ITP Diary 2011: Chen Chun

Today is 18th July, accompanied with Fiona Slattery (Curator Applied Art), I and my ITP colleague Victor went to Duddeston to visit the Museum Collection Centre, one of the biggest museum stores in the UK. In the Centre, Mr. Jeremy Ross (MCC Manager) led us to visit some stores which contained ceramics, glass, silver, allied materials, furniture, woodwork, textiles and so on. Lucy Blakeman (Documentation Manager) took a report about the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery’s database for us.

In the afternoon, at the textiles store, Adam Jaffer (Curator World Cultural) showed us some beautiful modern African textiles which were prepared for a new exhibition. We help him to move these textiles to hang up on the rack.

I admire very much that the Museum Collection Centre is open to the public on the last Friday of every month to let people see the collections, have guided tours, education sessions and individual research visits.

Up to now, we have stayed in Birmingham for eight days. During these days, we have visited the BMAG’s permanent galleries and temporary exhibitions, Aston Hall, Museum of the Jewellery Quarter and so on. It is a good opportunity for me to see the important findings of Staffordshire Hoard. I observed some gold vessels and gained some knowledge on how to clean the soil on the gold and to protect the gold. It is very interesting and useful to me.

On Wednesday, we will depart from Birmingham back to London. The beautiful Birmingham has given me a deep impression. I wound like to appreciate colleagues from the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery for the many kindnesses they showed me.

Chen Chun, Hubei Provincial Museum, China