Our creative writing project is now well underway, and on Wednesday we headed to London with some of the participants. The plan was to get people to know each other a little better, while introducing the group to methods of museum display.
Our main reason for choosing the V&A was the chance to see the Imperial Chinese Robes exhibition. We’ll be hosting our own Chinese silk exhibition at Nottingham Castle in 2011, so we wanted to see how our young people thought such material could be displayed. The objects were indeed very grand and the information about symbolism really useful, but the half term crowds made it tricky to stand back and reflect.
We then split into groups, as people headed to near by museums of interest. I ended up paying my first ever visit to the Science Museum, and took some time to explore the large scale objects on the ground floor. We also managed to track down some packets of cigarettes on display – while spotting letter shapes that make up the word Players.
The Museum of Nottingham Life at Brewhouse Yard is part of Nottingham City Museums and Galleries.