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+44 (0)1736 363625
Opening times
Monday to Saturday (closed Sundays)
CURRENT HOURS
10.30 am - 4.30 pm
(last admission 4.00pm)
Admission £4.50 adults,
£3.00 concessions,
under 18s FREE
ADMISSION FREE ON SATURDAYS
SUMMER HOURS
From Easter Saturday
to 30 September:
10.00am - 5.00pm
(last admission 4.30pm)
WINNER Cornwall Tourism Awards GOLD
South West Tourism Excellence Awards GOLD
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Education News
Penlee House joins Children's University
Penlee House Gallery and Museum has become an official Learning Destination for young people completing their 'Children's University' passports.
"The Children's University Trust offers 7 to 14 year olds (and 5-6 year olds with their families) exciting and innovative learning activities and experiences outside normal school hours. Learning Destinations are places and organisations to which children can 'travel' with their Passport to Learning. They provide high quality learning activities and experiences with a 'wow' factor and have passed the Children's University's own quality assurance process." http://www.childrensuniversity.co.uk/
Penlee's holiday workshops and the gallery quiz will qualify for a stamp for your child's 'Passport to Learning' - ask at the gallery reception when visiting.
Work Experience - March 2013
This week, we have had work experience student Leon Sparkes, from Humphry Davy School with us. Here's what he had to say about his week:
During my
visit to Penlee House Museum and Gallery, I have participated in the following
activities: Object handling, Help with School visits (Home Schooled, and St.
Uny Primary), Stewarding and Mailing, Personally, my favourite task has been
Stewarding, this is down to communication (you get opportunities to inform
people of the history behind various paintings, but also because you get to sit
and read!).
The reason for my trip was Work experience – I
needed a placement, and I didn’t just want to settle for a local newsagent e.g. – I am also a history enthusiast, so this particular
venue was outstanding; and would have been my first choice anyway.
I was thrilled, when I arrived at Penlee House;
this was down to the amount of displays that housed different artefacts (even
though my preference in history is 20th century). My personal
favourite is in the store cupboard oddly enough and is a stuffed King Cobra,
fighting a stuffed Mongoose: this was
from the Victorian era. The reason that I found this interesting is, because as
well as 20th century history, I have a passing interest in Victorian
explorers, particularly the British Empire as another example.
History
aside, the atmosphere has been great, and I have felt welcomed and a member of
the team since day one. The politeness from members of the team has been
exceptional, and I cannot wait for another excuse to get myself down here!
I will miss
the conversations I and the staff have had. The only thing that I am keen to
leave behind, Is the dreaded mailing!
Leon Sparkes.
Charlotte Matthews
I had a great experience this week working at Penlee
House, I did loads of things including, Stewarding, Asking people to fill out questionnaires,
Photography, Working in the shop, Arranging Easter Activities and Changing
around some of the cases in the Social History Museum. My favourite part of the
week was definitely helping Katie Herbert with filling an empty display case
with Troika pottery, I also enjoyed choosing a new set of old post cards with
Jeremy Rice, to be put in to another display case.
We had two local schools come in for workshops;
Trannack School did a workshop about Penlee House and were met by ‘Mrs Branwell’(Katherine
Ashton), ‘The Cook’ (Liz Harman) and ‘The Housekeeper’ (Rose Edwards), they had
some question and answers, then had to guess what the mystery objects were and
who the belonged to. Nancledra School had a different workshop; Katherine took
them in to Gallery Five and explained to them about the Newlyn School of Art,
it was then that ‘Betsy Lanyon’ (played by Liz Harman) came in “looking for a
painting of herself”, the kids then had a go at drawing her and asking
questions. Once ‘Betsy’ had left, they were split it groups and had to guess
the mystery object (the Chamber Pot caused quite a bit of excitement!)
I also enjoyed photographing the exhibitions for
Jeremy and found I was surprisingly good at it! Throughout the experience I have
thoroughly enjoyed myself and would like to thank all the staff for a great
time!
Taking over the gallery....
On Friday 23rd November, Penlee House Gallery was taken over! As part of 'Takeover Day', a national initiative organised by The Children's Commissioner for England, young people are invited to experience the world of work. The organisation 'Kids in Museums' oversees this programme in heritage sites across the country, and provides resources and publicity to help things along. At Penlee, pupils from Troon Primary School and Pensans Community Primary School became 'education officers' for the day. They had all previously visited the gallery and researched objects or paintings that particularly interested them. They then delivered a workshop to a class visiting from Newlyn Primary school. Pensans had written a quiz, based around the Social History and Archaeology galleries, which the children attempted on the day. This quiz will now be available permanently in the gallery. Everyone enjoyed the experience, and there are definitely some budding education officers or teachers among the pupils of Troon and Pensans! Many thanks to all who took part.
Penlee House signs up to 'Kids in Museums' manifesto.
Penlee House Gallery has recently signed up to the 'Kids in Museums' manifesto. The organisation's website states, "Kids in Museums is an independent charity dedicated to making museums open and welcoming to all families, in particular those who haven't visited before. With a dedicated Board of Trustees and an exciting range of events, partnerships and initiatives, Kids in Museums gives families visiting museums and galleries across Britain a dynamic and powerful voice. The Kids in Museums Manifesto and the Family Friendly Museum Award have been incredibly successful ways of encouraging and guiding museums and galleries across the country to make family visits engaging and enjoyable."
Look out for more family friendly events and activities at Penlee House!
Penlee Education Service Achieves Quality Mark
Penlee House has been awarded the "Learning Outside the Classroom" Quality Mark, awarded by the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom. This means that our education service meets stringent standards on safety and quality of educational experience. The Quality Mark is awarded to sites offering learning experiences outside of schools, such as museums, galleries and heritage sites. For more information, go to http://www.lotc.org.uk/lotc-accreditations/lotc-quality-badge/
New for 2012/2013
We've been busy over the summer coming up with new ideas for educational workshops, and we are proud to announce the addition of two new sessions for the new term!
For early years, we have a new storytelling experience. 'Clunker and Cara - A Crabby Tale' is the story of Clunker the timid crab and how his life changes completely one day after a storm washes an exciting new visitor into his rockpool. The story was previewed at the Newlyn Fish Festival in August, and went down well with the crowds. This session is suitable for Early Years/Foundation stage children and is available from the start of September.
For Key Stage 1 and 2 we are about to launch a new workshop based around the Branwell family who lived in Penlee House. Groups will have the chance to meet Mr and Mrs Branwell and hear about their life at Penlee. With costumed interpreters, a handling session and a tour of the house, this workshop will link into the study of life in Victorian times. This workshop will be available from the beginning of October.
For more information, or to book one of these sessions, contact the Education Officer.
Education volunteer Liz wins prestigious award!
Penlee's education team at the British Museum. Left to right, Rose Edwards, John Wallis, Liz Harman and Katherine Ashton
Liz in action as "Betsy Lanyon".We are proud to announce that Liz Harman, aka "Betsy Lanyon", one of Penlee's staunchest volunteers, has won the prestigious Marsh Volunteer Award for the South West region. Penlee's education team (pictured) travelled to the British Museum on 2nd July to watch Liz pick up her award. The "Volunteers for Museum Learning Award", administered by the Marsh Christian Trust and the British Museum among others, "recognises the hugely valuable contribution that volunteers make in helping museums to engage with their visitors." Around 80 museums and galleries entered for the award, and Liz was among ten regional winners, so we are enormously proud of her and thrilled that her contribution to the education programme and the Gallery in general has been recognised. School groups and regular visitors to the Gallery have no doubt seen her in character as "Betsy Lanyon", the Newlyn fishwife and artist's model from the 1890s, who makes "surprise" appearances to talk about her life and work. Liz's unique style, and particularly her use of Cornish dialect and language, have helped to bring the paintings alive for visitors of all ages. Congratulations Liz!
P.S. We did not make it to the shortlist for the Clore Education Award, but nevertheless, being longlisted for it (and therefore in the top 10 museum education projects in the country), and now Liz's award is certainly helping to put Penlee House Gallery and Museum's education programme on the map!
St Mary's CE School Penzance visit to Penlee House
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Year 1 at St. Mary's CE Primary school, Penzance recently visited us, and these are just some of the fantastic pictures they drew of 'Betsy Lanyon'.
Truro College Student experiences Penlee House!
The week I have spent working with Penlee House has been fun, friendly and very interesting I was surprised by how much work goes on behind the scenes of a company like this; Before I came I thought it would be Simple and not much to do. But I was proved wrong…the first day was one of the best; the Introduction and Tour showed me how much effort and team work is put in. It was so fascinating to see what really goes on and how everything is put together.
I was given a timetable which showed me what I would be doing throughout the week, this was a really good structure and gave me a vague Idea what I would be doing. There was a great variety of jobs I was taking part in; from visiting a Jewish cemetery too Housekeeping. Visiting the Jewish cemetery was a great experience, I found this really interesting for my own benefits. I was also aware how Katherine and John approached this customer and how they showed her around and gave her as many details as possible. This trip was fun, interesting and it helped me gain people skills throughout it. Another job I really enjoyed was working at the shop with Vicky and Stuart, they were both very friendly and helped me to learn how to use the shop till, this took quite a long time and a lot of patience but now I roughly know how to use it. I do feel rather sorry for Vicky and Stuart having to teach me this; as I’m not very good at that sort of stuff. But it was SO much fun and I did learn a lot from working there for a few hours.
My week included many activates such as:
Questionnaires
Introduction & Tour
Witnessing a staff meeting
Photography
Working at the shop
Housekeeping
Rotas
Visiting a Jewish cemetery
Stewarding
Over all I had a great week, everybody was really helpful and kind and I would definitely recommend it to other students interested in this industry. I learnt a lot about maintaining a successful, organised and friendly gallery and museum and had a huge amount of fun.
French Work Experience Student comes to Penlee!
Yoann Tregaro from College Saint-Gildas in Brittany has been with us this week, and has been a tremendous help with stewarding, working in the shop, photographing exhibitions and generally being an excellent asset to the gallery! Here is what he has to say about the week:
"The Work Experience in Penlee House is very interesting because you do a lot of things, in different places and with different people:
-Someone presents you the museum (the exhibition, the store…) and you learn a lot.
-You do some stewarding in the gallery, it isn’t boring because you can speak with the people who are visiting the exhibition.
-You can see a visit of a group or a school and you observe that all the children are very happy and interested in the exhibition.
-You discover a lot of jobs and techniques (the work in the little shop, how to store pottery or other things in the store, how hold different old objects, the description of pictures and how recognize the place or the date…).
-You take pictures of the exhibition so you can remember how it looks.
This museum is very interesting and the exhibition is beautiful, moreover, all the people who work in Penlee House are very very nice".
Many many thanks Yoann for all your help. Come back and see us again!
Adult Art Workshops a success
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Our art workshop for adults, 'Paper Mosaics', was a great success. It was well attended, and the participants produced some fabulous work, inspired partly by Penlee House Gallery and and the collection. Many thanks to Sue Kinley for her leadership of the workshop, and her creative and inspiring ideas.
Indications are that further workshops for adults would be welcome - so keep an eye on our 'What's On - Events' page.
Work Experience at Penlee House Gallery
by Mary Davis, Humphry Davy School
My first impression of Penlee house was that it was a very quiet art gallery, which was probably quite boring, but after spending my work experience week here I have realised that I was wrong. Penlee house was a brilliant place for me to work, the staff are all very friendly, the atmosphere of the place is really lovely and relaxing, and I was always kept busy by the tasks I was set. Throughout the week I have had a great insight into the way that museums work and all of the things that go on behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly, and I have been lucky enough to get to help with many of the tasks that must be done to ensure this happens. My week here has consisted of many jobs and activities including – helping out in the shop, preparing the Easter activities for children, assisting with primary school visits to the museum, and photocopying and saving copies of the huge collection of photographs that the museum has, but my favourite part of the week was definitely when I was given a tour of the store, and got to see all of the objects, clothing and artefacts that the museum has hidden away. After this week my impression of Penlee house has definitely changed, and also my view of how galleries and museums are run, as I now realise that there is so much to do to ensure the successful running of a museum, and it in fact requires lots of time and effort, and I am very glad that I got to spend my work experience week seeing all of this for myself.
Mabe CP School's visit to Penlee House
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Class 3 from Mabe CP School visited us for our 'Betsy Lanyon' workshop, where they met 'Betsy', a Newlyn fishwife, and learned about her life and the pilchard fishing industry in the 1890s. They were shown around the social history museum and took part in a 'Museum Detective' activity with handling objects. Here's what they had to say about their trip:
"I learnt that children had to work when they were young and some of them didn't go to school. I enjoyed shouting out 'Hevva' and I think most of them in the class did."
"Dear Betsy, Thank you for telling me what it is like to be a fishwife. I learnt that you are not married to a fish. I enjoyed drawing you into my sketch book."
"I learnt about fishing and Victorian times."
"Dear Betsy, I really enjoyed myself, it was really nice meeting you."
"I enjoyed looking at all the things that they used to use. It was really really really fun."
"I learnt that being a fishwife wasn't easy... also I learnt that you don't have to wear your best clothes to be in a painting. I enjoyed seeing all the paintings because they were so realistic."
"Dear John, I learnt all about the olden times. I enjoyed the trip. I hope I come back."
"I learnt that Victorians used the same type of things, but they look different and use them differently."
"Dear John, Thank you for telling us about the men with the long underpants and that was really funny!"
"I enjoyed guessing what the objects were."
"Dear Betsy, Thank you for letting us sketch you, I learnt about pilchards. I enjoyed you teaching us."
'Treasures from the Earth' in line for Clore Award for Museum Learning!
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Penlee's project is on longlist of ten for £10,000 prize.
Last year, Penlee House Gallery and Museum's education team ran a series of archaeology workshops for children to coincide with the touring exhibition 'Treasures from the Earth.' Over 200 children took part in activities ranging from an archaeological 'dig', to Iron Age coin and pot making, storytelling and flintknapping. Two talks for adults also proved popular. Now the project could be in line for a major national award, as the longlist for the Clore Award for Museum Learning is announced.
The Award is administered by the Museum Prize Trust, created by the Art Fund, the Campaign for Museums, the Museums Association and National Heritage. It celebrates quality museum and gallery learning with chidren and young people and recognises achievements in learning programmes which develop the skills, knowledge, values and enjoyment of the participants.
Penlee is sharing the honours with nine other organisations nationwide, including the V & A, the Geffrye Museum, the Whitworth Art Gallery and the Yorkshire Museum.
The shortlist will be announced in May, with the £10,000 Award being made at a ceremony in London in June. Fingers crossed - and watch this space!
For more information on the Clore Award for Museum Learning, visit the Art Fund Prize website at www.artfundprize.org.uk