Tag: Museums & Galleries Edinburgh

Bringing Edinburgh’s LGBTQ+ stories into the light

Museums & Galleries Edinburgh has recently completed a partnership project which aims to share Edinburgh’s unique stories of LGBTQ+ history with digital and real-life visitors.

Curators have been working with Rowan Rush-Morgan, a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh, to make digital object records more accessible for audiences and to share key objects in a digital exhibition.

The project, hosted by Museums & Galleries Edinburgh, and funded by the Scottish Graduate School of Arts & Humanities, focuses on the Remember When? Project, which collected objects from 2004 to 2006.

The collection includes posters, magazines, t-shirts, badges, and larger items including the distinctive hand painted sign of Lavender Menace, the first LGBT bookshop in Scotland. The collections are stored at the Museum Collections Centre in Broughton.

The exhibition – Our Rainbow Past: LGBTQ+ objects from Edinburgh – launched this week on the Our Town Stories platform.

Culture and Communities Convener, Councillor Val Walker, said: “Museums & Galleries Edinburgh is proud to reflect our diverse communities in our venues, events, and exhibitions.

“Partnership projects like Rowan’s enable us to access expertise which helps us and our visitors to see our collections in a new light.

“The important contribution of the LGBTQ+ community to Edinburgh is showcased brilliantly in the new digital exhibition. We plan to keep collecting objects which tell the story of LGBTQ+ Edinburgh, and to keep sharing them with our visitors.

“We’re so excited to be able to share some of the most iconic objects from our LGBTQ+ collection online. New photography has really brought the objects to life, while Rowan’s research has added depth to the stories. Anyone with an interest in the LGBTQ+ life of Edinburgh and how far we’ve come in the journey towards equality and inclusion will love the exhibition.”

Rowan Rush-Morgan, Project Lead and PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh, said: “The Remember When? Project was groundbreaking at the time, bringing together objects, archives, and interviews to give a complete picture of LGBTQ+ life in Edinburgh.

“My placement was designed to make sure the collections database uses the correct terminology to allow researchers and the public to search for the stories from the collection important to them. We also wanted to highlight some of the star objects in an online exhibition, which was great fun to put together.”

You can visit the Our Town Stories exhibition here.

The Remember When? Project was an oral and community history project carried out between July 2004 and July 2006. The project was run jointly by the City of Edinburgh Council and the Living Memory Association and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the City of Edinburgh Council and Lesbian & Gay Switchboard.

The project documented the lives and achievements of Edinburgh’s LGBT people, past and present. It involved over 60 volunteers, culminating in the 2006 exhibition Rainbow City, shown at the City Art Centre, and a book of the same name. Part of the project involved collecting LGBT memorabilia, which was then added to the collections of Museums & Galleries Edinburgh.

Auld Reekie Retold

New stories of an old city retold in poetry competition

A three year collections project, Auld Reekie Retold, comes to a close tomorrow (Sunday 19 February) at the City Art Centre.

To mark the event, staff at Museums & Galleries Edinburgh have announced the results of a poetry competition hosted with the Scottish Poetry Library and Hannah Lavery, the Edinburgh Makar.

Poems had to be inspired in some way by objects in the current exhibition at the City Art Centre. Entries covered the full range of objects exhibited, from small pottery items made at the Buchans factory in Portobello to a blue dress sold by Jenners in the 1980s.

The judging panel was made up of representatives from Museums & Galleries Edinburgh and Scottish Poetry Library, with the final selection made by Hannah Lavery.

Nico Tyack, Auld Reekie Retold project manager said: “The poems were of a really high standard, and had us laughing, smiling and even crying but they all moved us and showed us the amazing power of objects.

“We all see the same objects in an exhibition, but what they mean to us varies in so many ways. It was humbling to see the collections interpreted in such creative ways.”

Culture and Communities Convener, Cllr Val Walker, said: “The poems are a moving and beautiful closure to the Auld Reekie Retold exhibition and project.

“Auld Reekie Retold was all about celebrating the shared public ownership of the collections, so what better way to tell new stories about the city than letting the people of Edinburgh do the talking?”

The winning entries were:

Under-18
Jiffy Washing Machine by Archer Thomson Adams

Over-18 
First place, It is your turn, by Lynda McDonald
Second place, Mind?, by Alison Findlay

Highly commended
The Impermanent Collection by Iain Macfarlane and The Ballant o’ Hugh McKail’s Guid Beuk by Sam Phipps.

This short film shows the poets reading their winning entries, with images of the objects that inspired them.

Seeing North Edinburgh through the eyes of the internet

Free event at City Art Centre, Saturday 11 February 2pm

Are you a tech geek and love seeing Edinburgh represented digitally? Well this free event is just for you!

Join us for an event hosted by the Data Civics team at the Edinburgh Futures Institute. Liz McFall, Darren Umney and Vassilis Galanos will talk about their recent work exploring North Edinburgh through the ‘eyes’ of internet platforms including Instagram, Twitter, Google Earth, street photography and community archive.

The work was conducted with help from local organisations including Screen Edinburgh, North Edinburgh Arts, Granton Hub and Edinburgh Palette among others.

The aim is to use digital methods to show the vibrancy of the area from the perspectives of people who live, work and play there.

The event will showcase the Granton CivicScope website and its collection of photographs, films and maps of the past, present and future of the area, and give the audience a chance to add their own images to the collection.

Brutalist photographer Simon Phipps and Darren Umney will talk with Liz McFall, Kath Bassett and  Vassilis Galanos about their recent work exploring North Edinburgh through the ‘eyes’ of internet platforms including Instagram, Twitter, Google Earth, street photography and community archive. 

Complimentary refreshments will be served. 

For more information and booking, follow this link:

https://edinburghmuseums.org.uk/whats-on/seeing-north-edinburgh-through-eyes-internet

Robert Louis Stevenson family bible comes home to Edinburgh

Museums & Galleries Edinburgh (MGE) is delighted to reveal important new donations to the Writers’ Museum collections, relating to the family and life of author Robert Louis Stevenson.

Among the donations are the Stevenson family Bible, bible box and a family genealogical record written by Stevenson’s grandfather, Robert, the first of the famed lighthouse engineers.

The family record lists personal details of births, deaths and marriages in the family over many generations, while the bible has fascinating marks and notations from years of heavy use.

Councillor Donald Wilson, Culture and Communities Convener said: These are fantastic additions to our collections, offering our residents and visitors such lovely and important further insights into such an iconic family.  

“I have no doubt this generous contribution will generate much interest and the city’s lasting gratitude.

Curator Anna MacQuarrie said: “Our Stevenson collections speak to the life and experiences of this great writer, both as a young boy and his later days spent in the South Seas.

“These new donations are a wonderful addition to the collection, allowing us to imagine what kind of influence these objects might have had on his young life and later inspirations.

“We are sincerely grateful to the donor for their generosity, enabling the wider public to better understand Stevenson and his family background.

The donor, who chose to remain anonymous, said: “I was touched by the gracious, enthusiastic attitude of the curators to whom I recently passed on family items, pertaining to Louis/RLS and the lighthouse engineer side of our family.

“Gifting was made easier by the knowledge and assurance that a wider public would benefit from being able to see other pieces in the familial, Stevenson jigsaw puzzle. It was a relief to realise that the items would be honoured and cared for – and subsequently appreciated by many other interested parties.

Jeremy Hodges, Robert Louis Stevenson biographer and co-ordinator of the annual RLS Day celebrations, said: “Despite the international fame of RLS as an author, he always felt slightly guilty about not following in his father’s footsteps as a builder of lighthouses – a proper job of more importance than making stories.

“He remedied this in part by writing Records of a Family of Engineers, drawing on the kind of genealogical material that forms part of this bequest.

“The family Bible would have been treasured by the devout Robert Stevenson and his descendants, including Robert Louis – despite his announcement in his early twenties that he no longer believed in the Christian religion, a confession that led to traumatic rows with his God-fearing parents.”

To further celebrate Robert Louis Stevenson day online MGE has an online talk on ‘Island Characters’ by Jeremy Hodges from the Robert Louis Stevenson Club, and a podcast (link to go live on 13 Nov) discussing the renowned Stevenson photo albums and new donations.

I do like to be beside the seaside!

Museums & Galleries Edinburgh goes to the seaside in a new online exhibition

Museums & Galleries Edinburgh have launched ‘Life on the Forth’, a new digital exhibition which celebrates the city’s coastal communities.

The exhibition is the latest strand of activity as part of the ongoing Auld Reekie Retold inventory project, and explores the range and depth of the history of the area of Edinburgh on the shores of the Firth of Forth. Using map-based technology, it shows stories in the context of the very streets and places they originally came from.

Edinburgh’s coastline is rich in history. Drawing on objects from across the museum service, Life on the Forth celebrates stories and histories from across Edinburgh’s coastline. Some of these might be familiar, others perhaps unexpected.

The exhibition includes personal stories and individual lives, as well as tales of an industrial past. Uncovered stories, such as the life of Barbara Seaton, or the dangerous work of Edward McRobbie, help us understand the city that little bit better.

Whether tales of fishwives, fishermen, incredible feats of engineering or more modest lives and businesses, these communities past and present make the collections of Museums & Galleries Edinburgh what they are. The exhibition features the outdoor bathing pool at Portobello, which would have celebrated its 85th birthday this May.

Culture and Communities Convener, Cllr Donald Wilson said: This fascinating exhibition is set to impress maritime history and Edinburgh enthusiasts alike.

“‘Life on the Forth‘ allows visitors to browse the exhibition at their own pace and without any time limit or physical restrictions. We’re proud to have expanded the reach of our exhibitions throughout the pandemic, not only to residents, but to those further afield who, due to distance, cost, disabilities or lack of opportunity, may have found it difficult to visit even in normal times.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to get a glimpse inside these fascinating stories and remember everyone who lived their ‘Life on the Forth‘.”

Culture and Communities Vice Convener, Cllr Amy McNeese-Mechan said: “Museums & Galleries Edinburgh have been exploring new ways to engage with our audiences and this latest exhibition is a fantastic example of the service adapting what we do during these unprecedented times.

“2021 is the Year of Coasts and Waters, so what better time to discover new stories of life on the Forth? It’s truly fascinating and I can’t wait to revisit some of the areas highlighted in the exhibition.”

Auld Reekie Retold Project Manager Nico Tyack said: “This exhibition is the result of going through the coastal collections as part of the Auld Reekie Retold collections project.

“Many of these stories have never been heard before, and the virtual format has really helped us get the most out of these objects. ‘Life on the Forth’ is a truly team effort from the Auld Reekie Retold team, and much of the research has been carried out during lockdown.

“We are delighted to be able to share this new exhibition with you, and encourage you to explore the exhibition.”