Edinburgh’s Museum of Childhood has created the ultimate advent calendar for big kids – a digital door a day back in time to childhood winters! Continue reading Museum of Childhood to launch digital advent calendar
Tag: Museum of Childhood
Be a Potter spotter!
Harry Potter competition launches at the magical Museum of Childhood today
Visitors to the Museum of Childhood in Edinburgh will picture the magic of Harry Potter as part of a nationwide competition with Bloomsbury Children’s Books.
Launching today to celebrate the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Illustrated Edition by J.K. Rowling, illustrated by Jim Kay, the competition will challenge people of all ages to seek out and photograph an image from the new book placed in locations around the country and share via social media.
Working with children’s charity Kids in Museums and The Telegraph newspaper, Bloomsbury has placed 12 Jim Kay prints in 12 different museums around the UK and Ireland, including the City of Edinburgh Council owned and managed Museum of Childhood on the Royal Mile.
With a clue to solve at each venue participants must find these images, take a photo of themselves with it and share via Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #HarryPotterSpotter.
Jim Kay has always been a fan of museums, saying: “Museums are one of my favourite places to visit. The objects they contain tell the story of ourselves and our world, and I find them endlessly inspiring and fascinating. My illustrations owe so much to museum collections, it’s an honour to know they will appear in the places that made me want to become an artist.”
Councillor Richard Lewis, Edinburgh’s Culture Convener, added: “This is a great draw for our free-to-visit Museum of Childhood and a unique chance to celebrate the magic of Harry Potter in Edinburgh. Potter Spotters will find JK Rowling’s hand-prints just a stone’s throw away from the Museum at the City Chambers, and it’s also just a short walk to the Elephant House where she famously penned parts of her novels. With the October School break almost here, this is also a perfect opportunity for families to make a day of it and revisit the Museum.”
One overall winner will receive a family ticket to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter plus a Harry Potter tote bag, a Jim Kay signed print and a copy of the Deluxe Illustrated Edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (RRP: £150). Twelve additional prize winners, one from each museum, will receive a Harry Potter tote bag, a Jim Kay signed print and a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Illustrated Edition (RRP: £30). Participants only need to spot one print to enter.
The Harry Potter Spotter competition launches today and closes at midnight on Sunday 1 November.
Click here for full details of the competition or find out more about a visit to the Museum of Childhood.
New exhibition reveals ‘another world’ of Scottish film
Changing experiences of childhood documented on film
Films and videos shot by some of Scotland’s pioneering amateur filmmakers will be showcased in a new exhibition now open at the City of Edinburgh Council’s Museum of Childhood.
This new archive has been developed through a four year research project undertaken by experts at the University of Glasgow. They have helped locate over 2,000 home movies, fiction films and sponsored documentaries made in Scotland throughout the twentieth century.
The project, entitled ‘Children and Amateur Media in Scotland’, charted the changing experiences of childhood. Together the films offer a unique and important insight into Scotland’s hidden cultural history.
It shows how children were represented by amateur filmmakers throughout the twentieth century, how they became film-makers themselves, and offers our only visual window into many domestic and community scenes, now lost, but once familiar to many.
Councillor Richard Lewis, Convener of Culture and Sport at the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “The Museum of Childhood is one of Edinburgh’s most loved museums with an extraordinary collection of toys and games. For over 50 years, the museum has charted the changing environments children have grown up in, and the different ways they have played.
“The films involved give a fascinating glimpse into the past and the exhibition will perfectly complement the existing collections, while offering something completely new for visitors.”
Professor Karen Lury, Professor of Film & Television Studies and Principal Investigator of the project said: “What we have discovered is that there is ‘another world’ of Scottish film – many, many amateur film-makers, community arts workers and school teachers all making films that reveal a lively and imaginative culture that deserves to be celebrated. The industry and creativity of these amateur film-makers – young and old – rivals the professional industry in Scotland in terms of its global reach and historic importance.”
“We believe that when brought together, the resources produced through this project will create a unique and compelling visual document of Scottish popular history and of Scottish childhood that otherwise would have been lost.”
Working in collaboration with the Scottish Screen Archive, researchers have made these films available for study by experts and for public enjoyment via the SSA’s online catalogue.
The archive will allow the children of today to look back in time to see the culture and society that their parents and grandparents experienced as part of their own childhood.
The free exhibition will run until 18 May 2015 at the Museum of Childhood.
Click the link to Find out more information on the ‘Children in Amateur Media in Scotland’ project.
