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Stories waiting to be told

As part of ongoing work to extend the reach of the Mary Greg collection, students from Manchester Metropolitan University 3Dimensional Design course visited the gallery stores to undertake research for an open ended six week design brief. This video captures the student’s enthusiasm as the wealth of the collection is revealed to them.

Stories waiting to be told

February 9, 2010 Student Projects 1 Comment
Sarah and Liz exploring the collection with the students

Sarah and Liz exploring the collection with the students

All morning, between the hawking of the crows on the roof and the digital shutterclicks of half a dozen cameras, there have been repeated breathy outbursts of “Ooooh” and “Wow, look at this” and “That’s just beautiful”. The Mary Greg Collection continues to cast its magic on the unsuspecting.

Throughout today and Thursday, students from Manchester Metropolitan University 3D Design course are visiting the gallery stores to begin research for an open ended six week design brief. Along with Sharon, the course tutor, Liz and Alex have given a brief background to the objects before taking the students on a tour of the treasure trove. As each new cupboard is opened or drawer slid out there have been gasps and intakes of breath.

It’s not always easy to fully understand why there’s such genuine wonder expressed as the collection is unfolded but its context surely plays an important part. Housed in steely grey cabinets in a squeaky floored Victorian gallery and surrounded by a mute audience of portraits from the collection hanging on the walls, the objects seem almost magically shrouded from the present, as if locked in some frozen indeterminate past. This is not the modern clinical climate controlled storage facility you might expect, it’s shadowy, mysterious and not somewhere you’d like to find yourself alone at midnight.

Sarah Rainbow, a gallery conservator, guides the students through common sense object handling requirements, the donning of gloves and perching of precious objects on miniature pillows. This all adds to the reverential mystique that the objects seem to accrue.

For the first time in many cases, these objects are being given a level of rapt attention, are being drawn, photographed and written about, being un-shrouded. It will be fascinating to see how each student moves on with their research and what their eventual outcomes will be.

There’s more images from the morning on our flickr pages.

Masterclass – student helpers

January 5, 2010 Student Projects Comments Off on Masterclass – student helpers

A very big thank you to Bethan, Rochine and Emily, students from the Three Dimensional Design course at Manchester Metropolitan University, for their invaluable help in running the masterclasses.  I really couldn’t have done it without them!  Every time something needed to be done, they did it before being asked.  If I needed a tool it was there before I even knew I needed it.  And they cleared up before I even got round to it!  All that with good humour and a lovely manner!  If anyone reading this is looking for a great assistant, or even someone to run a workshop (they have a good bit of experience now) they come highly recommended.  Thanks again x

Sharon

Bethan helping out

Bethan helping out

Rochine drawing with stick and ink

Rochine drawing with stick and ink

Emily lo

Emily helping with wire drawing