With council-run museums and galleries and many schools currently closed as part of efforts to minimise the spread of Coronavirus, staff in the museums service have been looking at new ways to help visitors and families continue to engage with the city’s spectacular collection.
Leeds Museums and Galleries’ learning and access officer Emily Nelson will be hosting the first in a series of Facebook videos examining artefacts from the Leeds Discovery Centre, which is home to more than a million objects from prehistory, Ancient Egypt and the Roman Empire.
Through Facebook polls, Emily will give online visitors the chance to choose which objects she discusses, including pieces which examine the fascinating links between Lotherton and Florence Nightingale, the famous Lady of the Lamp.
And a whole collection of objects will also shed some light on the history of crime, punishment and policing in Leeds and West Yorkshire over the centuries. Among them are a set of metal, Victorian handcuffs, a police truncheon from the mid-1800s and a police whistle from around 1930 made in Birmingham for the Leeds Police Force.
Emily’s online sessions will be posted on the Leeds Discovery Centre Facebook page and will be one of a number of online resources which will support families during the current pandemic.
The award-winning Leeds Curriculum, developed by Leeds Museums and Galleries in collaboration with over 40 arts and culture organisations and 30 primary schools, will also be available at MyLearning.org.
With five themes to explore across different key stages and resources looking at everything from prehistoric Leeds to the city’s industrial heritage the resources aims to support learning professionals and home educators.
Each day of the week Abbey House Museum will be sharing content for families via their Facebook Page.
Mondays are all about music, taking inspiration from our exhibition Sounds of Our City that unfortunately people can’t see at the moment we thought we would bring bits of the exhibition to Facebook! We will be posting about our star objects from the exhibition including our glass piano, special characters such as Padtoeski, the performers who played 3 instruments at once including the piano with his feet! And songs from our jukebox.
Tuesdays are for toys, we will be posting videos about old and new toys (the first one went up yesterday). Putting up pictures, asking for drawings and poems inspired by the toys.
Wednesdays are all about questions, we will be asking families to send us history homework questions and we will be posting mystery objects.
Thursdays are throwback Thursdays posting old pictures from how the museum used to look.
Fridays are all about fun, we will be making, doing, drawing crafting etc.
