On 6th of October 2023, the Classical Collections Network organised a visit to Return of the Gods at Liverpool World Museum and a workshop on “Using Classical Collections Creatively”. National Museums Liverpool kindly waived entry fees, so it was a free event. It was great to welcome members (old and new) to explore the exhibition and to share ideas.
The day started with a tour of the Return of the Gods led by Curator of Classical Antiquities Dr Chrissy Partheni. She introduced the history of the collection on display, originally formed by the wealthy local antiquarian Henry Blundell (1724-1810). The collection had been away on loan and its return to Liverpool was a perfect opportunity for an exhibition — both as a celebration and for practical reasons, since the heavy sculpture was on the move anyway.
Return of the Gods re-imagined the collection into a vivid introduction to the 12 Olympian gods and the wider world of ancient religion, inspired by comic books. Coloured lighting, printed fabrics and eye-catching captions meant we were seeing the collections (literally and figuratively) in a new light. Chrissy explained the process of developing a display like this for a family audience, and how she worked with designers to evoke ancient spaces and incorporate a range of media into a coherent whole. We also had free time at the end to explore the exhibition independently
In the afternoon, Dr Sally Waite led a workshop on creative uses of Classical Collections. She introduced some of her recent work with the Great North Museum in collaboration with artist Dr Olivia Turner. The Way My Body Feels was a set of workshops which explored ideas about bodies and embodiment, combining handling ancient objects with guided meditation and creative responses. Sally talked about how these workshops used ancient votives as a way to re-imagine the body, and how they inspired a temporary exhibition, showing the ancient objects alongside a costume, video and clay pieces made in the workshop. She also shared another collaboration with Olivia Turner: You Echo Through Time. This was a series of workshops, gallery intervention and set of performances designed to bring the wildness of maenads and the suppressed voices of ancient Greek wives into the Great North Museum’s Shefton gallery.
Sally explored how collaboration with creative practitioners can offer deep emotional and sensory connections with the past and how such work can bring in objects from other areas of the museum’s collection and other kinds of expertise. She highlighted how lessons from her projects could be used in a range of contexts, and workshop participants workshopped how similar approaches could apply to their work. There was time at the end for discussion of topics that were raised and more informal networking.
Thanks to everyone who organised and attended. You can also find out more about The Way My Body Feels in this BMJ podcast or read the article “Corporeal Pedagogy: Visualizing Anatomy Through Art, Archaeology, and Medicine”
Classical Collections Network 