Marton Museum will open again between 2.00pm and 4.00pm on Sunday 29 May and all subsequent Sundays until the middle of September. Please contact us on 01926 632936 to arrange individual / group visits at any other time.
Marton Village, Warwickshire
Museum
Marton Museum inspires young authors
Children from Knightlow School have published a book of short stories and poems inspired by local heritage, including many curious objects from Marton Museum of Country Bygones. Working together as authors and illustrators, pupils aged between 4 and 11 made the pocket-sized book to send to children in some of the poorest regions of the world.
Objects from the museum were loaned to the school to help children use local stories and history as a basis for their creative writing. The results include time travel adventures, unexpected discoveries in old suitcases and even marriage thanks to a dusty hat.
The paperback is being sold – at £6 per book – to pay for copies to be gifted to children globally, with an emphasis on sending them to under-resourced schools in developing nations. Appropriately titled ‘Knightlow to the World’, it has already been sent to schools in four continents.
This is the fifth year in a row Knightlow pupils have worked with the charity STORIES4SCHOOLS but is the first time every child in the school has contributed to one book. To celebrate this achievement, the whole school organised a special book launch, attended by Cllr Sally Bragg, Mayor of Rugby, and representatives from Marton Museum.
Copies of ‘Knightlow to the World’ are available from www.stories4schools.com or from Faye at 13 North Street. Profits from each £6 sale will support the charity’s work to promote reading, creative writing and global education.
MARTON MUSEUM OPEN FOR THE SUMMER
Marton Museum of Country Bygones is now open for the summer, every Sunday afternoon until 13 September from 2.00pm until 4.00pm. Admission is free but all donations gratefully received. We look forward to seeing you there. We would also like to see you at Birdingbury Show on 11 & 12 July where we will have a stall inside the marquee, so no problem if it’s raining!
Marton Museum represented in ground-breaking exhibitions
Many of you will remember seeing Faye’s wonderful exhibition “Children Then And Now: Marton Museum Reinterpreted by Artist Faye Claridge” which took place as part of The Marton Rural Traditions Festival held in tandem with the The Heritage Open Days event at Marton Museum last September. Faye photographed village children with artefacts from the Museum to create a contrast with a similar project carried out in the nineteenth century by Benjamin Stone who was recording dying country traditions and whose collection is held in the Library of Birmingham. Some of Faye’s photographs have now moved to the Library of Birmingham, together with some of the artefacts from the Museum and can be seen on Floor 2 until 31 May 2015. More of the pictures are also exhibited at Compton Verney, where Faye has created a stunning 5-metre corn dolly “The Kern Baby” which can be seen in the Capability Brown grounds until December. Next May this will tour to the Library of Birmingham to link with the Benjamin Stone Collection that inspired Faye, alongside a larger exhibition of her photographs from Marton, prior to a high profile exhibition in London. Thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund the photographs will also form part of Marton Museum’s permanent collection. A display at the Library of Birmingham currently tells Kern Baby’s story ahead of the sculpture touring there next year.
The project has been a great success in raising the profile of our Museum and creating innovative ways for families to access the collection. Faye’s work is increasingly in demand, being discussed at conferences and requested for exhibitions, so we’re hoping interest in the Museum will grow even further as a result.
You are strongly recommended to visit Birmingham Library and Compton Verney to see Faye’s work for yourselves. Both destinations are well worth a trip in their own rights if you haven’t already been.
For more information see www.comptonverney.org.uk, www.fayeclaridge.co.uk and www.libraryofbirmingham.com