Don't you get a little excited when you discover something new? Well, I do and this weekend I had the pleasure of attending a tour with Geoff Ginn at the Abbey Museum in Caboolture.
Yes, this is a little different I hear you say and what is it all about?
It's about artefacts. Before I tell you about the tour, I need to give you a little insight into this very special and immaculate museum.
One of the displays
The Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology had its roots in the Abbey Folk Park established by the Rev JSM Ward in New Barnet in England in 1934. John Ward was educated at Cambridge and from a young age, he had an interest in antiquities and collections. In 1929, he founded a utopian religious community which established Abbey Folk Park, Britain's first social history museum. Basically, he salvaged thirty houses and put prehistoric, medieval and classical collections on display for all to see. Sadly this interesting museum of social history closed in 1940 because of the war and from some 90,000 items on display, a preponderance of them was sold off to finance the migration of John Ward to Cyprus where he died in 1949. In 1956, the followers of John Ward, as well as the remains of the collection, emigrated to Australia and ended up in Caboolture and in1986, the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology was officially opened and it houses the collection as it is today.
I had the pleasure of attending a tour of the museum lead by Geoffrey Ginn, who gave us a well documented and very entertaining tour of the museum and its artefacts with an artistic perspective of how necessity and everyday life actually enables creativity and invention.
A penny farthing
The museum has collections of artefacts dating from ancient prehistory to the present. They are all beautifully displayed and annotated. Very many pieces are unique and noteworthy. We looked at some of them and how they related to art and creativity. This culminated in a tea with cakes around a magnificent Christmas tree where we could explore the meaning of some of the artworks and the archaeology on display with other participants on the tour.
A knight in shining armour
Chinese glass containers
The one Chinese glass container displayed on the right has a painting on the inside of the glass - a truly remarkable artwork.
The Abbey Museum holds a series of events which may appeal to many readers. It is also a venue for providing education and entertainment to many thousands of visitors. It attracted 25,000 visitors in 2017. It often hosts events for schools as it the perfect place to explore history, art and archaeology through the ages. It is immaculately kept with engaging depictions and explanations of the many items on display, some of which are original and unique.
If you are a fan of the medieval ages, you will love the museum and all it has to offer from medieval banquets, tournaments and medieval Christmases. There are trivia nights and picnics and much more which you can explore on the website below.
Perhaps however the first stop would be a visit to the museum itself to admire its many beautiful artefacts and to check out the events and tours currently on at the Museum.
It was a day of exploration, adventure and insight and I can warmly recommend it to lovers of history, art and archaeology.
