Souvenirs: Stickers from The SeaCity Museum, Southampton, and The Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth, 2012.

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Bournemouth, diary, Museums, Museums and Galleries, Russel-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, SeaCity Museum, Sir Merton Russell-Cotes, Southampton, Souvenir, Souvenirs, Stickers, Ted, Titanic

Wearing a sticker, having gained admittance to a museum or gallery, must have been the in thing in 2012, but they are difficult souvenirs to keep. These two examples have survived because I must have peeled them off my coat, shirt or hat and stuck them to the back of my pocket diary for 2012.

The SeaCity Museum, which forms part of Southampton’s very striking Grade II listed civic centre, is home to a very interesting permanent exhibition about Southampton’s links to the Titanic. According to the museum’s website, “more than 500 households lost a family member“, when the ship sank on the 15th April 1912. I seem to remember that the Titanic arrived in Southampton during a peak in unemployment, so an unusually large proportion of Southampton’s residents went to sign on as members of the crew and service staff, but don’t quote me on that.

The Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum sits on top of East Cliff in Bournemouth and was the brain child of Sir Merton Russell-Cotes, owner of the Royal Bath Hotel, fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Mayor of Bournemouth (1894 – 1895), who built the villa as a birthday present for his wife, Annie. The pair travelled widely, buying things they liked and filling the house with them, until 1907, when they announced they wonted to give the house and contents to the people of Bournemouth as the foundation of an art gallery and museum.

Souvenirs: Free Promotional Literature, Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition, York St. Marys, May 2014.

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Aesthetica Art Prize, Art, bees, contemporary art, Song for the last Queen, Souvenir, Sybille Neumeyer, York, York St Mary's

York St. Mary’s is a great contemporary art venue and has become a regular stopping point on my walks around York over the years. I never plan my visits to St. Mary’s in advance and I had not heard of the Aestetica Art Prize before my visit, but all of the entries on display were very inspiring, especially “Song for the last Queen”, an installation by Sybille Neumeyer, which is featured on the cover of the leaflets above. Neumeyer’s work is about bees, a subject very close to my heart. You can get a closer look at the work on her website. If you’re in York before 22nd June I recommend you go and have a look at it for yourself.

The exhibition guide, pictured above, can be downloaded from the Aesthetica website: http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/art-prize-exhibition

http://www.yorkstmarys.org.uk/Page/Exhibitions.aspx

Souvenirs: Celery Pot, Rye.

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antique shop, Celery, Diane Setek., Price Kensington, Retro, Rye, Souvenir

“I picked up a very odd looking collectable from an antique shop”, reads my diary from 8th June 2005. I didn’t write a lot in those days so all the entry really tells us is that “It’s owner told me it was from a range of vegetable inspired ceramics from the 1950’s” and that even then I thought it was “A very eccentric thing”. My only other souvenir of Rye is the plastic bag with “Thank you for shopping in Rye” written on it above a drawing of the “Historic Town and Cinque Port” by Diane Setek.
I have never kept celery in it myself; I use it to keep my pens and pencils in.