Black Country Voyages at the Black Country Living Museum

Saturday 24 October – Sunday 1 November

For half term week we were very kindly invited to moor up at the Black Country Living Museum to be part of their Half term Myths and Fables event. Situated on the canal arm overlooking the chain maker and rolling mill, we were given a fantastic location. For the nine days that we were at the museum we invited the public onto the boat to take part in short drawings workshops. Both children and adults joined us to hear about the Black Apotheca project and create beautiful drawings inspired by the work of Jacques Nimki.

Jacques Nimki had prepared for this event by producing a selection of room sprays created with plants and herbs that he had collected in the Black Country during our travels of the canal throughout the year. Jacques used the natural properties of the plants to produce sprays that target areas such as stress, restless nights etc. In these workshops, adults were consulted with Jacques and given samples of the room sprays to help with sleep, anxiety etc.

Young people were asked to produce a large drawing of a plant, either working from books or their imagination. The children were then invited to produce vinyl stickers of their drawings, which were then installed on the inside of the boat. Using white or transparent vinyl, the stickers became invisible on the boat, very similar to the Seen/Unseen project that Jacques Nimki is currently working on at Ikon Gallery. The boat is now a floating exhibition of the children’s work; covered in hidden vinyl stickers, which will travel with us for the rest of our events this year.

We all thoroughly enjoyed our time at the Black Country Living Museum and would love to return in the future. I would like to say a huge thank you to all of the staff at the museum, for making us feel very welcome and helping us. We will hopefully see you all next year.