early on in the process, to secure a selection of targeted supporting loans that would add texture and depth to the exhibition.
Likewise, as the costs associated with licensing film clips and photography presented such a practical obstacle, we took a strategic approach to identify those that would serve our story best.
Thanks to further partnerships in Wales with BBC Wales, ITV Wales, National Library Wales, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, West Glamorgan Archives, and the Dylan Thomas Centre, we were able to assemble a list of loans that would enhance the archive contents, at a fraction of anticipated costs, to support the personal narrative we were developing.
Additional loans were secured from the Royal Shakespeare Company, Bristol Theatre Museum, and Costume d’Arti in Rome, which following a few nervous weeks of frantic logistics, arrived on-site just as Europe began to lockdown in early March.
By the end of February, we were feeling confident we had everything in place to deliver the exhibition we had envisaged, despite the challenges encountered, but nobody expected what would happen before the end of March, when the Museum closed and we were all asked to stay at home.
When the dust had begun to settle and we’d all begun to adjust to working from home, our thoughts turned to how we might need to adapt the exhibition experience within the context of COVID-19, as it has been designed in a pre-social distancing world.
Following the lead set by other public spaces, our first step was to embrace a one-way system through the exhibition galleries.
Fortunately, the one-way system was largely consistent with the biographical narrative of the exhibition, which we co to reinforce at a few points with brass barriers and velvet rope, just like the type you might see at a cinema or theatre premiere.
We had to upgrade the specification of our graphic panels to be laminated with an anti-bacterial sealant, as this allows the panels to be cleaned with anti-viricidal chemicals without causing damage.
A planned cinema-space had to be revised and opened out, with seating removed, to allow visitors to watch archive interviews if Burton on Welsh television whilst maintaining social distancing.
Interactivity was the most significant casualty of the planned experience, as we had to remove any push buttons, touchscreen displays, or headphones, and ACNMW Digital and Technical teams were tasked with re-designing audio playback in the gallery, as synchronised, passive experiences.
On reflection, revising the exhibition design allowed us to enhance the overall experience and the challenges we were presented with became an opportunity to improve upon the original design.
We decided to open a new exhibition during a pandemic for the same reason we continue to keep our Museums open; the importance of maintaining free access to the nation’s culture and heritage, in support of good mental health and well-being for all.
Exhibitions are complicated projects that draw teams of staff from across the organisation and take a great of time and planning to deliver.
To come so close to opening, just before the first national lockdown, we were all disappointed to think the exhibition would never open.
Thanks to the hard work and commitment of the Museum staff and partners, we have adapted the exhibition and are delighted it will now be open to the public.
Unfortunately, at the time of writing the Museum is closed to the public again, in line with Wales Government restrictions, but will hopefully re-open again soon, when it is safe to do so.
The cycle of opening/closing at short notice will inevitably reduce the number of people who will get to visit the exhibition compared to pre-COVID times, but we are certain it will be greatly enjoyed by those visitors that manage to see it.
Whilst Museum opening continues to remain uncertain, we have developed a digital Becoming Richard Burton exhibition, which will be launched on 15 December, to provide an online platform for the exhibition content.
The digital exhibition will not seek to replicate the experience of visiting the physical gallery, as there is no substitute for engaging with real objects.
Instead, we are adapting the exhibition content as an interactive experience online, where users can engage with the Richard Burton story, as a complement to the physical exhibition. You can visit the digital exhibition now.
The exhibition will also include several fun games and creative interactives that users will be able to share across social media platforms, such as Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
Not only will the digital exhibition provide support while the Museum is closed due to COVID, but it will also provide access to the Museum for users around the world, remaining online beyond the life of the physical exhibition as a research resource.
The journey over the last four years from inception to opening Becoming Richard Burton has become an epic worthy of the man who played both Alexander the Great and Mark Antony, a labour of love for all the staff and partners who have contributed, which we are all so proud to share with our visitors in Wales and online across the world
As it’s time to hang up Christmas stockings once more, we thought we’d delve into our archives and ask Mark Lucas, Curator Woollen Industry at the National Wool Museum, about the history of the humble stocking here in Wales. As it happens, there’s quite a lot to tell, and if you find yourself inspired to have a go at knitting your own Christmas stocking, we’ve got an easy-peasy pattern to help you do so.
Stocking knitting in Wales
Wales has a long tradition of stocking knitting; in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, stocking knitting contributed to the domestic economy in rural Wales. The knitting of stockings would be done around the hearth in the winter months with the whole family involved. In fact, Noson Weu (Knitting Evening) was a tradition in rural Wales, when neighbours would gather together to knit as a social gathering listening to an old tale, some ancient songs or the harp.
Bala and Tregaron became the main areas for stocking knitting and held large markets three times a month. In 1851 there were 176 hosiers in the district around Tregaron.
Gwlana Wool Gathering is another old Welsh custom. Groups of women would follow drovers or walk along routes known as llwybrau gwlana, woollen paths. They gathered the scraps of fleece from the fields and hedge groves, constantly bending, reaching and plucking every piece of precious wool. The women would stop at farms along the way exchanging shelter, food and local news for odd jobs. If they were lucky, the farmer would have saved a fleece for the women. The right to gather the wool was valuable and young women who were employed as servants would make sure that they were given the two weeks off for wool gathering each year. The women would return home with their heavy sacks of wool, they washed and spun the yarn to use for knitting stockings and other garments.
Gwlana Diorama
Due to lack of transport in rural Wales if people had to travel, they would walk and while walking women would knit using a yarn hook. A yarn hook is in S shaped with one end attached to the waist band and a ball of yarn attached to the other allowing for both hands to be free to knit while walking. In nineteenth-century Cardiganshire women would carry peat from the mountains to use for fuel, they carried up to 27kg of peat in baskets on their backs leaving their hands free to knit as they walked. Women were also known to knit on the way to chapel but would stop before they entered sacred ground.
Yarn hook
Knitting needle sheaths
Knitting Needle Sheaths were worn on the right side of the body at an angle to hold the bottom of the knitting needle, leaving the left hand free to work the yarn on the other needle. The sheath would hold the weight of the wool and prevent the hooks falling off the knitting needles.
A Welsh custom is to give knitting sheaths as love tokens. These were skilfully and elaborately carved by a suitor to give to their sweetheart. They are generally carved from wood but there are examples made of ivory and metals.
Stocking knitting machine details
In Victorian times hand operated stocking machines became popular that could knit stockings much faster than by hand.
The North Wales stocking industries supplied 300,000 pairs of socks to the allies during World War One
In 1966, Dreifa Mill in Cwm Morgan owned and operated by David Oliver could produce 7 pairs of stockings an hour and regularly made 250 pairs a week using electric operated stocking knitting machines.
An example of Corgi socks
Corgi Hosiery’s factory in Ammanford keep this tradition alive today, producing woollen socks using traditional skills and modern machinery. They have a global reputation for making luxury socks and stockings and their customers include the royal family.
Knit your own Christmas stocking
Stockings on display at the National Wool Museum.
We have some very fine knitted stockings in the National Wool Museum collection, but if you'd like to try your hand at something simpler, we've got a very simple knitting pattern for a Christmas stocking that you should be able to get ready just in time for Father Christmas's visit. While we can't guarantee it will be filled, our shops at St Fagan's Museum and at The National Slate Museum in Llanberis (see their website for opening times and details) are offering a 10% discount on items to fill the stocking, for any who bring in a hand knitted Christmas stocking made from this pattern. So, ready.....steady.....knit!
Halloween is fast approaching and no doubt that many children across Wales will be deciding on what scary character they’d like to dress up as, and preparing their pumpkins for carving. Some of these traditions have been adopted from our American friends, but in this blog I’d like to give a flavour of other ways that this time of year was marked in the Welsh calendar.
Harvest and Winter’s Eve marked the period in the calendar where the last of the major agricultural tasks had come to an end, particularly bringing in the harvest before the winter time and marked the end of the old Celtic year referred to as Nos Calan Gaeaf or ‘the eve of the winter kalend’ which signified the end of summer and the beginning of winter. To mark this a feast was often held to thank neighbours for their help with the harvest, music and food would be provided. Calan Gaeaf was also associated with the slaughter of farm animals for the winter.
It was on Nos Calan Gaeaf or All-Hallows Eve that the strangest things were said to occur. Not only were spirits said to roam freely but it was believed that the ghosts of the dead were to be seen at midnight on every stile. In different parts of Wales these ghosts took on different characters but two of the most common were the ladi wen [white lady], and mainly in North Wales the tail-less black sow [hwch ddu gwta] and was associated with lighting bonfires after dark, as the fire died down they feared the appearance of the black sow and would chant verses such as:
Adref, adref am y cynta’, Hwch Ddu Gwta a gipio’r ola’
Be sure you are the first at home, the tail-less black sow is sure to roam.
And also
Hwch Ddu Gwta a Ladi Wen heb ddim pen
Hwch Ddu Gwta a gipio’r ola’
Hwch Ddu Gwta nos G’langaea
Lladron yn dwad tan weu sana.
The black sow and headless white lady,
Will try and catch the last to leave,
Thieves abound knitting stockings,
Beware the tail-less black sow on winter’s eve.
Superstitions
Much superstition was also attributed to this time of year especially in a fortune telling capacity. The main questions to be answered were who was to be married and who was to meet an untimely death. The types of fortune telling practices depended on the area. In Montgomeryshire they created a mash of nine ingredients which included potatoes, carrots, turnips, peas, parsnips, leeks, pepper and salt and mixed with milk and in the centre was placed a wedding ring. Each participant would try a bit of the mash and if they were lucky enough to find the ring it would indicate an imminent marriage!
Another fortune telling was peeling an apple without breaking the skin and thrown over the shoulder. The letter created would indicate the initial of your future spouse. In the Llandysul area three bowls would be filled. One with soil, one with water containing sediment and one with clean water. The participant would be blindfolded and would be asked to touch one of the bowls. The first prophesised death before marriage, the second a troubled marriage and the third a successful marriage. Games were also played such as apple bobbing or the more dangerous version was trying to grab a dangling apple with your teeth which also had a candle attached!
Frightening objects in the collection
There are a number of unusual objects in the collection. One of these is a charm doll from Belgium from the Lovett collection, collected by Edward Lovett (1852-1933) who had a fascination for charms – lucky or otherwise. It’s a doll made of wax and could be used to hurt people by having pins and sharp object inserted into it. By melting the wax doll slowly in a chimney, it could even bring about someone’s painful lingering death.
Also in the collection is a witchcraft bottle with a charm inside. It’s never been opened and it’s thought that bottles such as this were placed inside walls and buildings to guard against evil spirits.
Ghost Stories from the Oral History Archive
Many thousands of people have been recorded by the staff at St Fagans over the years and among these recordings are ghostly stories and experiences remembered by interviewees or told to them by past generations. Some of these have been put on People’s Collection Wales. Click on the links below and listen to a selection. The lady in the second clip remembers talk of the Hwch Ddu Gwta or Tail-less Black Sow as mentioned above. Below is also an image of The Conjuror, Evan Griffiths talked about in the third clip.
If you’re looking for fun Halloween activities to do at home, why not download our activity sheets? You can decorate a pumpkin or write your own spell.
For me and the rest of the staff at the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea, it seems inconceivable that 15 years have passed since we welcomed our first visitors on the 17th of October 2005. Although in human terms being 15 is well on the way to being a ‘grown-up’, for everyone at the Waterfront Museum, we still feel very young, fresh and experimental.
I think there are a number of reasons for this.
First, our visitors are from a wide range of backgrounds and their motivation for visiting is varied. Of the quarter of a million visits the Waterfront Museum receives each year, a good proportion are first time visitors from outside the south-west of Wales. They are particularly attracted by innovative displays that tell the human story of Welsh industrialisation over the past three centuries with key objects from the collections of Amgueddfa Cymru and the City of Swansea explained through interactive interpretation. But although part of the family of Wales’ national museums, the Waterfront Museum is also very much a local museum, and most of the rest of our visitors are ‘regulars’, returning time and again to see the many temporary exhibitions devised or hosted by us each year, or attend the 300 or so free events and hands-on activities that form such an important part of our annual programme.
Second, the Waterfront Museum is a vast storehouse of materials and opportunities for learning and inspiration. In the same way that images can tell many stories, historic artefacts are points of departure, not fixed destinations for understanding, feelings and creativity. So the museum’s learning programmes for all ages always have an inter-disciplinary approach with lots of human stories and fun. Our unofficial motto is, ‘Try anything once, so long as it’s legal and safe’!
Third, the Waterfront Museum plays an important part in the wider cultural and economic life of the Swansea region. Many organisations and communities use the museum for meetings, a location in which to communicate their work to a wider public, or as a place for celebration. The museum is also a venue that can be hired for weddings, private and corporate meetings and entertaining. Here its central location, stunning architecture and fascinating displays really help to make these events so special.
Fourth, the Waterfront Museum has always been committed to the furthering the social purpose of our heritage. We have consistently worked to use our collections and facilities to help strengthen community identities, make newcomers to Swansea feel welcome and help disadvantaged people realise their potential by gaining skills and fostering ambition and self-respect.
And last, but by no means least, the Waterfront has always been blessed with amazing staff. We aim to appoint ‘people’ people, who enjoy welcoming our visitors, are helpful and knowledgeable and are great at working together as a dynamic team. Besides being great at their ‘official’ jobs, many possess other skills that we have been able to draw upon, especially in our events and learning programmes.
So what of the future? Despite the current difficulties with the Covid19 pandemic we are sure that the next fifteen years shall be as exciting and rewarding as the last fifteen. The redevelopment of the city centre and especially the new arena nearby will provide great opportunities to engage with different audiences. The ever-expanding online digital world will present us with many new ways to celebrate Welsh industry and innovation of both the past and today to a global audience. It is also likely that the experiences of the last eight months will make us all appreciate even more the delights of experiencing ‘real’ things in a place like the Waterfront Museum that is so equipped as a place for people to meet, engage with one another, learn and have fun.
