The Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre alongside partners* have been so excited to be successful in their National Lottery Heritage Fund bid back in August 2022. This success prompted a very quick turnaround to get the DigiCreative Heritage project up and running, but we managed it and are now working with a wonderful group of…… Continue reading DigiCreative Heritage – the Story so Far
Back in 2014 we were fortunate in securing a National Heritage Lottery Fund award as part of their Collecting Cultures project. This gave us funding to connect and support museum collections throughout the county of Wiltshire in a variety of ways. We could add to collections, perhaps filling gaps where creativity was unrepresented, provide…… Continue reading The Creative Wiltshire Journey
Creative Wiltshire made a decision early in the project to add Ken White material to the collection at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery and we were lucky enough to visit Ken in his studio with Sophie Cummings, Curator at SMAG. Under Sophie’s excellent guidance some pieces were chosen; two oil paintings, prints and linocuts, postcards,…… Continue reading Ken White: Railways and Landscapes
Museum and archive collections are, in their very nature, eclectic. They often have roots in one person’s fascination with the past and they develop and grow much like a tree putting out roots. They are often dependent on donations, and collecting policies within museums are developed to provide some structure to this form of collecting,…… Continue reading Celebrating Creative Wiltshire
The last five months, since I started as Creative Wiltshire Exhibition Assistant Trainee, have been a whirlwind of new experiences. The most important thing I have learnt is the reality of what goes into making an exhibition. A lot of the organisation was previously unknown to me, such as how to loan pieces from…… Continue reading Learning on the Job
The new novel by Beatrice Parvin, praised for the “musicality and lyricism of its language” is rapturously showcased with British folk music and storytelling. A riotous tale of passion and tragedy, set on Salisbury Plain in the 1840s, will be brought to life by spellbinding voices, fiddle wizardry and accordion. ‘Captain Swing and the…… Continue reading CAPTAIN SWING AND THE BLACKSMITH
As part of our HLF Creative Wiltshire project we have provided training and opportunity for people who are interested in working in Heritage Services. This has involved training days for museum staff and volunteers and has also included a one day a week role as a Creative Wiltshire Exhibition Assistant (trainee) for a ten month period. The…… Continue reading Behind the scenes at the museum
Walter Claude Flight (1881-1955) was born in London, a cousin of Rudyard Kipling, and his early life included stints as an engineer, librarian, farmer and beekeeper. In this period he used to describe modern early 20th century life as a call to action. Even in 1925 he wrote “Time seems to pass so quickly nowadays. Everybody…… Continue reading Claude Flight and the craft of lino-cutting
A wonderful opportunity has presented itself whereby through acquisition and the building of a unique collection we can appreciate the influence and inspiration the county has instilled in creative people across the centuries. This has been made possible as part of the HLF “Collecting Cultures” Creative Wiltshire & Swindon project. Creative Wiltshire aims to…… Continue reading ARTeology – ART inspired through ART re-discovered
Creative Wiltshire 