****Happy New Year all you Metal Headz****
I have some catching up to do and Im ready to pop my blog cherry!!!
Firstly I’d like to say a big thankyou and well done to Lisa, Jenny and Debbie (Capsule Ladies) who are truly inspirational,full of strength,confidence,wonderful ideas AND totally lovely too.
I’m going to split my info up as since applying to be a volunteer in september 2008 loads has been happening and I’ve taken loads of photos. Bear with me metal fans and over the next week or so I’ll endeavor to share with you my experiences so far.
It all began for me on Wednesday 1st October 2008 – New moon, new month and a new project.Autumn was truly in the air as an enthusiastic, diverse group of people met upstairs at the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath. John Doran – music journalist gave a talk and we were sent of into the world to sow our seeds with posters in hand and titled! We were all made Ambassadors of the Home of Metal – our mission to draw out memorabillia, and memories, both verbal and visual to help create an archive for the future.
The following Wednesday, we met up again this time at Creative Alliance based at the Custard Factory in Digbeth. Dave Rowan – professional photographer gave us some training on ‘documenting the object’ and Pete Ashton – blogging guru gave us some training on ‘how to blog’. A really interesting evening, and then we were off again posters and flyers in hand to spread more seeds.
The next Wednesday found us meeting for a talk by Izzy Mohammed – senior community archivist at Birmingham Central library. We got to try out the interviewing method which is to be used at all the Home of Metal Open Days. Again we were sent back into the world with flyers and posters to set loose more metal seeds.
4 weeks after our initial meeting we were due to meet at Wolverhampton Art Gallery ,for our final gathering before the first Open Day. I picked Lisa up in the afternoon and we met Jenny at the printers where she had picked up some massive images for the exhibition.
On arrival at the gallery we met up with Kate Pryor-Williams and some of her team who showed us the exhibition space.
It felt a bit like Xmas when we opened a box to find the Home of Metal t-shirts from Fly 53 and Debbie and me got ours on straight away. Little did we know it was a ploy, as no sooner were we in the t-shirts and squealing with delight, the door opened and there was a local journalist come to do a piece on Saturdays Open day. Needless to say we were royally roped in to pose for pictures infront of the wonderful Home of Metal screens with some of the borrowed memorabillia.
Debbie posing for the local press.
6.30 arrived and so did the rest of the Ambassadors – we went through our designated tasks, looked at items already donated and got really excited and a little bit queezy about the ever looming first Open day.
Jenny and Dave Rowan giving us (the visual team) a final run through of equipment and techniques.
Comments flew around that night as anxieties tried to rear up, like “do you think we’ll cope” to “do you think anyone will come”.
This picture sums that feeling up :
Wolverhampton FRAGILE!
Thursday morning I picked Juan up and we went to Birmingham University to pick up some rare records from Geoff Doleman who was very kindly lending them for display at the Open Day in Wolverhampton. Then we were off to the printers to get some prints for the exhibition.
Thankyou to Mike Wilson who is pictured here with Juan.
Got Jenny and went to St.Pauls Gallery in the Jewellery Quarter to meet Nick and pick up 2
pieces of album artwork which they kindly lent for the Wolverhampton Open Day.
We then zoomed over to the gallery for Jenny to do interviews and left her with Kate and the fab Wolverhampton art gallery team beginning to display the wonderful memorabillia which had been borrowed and the artwork which had been produced.
Now I’m no longer a blog virgin I shall leave you with a couple of close-ups of one of the Jimmy Page signed pieces of album artwork from St.Pauls gallery.
!!!!23 DAYS TO GO TO THE HOME OF METAL OPEN DAY at BIRMINGHAM MUSEUM and ART GALLERY!!!!
****Happy New Year all you Metal Headz**** I have some catching up to do and Im ready to pop my blog cherry!!! Firstly I’d like to say a big thankyou and well done to Lisa, Jenny and Debbie (Capsule Ladies) who are truly inspirational,full of strength,confidence,wonderful ideas AND totally lovely too. I’m going to split my info up as since applying to be a volunteer in september 2008 loads has been happening and I’ve taken loads of photos. Bear with me metal fans and over the next week or so I’ll endeavor to share with you my experiences so far. It all began for me on Wednesday 1st October 2008 – New moon, new month and a new project.Autumn was truly in the air as an enthusiastic, diverse group of people met upstairs at the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath. John Doran – music journalist gave a talk and we were sent of into the world to sow our seeds with posters in hand and titled! We were all made Ambassadors of the Home of Metal – our mission to draw out memorabillia, and memories, both verbal and visual to help create an archive for the future.
The following Wednesday, we met up again this time at Creative Alliance based at the Custard Factory in Digbeth. Dave Rowan – professional photographer gave us some training on ‘documenting the object’ and Pete Ashton – blogging guru gave us some training on ‘how to blog’. A really interesting evening, and then we were off again posters and flyers in hand to spread more seeds. The next Wednesday found us meeting for a talk by Izzy Mohammed – senior community archivist at Birmingham Central library. We got to try out the interviewing method which is to be used at all the Home of Metal Open Days. Again we were sent back into the world with flyers and posters to set loose more metal seeds. 4 weeks after our initial meeting we were due to meet at Wolverhampton Art Gallery ,for our final gathering before the first Open Day. I picked Lisa up in the afternoon and we met Jenny at the printers where she had picked up some massive images for the exhibition.
On arrival at the gallery we met up with Kate Pryor-Williams and some of her team who showed us the exhibition space.
It felt a bit like Xmas when we opened a box to find the Home of Metal t-shirts from Fly 53 and Debbie and me got ours on straight away. Little did we know it was a ploy, as no sooner were we in the t-shirts and squealing with delight, the door opened and there was a local journalist come to do a piece on Saturdays Open day. Needless to say we were royally roped in to pose for pictures infront of the wonderful Home of Metal screens with some of the borrowed memorabillia.
Debbie posing for the local press.
6.30 arrived and so did the rest of the Ambassadors – we went through our designated tasks, looked at items already donated and got really excited and a little bit queezy about the ever looming first Open day.
Jenny and Dave Rowan giving us (the visual team) a final run through of equipment and techniques.
Comments flew around that night as anxieties tried to rear up, like “do you think we’ll cope” to “do you think anyone will come”. This picture sums that feeling up :
Wolverhampton FRAGILE!
Thursday morning I picked Juan up and we went to Birmingham University to pick up some rare records from Geoff Doleman who was very kindly lending them for display at the Open Day in Wolverhampton. Then we were off to the printers to get some prints for the exhibition.
Thankyou to Mike Wilson who is pictured here with Juan.
Got Jenny and went to St.Pauls Gallery in the Jewellery Quarter to meet Nick and pick up 2
pieces of album artwork which they kindly lent for the Wolverhampton Open Day.
We then zoomed over to the gallery for Jenny to do interviews and left her with Kate and the fab Wolverhampton art gallery team beginning to display the wonderful memorabillia which had been borrowed and the artwork which had been produced.
Now I’m no longer a blog virgin I shall leave you with a couple of close-ups of one of the Jimmy Page signed pieces of album artwork from St.Pauls gallery.
!!!!23 DAYS TO GO TO THE HOME OF METAL OPEN DAY at BIRMINGHAM MUSEUM and ART GALLERY!!!!
