John Ruskin, Scaliger Tombs: details of ironwork | Education/Culture/Activism | The Ruskin | 1996P1663 | Ruskin’s sketch of ironwork details can equally be read as a botanical image; perhaps museums can help us to see familiar things with new eyes.
Wassily Kandinsky, Motif from Improvisation 25 (plate, folio 16) from Klänge, 2013 | Education/Culture/Activism | Peter Scott Gallery | PSGCT.PD467 | This woodcut by Kandinsky is part of a collection of intertwined multi-media works; blending different styles of teaching and learning has become key to education in a global pandemic.
A screenshot from the virtual 'Lancastrians of Science' tour, hosted by Lancaster City Museum | Education/Culture/Activism | City Museum | Virtual tours of museums have become commonplace in an era of restricted openings and social distancing; perhaps one view of how we will interact with exhibitions in the future.
Portrait of Lilian Burkitt | Education/Culture/Activism | Maritime Museum | Hilda and Lillian Burkitt’s activism as part of the suffragette movement prompt us to consider the ways we create change when we cannot protest in person, and how we remember change-makers of the past.
Portrait of Hilda Burkitt | Education/Culture/Activism | Maritime Museum | Hilda and Lillian Burkitt’s activism as part of the suffragette movement prompt us to consider the ways we create change when we cannot protest in person, and how we remember change-makers of the past.
Arthur Severn, Boat and Cloudy Sky | Society/Sustainability | The Ruskin | 1996P0497 | This painting of the sea on glass is a reminder of how not only technology, but parts of the world that we consider constant like the sea and sky, have changed over the centuries.
William S. Mycock, Pilkington Pottery, Lancastrian Lustre Glaze Pot | Society/Sustainability | Peter Scott Gallery | Chambers Archive: LANPS.C1023 | Pilkington pottery captures the dialogue between increasing industrialisation and the desire for craftsmanship of the industrial revolution; themes just as relevant to us now.
Woodblock for John Ruskin's Modern Painters | Collections/Future Making | The Ruskin | 1996P0064 | New technologies fascinated and inspired Ruskin's work, providing him with new ways to look at the world and of producing art.
Portrait of Emily Williamson | Society/Sustainability | Maritime Museum | Sustainable fashion is not a new idea; Emily Williamson’s concern for the damage that feather acquisition was doing to bird populations eventually led to the founding of the RSPB.
John Ruskin, Seated figure from Egyptian bas relief | Collections/Future Making | The Ruskin | 1996P0906 | Ruskin’s sketch of an Egyptian bas relief speaks both to the teaching and creating power of images, as well as the interconnected nature of time and ideas; some of Ruskin’s own ideas hint at Ancient Egyptian cosmologies of image and time.
Portrait of Janet Raby | Collections/Future Making | Maritime Museum | Beatrice Parkinson and Janet Raby were nominated by the local community as part of a blue plaque project commemorating notable Lancastrian women; perhaps museums of the future will rely more on the input of the public into what they collect.
Daguerreotype of St Mark's Square, Venice| Society/Sustainability | The Ruskin | 1996D0018 | Even iconic monuments, like St Mark’s in Venice, are affected by human-driven change; will there come a time when we can only remember them through images like this?
Photograph of flooded St Mark's Square, Venice | Society/Sustainability | Image from New York Post article, “Venice flooding: St. Mark’s Square reopens despite rising tides”. 16/11/2019. NurPhoto via Getty Images.
Ellie Barrett, Hand Making List, 2020. Giclée print and jesmonite sculpture | Collections/Future Making | Peter Scott Gallery | PSGCT.2021.3 | Artwork accessioned by the Peter Scott Gallery in response to Covid-19.
Stephanie Fletcher, You can eat any mushroom once, 2020. Series of 8 drawings | Collections/Future Making | Peter Scott Gallery | PSGCT.2021.2 | Artwork accessioned by the Peter Scott Gallery in response to Covid-19.
Garth Gratrix, Peekaboo, 2019 (at the Cottage by the Sea) | Collections/Future Making | Peter Scott Gallery | PSGCT.2021.1 | Artwork accessioned by the Peter Scott Gallery in response to Covid-19.
Garth Gratrix, Line Study on Ooh La La, 2017 (at the Cottage by the Sea) | Collections/Future Making | Peter Scott Gallery | PSGCT.2021.2 | Artwork accessioned by the Peter Scott Gallery in response to Covid-19.
Insus Tombstone | Collections/Future Making | City Museum | LANLM.2008.2.1 | 3D imaging technology is enabling us to interact with the world – including ancient objects – in new ways. It is exciting to think how technology might shape the museums of the future
John Ruskin, The Grass of the Field from The Two Paths: Being Lecture on Art and its Application to Decoration and Manufacture, Delivered in 1858-9 | Society/Sustainability | The Ruskin | 1996B3910 | This image, taken from a lecture on art and its application to manufacture (1858-59), reimagines the connection between nature and industry.
Two Women with a dust pile press at Pilkington's Tile & Pottery Company | Society/Sustainability | Peter Scott Gallery | LANPS.2010.6.1 | These two women, who worked at the Pilkington's factory, are a reminder that people are the driving force behind every process, social and industrial.
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Rawlinson Bookcase | Collections/Future Making | The Judges Lodgings | LANMS.2008.3 | This bookcase was made by T. and J. Dowbiggen of Gillows, a Lancaster-based furniture manufacturer.
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Ladies Workbox | Collections/Future Making | The Judges Lodgings | LANMS2006.8 | This workbox was made by F. Dowbiggin of Gillows, a Lancaster furniture manufacturer.
John Ruskin, Lecture Diagrams | The Ruskin | Education/Culture/Activism | 1996PO465; 1996[BW]PO473; 1996PO464; 1996[BW]PO907 | John Ruskin's commitment to and belief in the importance of education was demonstrated in his lecture diagrams.
Lancaster Castle Gate | Collections/Future Making | Lancaster Castle | Lancaster Castle offers a way for us to think about the other uses museum spaces are put to and the implication that these might have when we think about them as heritage sites.
Book of Hours: John Ruskin, Twenty-one miniatures from medieval manuscripts | Collections/Future Making | The Ruskin | 1996P0194 | This piece is made up of a collection of miniatures that Ruskin cut out of medieval devotional books, prompting us to think about how we curate our pasts and futures, and what images can teach without words.
