Four Museums by the Sea

About a week or so ago, Kevin and I survived a two hour bus ride, on a bus full of chatty 18-year-olds, (or talkative students I perceived could not possibly be older than the age of 18), in the wee hours of the brisk English morning to Liverpool. Shortly after arrival, and one egg-sandwich later, we found ourselves at Albert Dock with about seven hours to kill. The city of Liverpool developed around its maritime activities, as one England's largest ports. Albert Dock, a series of docks and warehouses first opened in 1846, (and for those of you interested, also the first non-combustible warehouse system in the world, as it was the first in Britain to be built from cast iron, brick, and stone), is currently a major tourist attraction and one of the six locations in Liverpool granted World Heritage Status by UNESCO. This specific dock was the lucky winner of our patronage that lovely Saturday due to the high concentration of museums, restaurants, and shops within its rehabilitated walls. In just one day we were able to visit the Beatles Story, Tate Liverpool, Merseyside Maritime Museum, and the International Slavery Museum.

The Beatles Story, surprisingly, tells the story of The Beatles. As I'm noticing with many museums here in England, The Beatles Story contained many experiential elements. Exhibit spaces are transformed into certain locations, bringing the visitor into the world of The Beatles. When describing the band's experiences in Germany, visitors stepped onto a street in Hamburg alongside an exterior of a club, inside which The Beatles played to a sold-out crowd, the muffled music reaching the street. Neon signs proclaimed club names and sprawled on the recreated sides of buildings is graffiti reading "Ich leibe dich, John!" Other experiential spaces throughout the exhibit included a 1960s-era plane to represent the band's invasion of America, a completely recreated (to scale) Cavern Club, and of course a very playground-like version of the Yellow Submarine. A reflective space at the end of the exhibition included four separate viewing rounds, each customized to fit the persona of the specific Beatle whose life achievements it chronicled.

Tate Liverpool is the Liverpool arm of the Tate, which includes Tate St. Ives, Tate Cornwall, and the two London Tates: Tate Modern and Tate Britain. The museum focuses on international modern art, although it also shows works from the Tate's national collection of British art, which is more traditional in scope. The renewed warehouse which holds the gallery has been fantastically converted. The prime exhibition space includes roomy galleries with high ceilings and a daring use of bright pink paint on the walls. Along with its semi-permenent, and fantastic, sculpture gallery, we luckily stumbled upon the rotating gallery and Mark Rothko's Seagram Murals. Each of the nine works, out of the original forty, had been created by Rothko for the Four Seasons Restaurant in 1958-1959. Although meditative and emotive, Rothko once admitted his true intention in creating the murals was to "ruin the appetite of every son-of-a-b*tch who ever eats in that room. If the restaurant would refuse to put up my murals, that would be the ultimate compliment." Hot.


A surprising treat turned out to be the Maritime Museum. Never a real fan of naval and oceanic history, I found myself truly engaged with the exhibits. Again elements of transformation created spaces which directly reminded visitors of the subject matter of each gallery. A recreated street scene of the early 1940s brought patrons into the realities of a country under attack. Visitors may have come to see the blockbuster-type opening exhibits focused on major boating disasters of the 20th century, (Titanic, Lusitania, and Empress), but stayed to learn about the Battle of the Atlantic, careers on the sea, luxurious tourist and passenger liners, and cargo shipping. A kitchen interactive visually explained what everyday items the British still receive through shipping trade. An interdisciplinary gallery featured artwork involving the sea, from paintings to sculpture.

Connected to the Maritime Museum is the International Slavery Museum. Initially entering the museum I was surprised to find connections made between historical and contemporary slavery with an exhibit exploring slavery today. Moving from this orientation space into a chronologically organized exhibition, the visitor is first introduced to an almost anthropological look at west African culture, again employing experiential elements of recreated homes. This section connects historical slavery with west Africans, and shows the spread of culture from Africa to the new world. I appreciated the introductory label, which clearly stated that Africa is the birthplace of human cultures and civilization; all ancestors originally came from Africa. The second main section looks at the middle passage and enslavement of west Africans. Along with experiential exhibitions, I've found museum interactives in England to be highly developed and generally in wide use. At the International Slavery Museum, interactive maps allow visitors to choose historic characters and routes. The interpretation in this section does not shy away from Liverpool's involvement in the slave trade or the tremendous horrors of the middle passage experience. The last main section is an exploration of modern legacies of slavery, including discrimination in both the United States and the UK. One object we found was actually a klan outfit from Orange County in New York State. A "Black Achievers Wall" featured inspirational black leaders, intellectuals, writers, athletes, and famous faces. An overflow wall has been started, and will be continued. Barack Obama's photograph is a recent addition.

Along with experiential exhibitions and highly developed interactions, visitor service is greatly valued in British museums. These highly trafficked museums in tourist hubs function as professional businesses where the visitor is the valued customer. All four museums were free of charge, offered audio tours, and aides for disabled visitors, such as Braille guides and special tours. While the text on panels followed a generally uniform size, fitting within the basic guidelines of appropriate museum exhibition practice, extra large label text booklets were usually available for visitors with less than stellar eye sight.


After a successful day museum hopping, we journeyed back to Sheffield upon the bus of broken dreams (OK, maybe over exaggerating, but those "young adults" were chatty!) However, riding through the Peaks District at sunset made up for any initial irritating bus experience.