The
Pitt Rivers outreach programme
is part of the Need / Make / Use project. Between 2013 and 2017 we are taking the Pitt-Rivers ‘experience’ to
events, fetes and festivals in and around Oxfordshire. Our aim is to reach out
to communities that may not have had the opportunity to visit the Museum, so
they can engage with the collections in new ways through handling museum objects,
craft activities and workshops.
So
far in 2015 we’ve been lucky enough to attend Abingdon Fun in the Park in the Abbey Grounds and Florence Park Festival in June and Salisbury’s Festival of Archaeology in July.
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| Pitt Rivers pop-up tent at Abingdon's Fun in the Park in June © Pitt Rivers Museum |
Inside
our beautifully decorated tent we have a selection of intriguing museum handling objects on
display from around the world to spark people’s curiosity and encourage
conversation. The great thing about museum handling objects is that people can
pick them up, feel the materials and even give them a sniff!
One
of our favourite ‘smelling’ objects is this Kenyan milk gourd, made from a
calabash (a type of vegetable), which has been cleaned and dried in the sun
until it becomes hard and watertight. Its distinctive smell comes from a blend
of milk, cows blood and ash, providing the local Maasai herdsmen with their
staple food and all their protein and caloric needs in a convenient portable ‘lunchbox’.
These gourds were treasured, mended when broken and used for many years.
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| Kenyan Maasai gourd from the education handling collection © Pitt Rivers Museum |
As
always our pop-up tent also features a selection of free family friendly craft
activities relating to the museum’s collections and some of the handling
objects on display. This summer we’ve had fun making porcupine fish helmets,
fish scale breastplates, mini Zulu shields, feather headdresses, drum shakers
and more!
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| Porcupine fish helmet activity & replica porcupine fish helmet from the education handling collection. © Pitt Rivers Museum |
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| At Salisbury Festival of archaeology, emulating a fish-scale breastplate from Sarawak © Pitt Rivers Museum |
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| Children wearing their porcupine fish helmets, and pretending to be one! © Pitt Rivers Museum |
This August, look out for our tent in Witney’s Marriotts Walk shopping centre (Wed 19th) and the next Oxfordshire Play Day event in Wallingford (Wednesday 12th)!
