Now that the days are getting longer (finally!), we bring you a time related rediscovery...

This minute hand from the clock on the side of Brighton Museum & Art Gallery was found lurking at the back of a curator’s cupboard. Simply labelled ‘Hand from clock on museum north elevation (Church St)’, a few of us here in MuseumLab wondered whether it had been replaced - clearly not as the images above show!

For the time being (no pun intended), a Collections Assistant has catalogued it onto the Museum’s collections management system and placed it in a store. Should anyone have any information as to when the hand disappeared from the clock face, we’d like to hear from you.

Merry Christmas from everyone at MuseumLab!

These Christmas greeting cards are housed within a scrapbook and are Victorian in date. They are described as appearing to be ‘the work of one firm as they are varieties of similar kinds’ according to the original accession register entry. They were donated during March 1941 by Henry D Roberts MBE (1870-1951), Director of Brighton Public Library, Museum & Art Galleries, when he and his family were living in custodians of Preston Manor.

The scrapbook is currently with Royal Pavilion & Museums’ Paper Conservator after a Collections Assistant noticed that its pages have become quite brittle and friable. Work will be undertaken to stabilise this deterioration.

Alongside visitors to Brighton Museum & Art Gallery’s Subversive Objects Discovery Day last Saturday, we welcomed students from ACS Hillingdon International School, Uxbridge, to MuseumLab. The school’s students regularly visit Brighton to attend workshops at local print studio Ink Spot Press. Continuing their sketching down on Brighton seafront in the afternoon, we couldn’t allow them to leave without taking a closer look at their amazing drawings!

We’re delving into subversion across Brighton Museum & Art Gallery today. 

Here’s a small selection of objects on display in MuseumLab, including: 

Garments designed by the Queen of punk fashion Vivienne Westwood

Lily Allen’s ‘Bambi Killer’ dress

Cheeky Regency caricatures

A chamber pot given as a wedding gift with ‘Keep me Clean and use me well / And what I see I will not tell’  inscribed inside

Our activities table needs populating with creatures from the depths, critters that roam on terra firma and others that soar up in the skies! Add to our collage with cut-outs and drawings of animals, inspired by those on display in MuseumLab. We’ll post a selection of them here as it is added to.