The Ministry's Pay Day Picks

Have you spent the past month slaving over loan agreements? Do you have aching bones after a long install? Or feeling the strain from the school holiday craziness? In any case its time to treat your self with some museum goodies! 

1. A commemorative cushion from the Imperial War Museum. £30

2. Drinking a bottle alone? Make some friends with these cute ad dons for your discarded wine corks. £3 each at the Science Museum

3. Did you love playing with these cut out dolls as a kid? Now you can dress up your own Frida Khalo cut out in fabulous Mexican gowns and envy those brows! Available at the Fashion and Textile Museum.

 4. What more could you do to satisfy a museum geek? Buy them a pair of Anne Boleyn  pants! You'll be guarenteed an exciting night. Not currently available in a museum but can be found here  for only £15 http://www.askherfriends.com/product/tudor-pants/  

5. When work gets you down you need some relentless optimism! A 'We Make Our Own Future' mug designed by Rose Vickers is a must have for every museum lovers work cuppa. £15 from V and A shop. 

The Ministry at the Imperial War Museum

Here at The Ministry we've spent the past six months awaiting the reopening of the galleries at the Imperial War Museum and London has certainly been missing the real home of 'Keep calm and carry on'. But finally forty million pounds later IWM London is ready for the public once more. Having undergone an intensive transformation that has seen the museum 'dig deep for victory' into the basement to heighten the central hall and the arrival of over sixty new objects to the space the atrium and surrounding galleries offer a new playground of emotion for war historians, museum enthusiasts and families seeking homework help.

Saturday sees the reopening of the fine institution and there's no doubt it's going to be a pain in the neck for the visitors lucky enough to spend the first day looking up at the incredible suspensions and fancy building. Fortunately The Ministry was able to get a sneak peak (and book a trip to the osteopath) before the crowds gathered and we can guarantee you'll have one heck of a trip.

 

With the museum's director expecting a hazardous trip down the stairs by overawed visitors into the atrium galleries we expect bafflement to soon prevail as the sheer size and weight prompt questions that can only be answered by the most expert of object handlers. 'How the hell did that get there?!' As a military jeep teeters on the edge of a balcony from the second floor and a boat pokes its starboard out the technical teams object handling level has certainly reached the apex. Yet documentation has run away to hide as interpretation is left up to the visitor, no numbers, no descriptions no links to collections online the galleries let the objects cultural power and history speak for themselves.

 

The World War One gallery provides an immersive experience into the history of the battle, sensitive and emotive interactive are used to guide the complex politics of war whilst sound and video plays a moving soundtrack to the visit. Dotting the route are rest spots, semi circles facing towards a singular evocative object within a missile shaped bell jar allowing visitors to reflect on the horrific history of war.

Showing the current criticism, The War There Never Was Gallery shows the familiar contemporary battles of the 21st century featuring fascinating objects such as the trial stand for the Lockerbie bombers and a section of a window from the twin towers alongside stop the war coalition posters the gallery provides a fresh scathing look at the horrors so often glorified.

 With such a fantastic and sensitive design of the spaces we could only truly express our delight by instagramming the shniz out of the place; therefore we want you to spend the next week doing the same. Show off the imperial war museums latest design and tweet us your favourite IWM instagrams for your chance to win a copy of IWM: The First World War on the Home Front by Terry Charman kindly donated by @ADMilitary. Use the hash tag #MinistrylovesIWM and we'll draw a winner next Friday so get to the museum and work that iPhone addiction museum geeks! 

 

 

Sad dinosaurs and happy surgeons in The Time's 50 Best Museums

In case you missed it, last weekend The Times Magazine ran afeature on the world’s 50 best museums. The article begins, ‘Museums are notmusty repositories of outmoded relics. They are vivid compendiums of ourcultural life.’ We here at the Ministry couldn’t agree more. But how did theTimes rank a globe full of fabulous museums into only 50? And more importantly,how did London fare on this illustrious list? Don’t worry if you don’tsubscribe because we have it all right here for you. (Well thefirst 20 at least…)

First question is, of course, who ranked number one? Who claims the crown in total world museum domination? Drumroll please….

SMITHSONIAN INSTIUTION. Wait…what? As in all the Smithsonianstogether? Really? That seems hardly fair to somehow blend together the Sackler,the American History Museum and the National Air and Space Museum amongstothers into one behemoth competitor. Whatever, we guess the Smithsonians arealready. But just you watch out Washington DC coming up right behind you is ourfirst London museum!

It is….

The British Museum! And boring again. Just seems a bitobvious and derivative really. Of course the British Museum is wonderful, whywouldn’t they be? They have all the culture from the rest of the worldsquirreled away. Lets continue down the list and see if can get past CaptainObvious.

After a stop off in Greece the number four best museum inthe world is…

Sir John Soane’s Museum! Woooaaahhh out of no where! Way to get inthere small obscure London house museum of architectural history. This is oneof my favourite museums in London so I am glad but a bit shocked to see it sohigh up on the list! Really well done Soane’s Museum, now get back to openingup more of the house.

Number 5 is the American Natural History Museum in New York(fair enough, everyone loves a good diorama) and then on number 6, the ImperialWar Museum.

To be fair, they have ranked all of the Imperial War Museums acrossthe UK in one category. They even gave a shout out to IWM North in Manchester,in my opinion probably the best one. So hooray for military history getting inearly.

Number 7 is not a London based museum but the Topkapi Museumin Istanbul. Despite my undying love for this city, this has to deserve aspecial mention. The Topkapi museum is one of my favourites ever so really niceto see it going so well! At number 8 is Versailles…? Is Versailles a museum? Isuppose technically it is. Its gorgeous. We’ll accept it.

Our next London museum coming in at a very respectablenumber 9 is the V&A. I am really surprised the V&A is down at number 9,below the IWM. This museum is kicking some serious ass this year with two newpermanent galleries opening and a series of absolute smash hit exhibitions(Hollywood Costume, Bowie). Huh, well, everyone loves the V&A they don’tneed the publicity.

Number 10 is the National Museum of China and at number 11the Pitt Rivers Museum! Ooo interesting. This is a bit of a divisive one formuseum people. As a Victorianist I am completely obsessed with the Pitt Rivers.But as one London colleague recently pointed out to me spiritedly at anopening, what have they done in the last 150 years? To be fair they do a lot ofamazing research, but I can see his point.

At number 12 its… wait a minute, the Science Museum? A hush falls over the crowd. Are you meaningto tell me that the Science Museum has beaten in the ratings its SouthKensington neighbour and fiercest of rivals the Natural History Museum? Sorry,but NHM isn’t even here in the top 20, relegated to 21. Do you need some aloevera for that burn? Complete scandal in the museum world. Me, I really like theScience Museum. I think they have done a lot recently to make their offeringreally fun and dynamic, lates are brilliant, they finally have some kind of atemporary exhibition schedule going. They are also opening two new galleries inthe near future: Media Space and the unfortunately named ‘Information Age’. TheMinistry is not part of the London set which spurns the Science Museum at everyopportunity (cough Museums Showoff) but really, what a shocker!

Our next LondonMuseum comes at number 15 and it is the Hunterian Museum at the Royal Collegeof Surgeons. Damn, Lincoln’s Inn Fields’ small museums are getting some seriouslove in this article! The Hunterian is undeniably my favourite museum in Londonand it so wonderful to see a medical museum finally getting some seriousattention! They seem to know how to celebrate their 200^thanniversary right between this seriously high rating and a new exhibitionopening this week (we tweeted some sneak-peek images just a few days ago!) Withtheir star clearly on the rise, the Hunterian is one to watch.

And none for you Natural History Museum.

I said I wouldn’tbore you any longer than 20 into the list, and that’s it for London’s museumsI’m afraid! Sorry NHM, 21 doesn’t quite make the grade! Oh stop it now, thevisitor figures for Natural History are off the charts, I think they can getby. The rest of the list reads like a dream vacation for me. The Museo Nacionalde Antropologia in Mexico City is number 43, the Luxor Museum in Egypt is 38,the Museum of the Moving Image in New York at 22 and the Vasa Museum inStockholm at 32.