Exciting new blog from Stirling University Archives

Well hello there! Sorry this blog's been a bit quiet since last month. it's not that I haven't been thinking about archives and film - I've just been working, and playing hard, and not had much time to write things up!

On Monday night last I was at my first Archives & Records Management London region meeting (I still can't get used to not calling it the Society of Archivists). It was lovely to meet more archivists in London and I have now signed up to be the web officer for the London region website - so now I need to figure out how to do that!

I've been on two sewing courses - both so much fun and I learned a lot from both. I've also been away in Castle Douglas last weekend where I had so much fun catching up with Zoe from McGill Duncan Gallery. Amazingly I managed to come away without buying anything from the gallery - which is a real feat as there are so many beautiful works of art!

Well, last night I had a lazy night home along, enjoying watching a silly romcom, drinking some tasty Fleurie, and also checking out the new blog from Stirling University Archives.

All those who read this blog will know already but for anyone new here I used to work at Stirling University Archives. I worked there for 3 years on a project to catalogue the Lindsay Anderson Collection. Of course I absolutely loved it and it's an amazing collection but it's really nice for me to see on this new blog the other collections in the Archive, particularly the new ones which arrived after, or as, I was leaving. So far there's talk of the Musicians Union Archive - oh how I'd have loved the chance to work on that! - and also the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games Collection. The latest post talks about another film collection held at Stirling, the Archive of John Grierson.  It's so exciting to see them in blogland - welcome Stirling University Archives!!

Designs on Delivery: GPO Posters from 1930 to 1960

The Archives Hub website is providing online access to a new exhibition of posters from the British Postal Museum and Archive, 'Designs on Delivery: GPO Posters from 1930 to 1960'. The exhibition is a joint project from the University of the Arts London Archive and Special Collections Centre and the British Postal Museum and Archive. It includes some very striking posters from the British Postal Museum and Archive and related items from the University of the Arts Archive. John Grierson's film Night Mail (1936) is also being shown on loop at the University of the Arts.

Pat Keely (died 1970) Night Mail, 1939 © Royal Mail Group Ltd
courtesy of the British Postal Museum & Archive

The images I've included from the exhibition perfectly illustrate the point made about the exhibition in the promotional material - 'the General Post Office was at the cutting edge of poster design and mass communication'. The image which I think is the most striking is the poster by Pat Keeley from 1939, Night Mail. I've included a few more images from the exhibition but I recommend going to the Archives Hub website to view it online, or even better, if you're in London, go and visit the exhibition at the University of the Arts at the London College of Communication.

Harold Sandys(HS)Williamson(1892-1978) Loading mails at the docks in London, 1934 © Royal Mail Group Ltd courtesy of the British Postal Museum & Archive

John Armstrong (1893-1973) Mail Coach A.D. 1784 , 1935 © Royal Mail Group Ltd
courtesy of the British Postal Museum & Archive

Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890-1954) Air Mail Routes, around 1937 © Royal Mail Group Ltd
courtesy of the British Postal Museum & Archive

The John Grierson Archive here at Stirling University includes material on his career at the GPO Film Unit. Grierson established the film unit at the GPO which went on to produce a series of acclaimed films including Coal Face , Night Mail , Song of Ceylon and North Sea . Filmmakers and artists who worked at the unit included important figures such as Humphrey Jennings, Alberto Cavalcanti, W H Auden and Benjamin Britten.

Still from Night Mail, John Grierson, 1936 © John Grierson Archive, University of Stirling

N.B. I don't think I made it clear in the original post that Night Mail was produced by John Grierson, but was actually directed by Harry Watt and Basil Wright.

Exhibition at the Changing Room, Stirling

Art is not a mirror, its a hammer!

An exploration of the John Grierson and Norman McLaren Archives.
11 July - 5 September 2009

The result of a collaborative project, this exhibition will feature film and archival material selected by artists Katy Dove, Luke Fowler and archivist Karl Magee.

Grierson and McLaren film screening

4 September 2009, 7.00pm

Featuring Hitchcock on Grierson

Please join us for the screening of Hitchcock on Grierson Alfred Hitchcocks tribute to the famous documentary maker John Grierson televised in 1965. Courtesy of STV

Refreshments will be served. This event is free but please call Tolbooth Box Office on 01786 27 4000 to book tickets, as space is limited.

Art and Archives

There is a two-day conference coming up at the Monash Centre in Prato, Italy, 'Archive/Counter Archive', which sounds really interesting. The aim of the conference is to offer "fresh thinking and dialogues on the current relations between contemporary art and the archive. The focus of the conference has been shaped by the ways artists are responding to the archive, but also by the histories - and future possibilities - of practices of collecting and drawing" (quote from the announcement about the conference on Art & Education, link as above). It's not something that is really a part of my current job, hence the reason I'll be in Scotland in July and not Italy, but it's a use of Archives that seems to be increasingly common - or maybe it's always been there and it's just that I'm looking for it now. If anyone is going I'd love to hear about it!

Although I said it's not part of my job, working with artists is something that has been going on for some time now at Stirling University Archives. The Archivist Karl Magee has worked with The Changing Rooms Gallery in Stirling in the past and there is another exhibition coming up which I'm pretty excited about. It is an exhibition about John Grierson and Norman McLaren entitled 'Art is not a mirror, it's a hammer!' (an oft-quoted line by John Grierson). The exhibition is still in the planning stages but going by the information below it is going to be a great show

"Launching a long-term project with artists Katy Dove, Simon Yuill and Luke Fowler The Changing Room is working with the University of Stirling to investigate their Grierson and McLaren archives and develop new work in web, music and film. The exhibition presents an exploration of the lives of Stirling born filmmakers Norman McLaren and John Grierson as a starting point for the contemporary artists’ new works.
John Grierson, the ‘father of documentary’ and Norman McLaren, an Oscar-winning experimental filmmaker, animator and artist were brought up in Stirling and both attended Stirling High School. Grierson’s contribution to the development of film is well documented but he also had an important role in shaping McLaren’s career. In 1935, when McLaren was a student at the Glasgow School of Art, he won first prize at the Scottish Amateur Film Festival from a jury led by Grierson. The following year Grierson invited him to London to work in the creative hothouse that was the GPO film unit. Several years later Grierson brought McLaren to Canada and set him up with his own studio and full artistic freedom at the National Film Board, which Grierson had established in 1941. A string of international awards for McLaren’s pioneering, experimental work followed including an Oscar for his film Neighbours in 1953."

Both the John Grierson Archive and the Norman McLaren Archive are held at the University of Stirling. I have included an image below from the Norman McLaren Archive as it's such a beautiful letter, and a wonderful example of the wealth of material in the Archives. I love how he finishes the letter "P.S. the fighting is nowhere near this place" - I wonder if his reassurances to his mother worked, probably not!

Letter from Norman McLaren to his mother whilst he was in China, 1949
© Norman McLaren Collection, University of Stirling