Museum News for August
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Visiting the Museum!
Following the changes in covid guidelines we have altered all our signage around the museum.
Our opening times currently are now Thursday-Saturday 10-5pm and Sundays & Bank Holidays 2-5pm.
We welcome walk-up visits, there is now no pre-booking required
Online booking will remain available until the end of August for those who prefer this option.
For the latest news, activities, and link to book please visit our website www.saffronwaldenmuseum.org
In the interests of safety, we encourage
- Wearing of face coverings
- Maintaining social distance
- Using hand sanitiser
These measures are no longer compulsory.
The QR code for the NHS Track & Trace app is displayed in the foyer for visitors who wish to scan it, but it is no longer compulsory for visitors to provide us with contact details.
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Object of the Month
The Museum’s ‘Object of the Month’ provides an opportunity to explore interesting and unusual objects from our stores.
August’s Objects of the Month have been chosen by Jenny Oxley, Collections Officer (Human History)
Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands indigenous tribes in North America. It includes white shell beads hand fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western North Atlantic hard-shelled clam.
The highly decorative wampum belt on the right is currently on display in the Museum's world cultures gallery, whilst the remaining bead strings and belt are currently on display at The Box in Plymouth for an ongoing touring exhibition commemorating Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy with the exhibition title Wampum: Stories from the Shells of Native America, in association with Wampanoag partners in the US.
Between May and July the museum's wampum items were visited at the Box in Plymouth by over 25,000 people.
To find out more check out the Object of the Month post on our website
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Crafts at the Castle, 10:30am - 3.30pm
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Thursday 5th of August:
Week Two: Under the Sea
Make a seascape box, pom-pom sea urchin and a flapping seagull
Thursday 12th of August:
Week Three: Brilliant Beasts
Make a sheep keyring, bird kite and design your own beetle
Thursday 19th of August:
Week Four: Toys and Games
Make your own cup and ball, dominoes and marbles
Thursday 26th of August 10:30-3:30
Week Five: Wonderful Wildlife.
Make a clay hedgehog, paper flower and your own beautiful butterfly
Join Saffron Walden Museum in the Museum grounds in the shadow of the newly opened Walden Castle for some crafting at the castle. To join in simply order that weeks activity pack via our art tickets page. The packs will contain all the materials you need to complete 3 crafts/makes, plus an A4 colour instruction booklet and trail to do around the Museum. Come to the Museum to collect your packs each week on Thursday and, weather permitting, join us in the grounds where we will help you with the activities in your pack and provide equipment such as paint, scissors and glue. Bring along a picnic blanket and stay for the day. If its raining you can take your pack to complete at home.
In person collection of packs. Help from the Museum Learning team in the grounds is weather permitting.
Activity packs are suitable for ages 4+
You will need to order your activity pack in advance via our art tickets page https://saffron-walden-museum.arttickets.org.uk/
£5 per activity pack please note this price does not include entry to the museum
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Mary Knight
A memorial service will be held on the 4th September at 2.30pm at St Mary's Saffron Walden in loving memory of our friend and valued volunteer Mary Knight. There will be a small gathering afterwards at the Parish Rooms.
Here Mary is pictured being presented with her Museum long service certificate.
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Lost Language of Nature Project
The project is progressing with conservation work on the little bittern, which is found across Europe, western Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa including Madagascar. It is the smallest member of the heron family in Europe, only about 30cm/12” long, though our specimen is smaller than that. It’s currently on a temporary foam base, waiting for work to conserve and rebuild some of the skin that has been lost from its feet. A blackbird has also had its head reattached and a wing strengthened. Work feels slow but we’ve started on some challenging pieces, so slow and steady is the order of the day! We want to make lasting changes and improvements to the information the museum holds on these items, including folk names, stories and histories of the birds. Please see the website https://www.swmuseumlearning.com/the-lost-language-project or email llon@uttlesford.gov.uk to share your forgotten names and stories.
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Learning & Outreach
Saffron Walden Museum is committed to continuing to share stories from its collections through its learning and outreach services.
Now that the national lockdown has been lifted we can now welcome schools or groups back to the Museum or offer outreach sessions. Why not book for the next school year or for your community group over the Summer.
Our loan boxes are also available for hire, £18 for 6 weeks, and will be quarantined in between hires to ensure they are Covid-19 secure.
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Online Learning Hub
Our online learning hub is full of digital resources to help people explore the Museum’s learning and outreach services online.
The aim is to make the Museum’s wide-ranging collections available to support home learning and beyond, as well as providing blended learning for schools and informal groups of all ages from badged groups to the WEA and care homes.
The Learning Hub can be accessed from the Museum website’s homepage www.saffronwaldenmuseum.org
Initially three sessions will be available - Prehistory Hunters, Fantastic Fossils and Adaptions - with more being added each week.
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QR Code
Object Labels
In order to comply with Covid guidelines we have removed all the hand-lists from all the display galleries.
These have been replaced with QR codes produced by Jenny Oxley (Collections Officer, Human History). The codes can be scanned by visitors during their visit, so that they can view their own personal copy of the object labels for each display, rather than multiple people touching physical copies of the labels.
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Preparing the next Exhibition
A new exhibition is taking shape behind the scenes, created with artist and bronze sculptor Kabir Hussain, who has previously exhibited in the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich, and has completed various artist residencies across London and the East of England. His work for this exhibition draws on fossilisation and preservation, as well as the processes of discovery and fossil reconstruction to explore what traces of modern society might remain in the archaeological and geological records hundreds or thousands of years from now. Accompanied by objects from across the Museum’s collection of geology, natural history, social history and world cultures. The exhibition opens Saturday 18 September. See examples of Kabir’s previous work at https://www.groundworkgallery.com/artist/kabir-hussain/
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Stick Insects
The stick insects seem to be enjoying a healthy return to the Museum and seeing visitors for the first time, with plenty of skin shedding.
This latest example was found by Jill Knight, one of our Visitor Service Assistants on Saturday 24 July and passed on to our Natural Science Officers.
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Research Visit
In July, we welcomed a returning visiting researcher, Alan Pickersgill, who spends his time carving accurate wooden models of birds, and is regular prize-winner in the British Decoy and Wildfowl Carvers Association’s annual show and competition. During his visit, Alan took measurements from study skins of cuckoos, tree sparrows, green woodpeckers and sparrowhawks to inform his latest work.
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On the Verge
Uttlesford is very lucky to have 46 of the Special Roadside Verges in Essex. They are the remnants of chalk grassland meadows that once covered this area and are important for conserving wildflowers, including rare crested cow-wheat, lesser calamint and sulphur clover plants, and other native species. These verges are marked with wooden posts that bear white plaques. They receive specific management because cutting can only take place at certain times of year when the key species are not flowering. The Natural Sciences Officers at the Museum coordinate the project in Uttlesford district; in partnership with Essex Wildlife Trust, Essex County Council and Essex Highways. Spring and summer are best the times to survey the verges. Here is Sarah at Debden Road in Newport that is important for wild liquorice, which is food for the rare liquorice piercer moth Grapholita pallifrontana. She and the great team of volunteer verge reps carry out ecological surveys on half the verge sites each year. Last year the surveys were suspended due to Covid 19 and it’s great to get out amongst the wild flowers in the sunshine again.
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Snapping the Stiletto Project
Campaigning for Equality
Artist in Residence
30th July-27th August 2021
Join artist Heidi Sharp as she explores women’s histories and untold stories, inspired by the Museum’s collections. Ceramics and Glass gallery, Saffron Walden Museum. See our website and social media for more details.
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CV Walden
We are continuing to collect people's experiences of the Covid-19 outbreak and how it has affected day-to-day life in the district over the past year, for future generations to understand.
If you are interested in compiling a diary now that we could archive at a later date that would be really beneficial.
We're also interested in audio and video clips, as well as artistic responses to the current situation, such as artwork, poetry and music, etc. If you are part of a community group or organisation - consider asking your members and contacts to take part in this project.
These may be compiled to form an online or physical exhibition in due course.
Contact Jenny Oxley, Collections Officer (Human History) about this project at museum@uttlesford.gov.uk and title your email "CV Walden"
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Shop Focus
We stock a full range of gifts in the Museum shop all year round, and there are always seasonal special offers and themed products linked to our collections.....
This month to tie in with our wildlife themed exhibitions and events such as Brilliant Beasts, why not pick up an ‘Insect Explorer’ kit. An assortment of tools & gadgets for catching and viewing insects including viewers and specimen jars, tweezers and nets. Suitable for Age 3+, 4 Assorted designs available each priced at a very reasonable £4.99
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Saffron Walden Museum Needs You!
We are always looking for new volunteers to join our team on a regular basis. We would also be delighted to hear from volunteers who are able to provide adhoc ‘cover’ for our regular shift volunteers when they have planned absences such as holidays, hospital appointments, etc.
To find out more about these and ‘Learning and Support’ volunteer opportunities please contact the museum using the details below.
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For full details of our opening times and to book online:
Website: www.saffronwaldenmuseum.org
Email: museum@uttlesford.gov.uk
Phone: 01799 510333
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