Where history meets modern practice…
… and a mutually illuminating conversation ensues.
Viking glass beads
Oslo, Museum of the Viking Age/University of Oslo. This image: https://www.vikingtidsmuseet.no/english/the-collection/
It’s a while since I’ve had the time or occasion to post in the Cultures of Histories section of our website, so I’m delighted to be able to do so now!
This will, however, be a much shorter post than my earlier Cultures of Histories musings, because most of the juicy stuff is on our shiny new YouTube channel.*
*[I know! Isn’t that exciting?!]
As those who have taken a course with us may have noticed, Robert occasionally refers to the relationship between historical enquiry and living history/modern recreation/re-enactment. It can be incredibly useful, but it can also be …ummm… less-useful. This tendency was nicely - i.e. mercilessly! - satirised by Marcus Brigstocke [aka: David Oxley, B.A. (Hons)], in We Are History (BBC, 2000-2001).*
*[For a non-affiliated link, see here, but caveat videor: I’ve not watched these for some time. I vividly remember examples of my main point here, but I also vaguely recall that there may be elements which some may find troublesome and/or offensive. Enter at your own peril!]
What is more consistently informative, however, is the light that modern artistic practice can shed on historic material culture - and vice versa.
Thus, for example, those who are about to join us for The Viking Age will encounter this beautiful thing.
What is it? Where did it come from? Who would have bought it? How would they wear it? And how was it made?
All of these questions will, of course, be answered in our upcoming course! And recently, we gained all sorts of new insights as to the last question, courtesy of a modern lampworking expert…
We met Joy McMillan, founder of Harrogate-based The Glass of Joy, on a recent course for start-up businesses.*
*[courtesy of the lovely people at Strive and the York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub]
We quickly realized that we were currently thinking about the same thing from different starting points and with different areas of knowledge. It would have been remiss not to pool our resources, non?! Insights from a modern practitioner have given us a still deeper understanding of the practicalities for our Vikings, which we’re looking forward to sharing soon.
We were delighted to find that modern artists and artisans may be similarly interested in the history of their craft, and were therefore thrilled when Joy invited us to contribute to a blog post for her customers (see here).
It was but a small step to wondering whether others might also find it interesting to hear part of the conversation… so we recorded some of it and set up a YouTube channel! You’ll find it here - hope you enjoy it!
Do please let us know if you would like us to do some more “In conversation with…” videos - or, indeed, anything else! And do please subscribe to our channel, so you can find out when we post more there.
PS In case you’ve not seen this elsewhere, you could win your very own piece of Joy’s handiwork, by signing up for our new Art Nouveau Glass Masters course, which automatically enters you into our Prize Draw.
AND you can have a discount on any order from The Glass of Joy, using this code: WrightHistory10.