Karen MacDougall
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Monday: Sometimes I feel like the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland,
“ Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." Due to the change in the hour I was up bright and early sorting out the layout and framing for the recent metal embossing worships so I can get the order in this week. Frame type, hanging method and backing sheets all decided! Then in touch with English Heritage about displaying the face pots at Corbridge.
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Sunday: I was sent some photographs of the Frontier Voices installation at Limestor Museum at Dalkingen and the final cut-outs look really good! Fantastic Job by the Peutingen Gymnasium Year 9 students and their art and english teacher Silke Schwab-Krüger!    Saturday: I met them at Vindolanda where they had had an inspiring visit, and delivered the key. Then it was off to the Sill to continue developing the exhibition design over fantastic bacon rolls and coffee, then to Corbridge to deliver the first pots for the face-pot case in the Roman Museum, followed by some Christmas shopping in their shop. On the way back we stopped off at the Roman Army Museum and measured the gate beside Fort Magna to size it for the printed banner created with Haltwhistle Youth Club. It was so peaceful there. I hope our artwork helps to rise awareness of the effects of global warming and the potential loss of evidence of our forebears due to drying out.  Friday: Birdoswald was misty and you could almost feel the ghosts of the past. English Heritage staff met me, smiling ready for our visitors from the Netherlands. We shared creative workshop practices, and discussed my presentation on the Frontier Voices journey showing some of the creative outcomes. The Birdoswald poetry was a great success with our visitors, working how they could use this for their heritage workshops in Leiden - real international co-operation and sharing! They brought over an eco-printed and embroidered hanging for the exhibition, a group collaboration for Frontier Voices showing an interpretation of the roman fort at Park Matilo. The leaf printing is really delicate and there is a lovely mix of embroidery stitches adding additional texture. The embroidery reminded me of my mother’s needlework - she taught me how to sew and embroider when I was very small - and it was good to discuss this with the textile artists and their choices of stitches. We walked round part of the fort and I shared the horse carving, which I love. I then introduced them to metal foil embossing, which they hadn’t tried before. They created leaves for the Sill installation and then votive plaques for the exhibition, which will then to go on to Chesters for display after the exhibition. We said our goodbyes and they have invited me to come to the Netherlands. However I had a phone call in the evening to say that the key they had asked me to return to the Great North Museum was in fact their back door key for their house in Hexham………     Wednesday. Nigel Mills and I went to Segedunum to share aspects of the project with our partners from the Netherlands at Park Matillo, Leiden. It was lovely to met their team of artists, archaeologists and others involved in working with their local community. We shared the Fort and the artworks that are currently on display there and then went on to the Great North Museum to see the installation in the Roman Gallery and meet manager Adam Goldwater and GNM keeper of archaeology, Andrew Parkin. They shared favourites from the gallery and we looked at digitally printed artefacts for use with learning and engagement along with the Roman stone from Milecastle 38 that proves that Hadrian commanded that a wall should be built - fantastic! The group are going to visit Houseteads and Walk some of the Wall tomorrow and then work with me on Friday. I am really looking forward to discussing creative arts practices using heritage, and the journey I have been on with this project. The Park Matillo group have also asked for me to give them an art workshop so watch this space!   At the Northumberland National Park's Sill Discovery Centre, all the Hadrian’s Wall volunteers were having a celebratory day for the 1900 Festival. I met lots of enthusiastic volunteers, planned my final exhibition layout and in the afternoon presented my project to them all. Clare Forsythe helped us set up and she added to my presentation. Dr Frances McIntosh opened our workshop, focussing on Carrawbrugh Fort, the Mithraeum and Coventina’s Well. She showed some wonderful examples of metal votive plaques discovered in this area and then we challenged the participants to learn new skills, emboss metal foil and then create leaves for the Sill installation and votive plaques for display at the Sill, and then afterwards to be displayed in the café at Chesters Fort. The were some fantastic results! It was also really good to meet the Hadrian’s 1900 Festival organisers in person - it makes such a change from Zoom! The remainder of this week has been all about planning the final exhibition, layout, finishing artwork and designing the layout of the interpretation panels, ready for a meeting with the Sill team next week.      Sunday. We were up early and at Vindolanda meeting Barbara Birley before it the site opened to the public. In the Education Room we installed the Vindolanda door sculpture which looked fabulous! Here we had recycled the Vindolanda office shredded waste, recycled it into postcards and then used these to write about life today as modern Frontier Voices. There are some super examples - go and see them! These become ‘stones’ in our gatehouse wall. Gatehouses allowed communication through the Wall and here we are using it as a metaphor to capture today’s Frontier Voices communicating their ideas inspired by the Roman Wall. This will be up until 23rd November and then it moves to the Sill for the final exhibition. Then there was time for a quick catch-up with Barbara before I was off to the Sill Discovery Centre for the rest of the day.    Friday. Back at Tullie House for the final day, or so I thought! Unfortunately the Tullie sewing machine hadn’t sewn the fabric to make the Wall background and the iron had problems with the dye sticks, so it was 2 steps back before we began. The team pulled together and we had a fantastic day! Perceptive postcards were written on the remaining ones from the Vindolanda recycling project, designs were embossed onto metal foil and assembled and we spent part of the day ironing - not something I particularly enjoy! By the end of the day we had the background fabric attached to the armature mesh and a box full of fantastic designs and words ready for assembly. We hope to have this up in the gallery by the end of 4th November and photographed ready to recreate this at the final exhibition at the Sill. Thank you so much Tullie Art Group - good work!      Exciting afternoon meeting with Park Matillo in Leiden. We were finalising the programme for their visit next week. They are going to explore Hadrian’s Wall and visit Frontier Voices artworks. We will spend time at Birdoswald, where I will share poetry from our workshops and they will make votive plaques using metal embossing techniques. I am look forward to finding out how they use art in their heritage, learning and engagement projects.
On Saturday it rained first thing, but Corbridge Roman Town looked fantastic in the warm sunshine. Frances and I talked to the visitors before the Scouts arrived and then we were involved in non-stop artefact handling and explanations. Unfortunately during this one of the Scout leaders was sent an SOS as the wind had demolished their 6 event shelters back at the camp. When I arrived sometime later they were working out how many they could put up because of damage. So 6 shelters were reduced to 4 and this was a real squeeze for everyone in the face-pot workshop. The rain began and it stated to get dark in the shelter (and the wind was cold)…….but Scouts are hardy and in spite of everything they still made good face-pots! A few of these will go on show at Corbridge museum and a then there will be a big display at the Sill in December. Once the exhibitions are over, the pots will be auctioned off to raise funds for the International Camp next summer - so the project is helping young people as well - I like that! Something else extra we are now achieving with this project.  |
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