BAFM INTERNATIONAL NEWS - 1
NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
The Portuguese Federation of Friends of Museums and the Groupe Amigos Museu Oriente are hosting the World Federation of Friends of Museums (WFFM) Council meeting and General Assembly from 20th-23rd May 2010 in Lisbon. A number of BAFM Council Members and British WFFM members will be attending – there will be a report in the next issue.
A letter from Daniel Ben-Natan, President, WFFM, gives the good news that the Korean Federation of Friends of Museums, KFFM, have joined WFFM as Active Members, and their representative will be in Lisbon.
The 2011 World Congress of WFFM will also be held in Europe, in Genoa, in late September 2011. Please note that all BAFM members are entitled to attend, without having to also be Individual Members of WFFM.
The US Federation of Friends of Museum (USFFM) are working on the program for giving small grants to small museums, to help with their educational programs. The North American Regional Meeting will take place in Washington DC on 19th-20th April, with representatives from the Canadian FFM, Mexican Federation (FEMAM) and USFFM. Again, a member of BAFM expects to be at the meeting (at the time of going to print, the volcanic dust was throwing plans to the wind) and we have been promised a full report for the next issue.
Still in the United States, a fascinating exhibition: ‘Werowocomoco: Seat of Power’, will be opening on 15th May at Jamestown Settlement, Williamsburg, Virginia, showing, for the first time in a museum setting, more than sixty artefacts recovered archaeologically at Werowocomoco. It includes projectile points dating to the early Archaic period (6,500 to 800 BC) and late Woodland period (AD 900-1,600), indicating an indigenous presence there thousands of years before the English arrived.
There will also be a selection of copper alloy fragments dating to the early 17th century. The copper is of European manufacture and has a chemical composition similar to fragments found at Jamestown, site of America’s first permanent English settlement, offering evidence of trade between the Powhaten and English cultures.
Through maps and writings the exhibition will also explore the story of Captain John Smith’s journey to Werowocomoco, where he was held prisoner by Powhaten in 1607 and, in one later account, he claimed that Powhaten’s daughter had saved him from death at her father’s hand.
NEARER TO HOME
Adventuring abroad, armchair style, I attended a very interesting talk given at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, by Captain M. K. Barritt, on the maritime artist John Thomas Serres. His incredible sketches proved invaluable to the Admiralty Board and the Fleet during the close blockade of France during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Mike Barritt included espionage, shipwreck, mutiny and hydrographic controversy in his account of Serres’ career, and showed fascinating slides of Serres’ beautiful sketches that, even now, are invaluable to cruising yachtsmen.
M. K. Barritt’s book ‘Eyes of the Admiralty’ has reproductions of masses of Serres’ sketches, as well as other charts and historic detail and is available from the NMM.
www.nmm.ac.uk
A REMINDER
When travelling abroad, BAFM members are invited to contact WFFM affiliated museums who could enhance their visit with hospitality or information on their regions. More information is available on our website www.bafm.org.uk, by linking to the WFFM website, which also gives WFFM Individual Membership and other details. |