Re:Make Museum

The Re:Make project is a unique approach to developing a museum - encouraging visitors and volunteers to become citizen curators, designers and makers; learning new skills or applying skills they already have to support the redevelopment of Derby's Silk Mill (the site of the world’s first factory!). In part one of Re:Make, we worked with our makers-in-residence (Studio TILT, Paul Matosic and Seiko Kinoshita); our in-house design team; our architects Bauman Lyons; and YOU! We are delighted that Re:Make has been shortlisted for the Museum and Heritage Awards 2015. Wish us all luck!

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Steve turning a leg for one of the dmnature exhibition cases derbymuseums. Inspired by the shells in the case! 

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We had a great time at the weekend making a ‪#‎HeathRobinson‬ inspired chain reaction machine. Teams came together to create individual machines, connected together to make one GIANT What If Machine. 

Watch a video of the action here

18/02/2015

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We're absolutely delighted that RE:Make has been shortlisted in the Education Initiative Category for the Museum & Heritage Awards 2015! Watch this film or take a look through the tumblr site to find out all about what RE:Make is about. You can also click the Derby Silk Mill link on the left to find out more about the full Silk Mill project. 

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1000's of Derby Porcelain pieces have been sorted, cleaned, arranged and mounted within foam squares and now hang proudly in the main space of The Silk Mill. Artist Paul Matosic, who was commissioned to display the collection, has now completed the work. Here, Paul and Andrea Hadley-Johnson, Co-Production and Engagement Manager, see the final pieces going into place. 

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After lots of cleaning, cataloguing, positioning, foam cutting and mounting, the 30 Derby Porcelain foam squares have been completed! Freelance curator, Ruth Bellamy has been carefully cutting out the foam and has the calluses to show it! A sad looking Ruth looks on at the last leg. The 30 squares are due to be mounted in the ground floor of the space next week. 

30.7.14

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Executive Director of Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History and author of The Participatory Museum writes about Re:Make the Museum project in her blog

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"I may have a new favourite museum. It’s a museum that is inherently social, embedded in local communities, smartly run and above all a museum that – if happy faces are a metric – does a lot of good. This museum is the Derby Silk Mill.”- Jasper Visser, Museum of the Future. 

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The front entrance commission was awarded to artist Seiko Kinoshita who has been inspired by the #HexPod work package from Re:Make to create a family of hexagonal modules. #HexWall located in the entrance of The Silk Mill will be an interactive piece through the use of lights and sounds controlled by a Raspberry Pi. 

Yesterday was a very exciting day for Seiko and the project team here as the modules were installed on the entrance wall. 

The aim of the commission was to enhance the entrance and exit space with a visually inspiring, textural installation that articulated ‘making’ and ‘materials’. Andrea Hadley-Johnson worked with Seiko to select a dynamic material palette of woods, warm coloured acrylic with accents of copper and aluminium.

Watch this space for further updates on the project! 

18.7.14

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To celebrate the success of Re:Make so far we invited project participants, partners and staff along for a small gathering with games, activities, music and pizza for a chance to feedback on the project. Unfortunately one of our project partners Bauman Lyons couldn't be with us so we scheduled a Skype call and showed them the space! 

It was a great chance to catch up with everyone involved and to thank them for all their hard work, dedication and passion for Re:Make and The Silk Mill. 

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Artist Paul Matosic was commissioned to work at The Silk Mill as an artist in residence to create an installation of 1000's of Derby Porcelain moulds. The project is now at the stage where the pieces are arranged, pinned and placed into foam plaques. 

Freelance curator Ruth Bellamy has been supporting the project, working with the public to clean the pieces and now has the job of cutting specifically sized spaces for each piece in the foam. 

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Derby Porcelain installation for #breezeblock wall by Paul Matosic, coming on! (via Twitter / RuthBellamy: Pinned arms… They’ll not be going anywhere!…) #remakemuseum #derbyporcelain

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The jig made by volunteer Neil is nearing the point where we can use it to curve Perspex to make a frame for the loom case!

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Hear from the Re:Make volunteers and staff on what remaking a museum is all about! 

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It's been a busy week for freelance Collections Assistant Ruth Bellamy who has been working with volunteers and visitors to clean 1000s of Derby porcelain pieces supporting artist Paul Matosic and his installation of these objects for the ground floor. For more information on his work got to http://www.matosic.org.uk/ 

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Objects from the Derby Museums collection are making their way to the ground floor and populating the space. Last night volunteers helped move a rather large pipe, estimated at 160kg in weight, from the 1st floor. 

Aiton & Co Ltd. were a corrugated pipe manufacturers in Derby. The use of the corrugated pipe was over a period from the mid 1920s to the later 1950s when the first nuclear power station in the world was built at Calder Hall. Aiton & Co Ltd supplied some corrugated piped for this prestige project. 

This pipe is from H.M.S Cossak and was damaged in the battle of Narvik, 1940.It is at The Silk Mill in memory of those employees of Aiton & Co Ltd. who gave their lives in the second world war. 

27.6.14

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From small samples and many prototypes, the wire knitted and knotted lampshades are really taking shape! This week we plan to hang them in the space. 

27.6.14

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Today we welcomed year 3 and 4 pupils from Beckett Primary School to The Silk Mill who have been asked along to support the front entrance commission lead by artist Seiko Kinoshita. 

Listening to a range of Silk Mill inspired sounds, including factory engines, trains and Rolls Royce engines, the children were asked to work together, in groups and as a whole, to recreate the sound. Using their voices, clapping and even stamping their feet the sound create was then recorded. Seiko will now work with the collected sounds to form the next part of her project. 

23.6.14