Walking for Health at St Fagans Loveday Williams, 12 August 2016 This week we welcomed the lovely Croeso Club from Caerphilly to St Fagans. They are an informal community group set up by a local resident, Sandra Hardacre, almost ten years ago. The group aims to support community members to learn new skills, be sociable with others and go on new adventures. Over the last 6 weeks they have been working with Groundwork Cymru to help to pilot a new project called Go Green 4 Health, which is all about inspiring, supporting and encouraging individuals to use the outdoors to be more active. Each session focuses on a different aspect of using the outdoors for activity, such as ‘the benefits to being outdoors’, ‘overcoming barriers’ and ‘’staying safe’. For their last walk the group members had asked if they could come to St Fagans, so Flik Walls, project coorindator, got in touch with us at the Museum and we set it up. We planned a 30 minute walk, taking in some of the key buildings at St Fagans such as Nant Wallter Cottage, Rhyd-y-Car Terrace Houses and the Oakdale Workmen's Institute, of which some of the ladies had very fond memories. We also made sure there was plenty of time to stop for a coffee and piece of cake on our way around. This was a perfect chance for the ladies to talk about their experiences of being part of the Go Green 4 Health project and share their thoughts and feedback with myself, the Groundwork Team and the project evaluator Katy Marrin. It was also a lovely opportunity for the group to share poems some of them had written about their journey together. Here's a lovely poem written by Lyn: Go Green 4 Health Poem Two lovely people came to coax us all to walk, To ramble and enjoy ourselves and also have a talk. We played walking bingo, I’m sure it was a fix, Next we all said poems that was a real mix. A lovely trip to Trelewis Park, fresh air and loads of rests, Caerphilly Castle we went next, soaked through right to our vests. And what about walking football that we were meant to play, They said there was some cheating, ‘we were robbed’ I heard them say. The last walk sadly to St Fagan’s, a fab day out for all, So now the Croeso Club love walking, they’ve really had a ball. We are really looking forward to developing a link with Groundwork Cymru so we can continue to work together on similar projects in the future. Follow this blog for updates and to find out how it's all going.
Community Family Learning at St Fagans Loveday Williams, 9 August 2016 Over the summer we are working with ACE Action Ely Caerau (Communities First) to put together a series of fun and accessible family workshops and activities for local families. The programme was developed ahead of time with ACE and includes sessions such as:Traditional ToysWash Day with Beti BwtRag Rug MakingLife in the Iron AgePond Dipping PotterySo far we have had lots of fun making rag rugs, learning about and playing with traditional toys, discovering what life was like for our ancestors living in the Iron Age and experiencing what it was like to go to school in Victorian Wales. Making Rag Rugs
National Museum Cardiff’s 1980 sculpture exhibition for blind visitors Stephanie Roberts, 8 August 2016 Did you know that an exhibition of sculpture for the blind was held at National Museum Cardiff in 1980?Neither did I until a colleague of mine mentioned it recently. Intrigued, I did some digging to find out more.The exhibition was the first of its kind in the Museum. It brought together 10 sculptures of different materials and textures which blind and visually impaired visitors were invited to touch. Rodin's 'Illusions Fallen to Earth', and Frederic Leighton's 'Needless Alarm', which shows a nude female figure startled by a frog, were among the works on display.To protect the works, a thin layer of burnished wax was applied and visitors wore gloves with the fingertips cut off to reduce the risk of damage from rings or watches. It would be interesting to know what conservators today would advise!Rubber mats and carpets were used to help lead visitors to the plinths, and the Museum's Friends were on hand to guide visitors around and engage them in conversation about the works.To complement the exhibition and add a multisensory dimension there was also a display of seasonal scented plants and spices from the Botany collection!Even though this exhibition was held almost 40 years ago, it is interesting how little has changed. All of the challenges they faced back then – how to strike a balance between conservation and accessibility, how to help orientate visitors, and introducing a multi-sensory element – are ones we’ve been thinking about recently.We haven’t got a new exhibition planned (although it’s something to think about for the future!), but we have been working with members of Cardiff Institute for the Blind on a series of audio description tours. These tours will be offered to blind and visually impaired visitors starting this October.
The Museum's gone Quentin Blake and Roald Dahl Crazy! Haf Neale, 5 August 2016 Since the launch of the Quentin Blake exhibition our inbox has been filling up, and the phone hasn’t stopped with fellow Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake superfans wanting to know more about what's going on. Everyone wants to get involved! So I thought I’d share a little bit of what’s been happening so far.The Exhibition People have been coming along to draw in the gallery and already our wall is bursting with wonderful drawings. Want to join in? https://museum.wales/cardiff/whatson/8916/Quentin-Blake-Inside-Stories/Activity BookletOur activity booklets have been flying out and the competition entries have been coming in thick and fast! To draw your way around the museum and take part in the competition, just pop in to the Clore Discovery centre to get your very own booklet https://museum.wales/cardiff/clore/Family Workshop Families have been making some really nice little storybooks of their very own. Teachers We have a teacher's pack in both Welsh and English that will help you explore the exhibition with your class - https://museum.wales/media/38707/QB-FINAL.pdf Cymraeg - https://amgueddfa.cymru/media/38708/QB-FINAL-cy.pdfIf you would like to bring your class to the museum all the information you need about booking is available at - https://museum.wales/cardiff/learning/booking_information/
Spring Bulbs for Schools: Results 2005-2016 Penny Dacey, 31 May 2016 The Spring Bulbs for Schools project allows 1000s of school scientists to work with Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales to investigate and understand climate change. School scientists have been keeping weather records and noting when their flowers open since October 2005, as part of a long-term study looking at the effects of temperature on spring bulbs.Certificates have now been sent out to all of the 4,907 pupils that completed the project this year. See Professor Plant's report to view the finsings so far. Make graphs & frequency charts or calculate the mean. See if the flowers opened late in schools that recorded cold weather. See how temperature, sunshine and rainfall affect the average flowering dates. Look for trends between different locations. I would like to thank all of the Super Scientists that participated this year!Professor Plant www.museumwales.ac.uk/spring-bulbs/Twitter http://twitter.com/Professor_Plant
