This is me, Nicola
Hello and welcome to the Me, Myself and Manet blog! I am Nicola Bird and leading on this outreach work for the Ashmolean Museum.
After the successful funding raising in 2012 and saving Manet’s Portrait of Mlle Claus, the Ashmolean has started a series of community projects specifically focused around the portrait. The aim of these projects is to ensure as many people as possible can access and be inspired by the portrait and the museum, and also for the museum to have a positive role within its local community: inspire creativity, support local groups, support equal access to art, learning and maintain the strong local partnerships.
Projects started a couple of months ago and we are currently working with young parents based at the Roundabout Childrens Centre in Barton, Meadowbrook College (a pupil referral unit in Oxford) and Oxfordshire Hospital School, based at the JR hospital in Oxford. The young people and adults we have been working with have developed some inspired work, soon to be exhibited in the Ashmolean (watch this space!).
This blog is to capture the journey and narrative of everyone involved in the community projects over the next year. It’s going to be fun, I look forward to you joining us.