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Category: Events

  • BCSC Lectures: Upcoming talk tomorrow

    Black Country Studies Centre’s series of free online talks discussing topics around the theme of Nostalgia continues tomorrow evening with “The Nostalgia Series Part 3: Smell, Autobiographical Memory and Nostalgia”. Tickets are still available and can be booked via our website here. If you’ve missed previous lectures and would like to catch up, recordings from a number of lectures are available to watch via the University of Wolverhampton’s YouTube channel.

    Date: Thursday 29th July, 2021

    Time: 7pm – 8pm

    Venue: Zoom

    Introducing the Nostalgia Series

    Nostalgia is a contentious issue. Whilst for some it is a harmless, helpful, rose-tinted view of the past, it has also been viewed critically, as a form of regressive, reactionary and sentimental escapism. Yet there is a steadily increasing body of work that reassesses nostalgia in a more positive, active and empowering light. Through this research network series, we seek to gain a greater understanding of nostalgia, and its impact on museums, regional and local history, lifelong learning and communities.

    The Talk: Smell, Autobiographical Memory and Nostalgia

    Nostalgia, defined by Pearsall (1998) as a “sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past”, can be bittersweet and may elicit negative feelings like yearning. However, current psychological research emphasises the positive aspects of nostalgia for personally experienced events, including increased feelings of optimism, positivity, self-esteem, and self-continuity.

    Nostalgia can also be understood as a phenomenon of autobiographical memory, where significant events from our lives can be re-experienced through a form of “mental time travel”. Psychological research into autobiographical memory can therefore offer us important insights into nostalgia, and studies have shown that some cues – like smells – may be particularly effective at helping us to reminisce about the past. Indeed, psychological research into the Proust phenomenon confirms that certain smells can unlock vivid memories from childhood – memories that may otherwise be obscured by childhood amnesia.

    This talk discusses two recent studies exploring the connection between childhood memory, smell and location, including the “Snidge Scrumpin’” project that investigated the Proust phenomenon in the Black Country. This found that certain smells, like Teddy Grays herbal tablets – hard-boiled sweets made in Dudley – elicited higher quality memories in those who grew up in the Black Country than those who grew up elsewhere. Typically, the memories recalled in response to smells were also positive, suggesting that odours offer a unique way of remembering pleasant events from our distant past in a manner that may be beneficial. Finally, family and familial locations had an important place within these memories, which is a common characteristic of nostalgia.

    The Speaker:

    Dr Tom Mercer is a Senior Lecturer and cognitive psychologist at the University of Wolverhampton. Tom is one of the coordinators of the Applied Cognition and Individual Differences research group and his main research interest is forgetting. Tom’s research projects typically use the experimental method to examine factors responsible for the loss of memory. Much of this research examines memory for non-verbal, sensory information

    The event will be held on Zoom and a link will be sent shortly beforehand. It is free to attend.

  • Colleague Tickets: Peaky Blinders Nights

    We’re about to launch the ticket on-sale for our much-anticipated Peaky Blinders Nights. Tickets will go on-sale to Members from 12 noon on Wed 30 June and discounted tickets for colleagues will be available for purchase from Fri 2 July.

    “Grab your flatcap and don your finest threads for a night of fun and revelry as you step into the smoky underworld of the 1920s. Explore the Museum’s streets and alleys and hear of tales about Birmingham’s most notorious gangs. Enjoy the roaring nightlife of the interwar years with music and entertainment around every corner.“

    In line with previous years we’ve been able to ring-fence an allocation of discounted tickets for colleagues. A minimum of 30 tickets per event night at a 50% discount will be available for colleagues to purchase for Peaky Blinders Nights. As per 1940s Evening we are currently able to allocate a total of 30 staff tickets per night, and may be in a position to review the number of discounted colleague tickets that we can make available should we be able to increase the overall capacity for events as part of the Government’s future review of the Roadmap.

    Colleagues are able to purchase up to four discounted tickets and two additional full price tickets per event (subject to ticket availability.) To purchase staff tickets please speak to the Sales and Ticketing team in the Canalside offices from Fri 2 July.

    For more information on our colleague ticket policy please refer to our guiding document here.

  • Black Country Studies Centre online talks: The Nostalgia Series

    Black Country Studies Centre is hosting a series of free online talks discussing topics around the theme of Nostalgia. The latest talk, “Nostalgia and Oral History”, is now available to book via our website.

    Date: Thursday 24th June, 2021

    Time: 7pm – 8:30pm

    Venue: Zoom

    Introducing the Nostalgia Series

    Nostalgia is a contentious issue. Whilst for some it is a harmless, helpful, rose-tinted view of the past, it has also been viewed critically, as a form of regressive, reactionary and sentimental escapism. Yet there is a steadily increasing body of work that reassesses nostalgia in a more positive, active and empowering light. Through this research network series, we seek to gain a greater understanding of nostalgia, and its impact on museums, regional and local history, lifelong learning and communities.

    The Talk: Nostalgia and Oral History

    At a History Workshop conference held in Leeds, in 1985, Malcolm Chase declared that ‘[o]f all the ways of using history, nostalgia is the most general, looks the most innocent, and is perhaps the most dangerous’ (Chase, 1985, p. 26) . In the C17th nostalgia was considered to be ‘a disorder: a psychic and bodily languish leading to emotional outbursts, melancholy, depression and suicide attempts’ (Hoffer, 1688). In subsequent years both historians and social scientists were warned against the inevitable distortion and pervasive nature of nostalgia – ‘history as loss’ – mourning for a previous era (Tosh, 2015, p. 15).

    Nevertheless, historians and sociologists who utilise oral interviews within their research may well conclude that nostalgic reminiscences can enhance our understanding of the past and the present. Researching into the lives of post-war teenagers means an inevitable encounter with memories/nostalgia, but this can be harnessed to navigate the fluctuating connections between past and present. It is interesting to discern how references to images, diaries, fashion, and music, within interviews, can help respondents to recall incidents, emotions, and occasions that had long been forgotten, revealing fresh insights and helping the narrator (and the historian) to reconstruct autobiographical accounts of self, identity, and belonging.

    Despite warnings of the adverse effects of nostalgia on oral testimony, many oral historians see nostalgia as a means of understanding change and mediating memories. Using interviews with respondents who grew up in the post-war Black Country, this talk will examine the relationship between nostalgia and memory and the utility of nostalgia in mnemonic recall. Images, music, advertisements, memoirs, diaries, social media and a plethora of other aides-memoire can stimulate the senses and contribute to the process of remembering. These, in turn, can contribute to our understanding of the past.

    The event will be held on Zoom and a link will be sent shortly beforehand. It is free to attend.

  • 1940s Weekend Promo Film – An Exclusive Sneak Preview

    We wanted to share an exclusive preview of our promiotional film for 1940s Weekend ahead of the public premiere on our YouTube channel at 7.15pm on Wed 9 Jun.

    This video is a special collaboration with the D-Day Darlings who will be peforming across 1940s Weekend and headline our special VE-Day-themed celebration during 1940s Evening.

    Tickets for 1940s Evening go on-sale to the general public tomorrow (9 Jun) and the video will support sales for the Weekend as a whole over the coming weeks.

    This video wouldn’t have been possible without the support of colleagues from across the Museum. Sincere thanks to everyone who agreed to appear in the video, but also a special thank you to colleagues in the Transport team, Engagement Ops team, Duty Managers, Development team and Audiences & Communications who worked hard behind the scenes to make things work on the day.

    We hope you enjoy the film. You can see it here. If the video takes a little while to download, please refresh your browser and don’t forget to press the play button at the bottom of the screen as the film won’t play automatically.

    If you’d like to join the watch party on our YouTube premiere and put a question to the D-Day Darlings as part of the chat, log-in via this link from 7.15 pm on Wed 9 Jun.

    This preview is exclusively for Museum colleagues ahead of the premiere. Please do not share publicly on any channel.

  • Loff Out Loud in the News

    As we enter the final weekend of Loff Out Loud, we wanted to share a short article from the Express & Star.

    The images speak for themselves in showing the wonderful costumes and characters that have made half-term so popular with visitors.

    Article here.

    Thank you to everyone for helping to deliver such a great visitor experience!

  • Reopening Week Update

    Although the weather has been less than favourable this week, reopening week has been a success.

    The Museum has received some great press coverage (examples below) and visitors have shown how eager they’ve been to come back to the Museum with some of the wonderful comments we’ve received from them.

    Reopening Day (Mon 17 May)

    On Monday, we hosted a journalist from Heart Radio who filmed the video report below. We think it’s a great testament to the work that staff have done to make the Museum a welcoming and safe place for visitors:

    West Midlands Mayor Andy Street also visit on Monday to celebrate our first day of opening and to advocate for the sector. The visit gained coverage on ITV Central News as well as online:

    #MuseumMoment

    On Tuesday we participated in TikTok’s global #MuseumMoment marathon, which saw 23 museums from across 12 countries – including London’s V&A and New York’s Metropolitan Museum – host a live broadcast from the platform. BCLM participated with a live tour of Old Birmingham Road which saw more 150,000 people tune in to meet our characters and hear about Black Country life from the 1930s. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this possible and for doing the Museum proud by taking the Black Country story global!

    Visitors Glad To Be Back

    The Museum also featured in Tuesday’s Express & Star with some great testimonials from visitors:

    Visitor Profile & Advance Bookings

    We’ve also been fortunate to welcome back some small education groups this week who’ve chosen to come to the Museum as their first trip since lockdown; and, our outreach talks are continuiung to be popular with schools who cannot yet make a visit. The number of enquiries coming through to the Sales & Ticketing team bodes well for the next academic year as we seek to re-engage schools.

    The weather has literally had a dampening effect on mid-week visitor attendance during our first week of opening. However, bookings for the coming weekend (22/23 May) are very positive with 99% of our target bookings achieved in advance at the time of writing. June half-term ‘Loff Out Loud’ is also selling well in advance with bookings increasing sharply (up by 33%) this week upon news of our reopening.

    Upcoming News

    We will launch our first on-sale of ticketed evening events soon with 1940s Evening as part of 1940s Weekend. We’re planning to go on sale to Members on 2 June and the general public on 9 June. An allocation of staff tickets will be available and we will update colleagues on details of this in a subsequent intranet post. However, most importantly and ahead of on-sale, we’ll share a programme preview with colleagues to let people know about plans for this year’s 1940s Weekend (17/18 Jul) and share some exciting news from the D-Day Darlings.

    Thank you again to everyone for their hard work and commitment in enabling reopening to be such a success. It’s been wonderful to see the Museum come alive again with colleagues and visitors as it fulfils its purpose to engage all generations with living history.

  • Black Country Studies Centre online talks: Festival of Britain

    The Black Country Studies Centre is working with the University of Wolverhampton’s ArtsFest Online to bring you a season of events celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Festival of Britain and its impact here in the Black Country.

    From 17th May, as part of our Discover the Black Country offer here at the Museum, Folkes Park is hosting the Festival of the Black Country – a mini celebration of the 1951 Festival of Britain.

    If you are interested in finding out more about the Festival of Britain and some of its links to the Black Country, the Black Country Studies Centre are hosting a series of online talks, the first two of which are available to book now. The events will be running May-September so do continue to look out for them on our website and social media channels.

    Thursday 13th May, 7pm-8pm

    Revisiting ‘A Tonic to the Nation’ – Dr Jane Webb

    BOOK NOW

    In this first lecture ‘Revisiting a Tonic to the Nation’ Dr Jane Webb will introduce the Festival and set the scene for our summer of celebrations!

    The Festival of Britain was opened to the public 70 years ago. Set in a landscape reverberating with post-war economic and social uncertainties, the event (scheduled from May to September of 1951) was intended to be a tonic to aid the nation’s recovery. This talk provides an introduction to the London site of the Festival of Britain and will explore the intentions of its organisers, a description of the South Bank exhibition and other venues in the capital, and the design language chosen for the Festival.

    Monday 17th May, 5:30pm-6:30pm

    Abram Games and the 1951 Festival of Britain – Naomi Games

    BOOK NOW

    On the 70th Anniversary of the Festival of Britain, Naomi Games will talk about the career of her father, renowned graphic designer Abram Games.

    Abram Games won the competitions to design an emblem for the Festival and the Festival stamp. Naomi will give a personal view of her father’s working process, you will see his progressive designs alongside other items he created for the Festival, as well as cartoons and curiosities.

    Post image courtesy of the Estate of Abram Games

  • Museum Update: Wed 5 May

    Museum Update: Wed 5 May

    It’s been wonderful to welcome colleagues to site and see people back in the Museum for training this week in anticipation of reopening on Mon 17 May.

    General admission bookings opened last Tuesday (27 Apr) and take-up thus far has been positive with approximately 30% of budgeted tickets already booked for the first weekend of opening.

    A key part of the training includes a Museum-wide briefing from Andrew, an update on the latest developments for Forging Ahead and information on the Spring and Whitsun daytime programme.  We look forward to sharing the above news with colleagues during this week and into the next.

    Following on from the news of both 1940s Weekend and Peaky Blinders Nights being back for 2021, we wanted to share further details about our events programme for the rest of the year.  Red by Night will make a welcome return in October and our new family daytime event ‘Enchanted Christmas’ that was due to launch in 2020 will now go ahead this year.

    A full timetable of pre-ticketed events is shown below:

    DateEvent
    Sat 17 July1940s Evening
    Fri 10 Sep
    Sat 11 Sep
    Fri 17 Sep
    Sat 18 Sep
    Fri 24 Sep
    Sat 25 Sep
    Fri 12 Nov
    Sat 13 Nov    		Peaky Blinders Nights
    Sat 9 OctRed by Night
    Fri 22 Oct
    Sat 23
    Fri 29
    Sat 30    		Halloween Nights
    Fri 3 Dec
    Sat 4 Dec    		Christmas Nights
    Sat 11 Dec  (daytime)
    Sun 12 Dec (daytime)
    Sat 18 Dec  (daytime)
    Sun 19 Dec (daytime)    		Enchanted Christmas

    We’ll communicate further information on the content of the events, ticket on-sale dates and provision of staff tickets in due course.  We’re excited to have the chance to host events again, should positive progress against the Government Roadmap continue.

    We anticipate that this update will be the last fortnightly comms, as we’re intending to be back open by the time the next update would be due on Wed 19 May.  However, we are looking at alternative formats for a regular comms update that we can share with colleagues moving forward.  Please watch this space!

    As a final piece of housekeeping, colleagues should ensure that they follow NHS parking processes for the next two weeks while they arrange for their staff parking to move off-site. Many thanks for your patience.

    Thank you again to everyone for your fortitude and perseverance during these most testing of times.  We know that visitors cannot wait to be back and experiencing living history at its best.  We’re delighted to have colleagues return to the Museum ready to welcome visitors back.

  • Museum Update: 21 April

    Museum Update: 21 April

    This is a brief update to let you know about training plans, a look ahead to the forthcoming visitor programme, and our plans for opening up online booking again.

    Training plans

    Work to prepare the Museum for opening continues, including the finalisation of training plans.  By now, all colleagues should have received the timetable for the pre-opening training sessions they are due to attend.  If anyone hasn’t yet received notification, please get in touch with [email protected] and a member of the team will be able to help you.

    Visitor programme

    From the previous Museum Update you will know that BCLM will reopen with ‘Discovering the Black Country’, which run as our main daytime programme until the summer holiday.  However, for the Whitsun holiday (Sat 29 May – Sun 6 Jun), ‘Loff Out Loud’ will run as the half-term programme.  Loff Out Loud will be a celebration of Black Country humour, its distinctive characteristics, and how seeing the funny side of life has enabled local people to survive through difficult times as well as good.  Brand new characters are being introduced as part of Loff Out Loud.  More details will be shared on this as part of training.

    Subject to the Government’s Roadmap making continued progress, we’re also planning on holding 1940s Weekend on Sat 17 and Sun 18 July.  1940s Weekend will also include a 1940s Evening on Sat 17 July.  Peaky Blinders Nights will also be back with a bang and a refreshed approach in September and November.  An update on our forthcoming events programme will be shared as part of training.

    Bookings reopening

    General admission tickets will go on sale next week. Members will be invited to book tickets from noon on Tue 27 April; UnChained Passholders/general public will be notified of ticketing being back online again from noon on Thu 29 April.  As in August 2020, entry to the Museum will be via a pre-booked entry time only and with a fixed daily attendance to aid social distancing.  We will issue public communications on bookings in the next few days, so please avoid sharing any public information about this on social media until we post from the Museum’s official accounts.

    National Lottery Open Week (NLOW)

    National Lottery Good Causes will run their ‘Thanks To You’ campaign between Sat 5 and Sun 13 June this year as National Lottery Open Week (NLOW).  This is an opportunity for Lottery-funded organisations to say thank you to Lottery players for their support.  As you will know, the National Lottery Heritage Fund is a major investor in Forging Ahead, therefore, the Museum will be participating in National Lottery Open Week in order to drive awareness of our project and other Lottery good causes.  We’re finalising our plans, but it’s likely that we’ll be able to offer two chances for Lottery players to visit the Museum during NLOW – one on a week day and another at a weekend.  Please keep a look out for further updates on this.

    We’re looking forward to seeing colleagues return to the Museum soon.  Thank you everyone for your continued support and perseverance. 

  • Weekly Virtual Coffee & Catch-ups

    Thank you to all who joined our virtual meetups last week for a cuppa and a catch up, all in relation to ‘Time to Talk Day’.

    Following the incredibly positive feedback we received from these sessions, we’re delighted to start hosting virtual meetups on a weekly basis from now until the end of March, at which point we hope that the Museum will be able to reopen.

    When will the virtual meetups take place?

    These meetups will be hosted every Wednesday 2.30pm – 4pm on Microsoft Teams.

    Please note that the occurrence of these meetings may change depending on popularity/demand.

    What is the purpose of these virtual meetups?

    Although we’re not yet able to catch up face-to-face, meeting like this virtually means we can still grab a cuppa and have a friendly chat with our colleagues about what we’ve been up to recently. Simply put, we want to fill the socialisation gap that many of us are currently missing due to being on furlough or working from home.

    Who are these virtual meetups for?

    All BCLM staff, whether contracted or casual, are welcome to join in on these sessions.

    How do I join?

    Click this joining link to join the meeting. We recommend that you attempt to join no earlier than 5 minutes prior to the meeting start time.

    If you’re joining using a desktop computer or laptop, follow the above link and select the option ‘Continue on this browser’ once the webpage loads.

    If you’re joining using a smartphone or tablet, following the above link will ask you to download the Microsoft Teams app. Please note that you will be required to download the app in order to join via a mobile device.

    Our Mental Health First Aiders (MHFAs) are still available for a confidential chat. They are able to listen if you simply want to share your concerns, but are also able to direct you to further appropriate support if needed. Some of our MHFAs are furloughed, but the following are working and are happy to be contacted via email:

    Dawn Hampton: [email protected]

    Hayley Turner: [email protected]

    Jo Turner: [email protected]

    Kate Kirkpatrick: [email protected]

    Liz Peters: [email protected]

    If you’d like to find out more about our MHFAs before you get in touch, please visit this intranet post to have a read of their bios; to get to know them a bit more and learn why they decided to become a MHFA.

    As a reminder, the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) scheme is available for all. The EAP offers 24/7 support on a range of topics, including mental health, overall wellbeing, financial and legal support, etc. You can access this service by calling 0800 015 7287 and quoting “Black Country Living Museum”. Alternatively you can access the online portal by visiting www.colleaguesupport.co.uk, using ‘72160’ as your username and password.