St.John's Church Organ Project

To keep my hand (and my head) in the arts and culture scene, I've been volunteering for all sorts of projects in London, and let's face it there are so many around to get stuck into.

A couple of months ago, I found advertised on http://www.artsjobs.org.uk/ the St.John's Organ Project. What really appealed to me was the idea of a church creating an exhibition.

The exhibition will focus around a newly restored grade II listed organ, while touching on local history and the church as part of the community. The space is open and light, perfect for an exhibition. After meeting the management team and visiting the church to see the space and logistics I grew in enthusiasm.

Once signed up as a volunteer I was offered a workshop to refine my research skills and learn about archives. This day was a great opportunity to meet more people also involved as research content volunteers. The first meeting was this week and it has helped me focus my aims and ideas about the project.

For more information about the project click on the link and the exhibition is hoping to be open during the musical May Fayre held in the church next year.

Science Museum, London (Museum Cafe 02)

As it was a dreary day and half term it was to be expected that the Science Museum, London was packed out! Greeted by the staff in the Energy Hall I was overwhelmed and inquisitive of all the moving objects and hustle and bustle from the visitors. I visited with my partner and we planned to go on the Flight Gallery Tour on the third floor so we headed straight there. The tour was lead by a volunteer who knew her stuff! She articulately provided the overall history in great detail while uncovering many fascinating facts, even the reason why windows on planes are now round!

I’ll never look at them the same again

  

After an amble down through the other floors we were ready for a snack so we headed to the Deep Blue Café. It was busy and so we had to wait to be seated but it wasn't long until we were sitting at the funky under lit tables. The ordering system was a little confusing, as we were not told if we had to go to the till or wait for the staff but once resolved we settled for the tasty Soup of the day (Sweet potato) and a cappuccino and hot chocolate. My hot chocolate was more like milk than chocolate, but I tried the cappuccino and that had a lot of flavour. Our soup was delicious and we didn’t have a long wait for any of our items to come.

We finished with a slice of Lemon drizzle which I thought was great, very flavoursome. The food in the restaurant was well presented and the portions were generous. However the menu lack variety and was quite expensive when you added the service charge. The service was impersonal and not incredibly warm but we could see everyone was busy. The facility of placing buggies just within the café entrance was useful for families as well as having clearly signed toilets close. Free wifi is accessibly from the table but I found the intense dark/light atmosphere and the narrow seating not very inviting.

Some notable worthwhile exhibitions to visit are What do you think is fair? Live science research being complied by Queen Mary, University of London. Based in the Who am I? section it’s a great way for children to learn more about themselves. We also wandered through the James Watt and Our World passing The Toaster Project (a truly innovative personal challenge taken on by Thomas Thwaites)

In essence the museum as a whole is worth a visit rain or shine. For more information about the museum, click on the links.