Culture Syndicates CIC

  Part 4. The Ashmolean Beaumont Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 2PH http://www.ashmolean.org     We are in our second famous UK university city now Oxford. The Ashmolean is the University of Oxford's museum of art and archaeology, founded in 1683. Highlights from the China galleries include artefacts relating to the importance of writing in Chinese society, featuring displays on the iconic art of Chinese calligraphy; many items from the museum’s collection of Chinese greenware ceramics, the largest found anywhere outside of China; displays on the cult of collecting, and collectible luxury and prestigious objects; and a collection of Buddhist sculptures. Pitt Rivers http://objects.prm.ox.ac.uk/pages/PRMUID23551.html S Parks Rd, Oxford OX1 3PP https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/ Staying in Oxford the Pitts Rivers museum is a treasure trove of antiquities the Chinese and East Asian artefacts are scattered throughout the museum, which displays a large percentage of ...

  Part 3. Kedleston Hall Kedleston Hall, Derby DE22 5JH https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/kedleston-hall Travelling back through England into the Midlands we arrive at the grand Kedleston Hall. Lived in by George Nathaniel Curzon, Viceroy of India between 1899 and 1905, the hall houses the many objects he amassed during his travels in South Asia and the Middle East. His ‘Eastern Museum’ displays religious, military and domestic objects. The National Trust are intending to change the way the collection is displayed over the next few years stating: ‘we intend to change how the collection is displayed, how the collection is interpreted, whose voices are heard, which truths are represented, the way the property feels, and the internal culture which supports this.’ [1] Erddig Erddig, Wrexham LL13 0YT https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/erddig   Erddig Hall is a Grade-I listed National Trust property in Wrexham, Wales. John Meller, a successful London lawyer, bought up...

  Part 2. The Fitzwilliam Museum Trumpington St, Cambridge CB2 1RB https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/collections/artsofasia Now we are in the famous university city of Cambridge. The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. Highlights from the Chinese collections include intricately carved jade, imperial and export porcelain, almost 500 snuff bottles, ritual bronzes, and Chinese fans both for domestic use and for export to Europe, imperial lacquers, and glass; textiles; and a large quantity of imperial and export porcelain.     Oriental Museum Durham University,Elvet Hill,Durham,DH1 3TH http://www.durham.ac.uk/oriental.museum     High up in the North of England now we can stop off at The Oriental Museum. The museum’s Chinese collections number over 10,000 objects and is particularly strong in ceramics, with over 1,000 pieces covering all major dynasties and beautifully illustrating the developme...

  This is a four-part blog it is an introduction to where you can find Chinese artifacts, objects, and Chinoiserie interiors in the UK. So, if you are thinking of booking an around the UK whistle-stop tour based on some of the most beautiful sites and rare objects in the world maybe this could be of use. We are going to start with London, move up through Hertfordshire, and Cambridgeshire all the way up to Durham, the Borders of Scotland, Lothian then back down the other side to just inside Wales back into England to Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxford, Gloucester, Somerset, and Dorset. Taking in large and small museums and beautiful country houses. Part 1. British Museum Great Russell St, London WC1B 3DG https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/galleries/china-and-south-asia The British Museum has been acquiring Chinese material since the time of its founding collection, that of Sir Hans Sloane, in the 18th century. [1] Features from the galleries includ...

Culture Syndicates are excited and grateful to have received an award from the second round of the Culture Recovery Fund. Following a successful application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we have received support from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to strengthen and innovate the support we offer to sector entrants through our Heritage Assistant model and help UK heritage organisations to reach an international audience through our digital work.  This funding will allow us to carry out essential review and preparation work to reopen and extend our services following the Coronavirus pandemic. Before the pandemic hit, we offered paid training opportunities for sector entrants on live projects in museums and heritage. This workforce development model has successfully seen 31 trainees move into further employment within the sector and a further three move onto further education with a heritage focus. Unfortunately, the pandemic meant that this work could no...

Written by Ruth Gray Heritage Admin Assistant  This post is a reflection on a year that has for many in the heritage industry been challenging, but I wanted to convey a glimmer of hope a small shaft of possibility! I have been a heritage assistant with Culture Syndicates for just over two years, my route to the role has been a lot longer than some! For a start I am much more advanced in age than most of the usual heritage assistants let’s say I can remember history the others cannot! But that it what is so great about Culture Syndicates they are extremely inclusive and non-judgemental, and it was such a joy for me to be given a chance. My career path has been an artistic one, I was a designer in the lace market in Nottingham for twelve years then a wonderful move to Australia saw me develop an artistic practice selling paintings alongside a career in retail that I eventually became a training consultant teaching retail and business to apprentices. A move back to the UK with two chi...

 Culture Syndicates are signposting you to a wonderful project The Year of the Roses. A partnership between Art Culture Tourism UK and OKAY! schools' magazine Italy this international project is dedicated to roses heritage in all their aspects, shapes, and colours.  ‘During these difficult pandemic times, we have created this project to uplift people around  the world - it is a way to release treasured memories of our roses, bringing family, friends  and places closer together. This wellbeing exhibition will share the roses' meaning and  creativity to a local as well as international audience’. You can send them, poems, words and images of roses and gardens as drawings, paintings, mosaics, frescoes, decoupage, collages, whichever form just follow the link at the bottom of this blog. A bit of local Nottingham heritage that you may or may not be aware of is the rose growers who seemed to reach their peak mid-20th century. Taking advantage of the poor clay soil the...