Shetland Museum and Archives
Description
Shetland Museum and Archives is the cultural, heritage and social hub for the islands. The iconic building sits on historic Hay's Dock and houses over 6000 years of history in the fascinating galleries and extensive archives. Discover over 6000 years of history from Shetland's geological beginnings, through the development of the fishing, crofting, textile and oil industries to present day.
The Boat Shed
The working boatshed houses a range of boats from the Museum collection. Visitors can watch master craftsmen at work as they restore and repair historical vessels.
Shetland Archives
Shetland Archives collection contains a range of documents, books and sound recordings from all aspects of life in Shetland. The facility is well used by local researchers and by visitors and academics from all over the world through the online archive database. The oldest document in the collection dates to 1490, with new records being aquired all the time.
The Galleries
Shetland Museum and Archives galleries span over 2 floors and take the visitor on a journey through time from the early beginnings of Shetland, through to the oil boom in the 1970's. The displays include interactive exhibits and detailed displays of artefacts from specialist collections. Examples of fine lace and world famous Fair Isle sit alongside tools and treasures from those who braved the seas to work at the Whaling or Fishing. The 3 storey boat hall houses examples of traditional Shetland boats, suspended in mid air, while the Shetland crofthouse interior is home to the full size re-created Shetland pig, or grice.
Da Gadderie
Da Gadderie is a Shetland dialect term meaning 'a gathering of various things' and perfectly describes the temporary exhibition space on the ground floor. A regularly changing series of art, crafts and artefacts covers a range of subjects with local, national and international significance. Travelling exhibitions have included the world famous Lewis Chessmen.
Life Long Learning
Shetland Museum and Archives is proud of the work done by staff and visiting experts to provide a range of workshops, lectures and events on a range of different subjects. Subject specific tours through the galleries add value to the visitor experience and curatorial staff offer assistance to many researchers in academic study.
Facilities
The Shetland Museum and Archives building is a social hub, with over 86,000 visitors a year. The facilities include meeting rooms, an auditorium with cinema style screen and surround sound and excellent catering and conference facilities. The in-house catering is provided by Hay’s Dock Café Restaurant. Open to the public daily, the café restaurant is situated on the first floor, providing excellent quality local produce in snacks, meals and beverages.
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RECENT FACEBOOK POSTS
facebook.comWe have a few spaces on our P4-7 workshop tomorrow 2pm-3pm. Inspired by the carved Pictish stones in our collections we'll be making clay plaques that can be hung in your bedroom. To book a place visit the link below https://www.shetlandmuseumandarchives.org.uk/events/pictish-wall-hangings-p4-7
Isn't it great to be happy at your work! Trevor took advantage of another fine day to take some of our visitors out for a run in the Laura Kay. If you are in Lerwick from 7th to 13th August, you can sign up for daily trips in several of our traditional boats during Shetland Boat Week
We've been getting creative in our Shetland Nature Festival workshops this week. There are still a few spaces on our Wonderful Wildflowers printing workshop tomorrow, 1030-1230, suitable for P4-7 aged children. To book a place visit https://thelittleboxoffice.com/sat
It was great to have 40 pupils visit from Aith Primary school this morning, who have curated our latest exhibition “Diana”. They were extremely proud of their exhibition and so they should be! They thanked the staff who helped them bring the exhibition to life: Mark Smith - Assistant Archivist, Kirsty Clark - Lifelong Learning Officer and John Hunter – Exhibitions Officer. The exhibition will be on display throughout the summer, outside the Archives Searchroom.
After a bit of a break, our Heritage and Culture newsletter, Unkans, is back! Moving to an electronic format, this will now be available every quarter. You can sign up to the newsletter to receive this to your inbox, or download from our website. https://www.shetlandmuseumandarchives.org.uk/site/assets/files/2913/unkans60-1.pdf
Our new exhibition was curated by P4/5 and P6/7 pupils from Aith Junior High School. Pupils chose the artefacts, photos, letters, wrote all the display text and an accompanying exhibition pamphlet. The exhibition tells the story of the whaling ship 'The Diana' which returned to Shetland 150 years ago after nearly 7 months trapped in the ice. A large number of the crew were Shetlanders. We hope you enjoy the exhibition and thank you to the pupils and teachers at Aith.
Over 70 people enjoyed a wonderful afternoon of music with Norwegian Violist Nora Taksdal in our Boat Hall. We'd like to thank Nora for offering to hold a concert at Shetland Museum and Archives whilst she visited the islands. Apologises for the quality of the film below.
If you would like a preview of the talent of Nora, listen again to the BBC Radio Shetland programme from last night, where she is interviewed and give us a tune from just after 25 minutes. Nora will give her concert in the Boat Hall tomorrow afternoon. https://soundcloud.com/bbcradioshetland/good-evening-shetland-on-wednesday-21st-june-2017?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=facebook
We've been looking at the designs by P4-7 pupils from Aith Junior High School for their new exhibition about the whaler "The Diana". The exhibition opens in the summer and uses artefacts and archival materials the pupils have chosen. We've really enjoyed working with the pupils and can't wait to share their work with you.
A slightly different view of Hay's Dock on a fine calm day! Thanks to Stephen Gordon for allowing us to share his images from last week.
What a busy day, we've had over 800 visitors! There's been a mixture of locals, independent travellers and cruise ship passengers keen to discover more about Shetland's heritage and culture.
Make your own clay wall hanging inspired by the beautiful stone carving left by the Picts. In this workshop we will spend time in the galleries looking at the animals and symbols the Picts carved into stone. There are two workshops available which are suitable for children of different age groups. Please book the relevant class for your child's age. P1-3: 10.30am - 11.30am P4-7: 2.00pm - 3.00pm Location: Learning Room Ticket Price: £4.50 Please note spaces are limited, so booking is essential. Book online at www.thelittleboxoffice.com/smaa or call 01595 741562.
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