Culture Syndicates CIC

By Ruth Gray Heritage Admin Assistant. Image authors own The excitement of being able to visit a museum after lockdown is big anyway but when it is also a brand-new museum that is even more exciting. On my days off I like to visit local attractions and I try and drag my children along but increasingly as they get older, I am met with ‘that’s boring mum I don’t want to go’ or ‘do I have too?’ But not this time my 12-year-old son along with two of his friends practically ran into the museum, especially when the first thing you see is a massive Rolls Royce Trent 1000 Engine suspended from the ceiling! ‘Cool!’ After we had tracked and traced, they immediately ran off and explored by themselves. Image authors own This left me time to begin taking in the building, which is spectacular, as my visit this time was to be a brief one, I decided to spend the time photographing it (I have every intention of going back and digging deeper into the interpretation) the aesthetics of the museum are beau...

  By Neville Stankley  If I had thought about what the first exhibition I would see after lockdown it would certainly not have been Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years at York Art Gallery (on until 5 th September). As a resident of the East Midlands, I had been anticipating seeing the large multi-million-pound re-openings of Derby’s Silk Mill, Northampton Museum and Art Gallery and Nottingham Castle, but fate led me to York on a glorious summer’s day early in June for research, interviews, and exploration. So, in semi stir crazy desperation we booked to see whatever was on and thus Grayson and I became much more closely acquainted.   I would readily admit I am a bit of a dilletante when it comes to art and had never gone out of my way to explore his work, already having a prejudice against porcelain, ceramics, pottery, and decorative arts in general as either excessively opulent or irredeemably hippie. I was in for a big surprise.   The brief introducti...

     ‘As one of the largest industrial sectors in the world, the pulp and paper industry has an enormous influence on global forests. This sector, which includes products such as office and catalogue paper, glossy paper, tissue, and paper-based packaging, uses over 40 percent of all industrial wood traded globally.’ [1] Unsustainable pulp and paper operations have contributed to the transformation of high conservation value forests, illegal harvesting, human rights and social conflicts, and irresponsible plantation development. One million tonnes of wood pulp is used in the production of UK paper and board. 0.78 million tonnes of the wood pulp used is imported from 24 countries. Wood pulp fibres can be recycled several times, but they eventually lose their papermaking qualities. Fresh wood pulp fibres need to be constantly introduced into the papermaking chain. Without virgin fibres, from new trees, the paper cycle can neither begin nor continue. More trees will ne...