The Inkwell
Salford 5th February 2020
A tale of a meet and greeter at IWM North, Manchester
Take a good handful of young minds
and interesting artifacts from a fire engine to a British tank
under some really unusual lighting
give them a tale of a teapot smashed and
hold their attention with items in a display – leave for 5 –
then let them handle an old helmet or two
! While you tell them all about it !
Young minds wondered aimlessly
around the museum space
hearing the sounds around them
as they found their place
The colour returned – to their eyes
upon seeing my trolley – to my surprise
and hearing a colleague veterans tale
it was like we’d found the holy grail
Stories were told as they wore the hats
and genuine interest grew from these cats
as enthusiasm blossomed around our bit
The teacher wanted to bottle it…
For as the veteran told his tale
the enthusiasm blossomed without fail
and communication started tween young and old
as a tale of the home front it was told.
Monday Afternoon saw me returning back over the Bridge to the Home of the Imperial War Museum in the North, on the Trafford side of the Manchester Ship Canal
Today has seen me on the Information point Handling trolley, where visitors from all around the country have been able to look at objects and pick them up as the volunteers tell a little bit about the items the visitor is holding and a little about its origins.
These range from a helmet used by the armed forces during the battle of the somme, which was later used in world war II, to a babies gas mask used during world war ii as protection against potential gas attack.
In addition we direct and explain how to go around the big area that makes up the main exhibition space, which holds objects from World war I to Modern day
The Trolley is always of interest to visitors both young and old, because of the interactive nature of the exhibits. Schoolchildren enjoy hearing about the objects on display.
Salford, 4th May
This afternoon I’ve been helping out at the Imperial War museum North, after discussing the next project with BASICs photography group.
The plan is to produce another exhibition in the centre from our work over their year.
I covered the main gallery today with two fellow volunteers. The information station was set out with three helmets , a Tommy helmet used at the start of the first world war and during the home front in world war two, a modified helmet from the end years of the first world war and a modern day Kevlar helmet used by the mines advisory group charity.
We had a lot of overseas visitors today, and they enjoyed handling the various objects on display. They asked lots of questions about what was on display in the exhibition space.
The Inkwell