Cathy's Art Diary

Late night opening at the Greenwich Heritage Centre to launch their World War I War Memorials project. There was a stall about the project which hopes to find out more about soldiers named on local memorials and see if they still have family in the area. I have volunteered to help with this. There were also stalls from the Firepower, the Royal Artillery museum next door, a group from the Progress Estate in Eltham, built to house munitions workers, which celebrates its centenary next year and a group looking to preserve the Blue Cross animal cemetery on Shooter’s Hill. I also went to an interesting talk by a lady from the War Memorials Trust about their work and had a good chat to a man on the Firepower stall about how I might find out more about my Grandfather who fought in World War I. On his advice I am going to contact the archivist at the Museum. However, almost best of all, was the Hop Stuff stall selling beer brewed on the Royal Arsenal site, about 200 yards awa...

Fun evening at Greenwich Heritage Centre in Woolwich showcasing their work and that of other local businesses. This was a really nice idea and it was good to see the local café Cornerstone there as well as the new brewers at the Royal Arsenal Hop Stuff Brewery. It was the first time I’d tried Hop Stuff’s wares and I’ll certainly be looking out for some more Fusilier. I also came away with herbs to grow in a jar and some body butter! A varied selection of stalls!  

A delightful evening opening at the Wallace Collection taking the form of following the Grand Tour round Europe. You began with a glass of wine which you could take round the gallery with you while you dropped into various talks on aspects of the collection themed to match the night. My friend and I did the French section, which looked particularly at objects such as a Rocco chest of drawers and some Sevres porcelain, and the Italian section, looking at Canaletto and how you might spend your time in Venice on the Grand Tour. We missed the Dutch talk as by then we were musing on life! There were also unstructured activities such as a wine tasting, creating a postcard or a masque and period make up. I loved the period make up section as it basically amounted to face painting for adults and as the evening wore on more and more people emerged with glittery masques drawn on their faces!