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One of our highlights of 2018 was the Artists Rooms: Gilbert & George exhibition.
In this new video, members of our Museum Collective look back at their time working on the exhibition and meeting the artists.
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This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.
Our new Archaeology Gallery explores exciting ways of telling history to entrance visitors.
3D facial reconstruction of a Neolithic woman from Whitehawk
A fascinating mix of new technology and ancient finds is set to transform the world of archaeology for thousands of visitors to Brighton Museum.
The opening of the new Elaine Evans Archaeology Gallery on Saturday (26th) is the first in Britain to provide visitors with an all-round experience of the period, by reconstructing the faces of early residents and recreating the atmosphere of the past using sound, film and images.
The new cutting edge gallery focuses on seven people, five who were early residents of Brighton & Hove, who lived from the Ice Age to the Saxons. 3D reconstructions using scientific research from their remains have been recreated to show what they may have looked like.
The science behind the facial reconstructions provides an instant understanding of how our ancestors looked over a 600,000 year period. DNA analysis has helped us understand skin, eye and hair colouring. It shows that different people from a variety of backgrounds and geographical origins have settled in Sussex through history.
As the newest archaeology gallery in the UK, the space has been designed to get away from the traditional glass cases full of pots and flints.
Instead the gallery has been especially designed to appeal to children who study the time period as part of the National Curriculum. Teachers and education specialists have been involved in the creation of the new gallery from the beginning.
Royal Pavilion & Museums
There has not been an archaeology gallery in the museum for twenty years. Members of the Brighton & Hove Archaeological Society petitioned the Council for a new one and have also worked with the museum team as part of a gallery advisory group.
Rather than overwhelm visitors with lengthy historical text, the gallery is designed to provide an ambient effect using sound, film and images set in a woodland clearing to interpret the earliest evidence of people in Sussex to the Saxon times.
As visitors enter the room, they will see the walls adorned with trees to echo a small clearing on the Sussex coast. There will be the sound of people working, cooking and chopping trees down – just how it would have been for early people.
Short films through the space illustrate ancient technological processes and demonstrate how our ancestors made fire, smelted bronze and processed raw materials for cloth-making.
Caroline Sutton, Press Officer
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This week I started a Museum Futures traineeship at Royal Pavilion & Museums.
Museum Futures is a year-long programme hosted by the British Museum and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund with eight participating museums across the country, including Royal Pavilion & Museums, in which trainees aged 18-24 receive on-the-job training to help digitise their museum and will receive a Level 3 diploma in Cultural Heritage.
I was first interested in Museum Futures because I have a passion for history, having finished history A-Level last summer, and was searching for a history-related job so working in a museum was ideal for me. With no previous experience in the museum sector or working with digital technology, a traineeship seemed like the perfect place to start.
Along with the digital team I will be working on the digital preservation of collections for future access, digitalising visitor experience within the museum, digital publishing and improving existing online systems (such as the website and the Digital Media Bank).
Throughout the course of the year I will be travelling to the other participating museums to attend monthly training sessions in which all eight trainees will share their experiences, ideas and achievements, including one at Brighton Museum which I will help coordinate and host. The participating museums are:
Most of my week has been spent familiarising myself with the Museum and its online systems (mainly the Digital Media Bank), contributing to the January edition of the Insider e-newsletter and meeting some of the people I am going to be working with over the next year.
I am really looking forward to expanding my digital skills, gaining experience of working in the museum sector and learning how to use new digital technology over the course of 2019.
Tasha Brown, Museum Futures Trainee
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Ever wondered how long it takes to decorate the Royal Pavilion for Christmas?
Watch the process with the time-lapse video below in just over two minutes.
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We can assure you that it takes a bit longer in real time.
This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.
These players from the Brighton & Hove Albion football team were photographed by the Brighton & Hove Herald newspaper on 11 December 1937. They are at Hove railway station, the nearest station to the Goldstone Ground, the club’s home at the time.
The Dubarry Perfumery Company building can be seen in the background. Dubarry’s would move away from Hove in the 1960s, and the company was eventually liquidated in 1982, but the building and its distinctive mosaic panels with Art Deco lettering can still be seen today.
You can learn more about the history of the Dubarry building at Judy Middleton’s Hove History in the Past.
You can download a hi-res version of the image for free from our Digital Media Bank.
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Back in the summer we hosted Portslade based artists Blast Theory in Brighton Museum.
With the support of the University of Nottingham’s Mixed Reality Lab, they spent three days testing an experimental new smartphone app named GIFT, to create virtual ‘gifts’ for friends based on our collections.
Blast Theory have recently released a video which shows how the app was used in Brighton Museum.
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Blast Theory have also released an album of photos from the project on Flickr, and you can learn more about the project on their website.
While GIFT is still a prototype, I hope to having further chats with Blast Theory in the New Year about how this might develop, and whether this could find a home in Brighton Museum.
Kevin Bacon, Digital Manager
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One of the highlights of our year has been opening the restored Royal Pavilion Saloon to the public.
The restoration work took many years, and the talents of skilled creators outside of our team. The video below by Humphries Weaving shows how the silks were created.
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Blogger and Visitor Services Officer Naomi Daw has also recently published a blog post about the ‘riot of colour’ that can be found in the decorative design of the room.
The best way to learn more is to visit, where you can not only see the Saloon in its glittering glory, but can also view a temporary exhibition about the restoration process.
You can even whet your appetite online with these interactive 360 views of the room.
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The Snowman recently dropped into the Royal Pavilion Estate to take a tour around our museums.
First he popped into Brighton Museum to see our exhibition that celebrates the 40th anniversary of Raymond Briggs’ classic picture book, He then came to see the Christmas decorations at the Royal Pavilion, and even found time to hug a small child on the way.
Next time the Snowman spots the Royal Pavilion while walking in the air, we hope he comes back to see us again.
This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.
We’re very sad to say goodbye to Gilding Conservator Norman Stevens who is retiring from the Royal Pavilion after 39 years.
Norman at work on the Jaipur Gate
Norman has been a hugely important member of staff working on a range of conservation projects through the building and has been involved in some of the most significant events in recent Pavilion history.
We talked to Norman about his time working at the palace, his memories and what he plans to do next.
Norman joined the Royal Pavilion in 1979 when he was 29 years old. He’d trained through an apprenticeship as a decorative painter and had worked for a variety of companies before being employed to restore the Music Room after a disastrous arson attack in 1975 caused extensive damage.
“There was a team of us who worked on the room for ten years,” recalls Norman. “When it was discovered that I knew how to gild I ended up doing that and my three year contract was renewed and renewed.
“The room had just been finished when the hurricane of 1987 happened. We were devastated.”
The hurricane had dislodged a huge stone minaret from the Pavilion which crashed through the music room roof and made a huge crater on the floor causing huge damage.
For Norman, it meant another 18 months working on the room before it was finished. Since those days, Norman has worked on major restoration of the ceiling in the Banqueting Room and more recently the Saloon which has been restored to the splendour of the 1823 original design. He has also worked throughout the building conserving the delicate structure and ornamentation for future generations.
His skills have grown over the years as he worked on the building with its many design features. He is highly skilled in specialist conservation skills such as cleaning, restoring, plastering, fine carving as well as painting and gilding.
He says he has loved his time working in the Royal Pavilion.
“I have a passion for the building which has just kept me interested. I’ve always said I’ve been the luckiest person to have a job I love, reasonably paid and I’ve been left alone to get on with it. It’s a really good thing to be trained at something and be able to do it well. I’ve also been really lucky that I’ve been encouraged to extend and improve my skills over the years as part of my job.”
Norman’s last project to restore the Saloon to its 1823 design has lasted around eleven years. The work was finally unveiled in September this year and was admired by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when they visited in October.
Part of Norman’s role involved hand-applying platinum motifs throughout the room for two years involved long days, often on a scaffold.
Applying the platinum leaves
“It wasn’t boring though they were long days,” said Norman. “I’m so focused on the work and seeing how well and quickly I could get it done. I worked with my colleague Ann Sowden, who was very quick at it. We would chat and I’d set myself the challenge to see if I could do it quicker than Ann. And there was always someone coming in to say hello or you’d need to take a call to break up the day.”
Norman, 68 plans to spend his retirement with his wife Alison and his daughter Sarah. He aims to take lots of long country walks, sort out the attic and do some sketching. Before he goes though he has one more task to do.
“I’m aiming to write a list of all the things I haven’t managed to do,” he said. “That’s my regret – there are so many things I wanted to do still. I’m going to leave it for the team to carry on the work.”
Caroline Sutton, Media & Press Officer
This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.
The new Elaine Evans Archaeology Gallery in Brighton Museum & Art Gallery opens in January 2019.
As part of the research for the gallery, Grant Cox of ArtasMedia created several 2D digital stills reconstructions of the key archaeological sites in the Brighton area.
Whitehawk Causewayed Enclosure was built 5,600 years ago, 1,000 years before Stonehenge. It is the same size as eight football pitches.
Whitehawk Causewayed Enclosure
In 1856, workmen cut into a huge burial mound near Palmeira Square, Hove. Scientists dated the oak coffin found there, it is about 3,500 years old. They also found the Amber cup, the only known complete amber cup like it in the world.
Hove Barrow
You can view these and more when the gallery opens on 26 January 2019.