Welcome to the April
Castle Transformation Newsletter

This month, we feature:
- Project update - Social media, Miss Kirkby, and display
- Nottingham Castle Trust News - Catchfly volunteering and Voices of Today
- Miss Kirkby's Apron - Meet one of the Castle's residents
- Object of the Month -?Desert Edge 1
- Top Trumps - No. 12 -?Joan of Navarre

Image:?It's been just over a year since repairs were made to the Robin Hood statue. There are lots more images on our Facebook page

April?project update

Welcome to April?s newsletter. We hope you are all well and enduring lockdown as best you can. While it?s been fairly quiet for us this month (for obvious reasons), we?ve still been busy...

Social media -? Several projects and opportunities have launched on our our Social Media Channels. See what the team at Nottingham Castle Trust have been up to at Twitter?and?Facebook. There?s lots to get involved with, whether you?re green fingered or a poet at heart. See more details in the column below. Perhaps get the kids to enter the Robin Hood drawing and colouring competition? (Left)

Miss Kirkby - We were very happy to find out this month that we have an item belonging to the inimitable Miss Kirkby in our collections. (See article below)

Graphics and displays - Work continues behind the scenes (from home offices / living rooms across the land), to complete the final touches to designs and graphics for the new galleries, prior to the start of the exhibition fit out stage of the project. Every case and wall mounted display is carefully planned down to the millimetre, including placing of objects, mounts, supporting graphics and accompanying text. This is a crucial stage as once work starts on site, it is very hard to make any changes. It is very rewarding to see everything coming together as years of research and preparation culminate in some stunning gallery spaces.

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Miss Kirkby?s Apron

We found out this month, that we have an item belonging to the inimitable Miss Kirkby in our collections.

Miss Jane Kirkby was a tenant at the Castle from the early 1790s to 1825, and earned a reputation for being a well-known independent, charitable and hospitable Nottingham resident in her day. Famous for her oyster parties, small menagerie and night time tours of the Castle Caves she?s a real favourite of the Castle Project Team.

We were therefore delighted when a curator from Nottingham City Museums and Galleries contacted our project volunteer, Yvonne with details of an apron in her collection associated with a Miss Kirkby of Nottingham Castle.

Judith Edgar Curator of Lace, Costume and Textiles at Nottingham City Museums and Galleries said; "I was very excited when researcher Dr Richard Gaunt told me that Yvonne had been researching Miss Kirkby ? and even more so when Yvonne sent me her research ? I?d love to have met her!"

This object may well feature in a forthcoming Object of the Month article, so keep your eyes peeled!?

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Nottingham Castle Trust -?Nottingham Catchfly ? A volunteer DIY gardening project

This month, what started as a small volunteer planting project grew into something much bigger and more ambitious as an unexpected positive result of the coronavirus lockdown.

Our Volunteer Manager, Pippa, undeterred by the limitation lockdown had put on her plans ...developed the reintroduction of the Nottingham Catchfly to the Castle into an engaging learning opportunity for the people of Nottingham.

The Nottingham Catchfly, Nottinghamshire?s county flower, has been missing from the Castle grounds for a long time. The project hopes to reintroduce the flower to the Castle by asking volunteers to grow the flower at home. Seed packets, instructions and a compost pellet will be sent out in May, with plans to ask volunteers to bring their plants to a ceremony of re-planting in the future.

The first call out for registration was a great success, reaching capacity within 24 hours. The positive reaction of the public has ensured the likelihood of a second round taking place in September. The team is extremely excited to watch the project continue to bloom over the summer months.

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Object of the month -?

What is it?
This month we have selected a porcelain vessel titled Desert Edge 1. It was created by internationally renowned Australian ceramic artist Pippin Drysdale and acquired for our museum collection in 2017.

Why is it significant?
Born in Melbourne in 1943, Pippin Drysdale is considered to be one of Australia?s most significant artistic interpreters of natural landscapes. Her work features in many important public & private art collections around the world, including Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. In 2015 she was named as one of Western Australia?s State Living Treasures; an honour bestowed upon ?influential elders of the artistic community?.

Tell me more
Drysdale considers her vessels to be the canvases for her artwork, so she uses pure & simple non-intrusive forms in finely-crafted porcelain. Following a flight over northern Australia in 1998, the focus of her work changed when the desert landscapes she viewed made a very deep impression on her.

Since then her works have incorporated the colours and textures of deserts to stunning effect. In doing this she challenges the commonly held misconception that these environments are merely barren wastelands without cultural significance or aesthetic value.

Find out more at:?
Pippin Drysdale website
Blog on Drysdale

Desert Edge 1 will feature in the new Art as Inspiration Gallery currently being designed by exhibition designers Casson Mann.

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