Museum Musings
Feb. 9th, 2009 11:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pandopOn Saturday we (Mum, Bryn & I) went to Leeds City Museum, as there was an exhibition on that Mum and I wanted to see.
The museum is a relatively recent re-addition to Leeds, as most of the exhibits have been in storage for some time, awaiting a new home - and some people were not so keen on the re-purposing of the Civic Institute in this way. It has been done well - the beauty of the building, both inside and out has been retained, as has the central lecture theatre - which can still, presumably, be used for lectures - especially with the addition of rather nifty AV equipment.
We saw most of the galleries, just missing out the world gallery, which I will go back and see sometime. I particularly liked the Leeds history, and the Leeds connections in the Collections area, as a lot of the ancient worlds/natural history material was nothing special (Leeds Mummy notwithstanding).
The museum has clearly been designed with children in mind, as there was plenty for them to do - and it seems to have paid off, as the place was packed with families - far more than I would have expected to see :) I was also very impressed with the gallery attendants - they were chatty, informative and welcoming.
The photography exhibition was fascinating, it was based around a series of photographs of Leeds taken in 1954 for the Picture Post, and presumed lost until 2004. When they were rediscovered The Guardian commissioned the original photographer to go back and re-take the photos. My only complaint is that there weren't enough of the side-by-side comparisons to see the changes in Leeds (which has changed a lot just in the time I have been here). I really enjoyed seeing the old photographs of Leeds though.
The museum is a relatively recent re-addition to Leeds, as most of the exhibits have been in storage for some time, awaiting a new home - and some people were not so keen on the re-purposing of the Civic Institute in this way. It has been done well - the beauty of the building, both inside and out has been retained, as has the central lecture theatre - which can still, presumably, be used for lectures - especially with the addition of rather nifty AV equipment.
We saw most of the galleries, just missing out the world gallery, which I will go back and see sometime. I particularly liked the Leeds history, and the Leeds connections in the Collections area, as a lot of the ancient worlds/natural history material was nothing special (Leeds Mummy notwithstanding).
The museum has clearly been designed with children in mind, as there was plenty for them to do - and it seems to have paid off, as the place was packed with families - far more than I would have expected to see :) I was also very impressed with the gallery attendants - they were chatty, informative and welcoming.
The photography exhibition was fascinating, it was based around a series of photographs of Leeds taken in 1954 for the Picture Post, and presumed lost until 2004. When they were rediscovered The Guardian commissioned the original photographer to go back and re-take the photos. My only complaint is that there weren't enough of the side-by-side comparisons to see the changes in Leeds (which has changed a lot just in the time I have been here). I really enjoyed seeing the old photographs of Leeds though.
