Last Friday
(10th March) saw the official opening of the Museum of English Rural
Life, (MERL for short) Ladybird Books gallery.
This was my second visit to the museum but I thought I should wait until
after the official opening to offer readers of this blog a review.
What is the
MERL and what has it got to do with Ladybird Books?
When the
Ladybird Books factory and offices in Loughborough were closed down in 1999, numerous boxes of
original Ladybird artwork were moved to London where they sat neglected in a
dark corner for a number of years. Not
all of the Ladybird artwork was in those boxes – but a great deal was. Eventually staff at Penguin sought a new home
for this artwork and the University of Reading agreed to take it as one of
their ‘Special Collections’. The artwork
was still tucked away from general view in an archive - but now in Reading rather
than London – and now at least it could be viewed on request.
However,
from time to time items from the archive would be loaned to exhibitions and
recent extremely successful such exhibitions (notably the one at Bexhill and
The House of Illustration in London 2015) made apparent the ‘pulling-power’ of
Ladybird.
Space was found for a
dedicated and permanent Ladybird gallery within the MERL. And so it is this permanent Ladybird space
that is being opened and celebrated.
So
what will you see if you decide to visit?
The Ladybird
gallery is small and awkwardly shaped so the organisers have had to be quite
creative in planning how best to use the space.
There are two walls of dedicated space and currently a large proportion
of this is taken up with a cabinet featuring the brand new Penguin Random House
‘Ladybird Expert” artwork.
There are
perhaps 10 more pieces of original vintage Ladybird artwork on the walls, a
small number of other artefacts including an uncut sheet and a couple of information plaques. The most dominant feature
of the gallery is the colourful “Wall of Books” – which to anyone who didn’t
get to see the exhibition at Bexhill or the House of Illustration will certainly
enjoy viewing.
If you have a
cursory interest in Ladybird Books then this gallery will add to your enjoyment
of a very interesting museum.
Now if you
are aware of this event at all it may be because of the recent publicity that
the Museum has successfully generated.
This is a good thing.
In my
opinion the not-so-good thing is the tendency towards exaggeration that
characterises a number of the reports about the gallery.
Earlier this
month The Guardian declared in a headline that an:
“Entire art
gallery of Ladybird book covers is world first”
“You can view an entire art gallery
of Ladybird Book covers at a museum in the UK”
The
University of Reading’s own press release tells us that this will be:
“the first and only permanent exhibition of
Ladybird Books artwork”
Now I am
sure the MERL is blameless in all this reporting but some of this is a little
misleading and unhelpful.
1) This is
not the first permanent exhibition of Ladybird Books. The Charnwoood Musum in Loughborough, home of
Ladybird, established a nice little permanent exhibition back in 2015. I believe too that their collection includes
at least one piece of original Ladybird artwork. I phoned recently to check that the
exhibition was indeed ‘permanent’ and it is.
2) The
Guardian has got confused between artwork and book covers.
3) The term ‘an
entire art gallery’ implies a dedicated building or wing. That’s not what you’ll find.
Now for my thoughts on what I saw.
a) The MERL
makes a great visit. The rural life
museum has something for everyone – even if old ploughs aren’t your thing then
something else will be. It is bright and
airy and well-displayed and not too big.
It also has those indispensable assets: a café and a shop.
b) All the
people that I have met at the MERL are friendly, helpful and dedicated.
c) The
Ladybird gallery has lots of potential and is a good start. It will add to the enjoyment of many museum visitors.
d) It needs
to articulate a little better to the casual visitor quite why there is a
Ladybird Books gallery nestling among the ploughs and butter churns.
e) It needs,
in my opinion, to make MUCH more use of the original artwork, and in the future I hope it will. With thousands of pieces being kept in
storage it is more than a shame to have so few on display. There are quite a few poster-sized reproductions
of the artwork. Why use precious space
with a few reproductions when your USP is that you have access to masses of
original artwork? Even allowing for the
challenges of space there are countless other ways to exploit the archive that
is the raison d'être of this gallery and to put on public view material that
will bring pleasure to the many people who remember the books.
So all in all, a promising start.
If you visit Reading I'd recommend you visit the MERL and I hope you drop in to the Ladybird gallery. I’d like to hear what you think.
