A few weeks ago we told you about two nights of music at the National Museum Cardiff, put on to coincide with the Chalkie Davies photography exhibition and the Fragile? contemporary ceramics display, and followed it up with some thoughts on why using museums as places of creativity and community was so important:
Without getting too much into politics and the mind-melting confusion of the economy, British museums… are under threat from the current climate of austerity. What better way to ensure the survival of an institute than to make it central to the lives and well-being of the people it serves?
Luckily for those in the vicinity of Cardiff, the good people at the museum are not content with what they have put on so far, with a number of events and activities coming up over the next few weeks:
Fragile? Keith Harrison in Conversation – 19th July, 13:30
First up is a Q&A with Keith Harrison, one of the artists who was commissioned to design a piece for the Fragile? exhibition. Harrison will be joined by members of the National Museum Cardiff Youth Forum to discuss his work, and members of the public (i.e. you!) are invited/urged to send questions to ensure that the talk is as informative and interesting as possible. If you can’t get to Cardiff then do not fear, the Learning department twitter account (@MuseumCdf_Learn) will be beaming all the best bits onto the world wide web. To pose a question to Harrison, simply tweet using the hashtag #mute (or #mud for welsh speakers).
Full details for the free event can be found here.
P.S. If you needed further convincing, Spillers Records will be taking over the decks in the Fragile? exhibition ahead of the annual Spillers photo shoot on the steps of the museum. So why not head to the gallery before the Q&A (or linger after it) to soak up some good art and music?
DIY Zine Workshops
The second cool thing going on is a series of zine making workshops, where highly trained individuals (ahem) will give you “Zine 101” and help harness the subversive energy of Chalkie Davies and his subjects.
It’s pretty much scientific fact that the coolness of your zine is exponentially linked to the thought you put into it, so you are advised to wrack your brains the night before and bring a selection of suitable materials to aid your creation. Have a poem you are too scared to show your friends? Put it in your zine and pretend it’s by someone else! Have a bunch of weird old magazines lying in your attic? Bring them along to butcher in the name of art!*
Of course, the contents of your zine will be limited only by the size of your imagination. You could make one to gush about the music you love, or scathing one about music you hate, or an angry one about the government, or far-out one in support of David Icke’s world views. You could make a statement about your identity or your dog or your football team, or maybe describe your excitement for the new X-Files/Twin Peaks reboots.
Details for the free adult event (18/19th July) can be found here, and for the family sessions here (for 21-24th July) and here (28th – 31st July)
*Although be aware that overly weird magazines might be confiscated on entry.