Spooky Halloween Workshop

Children could make a spider bracelet, a mask and finger puppets at the workshop held on Halloween  last Wednesday. The spider bracelets were my favourite, perfect for trick or treating in the evening.
Here are a few photos:

 Above an example of a mask, not only were they coloured in, but children ahd to cut them out as well, and below here's a spooky spider

 and here's the overspill area where children and adults could do a bit of colouring in

 a general view of the workshop

 Aaron's spider

 My granddaughter's spider

 and Alex's spider

 Anyone wanting to help at future workshops, or volunteer at the museum should visit the website for contact details: www.swindonmuseumandartgallery.org.uk or visit the museum in person asking to be put on the mailing list.

Half term Dinosaur workshop

What an exciting time it is when the children's workshops are held at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery during the holidays. The main gallery where the workshops are held is buzzing with people, and the atmosphere is really positive. Children absolutely love the activities, adults with them enjoy talking to each other, and those assisting have a great time as well. One boy was crying towards the end of the dinosaur workshop, when asked why, his mum said he didn't want to leave, he was having such a great time.
Here are a few photos taken during the dinosaur workshop:

As you can see from the photo above, it was popular, with children waiting in an overspill area, and also others completing the spooky trail. Below Claire with the materials for the workshop

Below there's child holding up their decorated dinosaur

And here's a flying pterodactyl ready to go

The use of scrunched up tissue paper of one colour was very effective

especially when there's a similar coloured feather on top of the dinosaur

and here's a green one

a couple of very bright dinosaurs below with 'eyes' being offered

another lovely pterodactyl

orange was a popular colour for dinosaurs

Threading cotton through the pterodactyls was a difficult job, especially since needles had to be blunt, presumably for health and safety reasons!

Probably the most beautifully decorated pterodactyl above.

Silver Jubilee AGM followed by talk by Jessy Price

We were very pleased to welcome a great audience to our silver jubilee AGM. It feels like a fantastic achievement that the Friends of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery have been in existence for the last 25 years. We are very lucky to have so many wonderfully supportive Friends, and such a talented committee. There are bound to be changes in committee members; this year we were very sorry to say goodbye to two members of the committee who have been with the Friends for many of those 25 years, Ray Ward and Paul Ricketts. We were very pleased to welcome Kathy Geddes and Erik Burnett-Godfree onto the committee, and to re-elect our other committee members. I'm hoping i can upload the Power Point presentation and the rest of the written material from the AGM onto the side bar on the right hand side where it says 2018 AGM.
It's hard to take photos and remember what happened after ensuring the AGM ran smoothly. Jessy Price followed the AGM with her research into witch trials carried out by the English East India Company in Bombay during the 1670s and 1680s. Her talk was wide ranging, considering witches, wizards and demons. Here are a few photos I took of Jessy during her talk:

 Above Jessy and below the title slide: 'Witches Foreign and domestic: English demonology in Restoration era Bombay'

 Probably a better photo of Jessy

Thank you to Jessy Price for a fascinating talk