North Walls pupils graduate as Junior Curators for Scapa Flow Museum

Contractors are not the only ones who have been hard at work on the redevelopment of the Scapa Flow Museum.

Local pupils from North Walls Community School have been undergoing training with a range of professionals to help them fulfil the role of Junior Curators at the Museum when it reopens.

In September, pupils were visited by experts from National Galleries Scotland Mara Barth (Learning Officer) and Freya Spoor (Curator) - who took them through a two-day workshop to become Junior Curators.

Over the course of the visit they worked with images from the Scottish Collection and learned that sometimes artists ‘hide’ images in their work, so that things might not always be what they at first seem.

Working with a range of pictures, pupils chose an image they liked and an image they didn’t - opening up discussion about taste and how it’s interesting to delve into why people may or may not ‘like’ a particular image - and how art works about a particular period can give us clues about what life was like at that time (whether or not they appeal to you!)

Pupils also delved into the interpretation of works - how to write labels to accompany them, and how museum curators can use stories, lighting and other exhibits to draw out points of interest for visitors.

That was followed by an all day workshop on 12 November with Ellen Pesci, curator at the Orkney Museum, and Emma Gee the Council’s Arts Development Officer who worked with children using the curatorial skills they’d gained with NGS to delve into ‘The Dome’ – an artwork by Jim Baikie, renowned local illustrator – and Ellen’s father.

The main focus of the artwork centres around Jim’s memories of growing up on Hoy in the immediate period after WWII and will be installed as the only artefact in the dedicated education space – which will also be named “The Dome” after the title of the painting.

Pupils then went on to ‘map’ their favourite place in Hoy, marking them out with masking tape in the school Hall – just as The Dome was based on Jim’s childhood haunts around Lyness. They then created titles for their masking tape creations – putting into practice how to interpret images for an audience to provide insights into an artwork.

Finally, the children wrote labels for their own Dome paintings created earlier in the year (it’s hoped to have an opportunity to showcase these to the local community in coming months) - and everyone to contributed ideas for a label for The Dome painting itself in the new Museum, tailored to their age group.

Ellen Pesci (Curator) said: “Adapting the methods used by NGS to our own tailored workshop marks the start of a valuable process of communication between our museums, their respective collections and schools so that we continue to be a resource that can support curricular activity across the county.

“It was also wonderful - on both a personal and professional level - to have the opportunity to discuss my father’s painting with an audience who could so completely relate to the idea of using one’s imagination to illustrate a memory, which in turn informed their response to the workshop and their own Dome paintings.”

Head Teacher at the school Shirley Stuart said: “This has been a fantastic opportunity for pupils to exercise team work skills, and writing for different audiences – as well as insight into what it might be like to work as a curator.

“One of our school priorities is to develop creative literacy opportunities to support engagement and enthusiasm about writing across all levels and the junior curator process has been a super gateway to that.

“We’re all so excited about the junior curator process and very grateful to NGS for helping us set it in motion so we can build on it in coming years, to keep that active link between pupils in Hoy and the exhibits for their peers at the Scapa Flow Museum.”

Emma Gee (Arts Development Officer) said: “Pupils have really taken to their junior curator training with a lot of energy and enthusiasm - what we hope is that at the end of this process the children will have in place a label and setting for the ‘Dome’ which has some really engaging ‘provocations’ for their peers - one which will encourage them to imagine life in Hoy and inspire them to create their own artwork based on The Dome.”

Mara Barth (Learning Officer) and Freya Spoor (Curator) from National Galleries Scotland said: “This workshop was part of the Celebrating Scotland’s Art project, which involves a major redevelopment of the Scottish National Gallery, where the nation’s outstanding collection of historic Scottish art is displayed.

“After so much live activity was paused due to the pandemic, it was brilliant to be able to share the collection in-person once again with communities across Scotland.

“As part of their Junior Curator training, the pupils of North Walls Community school explored the different ways we can tell the story of the artwork and the artist who made it.

“Working with the school and the staff was an absolute joy - their thoughts and ideas about what makes good interpretation are invaluable as we work on making the new displays relevant to audiences just like them. Thank you so much for having us!”

More about ‘The Dome’:

‘The Dome’ described by Jim Baikie himself:

“The ‘Dome’ is a black, windowless building. It was used in WWII as some kind of navigational simulator. It was almost certainly top secret, which probably explains its invisibility to all but those who lived near it. Most of the interior is occupied by an enormous hollow ball. Painted blue sea extends half way up inside of the ball, to a line representing the horizon. The upper half of the ball, representing sky, is white. I didn’t see inside it until after the mechanised elements were removed. A pit remains in the floor, where I assume a mock up of a ship’s bridge was installed. A hole at the top of the ball presumably housed some kind of projection equipment. High up on the ‘sky’ part of the ball are several observation slots. Local children inevitably got inside during the fifties, and my painting deals with this.”

Ellen gives more background on how the Dome has become a focal point for a designated education space in the new Scapa Flow Museum:

“The Dome itself was a gunnery training room in Rinnigall, near where dad lived during the late forties/early fifties.

“As the name suggest, it was a dome shaped building, constructed and hidden inside a large military building. This building still stands, but as the roof has now fallen in, any evidence of the internal Dome structure has practically vanished after years of exposure.

“If you look closely, there are other wartime themes in the painting - the warships in the ‘Flow, and the rotating radar cups on the roof of the Crockness Martello tower for example.

“‘The Dome’ was originally created for the Pier, but it was decided that in the longer term ownership would transfer to the Orkney Museum, so that it could be hung in Scapa Flow Museum.

Then, with Dad originally being from Hoy, and it also being the only artefact which looks at the military landscape from a childhood perspective, the team working on the new Scapa Flow Museum felt it was a good fit for the Museum’s new education space.”

More about the Scapa Flow Museum:

The Scapa Flow Museum charts Orkney’s military involvement in the First and Second World Wars and provides a safe home for a major collection of wartime artefacts, many of national and international importance.

It is currently undergoing a refurbishment project valued at of £4.3 million, comprising an extension to the Museum and refurbishment of the historicpumphouse, supported by Orkney Islands Council, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic Environment Scotland, the Orkney LEADER 2014-2020 programme, Highlands and Islands Enterprise,  Museums Galleries Scotland and the Scottish Government’s European Regional Development Fund programme, managed by NatureScot through the Natural & Cultural Heritage Fund. (The Natural & Cultural Heritage Fund is part of the Scottish Government’s European Regional Development Fund programme, which finishes in 2023. NatureScot is also managing another element of the programme – the Green Infrastructure Fund. The Scottish Government is the Managing Authority for the European Regional Development Fund and the European Structural Funds 2014-20 Programme. For further information visit the Scottish Government website or follow @scotgovESIF.)

Before it’s closure for refurbishment, the Museum attracted 14,000 visitors each year. It’s anticipated visitor numbers will significantly increase as a result of the ambitious and extensive changes and upgrades.

When complete, the Museum will open all-year-round for the first time in many years, encouraging more people to visit Hoy and boosting tourism throughout the island.

About the National Galleries of Scotland:

The National Galleries of Scotland cares for, develops, researches and displays the national collection of Scottish and international art and, with a lively and innovative programme of activities, exhibitions, education and publications, aims to engage, inform and inspire the broadest possible public.

Ellen’s link with Scapa Flow Museum and it’s Pumphouse

My connection to Lyness is that firstly, my paternal family is Baikie.

The first of our direct line moved there from mainland Orkney in the early 1700s. They lived in the Crockness area, farming a croft built by my so many times great grandfather and renting the land from the lairds of Melsetter estate.

By the late 1800s, my great grandfather, who was a master carpenter, became the go-to man for works on the Martello Towers, the Hackness battery, schools, churches etc - as well as being a member of the Voluntary artillery corps. (I still have his competence certificates).

His son, my grandfather Vic Baikie was born Albert William Hugh Baikie in 1917, but as my great grandfather was also involved in salvage works in the ‘Flow, the crew of HMS Victorious invited the family to christen my grandad on board the ship (I have a photo). Therefore, of his three given names, none of them were used with the family and islanders preferring his nickname of “Victor” or “Vic” after the ship.

When Sir William Arrol’s company came to Orkney to install the underground tanks in 1937, my then 20 year old grandfather was often called up to help with machinery problems as the Arrol company didn’t have an onsite engineer. As he had an extremely technical brain, he could fix almost anything.

After the war, my grandfather was works foreman at Lyness, again doing everything but with a specialist ability in delicate welding. Islanders said that the equipment would have broken down a lot more often if it hadn’t been for his work.

Sadly, he died in 1969 so I never met him – but by all accounts he was a lovely man. It’s gratifying to be working to help protect the pumphouse machinery he once took so such good care of – I like to think that it might not be standing here today in a museum were it not for his handiwork back then.

He married my granny, Nettie Hamilton in 1939, and my father Jim Baikie and aunt Janice were born in 1940 and 1941.

My dad, Jim Baikie was a successful comic artist, working for 2000AD and DC Comics amongst others.

“The Dome” is an artwork by my dad depicting island life in the post-war years from a childhood perspective. The Rinnigill gas plant and gunnery training room were right on my father’s doorstep as a child, and provided an amazing (and dangerous) playground for children growing up in Hoy – and we hope the painting brings a little bit of that magic and excitement to the Scapa Flow Museum’s education space.

(Incidentally , Ellen’s paternal surname also has another connection with the county’s museums through the Baikies of Tankerness House, where the Orkney Museum is located).