Catching Up With Clare Pickersgill in Nottingham!
Written by Rebecca Horton and Jessica Juckes, ITP Team
Claire arrives to visit other Clare!
Yesterday the ITP team visited Clare Pickersgill, Keeper of University of Nottingham Museum, at her institution. The University of Nottingham’s Museum of Archaeology is part of the Lakeside Arts Centre at the University, and these institutions work together and are physically in close proximity to one another. Upon arrival, Clare took us to the temporary exhibition Scaling the Sublime in the Djanogly Gallery. This exhibition explores affinities with Romanticism in contemporary art.
Clare introduced us to Neil Walker, Head of Visual Arts Programming, who told us about the exhibition that will be installed when the 2018 fellows arrive in Nottingham: Rana Begun: Space Light Colour. This was followed by a visit to the permanent collection of the Museum of Archaeology, which houses artefacts from Nottinghamshire and the wider East Midlands ranging from the Stone Age to the post-Mediaeval period. There are also items in the collection from Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Egypt.
Clare shows us around the Museum of Archaeology
Over lunch we talked about ITP legacy projects, University of Nottingham Museum future plans and the 2018 fellows visiting Nottingham in July. Clare also told us about Nottingham University’s campuses in China and Malaysia and her visit to the China campus in Ningbo, near Shanghai.
After being sidetracked by some baby birds (coots!), we made our way to the Weston Gallery where From Rags to Witches was being presented by the Manuscripts and Special Collections Department whose collections date from 12th century to the modern day and relate to the whole of the East Midlands region. The Weston Gallery hosts three exhibition each year, displaying archives and rare books from the collection.
After meeting staff across the site, we said goodbye to Clare to quickly visit the oldest inn in England (established in AD 1189), built into the famous caves on which Nottingham’s castle stands, before hurriedly walking to the station for our train home, but not before passing a statue of legendary Nottingham hero Robin Hood!
Thank you, Clare, for a fabulous introduction to the University of Nottingham Museum – we are excited to share what we’ve learnt with the 2018 summer programme fellows!
Becca and Jess