Community & Learning Intern Blog – Teddy bears and architecture
13 July 2015
Ella here again this week. Natalie suggested that I help out in a different department for the day so that I could gain a wider view of working in heritage. I spent one morning doing some conservation work with a lovely volunteer called David. One of the caps I was looking after from the 1930s turned out to belong to someone who went to the same university as me! We cleaned photographs and picture frames, and also dusted the items to be put on display in the Cellar.
I also spent a day with the National Trust. I helped supervise with Sophie, who is the education officer there, who was leading a teddy bear’s picnic with reception children from the local village school. We went on a small nature trail down to the lake pavilions, where the children pointed out bird boxes for owls and smaller birds like sparrows. At one point some of the children showed so much knowledge about plants and wildlife I was struggling to keep up with them! Sophie then walked them back up in various ways (marching, skipping, at one point ‘swimming’) to the New Inn using the story ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’. The kids had just enough energy to create their own bear masks before indulging in some well-deserved lunch! It was a lot of fun, and also really enlightening to see an education team for a different organisation at work.
Eventually I returned to the House, and compiled an inventory of the period clothes for Natalie. This was in preparation for an event called ‘Selfies at Stowe’. Technically they are not selfies, but a catchy alliterative title supersedes accuracy. Families will be able to visit the House and enter the world of the 18th century by dressing up in historical dress and be photographed together. Meghan and I will be stewarding the event, so there will be a blog entry about it later!
This week I had the chance to help Kelly, who is the Community and Learning officer and essentially Natalie’s fabulous right-hand woman. She asked me to write the 3rd issue of their new newsletter, which is emailed out to their community partners and to various organisations within the heritage industry. She’s been an invaluable person to talk to about going into heritage as a career, as well as giving advice on what to do as preparation for the future. She is also the queen of multi-tasking!
I shadowed her for the last of the collaborations between Luke Brooks, an artist and fashion designer from London, and the Banbury Young Homeless Project (BYHP) based in Oxfordshire. The group took rubbings from all sorts of surfaces of the House, and they will eventually be transformed into clothing by Luke! His designs sourced from all the various sessions will be showcased around various rooms in the House, in an exhibition called 'From Where I Stand'. It was amazing seeing them be inspired by the artistry of the House, and then use that to create art themselves!
This week I also carried out research into architecture and its technical terms (I now know what a crenellation is!) and the intricacies of the House. A lot of time was spent reading in the library with interns from the other departments. Jenny and Craig are researching the (ongoing) restoration of the House to create a series of leaflets, and Madeline is the marketing intern who is busy preparing for the grand opening. Because we all live onsite, I often go for evening runs around the grounds. I have never really been a big fan of running, but the surroundings are so picturesque they make regular exercise almost enjoyable!