Monthly Archives: September 2012

Creative Learning at the Burns Monument Centre

by bmcuser

We recently participated in East Ayrshire’s Creative Minds Learning Network event, showcasing some of the creative learning opportunities available at the Centre. Our Heritage Arts and Creative Learning CPD event in February attracted a lot of advance attention – we plan to have a fun session where teachers and other education partners can see the kind of resources and activities they can be involved in.

The centrepiece of our showcase was our Kilmarnock Heritage Arts Day, July 2012. This was a partnership between the Centre staff (local history, registration and archive) and the Creative Minds team. It was a fantastic day, which the young people enjoyed immensely. They learned about the history of the Kay Park and used the missing Kay Park Fountain as the basis of their art activity.

Guest visual artist Gemma Coyle worked with the kids to produce this amazing reproduction of the original fountain -

 They also acted out a mock wedding, explored the archive store, and discovered lots of original documents, photographs, letters and newspaper articles from the period of the opening of the Kay Park and Burns Monument in 1879.

 

Zoe Strachan’s Favourite Place

by bmcuser

Further to the post about favourite literary places in East Ayrshire, novelist Zoe Strachan has written a wonderful piece about The Dick Institute for the Scottish Book Trust website. Her piece can also be heard on the site as it was recorded as part of BBC Radio 4′s Women’s Hour.

This unusual view of The Dick Institute at night dates from the 1960s. The monkey puzzle trees mentioned in Zoe Strachan’s piece are visible in the foreground.

 

Literary Places in East Ayrshire

by bmcuser

For the past couple of months we’ve been working on an exhibit of photographs and literary extracts inspired by places in East Ayrshire. We’ve been involved in Scottish Book Trust’s My Favourite Place project, running some writing workshops, and generally rummaging in our collection of Ayrshire poetry books. There is a post on the Scottish Book Trust blog that explains our activities in some detail.

Here are some of the places featured in our exhibit.

To accompany a poem by Robert Hettrick of Dalmellington, ‘Craigs of Ness’ (1826)

A view of Muirkirk, to accompany the poem by John Lapraik ‘Lines Put Upon a Post Leading to the Tar-Work at Muirkirk, 1786′ (1788)

And below, a picture of Kilmarnock’s High Street, to accompany an extract from William McIlvanney’s Docherty (1975)

The Dick Institute

by bmcuser

We’ve recently had on display some items relating to the opening of the Dick Institute, Kilmarnock’s famous library, museum and art gallery. The Dick Institute was gifted to the town by Kilmarnock-born businessman James Dick in 1901. This image is of the official opening in April 1901.

 The items include invitations to the public luncheons for Mr and Mrs Dick in September 1898 (when the foundations were laid) and in April 1901.

Menus and Toast Lists also give a nice insight into public events of the time (picture below from the 1901 event)

We also uncovered a very special family bible, belonging to the Dick family. The bible itself dates from 1767, and contains notes on births, deaths and marriages in the family from 1771. Our expert staff had to do some detective work to verify that this family was indeed that of James Dick – using the Centre’s family history resources of course!

Kilmarnock’s wave making machinery

by bmcuser

At our recent Doors Open Day display one of the most popular items was the brochure for the Glenfield and Kennedy wave machine. The brochure provides information on how the wave machine was built and includes some excellent images, including the fantastic cover -

The wave machine was a unique feature of the baths when they were opened in 1940 and remained a popular attraction until the baths were replaced by the Galleon Centre in the 1980s.

The Burns Monument Centre holds a large collection of Archive material from Glenfield and Kennedy, which was based in Kilmarnock from 1865 until 1982. The company specialised in hydraulic engineering, employing over 200o people. The Kilmarnock works stretched over 26 acres, and the company also had offices in Manchester, Birmingham, London, Calcutta and Bombay.