‘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.
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 Age
Each 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.
The act of drying flowers dates back to ancient times. In the past flowers and herbs were dried and utilised for decorative, medicinal and culinary purposes. In Medieval times they were used to repel insects and even conceal unpleasant odours. Drying flowers became a popular hobby and preservation method in the Victorian period in England. For thousands of years flowers have had a symbolic meaning in rituals, passages, religious activities and artistic expression. Dried flowers are now more fashionable than ever due to their everlasting beauty and convenience.
This year thousands of flowers were grown in the gardens of St. Fagans for the purpose of drying. They have been naturally air-dried and beautiful flower arrangements were created by our garden trainees. These are now available to purchase in the Museum store.
Besides their outstanding and long-lasting beauty dried flower arrangements offer many advantages. They can be used in weddings as bouquets, buttonholes, corsages and centrepieces. Because they are dried, they do not require water. They can be bought months in advance and stored with ease, releasing the pressure of having to care for fresh flowers on the big day. They can also be kept and preserved as memories of such a special day.
They are perfect for home decoration or gifting. You can create permanent floral arrangements that will enhance your home without the need to buy fresh flowers every week. Did you know that imported fresh flowers can have 10 times the carbon footprint of flowers grown in the UK? Imported cut flowers are flown thousands of miles in refrigerated airplane holds. When grown in colder climates they need heated greenhouses which generate higher carbon dioxide emissions. Not to mention the use of pesticides and fertilizers used in the production of perfect blooms. Fresh roses in February? Not so rosy for our planet.
The cut flowers grown in St. Fagans gardens have been grown from seeds sown in April in our unheated greenhouses. They were planted outside in May when the weather was warming up and have been growing happily and healthily producing beautiful blooms throughout Summer. No pesticides, fertilizers or harmful chemicals were used in this process. Besides being grown sustainably the flowers also provide a source of nectar for pollinators including bees and butterflies. It is always a great joy to admire the hive of activity in our cut flower bed.
The flowers are harvested in dry weather when they are partially or fully open. Excess foliage is removed, small bunches of flowers are tied together and hung upside down on bamboo canes or strings in a dark and dry area with good air circulation. The flowers are left to dry for two to three weeks until completely dry. Floral arrangements including bouquets, posies, buttonholes, corsages, floral crowns and wreaths can be created with dried flowers.
There is a vast number of plants that can be dried and used in floral arrangements. Drying flowers such as lavender and hydrangeas or grasses such as Stipa gigantea and Pampas grass is a great way to get started. The stars of our cut flower garden this year are: Limonium sinuatum, Craspedia globosa, Helipterum roseum, Achillea millefolium ‘Cassis’, Limonium suworowii ‘Rat Tail’ and the soft grass Panicum elegans ‘Sprinkles’.
If you are coming to St. Fagans National Museum of History, please visit our magnificent gardens and take a look at the beautiful floral arrangements available in the Museum shop.
What makes you spend time looking at a particular painting? What is it that draws you in? It can be difficult to put these thoughts into words, and that’s where poetry can help.
From 6th September to 6th November there’ll be an interactive poetry display in our ‘Art in Eighteenth Century Britain’ gallery. You’ll be able to read (or listen to) a number of poems written in response to some of the paintings. There’ll also be an invitation for you to have a go at writing a poem of your own…
So, why poetry? You may well ask. Poetry can take us in unexpected directions. It can help us to articulate thoughts and impressions that we weren’t even aware of, to understand our own subconscious response to a work of art. It can help us to engage with art in a different way, seeing it from a fresh perspective.
The poems don’t have to be ‘good’. They don’t even have to look like poems. This is about slowing down and letting a different part of your brain take over – the part of your brain that ponders in ways you may not be aware of, as you look at works of art, translating your thoughts into words.
There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer. Each creative response will give us a new interpretation, a new lens through which to see.
The interactive display will include poems written by a diverse group of individuals who took part in a series of writing workshops this summer, alongside poems written by museum visitors. The display forms part of a PhD research project organised by Cardiff-based poet Rachel Carney, funded by the South West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership.
In 2020 Amgueddfa Cymru and Cruse Bereavement Support Cymru came together to support people across the country through their grief and create a lasting memorial full of memories to those lost during the time of Covid-19. It involved creating a square patch containing a memory of a loved one, in which ever way people chose, in whatever words or images they liked. Each patch created demonstrated a visual display of lasting memories of someone they loved who had died, created in unprecedented times. 50+ patches were sent to the Museum and have been carefully sewn together to form a Patchwork of Memories.
For the last two year we have all lived very different lives, with change to our normal the only constant. Losing a loved one is always hard but usually we have the comfort of others and collective mourning at funerals to help us say goodbye and share our memories. However, a death in the last two years has meant many of us being cut off from our support networks and our rituals or remembrance being altered.
Rhiannon Thomas, previous Learning Manager at St Fagans said about this project “Helping people with grief is something that I am personally passionate about. Having worked with Cruse Bereavement Support previously to support families I felt the Museum was able to help families dealing with loss in a different way. Amgueddfa Cymru and Cruse Bereavement Support Wales came together to create a project based around creativity and memory, the aim being to make a lasting memorial to those who have died during the pandemic.”
Creating something is not a new response to grief, there are several Embroidery samplers in Amgueddfa Cymru’s collections made in memory of loved ones or marking their passing. This sampler by M.E. Powell was created in 1906 in memory of her mother. Creativity during difficult times of our lives can help all of us to express deep held emotions that we do not always have the ability to put into words.
Bereavement Support Days
Alongside the Patchwork of Memories initiative, the Cruse / Museum Partnership also provide a safe inspirational space for the increasing numbers of children and young people awaiting bereavement support and help meet the diverse needs of bereaved children, young people and families who benefit from coming together to rationalise, explore and understand that they are not alone in their grief.
A series of quarterly Bereavement Support Days are held in partnership with St Fagans, for children, young people and their families experiencing grief and loss. There is specialist support from Cruse staff and volunteers along with art and craft activities provided by Head for Arts and immersive Virtual Reality experiences provided by PlayFrame, which are light-hearted, allowing people attending the chance to make and create things that can be taken home with them and or captured and stored into a virtual memory box. The activities available are designed to stimulate rather that prompt.
Here is the film created by PlayFrame on Ekeko, the virtual memory space they have been creating alongside this project, installing objects, memories and stories donated by participants into a virtual memory box for people to enter and explore:
Alison Thomas, Cruse CYP Wales Lead said “Cruse Bereavement Support Wales provides in person support to children and young people within a variety of settings, so we see first-hand how difficult it can be for grieving children and young people. Their collective support on these days allows families the time and space to verbalise and begin to understand their loss and associated emotions. The focus of the Bereavement Support days is around children and young people, however, the benefits resonate through the whole family including the adults in attendance, some of whom require bereavement support on the day, most of whom stay for the duration and share a cuppa and chat with other bereaved parents and guardians. Following the session, the whole family can have a look around the Museum and spend time together in a safe and nurturing setting.”
Here are some of the written (in their own handwriting) evaluation feedback quotes from children, young people and parents / guardians who have attended the Bereavement Days:
'I feel calmer, less worried. It was good being able to speak to people my age who understood what I'm going through.'
'I was very included in all the activities and was always involved in conversation. There was a calm atmosphere making it easier to speak to people there.'
'I was very welcomed and was immediately approached by a friendly face. It was very inviting and was easy to speak to people there.'
'HAPPY' ?
'Love ? happy'
'Thank you Diolch, Diolch ?'
A mother of one of the young people said 'I feel much better than I did.'
Another mother said 'All was lovely, made to feel welcome, everything we did was good and the girls enjoyed themselves.'
The two memory quilts will be competed by the end of August 2022, following which we will hold a final project event with Cruse Bereavement Support Wales on 25th September at St Fagans National Museum of History, where we will display the two quilts and invite both the contributors who sent squares and the participants from the Bereavement Support Days to attend, along with the public, to see the quilts and share their experiences of taking part in the process.
