Bird Collecting

Bird Collecting (2017) Haden Hill House Museum & Creative Arts project

Bird Collecting was a community heritage project, highlighting the collections held by Sandwell Museum Services. Creative Arts Project are a community arts centre specialising in adults with learning difficulties.

Sandwell Museum Service’s collection features many species but after a visit to Haden Hill House Museum, the group from Creative Arts Project were very animated by the taxidermy collection, after an initial visit to explore the new exhibit An Artistic Revelation. From this room they pulled out a lot of natural objects to explore through drawing. However they were particularly fascinated by the birds on display. Sandwell Museum Service‘s taxidermy collection resides over multiple sites. It was investigated for other examples to inspire our group, resulting in over a dozen items to inspire them on their second visit.

The group responded with great focus and earnestly studied the items, exploring new materials and becoming quite expressive with their mark-making. It was helpful for them to tackle individual aspects of the bird like feet or feathers, rather than just drawing the whole objects themselves. Taxidermy offered them the opportunity to capture the details that they couldn’t if observing live birds in motion.

They enjoyed the sessions immensely and we really enjoyed watching them explore the objects; offering us their unique and joyful interpretations of the museum’s heritage items.