Museum of East Anglian Life
News

Friday 9 July

In fine style on an outdoor stage we will celebrate the finals of 'Travellers got Talent'. 18 finalists will sing, dance and perform in front of the judging panel and the audience to see who will win this national competition final.
Saturday 10 July

Gypsy World Music Concert

International artists will play a varied selection of Gypsy music from around the world. These include:

Kerieva

Singer, instrumentalist and multi-media performer, known for her passion, intensity and dynamism. Her split Manouche (Gypsy) and Irish lineages have led her to a life anything but sedentary, having lived and performed all over the world, giving both a rawness and beauty to her music. www.myspace.com/kerieva

Cristofe Sors

Flamenca Rhumba guitarist and singer, Cristofe's music draws heavily from that of the Gypsy Kings. www.myspace.com/cristofe.sors

Mazaika

Russian accordionist and singer Igor Outkine and violinist Sarah Harrison. Their performance will be taken from their extensive repertoire consisting of Russian folk and Gypsy music. Mazaika have given concerts and cabaret performances at Concert Halls and Music Festivals throughout Britain, Europe and the U.S.A. From sellout performances at the Purcell Room on London's South Bank, to notable concert venues including The QEH, St John’s Smith Square, Holders Festival in Barbados, Cambridge Summer Music Festival, Le Quecumbar, London’s premier Gypsy jazz venue and the Hollywell Room in Oxford. Festivals include Rhythms of The World in Hitching, Pittenweem Arts Festival and Belladrum Festival (Scotland), Wild Flower Festival (USA), and at the Edinburgh Fringe. We are very pleased to have them at our Gypsy Arts Festival. www.mazaika-music.com

Garth Cartwright

DJ, writer and Gypsy music specialist.www.garthcartwright.com

Tickes are £10 for each night and are available from the Museum of East Anglian Life. Telephone 01449 676 800

www.gypsyartsfestival.com

Don't be disappointed, buy your ticket early!

Come along to the Museum of East Anglian Life and see our brand new exhibition, Happy Days. Created by the Museum in partnership with Lavenham Primary School.

What makes you happy? Is it playing on your Wii? Spending time with your family? Playing with your friends? Or even going to school? These are some of the questions that the Museum of East Anglian Life put to Class 3 at Lavenham Primary School. The museum then asked Class 3 to think about what may have made a Victorian child happy. The children researched Victorian life, handled Victorian toys from the museum collections and visited the museum to gather more information.

The children presented their findings and were surprised to find t

hat many of the things that they believed made Victorian children happy also made them happy!

The Museum with Lavenham Primary School will be launching the exhibition – Happy Days - created from the children’s hard work on Wednesday 28^th April 2010 at the Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket. The exhibition contains objects chosen by Class 3, labels written by the children and their own poetry and art.

Jo Rooks, the Museum Learning Officer, says “This was a fantastic project to be involved with. All of the children in class 3 worked really hard and discovered lots about Victorian life. We were really surprised to discover that modern children have a lot in common with Victorian children and many of the same things that made children happy 150 years ago make them happy today!”

The exhibition will be running from the 28^th April until the 31^st October 2010.

For more details Tel: 01449 612229

Website: www.eastanglianlife.org.uk

Email: enquiries@eastanglianlife.org.uk

From March to April 2010 the Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket is playing host to the ARC-Addington Fund photographic exhibition ‘Food and Farming An Urban Perspective’. The exhibition showcases a range of photographs taken in rural locations around Britain by Kevin Foord, a London based fashion photographer, and accompanied by captions from author, Richard Benson.

The photographs – which include animals, working machinery and scenery - were created as part of a project to record images of contemporary British Agriculture, but evolved into something more idiosyncratic. When the pictures were taken between 2005 and 2007, Kevin and Richard had no intention of showing the photographs but a conversation led them to wonder if a selection of the images, with explanatory text, could help the ARC-Addington Fund in its attempts to foster understanding between farming and urban communities.

The ARC-Addington fund was founded in 2001 as the Churches’ response to the outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease and is partly named after Canon Richard Addington who inspired the original Addington Fund in East Anglia.  His principles of providing financial support combined with pastoral care live on to this day.

The fund is one of the Farming Help charities and helps to maintain the economic and social foundations of the farming community.  It can help farmers in one of three main ways: the Strategic Rural Housing Scheme which provides housing for farmers who have to leave their farm and cannot find anywhere suitable to live, the Trustees’ Discretionary Fund which can provide a cash grant towards unforeseen expenditure, and finally the Trevorva Barns project in Cornwall which provides affordable housing specifically for those who work in, or are retiring from, land-based employment.

Lisa Harris, Collections Manager at the Museum says: ‘As a result of the Foot and Mouth outbreak in 2001 a total of £10.3 million was distributed by the ARC-Addington Fund through over 22,000 applications. This is an incredible example of what can be achieved by the generosity of the public and churches in times of crisis within our farming communities.

We hope that visitors to the exhibition will be challenged to think about where their food comes from and why farming is important in the 21^st century, as well as learning more about the work of the ARC-Addington Fund.’

The exhibition ‘Food and Farming An Urban Perspective’ can be viewed at the Museum of East Anglian Life from now until the 12^th April 2010.

The Museum of East Anglian Life opens its doors for the 2010 season on Sunday 21^st March with its traditional free Stowmarket Day. It provides the opportunity for visitors to see what’s new around the museum and take advantage of a 25% discount on the normal price of a museum season ticket.  Visitors will see historic traction engines in steam, demonstrations of 19^th century printing, the working Alton water mill and children’s activities such as badge making and face painting.

This year will be a watershed for the museum, as work is due to begin on restoring Abbot’s Hall, a beautiful Queen Anne House. The £2.8m project which will be complete by 2012 will see the creation of a 9 room exhibition centre, the creation of a working walled garden and  the restoration of two derelict cottages as a examples of workers dwellings from the early 20^th century. Director Tony Butler is excited at the thought of expansion. “The Abbot’s Hall project has caused us to think how we might raise the standard of our other activities. We plan to have more people demonstrating crafts on site, more activities for families and improved interpretation of our unique collections.

The children's areas around the Museum have had a re-vamp for 2010. Look out for some new activities including a rope 'feely' box in the Boby Building and new toys in the 'Toys Past and Present' area of the Domestic Life Building!  The animal area has also been revamped as has the children's play area.  New for this year, the museum’s steam volunteers have restored an Innes chaff cutter which can be seen in operation driven by our 1912 steam traction engine ‘Empress of Britain’

There will be a range of exciting events happening throughout the 2010. In May musicians from London Sinfonietta will be performing with children from rural Suffolk primary schools to create new music inspired by the landscape of the county. In that month there will also be the ever popular May Day celebrations with Morris dancers and a procession of May Queens young and old and “Happy meal – an activity packed Saturday evening for young people followed by a fun family day event on the Sunday”. Visitors should also prepare for the Annual Beer festival in July and Traditional Music Festival in September.

The Stowmarket Free Day on 21 March, should be the perfect, ‘recession busting’ venue. Tony Butler adds “Even on days when admission is not free we think the museum is good value for money with 75 acres of countryside, 15 historic buildings live demonstrations and fascinating displays of the old East Anglia to see. Our single admission and group rates prices have been the same for 5 years and our season ticket prices are at 2008 level.

The museum is open from 21 March to 31 October 10-5 Mon-Sat 11-5 Sun.

For details of admission prices contact the Museum on 01449 612229 or check the website on www.eastanglianlife.org.uk

The Rangers Page for February

“If I were a bear and a big bear too, I shouldn’t much care if it froze or snew.

I shouldn’t much mind if it snowed or friz, I’d be all fur lined with a coat like his”

Winnie the pooh

What is out and about?

Well love is in the air, I’m not just talking about the card shops! The 14^th has always marked the time of year when our birds and animals start to pair up. The Blackbirds are much louder, singing their sweet music to each other. The woodpeckers are on percussion with their rhythmic taps, and the rooks are starting to hold their noisy parliaments in the tree tops. Their nests from last year are being repaired while our smaller breads are creating new homes in some of the many bird boxes we have around the site. Love is also underground this month, have you seen areas of green resembling a mine field overnight, the moles are looking for love!

This month also sees the snow drops a welcome site and a reminder that spring is on its way. We are lucky at the museum as there is a lovely display of the little white flowers just outside Abbots Hall.

Before I get carried away with the idea that spring is but a few weeks away, and the flip flops might see the light of day, the 2^nd of this month has historically marked the middle of winter as far as the weather is concerned. A wise farmer will always ensure he has half his supply of feed left by this date as cold strong winds and rain is still to come over the next few months.

I have saved the best news till last. At the start of the month Jane, one of our regular dog walkers, spotted two otters along the river walk. This is fantastic news as there have been no sightings for a few years. Needing to see this for myself I went to the sight early the next morning and sure enough they were there, not for long but they were there, it must have been the huge grin I had that scared them off!

One of my favourite things is to follow the progress of the many edible plants fruits and berries around the Estate. One fruit is just about to finish its season, the Medlar. We have one Medlar tree on site, it’s been here some time, they are not native to Britain but are from Turkey and due to this they don’t always fruit well. If however you do have a good harvest you can make a number of great things. I would recommend the following;

Medlar Jelly (great with meat or game)

450g Medlars, ripe and soft

300ml water

350g sugar

Clean and chop medlars, place in a pan with the water, simmer till a pulp, don’t stir.

Strain overnight through a jelly bag into a pan, don’t squeeze.

Add sugar and simmer gently until a jelly forms

Pour into sterilised jars, leave to set then cover

Seasonal Museum Assistants – 2 posts

£5.80 per hour basic rate

The Museum of East Anglian Life is looking for enthusiastic and motivated people to work as Museum Assistants. You should have an interest in local history or conservation, be able to interact positively with the public and be fit and able to work outdoors.

There are two posts available:

Museum Assistant (1 post) –

Low season, end of March – end of May and October

Average working week of 9.5 hours; Monday or Tuesday and two weekend days every four weeks on a rota.

High Season June - September and School Holidays

Average working week of 19 hours: Monday and Tuesday and two weekends in four on a rota.

Museum Assistant (1 post) –

Low season, end of March – end of May and October

Average working week of 9.5 hours; Monday or Friday and two weekend days every four weeks on a rota.

High Season June - September and School Holidays

Average working week of 19 hours: Monday and Friday and two weekends in four on a rota.

For an application form contact Patsy Cane, Office Manager at the Museum of East Anglian Life on 01449 612229 or enquiries@eastanglianlife.org.uk

Closing Date            21^st February 2010 at 12 noon

Interviews                 1^st March 2010

Come along to the Museum of East Anglian Life and have a go at handling museum objects this half-term!

The Museum of East Anglian Life with the Sainsbury Centre, Norwich will be holding the Culture of the Countryside event on Wednesday 17^th February 2010 at the Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket. The event is a half-term family object handling day where visitors will be able to handle objects from around the world.

Come along and handle items from the Sainsbury Centre and the Museum. Find out what stories they can tell and what mysteries they may conceal! Visitors will also hear local tales and stories and join in with a mask-making workshop all from 10.30am to 12.30pm and 1.30pm to 3.30pm.

Admission is £6.50 for adults and children age 6 –14 yrs are FREE (no more than 3 children per adult). There is no extra charge for the activities.

The Museum will be open for February half term from Monday 15^th to Saturday 20^th 10am - 4pm.

The birds are gone, the ground is white. The winds are wild, they chill and bite

The ground is thick with slush and sleet, and I barely feel my frozen feet”

Estate Update.

The main topic has been the weather. What a winter so far. Thankfully all the animals seem to be coping well. Our cows and sheep have invented a new game it’s called ‘chase the big guy with the bucket of food each morning’. I let them win of course.

Apart from breaking the ice each morning on the water troughs we have managed to improve our animal facilities we now have a new hay and straw barn, a warm and dry stable for the goats and three new paddocks with day shelters.

Boris and Doris Our Large black pigs seem quite happy to stay in their arcs dreaming of sunny days and their wallows. The piglets, however, I am sure have been having snow ball fights!

What is out and about?

The pheasant and partridge population is growing by the week down on the wet meadows. This in part is due to some of the neighbouring houses feeding them and partly due to some of the lucky ones escaping the shoots from the farm land over the road. Either way it is nice to see them and they are all welcome.

Apart from the usual birds on the estate we have seen the return of a pair egrets and a heron on the river alongside the ever stunning kingfishers. What could be better, standing on the river bank surrounded by snow and the only noise is a woodpecker at work, echoing through the trees. What a job.

Each month I intend to share a seasonal recipe, a food, a drink or a remedy.

This was told to me by a visitor to the museum a few years ago. It’s tried and tested and he swore by it.

It might not sound great but it seemed to work, I have tasted worse and at least this one is definitely none drowsy!.

Watercolour Course
please click above for poster

Watercolour Course at the Museum of East Anglian Life

Every Saturday for 10 weeks 11am-1pm
£95 for course
Begins Saturday 23rd January 2010

Interested?

Our tutor is Jim Kemp, a local talented artist and occupational therapy Instructor who uses art as a therapy treatment for people with mental illness. He also holds beginners workshops and arranges occasional art exhibitions. Jim has been painting since the 1960's and uses several mediums but his speciality is in watercolour. He is particularly interested in encouraging beginners to explore the wonderful world of watercolour.

If you would like to know more about this course or any other courses in the future please contact Patsy Cane on

enquiries@eastanglianlife.org.uk or
01449 612229