Sandford Award for Investigate Lincoln Castle!
Great news! We’re excited to announce that the Lincoln Castle Investigate Learning team have received the Sandford Award for heritage learning!! For each of the assessment categories, we received the highest score, which is great news for our enthusiastic learning team. We’re so pleased to share this amazing site with our learning visitors.
Sandford Award Lead Assessor wrote:
Lincoln Castle thoroughly deserves its second Sandford Award in recognition of the unique and compelling insight it offers visitors into a series of locally and nationally significant historical phenomena, ranging from the medieval world and the Magna Carta to the treatment of prisoners in Victorian England.
The learning team has demonstrated impressive creativity, resourcefulness and analytical dexterity in using the site’s long and complex story to bring into focus key historical themes that relate directly to the content of the school curriculum. In so doing, they have created both a highly stimulating and memorable learning experience delivered in the most authentic of settings.
Visitors cannot help but be captivated by the breadth of history on display here and by the site’s skill in bringing it vividly to life in a way that will resonate with learners for years to come.
This recognition builds upon our Sandford Award success last year for The Collection Museum and we enjoy meeting all of our learning participants!
Prehistory workshops shine bright this autumn!
The team are busily taking bookings for all our offers and will be introducing a special prehistory workshop day for Key Stage 1 & 2 in the Autumn.
We are excited to be linking new sessions to the fantastic visiting exhibition Gathering light: A Bronze golden sun – a British Museum Spotlight Loan. It will feature this 3000 year old extraordinary Shropshire Sun Pendant. Glittering objects will be on site between 11th November 2022 to 20th February 2023.
Workshops will involve museum investigations, beaker pottery making and our archaeology dig challenge.
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Our patch of earth project
The Our Patch of Earth Exhibition and Creative Arts Garden project is underway and has been very exciting this year.
Artist in Residence, Esteban Peña Parga, explored our relationship with the natural environment with his focus on native wildflowers for the Gatehouse Gallery exhibition. Pop along and see it until 30 August 2022.
Using innovative painting and drawing techniques, as well as new media and technology in relation to the use of colour and light, this exhibition will evolve as winter turns into spring! Esteban will be on-site to talk to visitors about his practice and we will add to the exhibition during his residency.
Our new potting bench and planter area has been set and we have started gardening at all our holiday events and learning workshops! We link to Victorian gardening ideas and are developing ideas and plans for our ‘secret’ garden area based upon sustainable and environmentally friendly planting.
We welcome enquiries from schools for school learning sessions (Victorians and/or Creative Arts) as well as having our family activities school holiday event days.
Watch this space for our updates to the schedule of events…
Events schedule
Kitchen cupboard medicine workshop day
Using everyday herbs and spices to make simple remedies
- Saturday 30 July
- 10am to 3pm
- £25
- Age 18+
- Limited places available and all places need to be booked in advance.
How to book
Book a place either in person at the Museum of Lincolnshire Life reception or emailing the Investigate team (who will then phone you to take payment).
For more information please email investigate-learning@lincolnshire.gov.uk
Just bring Lunch (there are shops near buy) an apron and notebook.
In this workshop we will explore the medicinal virtues of some culinary herbs and spices and use them to make small tablets or troches, make a healing electuary from dried powdered herbs and dried fruit and discover how to make infused herbal oils from hedgerow and garden plants for use in muscle rubs and salves.
Spend a day learning how to make these simple and effective everyday remedies, you will take home a cream, and electuary and some troches. All ingredients and equipment will be provided together with handouts.
Debbie Lincoln BSc (Hons) is a Medical herbalist and a member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists. She currently practices in and around Lincoln, Sleaford, Newark and the surrounding areas, visiting clients in their own homes. She also runs workshops on foraging for medicinal plants and gives walks and talks about herbal medicine. Debbie has been a fantastic source of knowledge for the Our Patch of Earth garden project as we explore what native plants to include. For more information please see her website at www.herbwise.co.uk.
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Have an Usher Gallery exhibition in your school!
That’s what Waddington All Saints Primary have just done!
Wow what a response from the pupils! Using our new Creative Arts kits they set up their own art studio. What an impression it made.
The pupils absolutely loved it and told us it felt like they were in a real gallery and they can’t wait to visit us at the Usher.
It was great to hear how they had linked the art works to their history and geography studies and responded to the De Wint painting of Lincoln Year 4 Teacher and Art and Design lead, Victoria Maycock piloted our new loans kits and told us that when the pupils entered the room they were ‘in awe’.
It was a fantastic way to introduce the art works and find out how they made the pupils feel.
What a great result!!
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Our new Patch of Earth Investigate Learning project
The Our Patch of Earth project has had a wonderful start at the Museum of Lincolnshire Life and the exhibition will now continue until the end of August.
Our Victorian ‘secret garden’ plans are moving ahead and we have had visitors busy planting as part of schools workshops and holiday events! Great stuff.
The themes of the project are linked to environmental responsibility, wellbeing and community.
Our new Victorian Life workshop sessions have been great fun so let us know how we can link Victorians and creative arts for your projects and activities.
Adults may also like to volunteer for this garden project so contact us for more information.
See the details below and signup for our newsletter to know how our project progresses and how your pupils could be involved.
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Autumn is coming – and so are our workshops
We are looking forward to welcoming you back for our workshops across the sites this autumn. Demand has been very high and we have reviewed our capacity and learning spaces. Access for some of our offers will be limited until next year so please check with us with regard to topic availability. In particular we are unable to offer Egyptians and Greeks at The Collection Museum and the Castle self-led all-inclusive this year.
Our loans kit offer (Investigate Learning on Tour) – see the updated list – has been increased and during the Autumn we will also be adding our new creative arts kits and even a Tudor banquet experience kit! We will also be launching our new ‘Learning from the Castle Walls’ films, focussing on the Norman period for each key stage – they are in the editing suite right now (image above)!
We are launching a new environmental garden project at Museum of Lincolnshire Life called ‘Our Patch of Earth’ which links to the site Victorian history and creative arts. There are opportunities for schools to be involved so watch out for further details.
To find out more about our learning offers please sign up for our newsletter using the form below.
Sandford Award success for Investigate
We are delighted to have been awarded the Sandford Award for the Investigate Learning team at The Collection Museum and Usher Gallery.
Feedback from lead judge, Nina Sprigge:
“The Collection provides engaging interactive learning experiences, both on-site and digitally. The knowledgeable Learning team is enthusiastic about sharing the significance of the local archaeological collections and deepening understanding of the creative arts.
“Archaeological displays cover Prehistoric, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Medieval times, along with items from Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt. Key Stage 2 on-site visits, in which Lincoln’s Roman and Viking history is imaginatively bought to life for pupils, are highly recommended.
“A well-organized carousel of fun memorable learning activities can include pupils dressing in Roman helmets and marching in formation.
“Creative arts workshops at the Usher Gallery focus on both the permanent art displays and temporary exhibitions, sometimes involving artist in residence projects. Learning staff offer impactful Arts Award projects for both schools and home learners, deepening understanding of artist methods and developing individual creative expression.
“GCSE and A Level students can benefit from working with professional artists, and secondary schools are encouraged to request bespoke projects.”
Anita Fox, Learning Manager for the Culture service said:
“This has been a very unusual year and so to have such positive comments from this assessment is very encouraging. We are looking forward to seeing schools, colleges and university students and teachers back on site in the Autumn.
“We will be publishing our new digital offers too – watch out for our new Lincoln castle learning films. Our loans kit offer has also been expanded and includes new prehistory, early medieval, creative arts (with canvases of art works from our collection) and even our new Tudor banquet kit offer!”
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Shared voices in Learning and Exhibitions
Welcome to our finale of our Battle of Britain Exhibition Learning Project. Our new film showcases the collaborative work to bring to life the art works from the Imperial War Museum and our own collection.
The Creative Collective of young people have been at the heart of this creative response which has been fantastic. How they approached the challenges has been inspirational.
The last year has brought many challenges for us all and so it has been an absolute pleasure to take part in this project which will also be part of the Imperial War Museums digital project in September so look out for that.
It has also been great to award pupils at Birchwood Primary in Lincoln their Arts Award certificates as part of the exhibition project and if schools would like to know more about future projects, or about our work as an Artsmark Partner and Arts Award centre, then please contact the Investigate Learning team.
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We are looking to commission new artists
The Investigate Learning Team are looking to commission four artists who are at an early stage in their careers.
The artists will create a bespoke style for new Arts Award resources that relate to our Creative Arts Kits.
We are able to pay each of the artists £500, which has been made possible due to our Art Fund Respond and Reimagine grant award.
Closing date is Sunday 4thApril.
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