The Cabinet of Curiosity visits Gwynedd Museum and Art Gallery

I recently used the cabinet at the Gwynedd Museum and Art Gallery during a family day which involved working with the museum staff and local families to explore their wonderful collection of objects.

Shirley shows the children some 'illegal measuring weights', which were extremely heavy but not quite heavy enough to be legal!

Mai discusses the Cabinet of Curiosity project and aims for the day.

A beautiful embroidered, early 19th century tobacco pouch and rope maker.

A magnifying glass and microsope were on hand to explore the exquisite detail!

                                  Objects to inspire and handle carefully with gloves!

Exploring the quarrymen's slate carvings which were displayed above mantels and under    dressers to lift them off the dirt floors. The men were inspired by the images in embroidered samplers.

           Participants inscribed their own images on printing blocks after drawing the slates.

Then they developed their drawings in relief and made clays moulds for plaster casts.     These ideas were inspired by the moulds used for creating decoration on butter.

Here are some examples of the plaster casts the participants made in response to the objects they saw.They have labelled and written their own personal thoughts  and displayed them in the Cabinet of Curiosity.

The Cabinet of Curiosity Project at Rhyl Art Gallery

The Cabinet of Curiosity is currently being used as part of the Dementia and Imagination Project at Rhyl Art Gallery until December.

"We had our first introductory session with the new Dementia and Imagination group yesterday and introduced the Cabinet to them. They were impressed by its construction and fascinated with the contents. I took around a number of the items for participants to look at and handle and they were really engaged in discussing how various items had been made.  It was a great ice breaker and people moved around sharing the objects and debating what they were - the tea plate and Welsh cakes provided a lot of discussion. We look forward to creating work in response to some of the processes and to adding some items in for the next users!" Sian Hughes

The Cabinet visits Nant Gwrtheyrn to work with Gwynedd's Criw Celf

Nant Gwrtheyrn was an abandoned village in   the 1970s following the closure of the quarries. The redundant houses, offices, chapel and shops constructed during the quarry’s heyday between 1860 and 1920,when over 2,000 men worked the granite, had fallen into rack and ruin.

The Nant Gwrtheyrn Trust, a registered charity was formed through the energies of Dr Carl Clowes, the local GP and others and eventually they bought the village and set about renovating the old buildings and developed a centre to teach Welsh to adults which also attracted other groups to enjoy the unique ambience of this peaceful valley. 

                                                                           

 Criw Celf ( an art group for young people) used the cabinet as part of their art workshop on 'Collecting and Collections in the Natural Environment. They enjoyed exploring the village and coastline and making their artwork and curating the cabinet in a day to form a mini exhibition.
Here are some examples of their work.

The Cabinet of Curiosity goes to London.
until Friday 4th July (next stop Ruthin Craft Centre)

It is being exhibited at the The New Designers Exhibition, Business and Design Centre, Islington on Kai's stand. The cabinet has examples of objects for people to handle and explanations of the project so far.

The feedback has been very positive.

The Building of the Cabinet

I made a grant application in 2013 to BRAF ( The Black Rock Arts Foundation, San Francisco) to help with funds to build a mobile cabinet, which could be used in outreach work.

Having met  furniture maker Kai Venus Demetrio at The New Designers Exhibition in London last year, I decided to invite him to join the project. I was impressed by his work, in particular his desk, which was designed and built for a writer in residence.

We entered into a dialogue and I described the project brief. It was very important that the cabinet was mobile and the need for it to not only house a wide range of artefacts and collections but to act as a display case and mini exhibition unit. 

Animal trailers are iconic shapes in the rural landscape and I was keen to link the design to the shape.

The cabinet is to used in outreach work, not to replace the experience of visiting an established gallery or museum but to offer rewarding experiences and to engage far reaching, hard to reach rural communities in Wales.

The Artists's handling collection - here are some of the examples that artists have very generously donated for the Cabinet of Curiosity's handling collection.

Time for Tea? made by Luned Rhys Parri

The Singing Nut by Rodney Peppe

Snowdrop by Angela Davies                                                  Sheep shears by Christine Mills

Head and sample from the 'tool series' by Claire Curneen

Titw Tomos Las   - written description and images contributed by Artist Eleri Jones

Blue Tit

I own a pair of little blue tit ceramic ornaments that are very precious to me.  They were my Nain’s ornaments, I have very fond memories of the ornaments being displayed on my Nain and Taid’s Welsh dresser in Cerrig y Drudion and how on occasions Nain would let me and my brothers and sister play with the ornaments on their patterned carpet.

Nain was given the ornaments as a gift from two evacuee boys that came to stay on my Nain and Taid’s farm, the boys returned many years later to visit the farm and to give my Nain a gift of thanks.  My Nain was very fond of the pair of Blue Tits and I loved hearing the story of my Nain’s kindness.

My Nain is now 93 years old and sadly has dementia, When we were packing my Nain’s things away before she left her home and moved to a Care home, as a family we were overwhelmed by all of Nain’s precious ornaments that all had a story to tell.  The little pair of blue tits have come to be displayed in my home and as an artist I have painted and drawn them many times on a large scale, to represent their importance in my Nain’s life and her influence on me.

Here are some examples of drawings from the Key Stage 3 pupils during their gallery visit.
The theme for their workshop was transformation and change. They enjoyed studying the carved and polished surfaces in Kevin's work and the references to stories in Claire's work, for example the Greek myth about Daphne who was changed into a laurel tree by her father to escape Apollo's clutches. 

The pupils used clay to create a mould for their plaster casts. They pressed textured objects into the clay to give them relief surfaces when they were cast in plaster of Paris. Some of the pupils painted the casts to highlight the interesting features on the faces.