Sweden Calling!
Teenage pupils from the City of Portsmouth Girls’ School made a trip to Sweden’s premier museum, the Vasa, without stepping outside the classroom with an innovative link-up using the latest web technology - Skype.
The Mary Rose Trust, the custodians of Henry VIII’s famous warship, regularly works with the school. This term they decided to be even more ambitious and embark on a novel project with the school Humanities Club. Working with Mary Rose team, the girls were inspired to improve their research and ICT skills.
The Mary Rose Trust decided to involve the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, with whom they are twinned. Following a visit to the Swedish Museum, the Mary Rose’s Learning team was struck by the huge potential of a project comparing these two ships. The Swedish team was equally keen to add a global dimension to their learning programme. The Vasa sank in 1628 on her maiden voyage, whereas the Mary Rose sank after 34 years service in 1545. The artefacts, excavation and conservation have very strong parallels, making it an ideal school project to compare and contrast.
The project started with a visit from the Mary Rose team to the Humanities Club to introduce the topic and the exciting ways that they could work with their European counterpart. The girls then spent time on their own internet research and the creation of digital presentations to feedback to each other, before preparing questions for the Vasa staff on a range of topics relating to the history, archaeology and conservation of the ship.
A Skype session followed allowing the Vasa Learning team in Stockholm and the Portsmouth girls to chat via live webcams as they took it in turns to ask their questions whilst watching the team on the interactive whiteboard.
Following the success of this link up, they are now planning to involve a Stockholm school so Swedish and British pupils can talk with each other and share their ideas and knowledge.
Helen Surawy, Director of Specialism and Kevin Burns, History teacher at the school both agreed that the whole experience from start to finish had been greeted with enthusiasm by the pupils and that this way of “global” learning had caught their imagination.
One of the Year 8 pupils involved in the project said, “I really enjoyed this Humanities Club project because I felt proud to part of something different and exciting”.
Mary Kinoulty, Head of Learning at the Mary Rose Trust said: “It is often difficult to interest teenagers in museums but this Skype project really appealed to this age group.”
Dec 18 2009
Unseen Tudor Artefacts Encourage New Crew to Secure Mary Rose’s Future
Previously unseen artefacts recovered from Henry VIII’s flagship have been revealed by the Mary Rose Trust to launch its first ever public appeal to help fund an ambitious new £35 million museum project.
The extraordinary Tudor items – which include a fiddle complete with its bow (Europe’s oldest example); a beautifully preserved leather ‘manbag’, the height of Tudor fashion; and the giant wooden spoon used to stir the crew’s porridge pot – have been hidden away in the Mary Rose’s reserve collection due to a lack of display space. They have been brought out of storage to highlight the need to hit the Trust’s funding target for the new museum project and through it to secure the future of the Mary Rose.
To mark the 500th anniversary year of King Henry VIII’s accession to the throne and of his commissioning of the Mary Rose, the Mary Rose Trust, the charity preserving the ship, is launching the Mary Rose 500 public appeal (www.maryrose500.org) The appeal is seeking 500 individuals, schools, businesses and organisations to come on board and symbolically become the ‘new crew’ of the Tudor warship.
Each new crew member will pledge to raise £500 towards the appeal’s £250,000 target, which will contribute to the final £1 million public appeal total to help fund the new purpose-designed and built Mary Rose Museum. The new museum, scheduled to open in time for the London Olympics in 2012, will complete the preservation of the wreck of the Mary Rose and reunite the great ship with thousands of hidden treasures that have never before been displayed in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, the Mary Rose’s home.
Rear Admiral John Lippiett, Chief Executive of the Mary Rose Trust, said: “The importance of these Tudor artefacts, many of which we have never had the space to put on public display, cannot be underestimated. Nowhere else in the world is a single moment in Tudor life captured as it is with the Mary Rose.
“Although significant funding has been raised, and work on the new museum has already begun, the project cannot be completed without financial support from the public. Now is the time to help us secure the future of Henry VIII’s favourite ship for generations to come.”
The new building housing the Mary Rose’s fully preserved hull and her artefacts will be a finely crafted, wooden ‘jewellery box’, clad in timber planks. It will replace the current temporary museum located 300 metres away, which has space to display only one twentieth of the 19,000 fascinating artefacts recovered with the Mary Rose.
An extremely important £21 million Heritage Lottery Fund award was confirmed earlier this year, with the Mary Rose Trust charged with raising an additional £14 million to complete the project. Approaching £10 million has been raised so far towards the £35 million goal.
Rear Admiral Lippiett continued: “The temporary structure currently around the Mary Rose has been renovated twice, but cannot be repaired anymore, while her wonderful artefacts are located in a separate building, out of their true context. It is time for the Mary Rose to have a properly designed, purpose built home that brings together the ship and her fascinating relics.
“With the help of the new crew of the Mary Rose, who symbolise the 500 members onboard when it sank in the Solent in 1545, we are about to write the final chapter in an extraordinary story that began with her raising from the seabed in front of a worldwide television audience of 60 million in 1982.”
Although the ship hall is temporarily closed, during the construction of the new museum, the existing Mary Rose Museum, located separately, remains open throughout the construction period to offer an amazing visitor experience including new exhibits and more than 1,000 of the finest preserved artefacts recovered from the site.
To join the Mary Rose New Crew and help secure the future of Henry VIII’s flagship visit www.maryrose500.org or call 023 9275 0521.
New American Connection
In July this year, the Trust was contacted by Oklahoma-based violinist, Kyle Dillingham, and composer, Callen Clarke. They had composed a musical tribute to the Mary Rose for solo violin and symphony orchestra which was to have its premier in Oklahoma City on Tuesday 17th November 2009. Callen, it transpires is a maritime and Tudor history fanatic and had written the first part of the Mary Rose tribute in February 2009.
It also transpires that an Oklahoma resident, Dale Crabtree, contributed to Dr Armand Hammer’s challenge fund in 1982 which helped raise the Mary Rose. So, strange as it may seem, there are links between the land-locked state of Oklahoma and the Mary Rose Trust
The people of Oklahoma generously invited representatives from the Trust to attend the concert on 17th November and Sally Tyrrell and Peter Taylor made the journey, together with artefacts and replicas to tell the people of Oklahoma about the Mary Rose and the new museum project. All these links were communicated to both the Governor of Oklahoma State and the Mayor of Oklahoma City: such was the enthusiasm for the concert, the Mary Rose story and MRT’s visit, both officials issued a proclamation that Tuesday 17th November should become ‘Mary Rose Day’. You can view the proclamations here and here.
Hampshire County Council
Hampshire County Council has contributed £800,000 towards the new Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard - visit their website to find out more.
Winning Joy for the Mary Rose Trust
Joy Critcher, a volunteer at the Mary Rose Trust is the winner of the inaugural South East regional Marsh Award for Museum Learning.
In a fantastic celebration of volunteering last week, Joy attended the award ceremony at The British Museum to collect her prize and certificate. The judges were particularly impressed by the contribution made by Joy and the gathered audience were shown images of her in action in her voluntary work.
“I feel proud to have won the Marsh Award for Museum Education. Even more so because the work I do with the outreach team helps to bring the Mary Rose experience to people who because of diability or social constraint cannot visit us at the Dockyard.
This is the first year of the Marsh Awards which is a collaboration between the British Museum and the Marsh Christian Trust to recognise volunteers in engaging museum audiences. Applications were judged on how they make a difference, how they improve the museum experience for visitors and on positive feedback from visitors and staff.
Joy was awarded for her work with the Mary Rose Trust outreach programme, which aims to engage with people unable to visit the museum for a variety of reasons. These visits, led by the Community Officer, Trevor Sapey, include Stroke clubs, the visually impaired, hospices, day centres for the elderly and adults and children with learning and physical disabilities.
To hear them laugh and talk, in many case, as they have not done so before, is the reason why I enjoy volunteering to do this work. I have met some amazing people and we have a great time together.”
Joy gives up her own time several days a week to meet the demand from these special need groups which have proved very popular and mutually beneficial. This work is in addition to her role as a costumed volunteer guide in the museum on at least two days per week.
Joy helps the Mary Rose Trust to deliver outreach sessions in costume and helps with artefact handling and dressing up. This raises the confidence of many individuals in these groups who often feel excluded from museums. The programme helps the Trust to welcome a more diverse range of visitors.
Joy’s experience of dealing with a variety of special needs on outreach has also helped her to engage with similar visitors to the museum whilst she is there as a guide. This outreach programme aims to meet individual learning capabilities. It also encourages groups to visit the museum for the first time.
Some of the positive feedback Joy has received included:
“Our clients were diverted from their illness and amused” (Countess Mountbatten Hospice)
“It is difficult to run a session such as this for all abilities but it was brilliant” (Portsea Gateway Award).
The Mary Rose Trust has a thriving volunteer scheme that is going from strength to strength with 50 volunteers.
For further information please contact:
Melissa Gerbaldi, Press Officer
Tel: 023 9289 4558 or Email: melissa.gerbaldi@historicdockyard.co.uk
1 July 2009
The Mary Rose has a new "Artist in Residence" - Sophie MacPherson.
She has 3 paintings of the Mary Rose, all of which are going to be part of her exhibition at the Portland Gallery.
14 April 2009
Geoff Hunt
Mary Rose Trust, and looking on is Vice Admiral Alan Massey CBE ADC Second Sea Lord - 10 Apr 2009
Geoff Hunt's completed painting of the Mary Rose - 30 Mar 2009
Prints are available for sale from the Art Marine website www.artmarine.co.uk/maryrose
Leading maritime artist Geoff Hunt works on a new masterpiece to mark the 500th anniversary of the Mary Rose - 8 Dec 2008
While President of the Royal Society of Marine Artists, Geoff Hunt visited the Mary Rose and became intrigued by the story of this ship, which heralded the building of King Henry VIII's navy. Built in 1509, she was at the forefront of naval technology and served as a flagship until she sank in 1545 off Southsea in a battle with the French fleet. Geoff then studied the ship in great detail, exploring the outer side to get a close up view of the hull before embarking on a major painting. (The photographs show him in protective overalls and breathing apparatus sketching inside the 'hotbox' where the conservation is taking place.) His research has included detailed study of the contemporary illustrations of Henry’s navy and much time talking to the archaeologists who were involved in raising the hull and then studying it while it undergoes conservation. Some measure of the painstaking study is the fact that Geoff spent a staggering 113 hours or more of preparatory work before he even lifted his brushes!
Many new facts have come to light over the 26 years since the Mary Rose was lifted and Geoff's picture incorporates the new thoughts on her size, shape and sailing characteristics. His experienced eye will contribute an invaluable new interpretation of this remarkable ship.
Geoff Hunt is one of the world's finest painters of 18th and 19th century ships. Through his research for paintings he is a leading authority on naval history and ship architecture of that period and beyond. He is mid way through working on the painting and is pictured here in his studio at the beginning of December. The painting should be complete in the New Year and will first be exhibited at the major exhibition on the Mary Rose which opens at Whitgift School, Croydon, in April 2009. It commemorates the 500th anniversary of the building of the ship.
John Lippiett, Chief Executive of the Mary Rose Trust said: "I am enormously excited to have such a renowned artist involved with the Mary Rose. His work is outstanding and I know we are going to have a masterpiece next year that befits this great ship, the flagship of King Henry VIII."
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