Labelled

'Labelled' by Dail Behennah was displayed from 28 February 2009 until 24 April 2010, and was the first in a new programme of work which is enabling the Museum to commission and collaborate with artists.

Dail's piece was inspired by our natural history and art collections and gave us loads of scope to work with school, students, community groups, families and adults.

Schools

Key stage 2 children from three different Plymouth schools worked with local artist, Jill Holland on an art and literacy project inspired by the natural history collections and 'Labelled'.

The children visited the Museum and made notated drawings of what they saw. They then took part in a teacher-led literacy workshop back at their schools and a final workshop session led by Jill at the Museum where they each chose one of their drawings as the basis for creating a pickled creature in a jar.

The outcome of the project was a collaborative artwork featuring all of the children's jars installed in a lit glass cabinet. The overall effect was one of transparency, shape and colour. The artwork went on display in the Museum’s Learning Centre at the end of March 2010 and a special event attended by 120 of the children, their teachers and helpers was held to mark the occasion.

Students

'Labelled' gave us an excellent opportunity to engage with students from Plymouth College of Art's BA (Hons) in Applied Arts.

The students worked with our art department on a series of activities including helping with the installation, taking part in an enamelling workshop and shadowing Dail. The students were also set two external briefs. The first resulted in a display of response work by two of the students in one of the cases on our half landing. The second resulted in a display of enamel pieces by some of the students in our foyer.

Community

The Museum’s Community Outreach team also facilitated a project inspired by 'Labelled'. Lincolnshire-based artist, Lee Sass was employed to hold a series of imaginative workshops with two local groups of adults with learning disabilities from the Highbury Trust and Plymouth City College.

Lee's workshops explored the meanings behind found objects and how we can delve into a fantastical world of music, shadow puppetry and storytelling to create labels for seemingly everyday objects. The groups worked with him to create an intriguing 'museum of possibilities' and were invited to share their work and labels online at Lee's special Sealass-labels website.

Events

We also used 'Labelled' as the inspiration for a day of holiday workshops, a Wild About Plymouth event called 'Eternal Creatures', Art Bites tours, a lunchtime talk and a contemporary craft workshop.

In total, our activities ensured that more than 1,000 people took the opportunity to attend an event or participate in a project linked directly to Dail’s work.