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Tagging the Treasures
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Tagging the Treasures Celebration
The Tagging the Treasures Project to research and catalogue the Lytham St Annes Art Collection was shortlisted for the 2016 Historic England Angel Awards. To find out more...
In front of The Palace Theatre in London on 31 October 2016 for the Award Ceremony
left to right... Veronica McDonnell, Marjorie Gregson, Sally Banister, Jacqueline Love, Heather Davies, Margaret Race.
08/05/2016
A very special party was arranged to celebrate the completion of the project. Article and photos...more Dog Detective
24 February 2016
Tagging an art work can be quite straightforward when the information is readily available. However, some artworks in the Collection can pose quite a challenge as researcher Sue Cannon has found out when she took on A Dog by H Llangl. 
CLICK HERE to read how Sue has faced this challenge
Walter Eastwood Exhibition
04/08/2015
Six works by Walter Eastwood are being loaned to the Lytham Heritage Group for an exhibition at the Heritage Centre on Henry Street, Lytham. The exhibition runs from 17 November to 13 December. The full 2015 programme for the Heritage Centre is listed below. Lytham's links to the Art Collection
22 July 2015 Andrew Walmsley, Community Heritage Manager for Lancashire County Council, kindly agreed to lead a guided walk through Lytham exploring the town's links with the Lytham St Annes Art Collection. Wikipedia Training
22 July 2015
A group from the Tagging the Treasures Project attended training on how to access and upload research to the online Wikipedia encyclopedia. The training took place at Lytham Library on Saturday 6 June and volunteer Taggers successfully established a Lytham St Annes Art Collection entry onto the Wikipedia site. The aim is to populate the Wikipedia site with more information about the Collection so as to bring the research to a wider audience. Library research on the Art Collection
15 April 2015
A group of volunteers from the Tagging The Treasures project, the lottery funded initiative to catalogue the LSA Town Art Collection, met recently at St Annes Library to trawl through volumes of Council Minutes to further their research. The focus is now on the donors of artworks made to the town over the past 90 years in preparation for an exhibition at the Fylde Art Gallery, upstairs in Booths Supermarket, Lytham, running throughout June and July. The Minutes contain details of the donors, their addresses and the title of their donations to confirm, or add to, the known information. A picture builds up of the early residents of St Annes, a number of whom were influential figures locally, many originating from the Lancashire industrial cotton towns to take up residence in the new 'Town from the Sand'. The first donor, in 1925, was John Booth, son of Edwin Henry Booth, the founder of the famous grocery business, who gave the painting of 'The Herd Lassie' (on semi-permanent display at the Fylde Gallery) in 1924. The Minutes were inspected up to 1995. The library session threw up new information, previously uncatalogued. An 'ancient coin' dating from the reign of Emperor Claudius, 268-270 AD, donated by R H Warner of 216 Church Road, St Annes, was 'accepted with sincere thanks' by members of the Council in 1959'. Another interesting gift was that of the nameplate of 'SS Briarfield', which was built and engined by the Lytham Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited at Lytham Shipyard in 1920! This was presented by W A Woodward of London in December 1955. Finally, two pictures of the 'SS Hazelfield', the last vessel to be built at the Lytham Shipyard, were donated by Councillor Wilding and accepted by the Council in 1959. Interestingly, in 1959 a 'London Lady' offered pictures to the Council, following advice from the curator of the Harris Museum, Preston. Her gift was refused due to 'lack of hanging space', a situation very relevant today. Suggestions and plans for the building of a dedicated Art Gallery to house the Collection reoccurs regularly in the Minutes; none came to fruition. At the present time Friends of the Lytham St Annes Art Collection are exploring locations to establish a permanent Art Gallery to display the legacy of works of art which belong to the people of Lytham St Annes. Jacqueline Arundel, Project Manager of 'Tagging The Treasures', said, "It was an unusual and yet fruitful afternoon. To see the actual minutes and the names of artworks and donors really brought history to life. There were exciting moments too when something new was revealed. We are all learning constantly about the artists and generous donors and the finished catalogue will reveal and preserve this history for generations to come". The Art of Giving Exhibition
30 May - 30 July 2015
The Art of Giving exhibition was an exciting chance to celebrate our heritage, civic pride and the culture of philanthropy that led to the Lytham St Annes Art Collection. In the past it was fashionable to engage in the philanthropic donation of artefacts, thus enabling the townspeople to enjoy these works of art rather than have them hidden away in private collections. This exhibition celebrated the 90th anniversary of the Collection. Extensive research by over sixty dedicated volunteers documenting how the artworks were donated and acquired and the connection with the development of Lytham St Annes. This exhibition detailed some of the intriguing and surprising stories behind the artworks and the donors. Research leads to reattribution of paintings
19 January 2015
Recent research by Tagging the Treasures volunteers has led to the reattribution of paintings. Project volunteers have been working tirelessly to research and catalogue the Lytham St. Annes Art Collection and the close scrutiny of the artworks has now paid off. Many of the paintings have not been seen by the public as they are not fit for exhibition because of their condition. One such example is 'Pastoral Scene' which was previously thought to be by Com Van Lamputtier.
Exhibition Planning
16 January 2015
Planning is underway for the next exhibition of the Lytham St Annes Art Collection and, for the first time, the May 2015 exhibition will be designed, planned and managed by the Tagging the Treasures volunteers. The project has used part of the Heritage Lottery funding to train volunteers in exhibition planning and curating and they are already putting those skills into action as exhibitions take months of preparation. The Lancashire Museum Service (LMS) usually manage the format of the exhibitions for the Collection and they will be on hand to advise the volunteers. LMS still have to handle and hang the paintings and artefacts for insurance purposes but everything else from choosing the theme, title and design to writing the labels and catalogue will all be done by the project volunteers. The theme and title of the May exhibition is expected to be announced very soon. Art of Travel Prize Draw Winners
21 November 2014
Fylde Borough Council Leader and Arts & Culture portfolio holder, Councillor Sue Fazackerly and Tagging the Treasures Project Manager, Marie Riley presented prizes for the recent Art of Travel exhibition prize draw competition. Sheila & Colin Lomas and Michael Ryan, who were the lucky winners of framed retro travel posters designed by Inkpot Illustrations, received their prizes at Fylde Council Town Hall in St Annes. Mud, Manure & the Silk Road
5 October 2014
Local art enthusiasts were treated to a highly colourful experience at Lytham Assembly Rooms as Heather Davis, Conservation Manager for Lancashire County Museum Service, gave an illustrated talk on the history of pigment used in paintings. Organised as part of the Fylde Decorative & Fine Arts Society's 'Tagging the Treasures' project, which involves volunteers cataloguing the Lytham St Annes Art Collection, the audience was treated to a bright, interesting and informative event. Starting with the basic colours of red, blue and yellow, Heather traced colour, beginning with the first cave paintings at Lascaux, through medieval manuscripts, Renaissance masters, up to the present day, demonstrating the sources and fashions associated with colours. The Silk Road, 19th century chemical production and the perils of poisoning, were all explored, evoking the paintbox names we all knew so well as children. Prussian Blue, Regency Green, Indian Yellow and Ultramarine all held their own history with a fascinating story to tell. A great favourite was the Mummy Brown which, against all odds, really did originate from crushed mummies! All cooks identified with cochineal, which became the dye for army redcoats as well as red Smarties! Heather Davis said "It is always a pleasure to talk to people on a subject which is so dear to my heart and to encourage looking at paintings in a different way". Marie Riley, President of Fylde DFAS said, "we were all spellbound by the facts and the images which Heather communicated so brilliantly". |
Coffee MorningsCoffee mornings were a great way for Taggers to meet up socially and discuss their research in a relaxed atmosphere.
Research at the LibraryA morning at St Annes Library revealed a wealth of research opportunities for the latest 'Taggers' recruits. Andrew Walmsley, Community Heritage Manager for Lancashire County Council, who led the course, revealed the documentation available to members of the public, such as a collection of Council Minutes from the turn of the century, local newspaper archives, reference books and maps. The Taggers were also taught to use the research technology available.
Tagging the Treasures Exhibition
The Tagging the Treasures project was displayed at the Fylde Gallery in April 2015 to showcase examples of research undertaken by some of the volunteers enlisted on the project.
The exhibition preview was hosted by Margaret Race, Chair of the Friends of the Lytham St Annes Art Collection and Marie Riley, Project Manager, gave an informative talk about the project's aims and progress. The Lancashire Museum Service provided paintings from the Collection and one of the ivory figurines to illustrate the research material produced by the Taggers. Interview with a Donor
26 May 2014
Tagging the Treasures researcher, David Walton, interviewed Dr Michael Haslett who donated a number of artworks to the Lytham St Annes Art Collection, including two watercolours by W H Gleave and three oil paintings by Scottish artist J D Morris. You can view the video by clicking here. Free Access to Art Research Resources
All Lancashire Library cardholders can access Oxford Art Online - the access point for subscriptions to Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists and other Oxford art reference resources.
To access the resource through Lancashire's Online Digital Library click on the Art & Music link on their site. Click here for direct access Oxford Art Online New Volunteer Coordinator
The Tagging the Treasures Project is very pleased that Christine Armstrong has offered to be the Volunteer Coordinator as of 1 May 2014. Christine has been researching The Children of the Jordon Family by William Huggins and has been a very active supporter of the project.
Christine aims to provide Taggers with encouragement and advice on completing their research. Her appointment comes at a crucial time in the project as research is starting to be gathered in for editing and preparations are made for the production of the proposed catalogue. Christine can be contacted by email on [email protected]
A Tagger Talks!
A new video has been released on 26 July 2014 of Tagger Angela Brown talking about her research on Hector Caffieri and his painting 'Portrait of a Lady'.
Watch the video by CLICKING HERE The Art of Label Writing
Writing labels for exhibitions isn't as easy as it looks! There are many things to consider, pitfalls to avoid and word counts to stick to. Find out what the experts from the V&A advise here.
A - Z listing of Artists
28 August 2014
An alphabetical listing of artists with works in the Lytham St Annes Art Collection has been added to this website. As Taggers research is added to the site, the A-Z list of artists will become live and each artist will link to the research. CLICK HERE to access the list or find a link under the 'Treasures' heading on the menu bar. Artworks our Heritage
23 Sept 2014
A timely refurbishment at the Town Hall and a re-hang of paintings from the Collection meant that the artworks at the recent Heritage Open Day were made more accessible to the public. The Taggers research was printed and used to give much more information about the artworks on display and Tagging the Treasures volunteers were on hand to act as guides. A very special feature to the Open Day was provided by TTT researcher Kuni Couch, who greeted visitors wearing her kimono and explained her research findings about the Ivories in the Art Collection. Over 240 people visited the Town Hall and there were many appreciative comments. |
