Blog

Ramallah Visitors at the Rumble Museum

On Tuesday, we were privileged to welcome Refa, Adam, Aya Safi and Minna to the Rumble Museum and Cheney, where they spoke to Year Nines and Year Twelves about their experiences of life in a refugee camp in Ramallah.

The visit was organised by the Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association (ORFA). The visitors were linked to the Women’s Centre in the Al Amari Camp, and included two young people from the Al Amari Refugee Camp UNRWA schools.

They spoke about what daily life was like, the sorts of things they did at school and at home, and the challenges they faced every day in the camp. Students were able to ask questions and also watch a short video giving further insight into life in the camp in Ramallah. We are very grateful to Refa, Adam, Aya Safi and Minna for all their time speaking with our students.

Utopia Day at the Rumble Museum

Last Monday was Utopia Day!

Students were able to take part in a wide range of activities and stalls, including an all day creative writing workshop with author of the Ink Trilogy, Alice Broadway, for Year Nines, and a range of utopia-themed stalls and activities in the Library at break, lunch and after school, as well as a community talk with Alice.

The all day workshop got off to a fascinating start with Alice explaining the premise behind the Ink Trilogy, a world where everything people do is tattooed onto their skin. Students were then invited to get into groups, where they developed their own stories about societies where people had attempted to make things better in a range of ways, and the effects these changes had on the central characters in their tales. Students were supported by Alice across the day, and finished by presenting their own storylines and premises.

The boards they had been working on were then moved to the Library after school where students, staff and visitors could explore their work! Alongside this, Year Eights and Nines ran eleven different utopia-themed stalls in the Library, with games, quizzes, book-themed displays, and more. Mostly Books were with us all day selling a mix of titles.

Well done to all who took part and shared their ideas about a better society!

Rumble Museum's Utopia Season, May - July 2023

We are excited to announce our Utopia Season at the Rumble Museum starting in May and running through until the end of July. The season will explore the concept of utopia throughout history to the present day, as well as looking ahead to ideas and hopes for the future, through a range of displays, projects, competitions, debates, and events, culminating in a Utopia Day on Monday 3rd July.

We are kicking off our season of events with a school wide competition to some up with an artistic response to the concept of utopia, whether it be in art, as a poem or story, or an essay or some other means. We will turn all the entries into a Utopia digital and literal wall at our Utopia Day. Professor Danny Dorling from the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford will be our first speaker to launch the season on Friday 5th May.

We have created a display of utopian fiction and writing through time in our front reception display case, with labels and also large letters decorated by our Year Nine Museum Council students to reflect utopian ideas. The cabinet includes Plato's Republic, Thomas More's Utopia, William Morris' News from Nowhere, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland, ARIA by Kozue Amano set in a future Venice-like city, Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson, and other utopian works. You can pop in and take a look at the display between now and the end of July.

More news about Utopia Season will be posted here so keep an eye out for events, talks and more, all on a utopian theme!

Botanic Gardens Trip with Year Eight Museum Council

On Monday 20th March, the Year Eight Museum Council were invited to visit Oxford's beautiful Botanic Gardens to experience some amazing plants, and think about what plants might be included in the Museum of Climate Hope trail.

We arrived fresh from a rainy walk down the hill to be greeted warmly by Lauren Baker, Secondary Learning Officer, and Bill Finnegan, University of Oxford researcher. We started by hearing a bit about the history of the Botanic Gardens - how it used to be called the Physic Garden, and how it was set up in 1621 by Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby. The Danby Gate, the striking arched entrance from the main road, is named after him.

The first thing Lauren took us to see were the mandrakes, which were in the medicinal beds. Lauren explained how mandrakes (made famous by the Harry Potter 'screaming mandrakes') had been used as an early anaesthetic, but that the difference between a teaspoon and a table spoon could mean it was either effective or might stop your heart. Lauren went on to explain how the medicinal gardens had once been laid out according to which area of medicine plants were used in (e.g. dermatological, cardiology, etc), but that they were now split into different themes, including for example 'modern medicine', 'wise women' plants, and plants which were thought to be effective on the part of the body they appeared to be shaped like ('bladderwort', 'lungwort').

Communication: Past, Present and Future - Rumble Conference, 8th March

On Wednesday 8th March, the Rumble Museum at Cheney School in Oxford held an all day event exploring communication in the past, present and future. Asking 200 15-17 year olds, what different 100 years makes, two keynote speakers, and twelve different organisations delivered talks and workshops exploring this question.

The day kicked off with a gripping talk by futurist Sophie Hackford which explored the role of space in our lives already, and in the future. It looked at a range of emerging technology, and gave students a window into space technology from what can be viewed on earth to looking at increasing the number of people living on space stations, and manufacturing in space.

Looking to the past, Rosie Sharkey from The Bodleian Library explored Victorian newspapers to see what people imagined about the future. Printing expert Richard Lawrence introduced the history of printing to students before everyone being able to do their own printed poster on the Rumble Museum's Victorian printing press. Chris Parkin from the History of Science Museum brought machinery from the well-known Marconi Collection to demonstrate the origins of radio, and students were able to make their own circuit radios which worked! Finally, John Conyard from Historical Interpretations brought replicas of the Enigma Machine and other World War Two artefacts to explore communication at the time.

Museum Councils run Egyptian Gallery at the Ashmolean

On Friday evening, 27 Year Eight and Nine Rumble Museum Council students from Cheney School took part in the Ashmolean's "After Hours: Pharaoh Friday" event.

They spent weeks of work on their display boards, prop-making, costumes and activity designs, and last night opened their gallery to the public between 5 and 8pm. They were all in costume as Egyptian gods and characters, with Ptar, Sekhmet, Thoth, Anubis, Nephthys, Bastet, Isis, Khonsu and many others making a divine appearance on the night!

We also displayed our collection of replica scrolls and miniature models of gods and amulets for the public to explore.

Activities and displays included ancient board games, canopic jars, mask-making, jewellery, Egyptian medicine, mummification and pyramids, and more. We are hugely grateful to the team from TORCH - The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities and the Ashmolean Museum for inviting us to run our gallery, and to all the many visitors who came to our stalls.

Bottle tops to Books: Rumble's Ecofest comes to Cheney

On Tuesday 11th October, we were delighted to welcome sixteen different organisations and stall-runners to our Eco Festival at Cheney. Between 2 and 4pm, the whole of Year Twelve, as well as many students from younger year groups explored the large range of information and activity stalls run by Headington Liveable Streets, Conservation Optimism, Low Carbon Hub, Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Action, Wild Oxfordshire, XROxford, and artist Lucinda Creed.

Flora and the PTA Team ran a fantastic vegan and vegetarian snacks and meals stall. Sophie Quantrell ran an eco-themed books stall., and Cheney Sixth Form Environment Committee ran a Debate Topics stall.

Students were able to take part in a range of eco-themed crafts with Year Nine Museum Council students from bottle top artwork to badge-making and upcycling tin cans. XR Oxford offered a range of beautiful block printing, and Conservation Optimism ran a recipe competition amongst many other things.

From 4 until 5pm, there was a viewing of the film Riverwoods, followed by a short talk by Paul Jepson, who spoke about rewilding: what it is and how it can transform our relationship with the natural world. We are so grateful to everyone who took part.

Dystopia Day at the Rumble Museum

On Tuesday 12th July, we rounded up a season of talks, competitions, artefact displays and discussions with our Dystopia Day!

We were joined by award-winning author Chris Beckett, who has written a number of novels with dystopian themes, and a wide range of talks, activities, workshops, film viewings and stalls ran throughout the day. The day kicked off with an assembly for all Year Eights where Chris introduced some of the ideas behind dystopias, and some well-known and lesser-known examples.

Chris then spent the day working with 22 Year Nines who, in groups, created their own dystopian storylines and cover artwork, which they presented to visitors at the end of the day. At break times and lunch times in the Library, our Year Eight Museum Council ran a range of themed stalls and activities exploring different dystopian novels. There was Hunger Games knot-tying and camouflage painting, a Scythe quiz, Divergent tattoos (temporary!), Ready Player One activities, an unfolding story scroll, a Logan's Run life clock, and more! We were also joined by Jack from Mostly Books in Abingdon, who brought an enormous range of titles exploring dystopian themes. A refreshments stall featured Handmaid cakes, Hunger Games "vomit" drink, pinkish stew from 1984 and soma pills!

After school, community visitors arrived to explore the stalls and story boards created by Year Nines, with the addition of Hunger Games training outside, including archery and axe-throwing. Chris Beckett then delivered a community talk in which he gave feedback on each of the story boards created during the day. These boards will be turned into displays for 10th September, when the Rumble Museum is co-hosting Ai-Da the robot at the Weston Library all day.

We are very grateful to Chris for spending the day with us, to all our students for their amazing work, and to everyone who came to explore and support amidst the dystopian temperatures!

Exploring our Middle East Collections with Rana Ibrahim

On Thursday 6th October, we were delighted to welcome Rana Ibrahim, museum curator and founder of Iraqi Women: Art and War to visit Cheney School to help us understand more about the beautiful Middle Eastern items which have been loaned and donated to the Rumble Museum.

Rana spoke to Sixth Formers studying the Middle East as part of their History A Level course about the very wide range of objects in the collection. She talked about the prayer mat and prayer beads, explaining how Muslims use Qibla apps to position the mats towards Mecca in order to pray. She explained how the prayer beads were in groups of eleven, making 33 beads, and a prayer would be repeated for each bead.

She spoke about the geometric and nature-themed patterns of the wall-hanging and pillow case in the collection that was common across Arabic regions. She noted that the small dress in the collection would be a little girl's dress, and was made in Jordan. She pointed out the beautiful embroidery on the edges. There are two children's alphabet books to teach Arabic, and also a brochure for this French-Arabic film festival from 2014.

As well as this, she explained how a beautiful metal serving plate and teapot would have been used in hospitality, with sugar pots, and intricate geometric style patterns.

We are very grateful to Rana for sharing her expertise and helping us identify and understand these objects in their contexts. Sixth Form Historians are now preparing to curate a display of these items in our Lane Building cabinets as part of the many Rumble Museum displays on site.

Creating New Signage for the Rumble Museum

When the museum was awarded full accreditation by the Arts Council in March 2020, it was recommended that we improve museum signage around the school.

We applied for an Accreditation Grant from the South East Museum Development Office to create new signs, and our Year Eight Museum Council are now working with acclaimed designer Naomi Waite on creating a large new sign and map on the back wall in reception, as well as smaller signs around the school to show what is in each building.

The students chose the London Underground map as the basis for their design, and are now exploring how to create separate "lines" which people can follow to see different sorts of artefacts. Ideas such as having a "bee line" with the museum's "must see" items, and things like a nature lover's line are being explored. Naomi is an expert designer who, amongst many other things, created the Alice's Day Signs around Oxford. The students will work throughout this month on their signs, which will be installed this summer!

Museum Council Students Introduce Ai-Da at the Weston Library

On Saturday 10th September, Museum Council Year Nine and Ten students co-hosted Ai-Da the robot at an all day event at the Weston Library as part of Oxford Open Doors. For the whole day, art work and creative writing exploring the possibilities of the future was on display in the main atrium, where the students spoke to members of the public about the various ideas and themes in the exhibition items. These ranged from robot designs for our robots outside at Cheney, to poems and artwork imagining A.I. in the future, to a set of storyboards created as part of our Dystopia Day last term.

At 11 to 12, the students were able to meet Ai-Da, see her create a brand new piece of artwork, and to hear about the reasons behind her creation by Ai-Da's creator, Aidan Mellor. Students spoke to the audience about the different A.I.-related events which they had taken part in throughout the year as part of the Rumble Museum programme, from A.I. Breakfast Talks and a visit to Oxbotica, to a school-wide competition to explore A.I. in art and writing.

Ai-Da appeared again to answer questions from the public in the afternoon in the main atrium.

Castle of Our Skins Workshop at the Rumble Museum

We were delighted and honoured to welcome five musicians from the organisation Castle of Our Skins to deliver a workshop with musical performances to Year Tens this week.

Castle of Our Skins is is a concert and educational series which is dedicated to celebrating Black artistry through music. The visit was organised by Dr Samantha Ege. Samantha is a soloist performer, and the Lord Crewe Junior Research Fellow in Music at Lincoln College, University of Oxford.

The workshop introduced influence of spirituals on classical music, encouraging the students to think about the role of music in communities, and linking lyrics and the shape of the spirituals songs to the experiences of enslaved peoples. It explored how songs can be a form of resistance, both in terms of binding a group of people and also in terms of passing on important messages. One example of this was "Wade in the Water" where it was explained to the students that dogs were often used to track down escaping slaves, and being in the water can take away the scents that the dogs are pursuing.

Musicians Ashleigh, Matthew, Francesca and Gabrielle performed each piece after introducing the context to the students, and discussed the emotions invoked by the sound of the music with the students.

It was an amazing experience and we are enormously grateful to everyone involved for such an informative and moving workshop.

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