Last Friday I missed the Five on Friday Meetup because I had a hospital appointment in the city. Before getting the bus home I went into Weston Park Museum and today I'm sharing five areas of the museum that I browsed around on that afternoon for today's Five on Friday.
Weston Park
Weston Park Museum
There was a room dedicated to schoolchildren's study projects and creative artwork which caught my attention.
For example, children of years 3 and 4 of one school had created a butterfly and a rhino beetle. The students had collected unused objects for their models. The butterfly's wings are made from plastic tarpaulin sheets and chicken wire. The head is an old saucepan and the eyes are striped baubles. A garden trowel has been used to make the horn on the rhino beetle's head and its back is strengthened by the blades of a hedge trimmer. The chicken wire body is covered with CDs to give it a metallic finish. As part of the project the children found out fantastic facts about the bugs.
The benches were also rather attractive and appropriate for this area of the museum - a lot of fun and a good place where children can sit and discuss the displays with their carer or teacher. There are many hands-on study activities for all ages in the different rooms. Guided tours, talks and events are all part of a museum's cultural programme these days and visiting a museum or art gallery is an enjoyable way to see beautiful items and interesting displays and learn more about our world past and present. I appreciate having such places in our city and Weston Park Museum is just one of several that's worth supporting.
Leading off the room displaying the schoolchildren's artwork is a gallery dedicated to paintings showing the development of the industrial heritage of Sheffield from cottage industry to modern times.
Another room has displays that illustrate aspects of different cultures around the world.
This Japanese silk kimono was probably made for a wedding. Kimonos are often decorated with cranes to symbolise long life and fertility, but on this kimono the embroidered peacock is linked to Kannon (Guanyin), a Buddhist goddess, and symbolises compasssion, kind-heartedness and good health. This traditional costume was probably made for a European woman as tassels and a sash have been added and the length has been shortened.
There's a lot to see in the galleries dedicated to natural history through the ages (above) and below is an example of the collection of ceramics showing different styles of decoration when producing objects of beauty as well as usefulness.
In this display cabinet my eyes were drawn to the Staffordshire pottery plate with the familiar Willow Pattern decoration in cobalt-blue and the set of tea cup, coffee cup with handle and saucer produced in China and gilded in Europe (late C18th/early C19th).
As always, thank you for visiting and for your comments left on my blog posts. Wishing you a good day and week ahead.
