You may have seen the latest Campus Curiosities, which is all about Redmarley (the Research and Cultural Collections Study Centre). We have been the happy residents of Redmarley for five years. The stored collections and offices were moved to this attractive 1930s building in 2011 in order to make artefacts more accessible for teaching and research. We’ve decided to share some of our favourite memories and explain what working here has meant to us.
Nadia, Interpretation and Access Manager
“For me, Redmarley represents a key period of my career. In 2011 I project managed the collections and office move all to be done in a somewhat daunting two and a half months! We have all been happy to call Redmarley our ‘work home’ ever since.”
“One of my favourite memories is the Focus on Curating project. Having managed it from day one and trained a handful of student volunteers, it was fantastic to see how far they had come and watch them design and lead a workshop. The engagement of the year 10 pupils in that session embodies the reason I work in museums!”
“And I admire the pride we all take in our Birthday Cake Days!’
Clare, Collections Manager
“Redmarley is a lovely place to work. When I was a student I used to walk past the building (which was then Japan House); I always wondered what went on inside. About thirteen years later I now work here!”
“One of my funniest memories is of trying to make Ancestor I, a sculpture by Barbara Hepworth, ‘take its own selfie’! Using a DSLR camera to take a photo of a phone mounted on a selfie stick held by a colleague hiding behind a sculpture is not something I had done before. The priceless look from passers-by of ‘that’s not how you use a selfie stick’ is certainly one of the highlights for me!”
“A personal highlight happened early one morning. I looked out of our office window which overlooks the garden and I saw one of the peregrines which nest on the Clock Tower. It had caught a pigeon and was closely guarding it’s breakfast whilst I watched!”
Anna, Assistant Curator
“We’ve now had five years of classes passing through Redmarley – undergrad, postgrad, special interest and school groups – and each time a new group comes, it makes you appreciate what a special place we work in and allows you to see both the building and the collections from a new perspective. A recent researcher interested in African modern art has raised the importance of the paintings in the Danford Collection… we’ve discovered the importance and rarity of works by such artists as Ben Enwonwu and the links to other parts of the collection.”
“Redmarley is a beautiful place to work, whatever the season!”
Clare, University Curator
"I love that Redmarley offers a true centre for the dispersed collections. The building is home to artefacts from all of our research and cultural collections, covering disciplines as wide ranging as the history of medicine to contemporary fine art. It has reenergised the way that we work with objects, providing a home for students and academics from any discipline to access what we have and learn from our material culture."
Do you have fond memories of Redmarley? Whether it’s about a trip you made to our Study Centre or before we moved in: we’d love to hear them! Please email [email protected].
While campus emptied and staff and students headed off for the holidays, Redmarley prepared for another jam-packed summer of visits, events and projects. Here’s a quick rundown of the exciting things we’ve been up to…
We started the summer with a bang at Community Day in June. We ran workshops based on the Danford Collection of West African Art and Artefacts linking to our Style Africa: Nigeria and Ghana Unfolded exhibition and the Style Africa Exhibition at BMAG. We had great fun with all our young visitors colouring fashion plates and making African masks for the mask competition. Highlights of the fantastic entries can be seen on our Facebook page and congratulations to Taheeya Ledgister the overall winner of a trip to Cadbury world. We’ve also had some great workshop days at Redmarley including Alumni Day, University of the Third Age and a visit by children of the victims of 9/11.
We've also had some great exhibitions. From April to July we took part in an exhibition at BMAG called Style Africa. We also responded to that show with our own display Nigeria and Ghana Unfolded which was in the Danford Room in the Centre for West African Studies. The exhibition featured RCC’s textiles collection including West African Kente cloth, Adinkra cloth, waxprint, tools and a full length Yoruba robe. We also played host to James Byrne's atmospheric Painting and Process exhibition (pictured above) in the Aston Webb Rotunda from May to August featuring small scale canvases, models and works on paper, as well as large oil paintings.
Redmarley’s online presence has now been launched with our new blog (welcome!) as well as our own dedicated Facebook page. So follow us on tumblr and like us on Facebook for upcoming events, photo galleries, developments within the collections and a behind-the-scenes peek at our daily adventures.
Our summer projects have included the development of a Blue Plaque app, which includes films of our academics talking about amazing discoveries and achievements first introduced at our University. It also showcases our super collections. Just download the Look Deeper app, then hold your smartphone up to one of the Blue Plaques to find out more about your favourite pieces.
In addition, our resident artists Bobby Nixon and Sarah Taylor Silverwood are working on several projects and we're really looking forward to seeing their collaborative work on a campus map of the University's cultural collections which you can find out more about here.
Our stored collections have had an interesting summer too! Everything is now in pride of place after our move earlier this year from the Aston Webb Building to our new home at Redmarley, 32 Pritchatts Road. We’ve had some new and exciting acquisitions including photography equipment from the Archaeology department which will form a new part of the collection. This includes a range of cameras, from a gorgeous mahogany and brass travel plate camera from the 1920s (pictured above) to the departments’ very first digital camera. It’s a real journey through technological advancement in the digital age and also changes in archaeological site photography - take a look here at items in the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity collection.
Not only have we received new items, we’ve made some important loans too. The fabulous Moorish Ambassador (pictured above) has been loaned to the British Museum, London for Shakespeare: Staging the World – do go and see him in his new location from 19 July to 25 November. More to come on this move, with some behind-the-scenes photographs to show you what really happens during exhibition loans and also the backstory of the enigmatic painting itself. RCC has also loaned out drawings, a letter and a photograph from the Hans Schwarz collection as part of the Children's Lives Project. These also feature in Children as Writers in the Cadbury Research Library display in the Muirhead Tower Atrium from 12 September to 18 November.
A treasured member of our team, Emily, has been on her very own adventure to Melbourne, Australia. Emily won the prestigious Universitas 21: International Museums and Collections Award 2012 for which she was awarded a month-long placement with University of Melbourne's Cultural Collections. Take a look at her adventures here on her blog. We're glad she had such a good time but also very grateful to have her back!
And most recently, a team from Redmarley have been up to Coniston in the Lake District gathering research for a project about the Raymond Priestley Centre. Its role in the pioneering of outdoor education, links with the first P.E. degree and the endeavours of its namesake, Antarctic explorer Raymond Priestley, means that the centre's history is well worth delving into. The centre receives University of Birmingham groups year round for tailor-made courses and workshops - naturally, we had a taster of what's on offer! We had a great time sailing on the lake, walking up the Old Man of Coniston and exploring slate and copper mines hidden in the hillsides (pictured above) with our guide, Matt. We did valuable research too (honest!) finding out about the centre's history from the staff and taking a look at their eclectic collections (including Priestley's ski, some 1940s crampons and a lovely collection of explorer's textbooks) to feature in a future exhibition at the centre. More research and a return trip definitely in order!
We are currently welcoming new and returning students through taster talks and sessions to get to know the collections and discover more about volunteering opportunities.
This month is also Black History Month and we'll be running workshops and talks based around the Danford Collection of West African Art and Artefacts.
Not to mention the upcoming retrospective exhibition of Hans Schwarz's work to be shown in the Aston Webb Rotunda. Keep an eye on the blog and Facebook for the latest updates and details for each event.
Phew! - And I think that just about covers it! What a whirlwind it has been - and of course lots of fun too. Farewell for now, we look forward to seeing you all in the new term.
You can also follow us on Facebook for information about exhibitions, events and updates on our blog...http://www.facebook.com/ResearchAndCulturalCollections
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