A Sustainable Food Festival Ellen Davies, 16 October 2022 We were pleased to welcome our annual food festival back to St Fagans National Museum of History this year! After two years of running digitally, it was great to see so many people sampling the tasty food, taking part in the family friendly activities and listening to the great line up of live music. Sustainability was an important theme of this year’s event and we worked hard to reduce the environmental impact of the festival. Here are some of our successes: 4,241 reusable cups were used across the event's bars 156 customers claimed a discount on their hot drinks by bringing a reusable cup with them from home 648 of you travelled to the festival on the Cardiff Bus service Fareshare Cymru collected 100kg of leftover food at the end of the weekend. This equates to 240 meals' worth of food! And several stallholders told us they had sold out by the end of the event – meaning no food waste!Our event waste contractors did not send any waste to landfill. Any waste that couldn’t be recycled was processed to create energyWe introduced a digital map this year reducing the need for printing Our reusable bottle and coffee cup were available to purchase if you’d forgotten to bring your own. You can still pick one up from our online shop Sustainability was reflected in our programme too. The Good Food Cardiff zone delivered workshops, talks and demos focused on growing and cooking good food, no matter your budget. Many young visitors enjoyed taking a step back in time over the weekend and trying their hand at some traditional activities from milking cows and Welsh Victorian cooking at Llwyn yr Eos Farmhouse, to making butter by hand at Abernodwydd. The festival’s learning events were supported by the players of People’s Postcode Lottery. We’d love to hear your feedback on the event. Let us know what you thought by taking part in this short survey. Gŵyl Fwyd Amgueddfa Cymru Food Festival 2022 The Amgueddfa Cymru Food Festival was supported by Food & Drink Wales’ Food Festivals Recovery Fund 2022.
Black Lives Matter - A speech from the opening of the Reframing Picton exhibition at National Museum Cardiff The Reframing Picton group, 13 October 2022 Black Lives Matter.For generations, even up to recent years, that’s been a controversial statement. Thomas Picton is only one of many instruments of the British Empire who exported, demonstrably, an opposing belief.I’m unsure where I heard this but it’s stuck with me since:“The instant a subject becomes aware they have been exposed to propaganda, that propaganda ceases to be effective”In the case of Thomas Picton and his legacy, drenched in the blood of Africans and Native Caribbeans, was sanitized, valorised iteratively while he lived and especially following his death. The murder of George Floyd spurred people and institutions into gear, Amgueddfa Cymru were thankfully one of those institutions.At the heart of the idea of empire is a differential sense of importance. Some places are more important than others, setting up the Metropole and the Colony. A center and a periphery. The prevailing narrative has always been fundamentally white supremacist, at the expense of Africans and Natives. The British Empire used the metropole-colony model to evade accountability for events driven by people like Picton.Reframing Picton represents a divergence from this narrative. In the time we worked on this project we made a point to expose, not erase history. It was essential that we directly involved people connected to Trinidad, where Picton entrenched his reputation for barbarism during his tenure as Governor. Amongst the goals for this exhibit is the creation of a site of conscience rather than indoctrination. To create a dialogue between museums, the governments that fund them and the communities they serve. To create healthy ways of addressing.Finally, I’ll leave you with a quote that I think encapsulates the purpose of the project most pertinently:“If we want our future to be better than our past we need to challenge which aspects of our culture we preserve, build upon and deconstruct”
Celebrating Diversity in Sport Fflur Morse, 30 September 2022 The 30th of September is National Sporting Heritage Day, and this year’s theme is diversity in sport. Today is an opportunity to celebrate the sporting heritage of under-represented communities and use the stories they hold to educate and inspire.This blog will explore highlights from the collection at Amgueddfa Cymru to shine a light on diverse sporting stories in Wales. Cardiff Dragons FC shirt worn by Murray Harvey Cardiff Dragons FC was founded in 2008 and is Wales' first and only LGBTQ+ football team. Their first match was held on Sunday 26 October 2008 where they beat the London Romans 5-4 at Caedelyn Park, Whitchurch, Cardiff. This football shirt was worn by the captain, Murray Harvey (a member of Cardiff Dragons from 2008 until 2018), at this first match. Swansea Vikings RFC shirt worn by David Parr Swansea Vikings RFC are a gay and inclusive rugby team. Founded on 9 May 2015, they are the first ever created in Swansea and the second to be created in Wales. This is their first kit and was worn by David Parr who joined Swansea Vikings in January 2016. David stated that,“Being part of an open, inclusive club that doesn't discriminate has been great for my self confidence, physical and mental health and has enabled me to make many lifelong friendships. I wore the kit on many occasions throughout 2016 and 2017 including against fellow LGBT team the Cardiff Lions in January 2017”.Signed publicity photograph of boxer, Pat Thomas Pat Thomas was born in 1950 on the island of Saint Kitts, and moved to Cardiff aged seven. In a career spanning fourteen years he won several titles in two weights, including British Welterweight (1975 & 1976), British Light Middleweight (1979 and 1980) and Welsh Light Middleweight (1977). He founded the Tiger Bay Boxing Club in 1984, and after retiring from professional boxing he worked as a trainer.Flyer designed by Anthony Evans for the Wales Anti-Apartheid Movement Double sided Flyer designed by Anthony Evans for the Wales Anti-Apartheid Movement (WAAM). The flyer was made to advertise a demonstration held in Cardiff on 16 April 1986 to protest against a rugby match between the British Lions and the Rest of the World. The Rest of the World squad included six Springboks from South Africa.Inscribed: 'NO LINKS WITH SOUTH AFRICAN BLOOD SPORTS / 'Mae nhw'n chwarae â gwaed yn NE AFFRICA - dim cysylltiadau.Olympic Games Blazer Badge worn by Eileen Allen This is a blazer badge decorated with the Union Jack with the inscription: OLYMPIC GAMES 1952 The Olympic Games of 1952 was held in Helsinki, ten years later than intended due to the outbreak of World War II. The badge was worn by Miss Eileen Allen from Cardiff, a member of Team GB 1952, and one of two Welsh referees on the hockey panel of that year. This was a great achievement for a female referee, succeeding in a male dominated world, when only men could compete in hockey at the Olympic Games. Stonewall Rainbow Laces Lastly, these are a pair of Stonewall ‘Rainbow Laces’ in original packing. These laces were first launched by Stonewall in 2013, to promote LGBTQ+ equality and tackle homophobia in sport. This pair was given out to people attending a Stonewall Cymru Role Models Programme in Cardiff in November 2019.The label reads:MAKE SPORT EVERYONE’S GAME The people mentioned in this blog have made an immense contribution to Welsh sport, insuring that sport is inclusive to all. Their stories have become part of the national memory and will continue to inspire generations of people to follow in their footsteps.It’s important that we continue to increase representation in the national collection, so that it is more representative of the contemporary diverse cultures of Wales.Please get in touch if you have any objects you would like to donate to help build up the sports collection at Amgueddfa Cymru, so we can continue to diversify the collection and ensure that future generations will be able to learn about all of Wales’ sporting heritage. Finally, you can search and view objects from the collection on the Museum’s Collections Online catalogue. #NSHD2022
Our Museum Garden Update September Sian Taylor-Jones, 30 September 2022 ‘Our Museum Garden’ volunteers carry on improving our grounds at National Museum Cardiff. They have continued with the clearance of dead shrubs and overgrown ivy, started to plant up new spaces and cared for the Urban Meadow. The most obvious difference has been the clearance and planting of a herbaceous border. There are two ‘mini-gabions’ in this space filled with stones, branches and pinecones to provide habitat for insects. The planting has been planned to appeal to pollinators as well as make a welcoming entrance for visitors. It will be a gorgeous splash of colour next summer. Hopefully in the next few months, larger versions of these gabions will appear in the space too. The herb bed has survived well over this heatwave of a summer – the rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) and lavender (Lavandula) have been enjoying their ideal conditions. The borage (Borago officinalis) has made itself at home and spread seedlings everywhere. The volunteer group is also tasked with looking after the ‘Urban Meadow’. We completed the ‘Every Flower Counts’ survey again in July and found a wide variety of wildflowers. We also enjoyed seeing burnet moth, soldier beetles, grasshoppers, flower beetles and many cinnabar moths during our time on the survey. At the beginning of September, Matthew Collinson came to teach us how to cut the meadow using Scythes. It was hard work but we all learnt so much about meadow management.We have three major installation projects happening over the next couple of months. We’re going to be busy and would love some extra volunteers to help us. If you think you might like to help please find details of how to become a volunteer here: Current Opportunities - Become a Volunteer | Museum Wales. We have raised beds to install and plant up, a roof garden to revamp and gabion baskets to build. This project is funded by Welsh Government’s Landfill Disposals Tax Communities Scheme, administered by WCVA.
Attic sculptures at National Museum Cardiff Kristine Chapman, 23 September 2022 The exterior of the National Museum building in Cathays Park is home to several figures placed around the top, known as the ‘attic sculptures’. This is a feature that it has in common with the City Hall building right next door.In fact, when the competition to design the flagship National Museum of Wales building was opened in 1909, the Conditions of Competition included the following guidelines:‘From the position of the site on the east side of the City Hall and the relation of the Law Courts on its west side, to that building as a centre, it is thought desirable that externally the Museum building should be designed in harmony with these buildings, that, so far as possible, it may be in sympathy with the general scheme adopted.’The architects who won the building competition, Arnold Dunbar Smith (1866–1933) and Cecil Claude Brewer (1871–1918), worked with the Welsh sculptor Sir William Goscombe John (1860–1952) to come up with a design scheme for the sculptures that would decorate the exterior. Their idea was to have four groups, consisting of two or three figures in each group, for each of the four sides of the Museum. This would have resulted in sixteen sculpture groups in total.The groups on the South Wing, which is the front entrance of the Museum, were supposed to illustrate the history of Wales and were to be called The Stone Age, The Bronze Age, The Iron Age and The Coal Age. Gilbert Bayes’s plaster model for The Bronze Age, later retitled The Classic Period. The four sculpture groups for the West Wing were meant to represent the industries of Wales. These were defined as Agriculture, Mining, Shipping and Iron and Steel.The East Wing groups would focus on the sciences, and were listed as Astronomy, Chemistry, Physics, Biology and Geology and Archaeology.And, finally, on the North Wing the arts would be represented by Literature, Music, Graphic Arts and Architecture/Sculpture.As the Museum building was to be completed in stages, wing by wing, starting with the South Wing, it was decided to focus on commissioning the sculptures in that area first.In 1914 fourteen sculptors were invited to submit models to a limited competition. They advised that ‘the sculpture is to form part of the building, and not be applied to it, and that therefore a monumental and masonic, rather than a plastic treatment is required’ and that they have a ‘monumental and symbolic, rather than pictorial treatment, and that, too much must not be sacrificed to historical accuracy and attempted realism’. The Modern Period by Richard Garbe The 1914–1915 Museum Annual Report lists the winning artists as:Gilbert Bayes (1872–1953) for his model The Bronze AgeRichard L. Garbe (1876–1957) for his model The Stone AgeThomas J. Clapperton (1879–1962) for his model The Coal AgeEach winning artist was asked to produce a final version of his design and submit a companion sculpture to go with it. Additionally, the competition assessors decided that the four Ages were no longer satisfactory and renamed them as the Prehistoric Period, the Classic Period, the Mediaeval Period and the Modern Period.Therefore, Gilbert Bayes was tasked with producing The Prehistoric Period and The Classic Period, as the renamed Stone Age and Bronze Age groups were now called. Richard Garbe produced The Mediaeval Period and The Modern Period, which were the renamed Iron Age and Coal Age groups. These four sculpture groups completed the History of Wales scheme for the front of the South Wing. Mining and Shipping by Thomas J. Clapperton The other winner, Thomas J. Clapperton, was asked to rename his Coal Age sculpture as Mining and create a second sculpture group called Shipping. These were to be the first two of the four sculpture groups that were to represent the Industries of Wales on the West Wing. A section of the West Wing was built at the same time as the South Wing, and so there was space available to accommodate these two groups.There were also a couple of other exterior sculptures commissioned at this time, although they were not part of the attic sculpture scheme. Two dragons and two lions were designed by A. Bertram Pegram to be placed around the base of the dome. It’s worth pointing out that no plans were ever made to put a sculpture on the top of the dome to mirror the dragon on the top of the City Hall dome; such a sculpture is not pictured in any of the architects’ drawings of the Museum.This was as far as the attic sculptures scheme progressed until the extension of the East Wing in the 1930s. The East Wing, up to and including the Reardon Smith Lecture Theatre, was officially opened in 1932. However, by this point the original scheme for the attic sculptures was radically changed. Instead of the three figure groups of the South Wing, these sculptures were all single figures.The belief was that as the East Wing wouldn’t be viewed as much as the main entrance of the South Wing, the sculptures therefore no longer needed to be three-figure groups. The Building Committee minutes of February 1936 state that ‘While it is important that these carvings should do their duty by helping to complete the architectural design, it is submitted that three-figure groups in high relief are not necessary’. Art by Bertram Pegram Instead of the original plan to depict the sciences on the East Wing, the committee decided to commission sculptures more in keeping with the arts, the theme originally planned for the North Wing. As a result, the sculptures created for the East Wing were Learning by Thomas J. Clapperton (the sculptor responsible for the two existing West Wing sculptures), Music by David Evans (1893–1959) and Art by A. Bertram Pegram, the creator of the lions at the base of the dome. Music by David Evans It wasn’t until the 1960s that the remainder of the West Wing was built, and the final two attic sculptures for that section of the building could be added. These sculptures followed the single figure format of the 1930s East Wing designs, rather than the group design of the two existing West Wing sculptures by T.J. Clapperton.Both sculptures are by Jonah Jones (1919–2004); in the first Natural History is represented by Saint Melangell holding a sheaf of flowers, ferns and grasses, and handling a ram’s skull ‘with a hare about her skirts’. The second is Industry, represented by a slate quarryman splitting slate. Although the sculptures don’t use the names from the original scheme (Agriculture and Iron and Steel), they do allude to the theme of the West Wing, the industries of Wales.The final attic sculpture was commissioned in the 1980s when work was completed on the East Wing to match it in parallel with the West Wing. The Art Committee decided in 1988 to approach five sculptors with plans to create a figure to pair with the sculpture of Music by David Evans and complete the arts theme for that wing. Reguarding Guardians of Art by Dhruva Mistry The chosen sculpture, installed in August 1990, was Reguarding Guardians of Art by Dhruva Mistry (1957– ), a figure of a part-human, part-animal winged creature. Although the style of this sculpture is quite different to that of the other attic sculptures, in the words of the then Keeper of Art, it ‘meets the requirement of the situation admirably particularly from the point of view of composition and scale’.The original architects’ plans for the Museum building also included a North Wing, but as it was never built, no attic sculptures were ever created. This means that of the initial sixteen sculpture groups that were planned for the exterior of the Museum building, only twelve were completed. Of those twelve, half are the original three-figure groups and half are individual figures. Perhaps if a North Wing is ever constructed, a new competition will be launched to design the remaining four attic sculptures.
