New Tactile Resource
Isabel Keim
3 November 2008
Sir James Thornhill’s masterpiece, the Painted Hall ceiling, is made accessible to blind and partially sighted visitors and young children through story-telling and the aid of a colourful tactile rug
On 30th October 2008 the Greenwich Foundation launches an incredible new learning resource, a tactile rug, specifically designed for blind and partially sighted people in the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College. This intricately handcrafted rug has been commissioned by the Foundation to enable blind and partially sighted visitors to explore the complex imagery of Sir James Thornhill’s 18th century masterpiece, the Painted Hall ceiling, through touch and visual description. In tailored sessions, the fascinating characters displayed on the Painted Hall ceiling are brought to life as they are woven into different materials, textures, sounds and exciting tales. The rug is also designed to be used by children aged 3 to 7 as part of lively story-telling sessions entitled “Tactile Tales”.
Since 1997, the Greenwich Foundation has run a vibrant learning programme, which enables different audiences to access and learn about the buildings of the Old Royal Naval College. Despite this, the magnificent 15m high Painted Hall ceiling has remained inaccessible to visitors with visual impairment and younger children due to its height and complex allegorical theme. Inspired by a visit to the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle, the Greenwich Foundation’s education team decided to develop a hands-on learning resource for these underrepresented audiences. The Greenwich Foundation commissioned a local artist, Amanda Allen, to transform King William III and Queen Mary II as well as mythological figures from the Lower Hall ceiling of the Painted Hall into a tactile story-telling rug.
Unlike James Thornhill who took 19 years to complete the Painted Hall, Amanda successfully fulfilled this complex brief in 12 months, creating characters which are representative of Thornhill’s original detailed depictions and are child friendly. Intricately hand woven, she used wools, silks, velvets, rope, felt, feathers and even rubber snakes to piece together three-dimensional features, luxurious garments, bright emblems and furry creatures from the Painted Hall ceiling. The rug will be displayed on a regular basis for drop in sessions for blind and partially sighted and, in addition, special guided tours will be programmed. During “Tactile Tales” workshops, groups of children will also be able to explore this beautiful and striking artwork as they sit on the floor of the Painted Hall, listen to lively stories, feel their way around the different surfaces of the rug or look up at the original ceiling above them. The Greenwich Foundation’s education team will offer story-telling sessions during the week for school groups and at weekends and holidays for families with younger children.
The Greenwich Foundation’s education team worked with a range of people to create the rug and accompanying sessions. The former Head of Greenwich Vision Impairment Service advised the Greenwich Foundation’s education team throughout the development, ensuring that blind and partially sighted visitors would be able to envision the Painted Hall in their mind. A series of consultation sessions were also held with 3 to 4 year olds from a local Early Years Centre to develop ideas to feed into the rug design and to trial the new storytelling session using the completed rug. A professional story-teller helped to develop a cohesive story, which weaves in all the characters depicted on the rug.
Helen Beioley, Director of Development & Marketing for the Greenwich Foundation, comments:
“The Painted Hall is a magnificent sight, and we wanted to find a way to bring out its drama for everyone, including people who are blind or visually impaired. We also wanted to find a way to introduce the rather complicated allegorical theme in a fun and engaging way. This outstanding creation achieves both these aims and is a good indication of how the Foundation is approaching the interpretation of this important site in advance of Discover Greenwich, which is opening early 2010.”
Georgia Collins, a blind teenager who trialled the tactile rug, comments:
“Great idea that blind and visually impaired people can be the same, have the same experience as sighted people. With the story-telling too we get lots of visual imagery as well as through feeling it.”
Ben Breen, a blind teenager, adds:
“It is amazing. You can get all these ideas. You build up three dimensional objects in your mind.”
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Notes to editors:
1. Amanda Allen studied Fine Art at the University of Lancashire. She has worked for the last eight years at Greenwich Community College, teaching spinning and weaving classes as well as family workshops. Amanda was keen to accept the commission as she has a strong interest in art in education. This is her first public commission.
2. The Painted Hall is the finest painted architectural interior by an English artist. The painter, Sir James Thornhill, was commissioned by Greenwich Hospital to decorate this magnificent space in 1708, completing it in phases up to 1727. For his ‘great and laborious undertaking’ Thornhill was paid by the yard – an eventually knighted: he had £3 per square for the ceilings, and £1 for the walls, or £6,685 2s 4d in all.
Thornhill’s painting shows Peace and Liberty triumphing over Tyranny. Enthroned in heaven, with the Virtues behind them, are William and Mary themselves. Above them the god Apollo drives the chariot of the Sun. Peace with her doves and lambs, gives an olive branch to William. He in turn hands the red cap of Liberty to Europe – a kneeling woman holding a white horse. Below William, clutching a broken sword, is Louis XiV. The defeated king wears a yellow tunic, the colour of fear and treachery. Beneath the figures, Architecture holds Wren’s design for the Hospital and Time bears up the naked figure of Truth. Below them Minerva (wisdom) and Hercules (strength) hurl the Vices out of heaven. Within the oval frame are the four seasons – Winter was modelled by Greenwich Pensioner John Worley.
3. The Old Royal Naval College began life as Greenwich Hospital, which was established in 1694 by Royal Charter for the relief and support of seamen and their dependants and for the improvement of navigation. Sir Christopher Wren planned the site, described as "one of the most sublime sights English architecture affords", and, during the first half of the eighteenth century, various illustrious architects, such as Hawksmoor and Vanbrugh, completed Wren's grand design.
In June 1705, the first Pensioners arrived and, by 1814, a total of 2,710 lived there. They lived on a diet of bread, beer and boiled meat and smoked their clay pipes or ‘chalks’ in the Chalk Walk, now the Skittle Alley. The Pensioners were given pocket money of 1s a week, which they supplemented by acting as caddies at Blackheath Golf Club and guides for visitors to Greenwich.
For three days in 1806, 5 – 7 January, Admiral Lord Nelson ‘lay-in-state’ in the Painted Hall. The Upper Hall was draped in black and arrayed with symbols of state mourning: banners, armorial escutcheons and sconced candles whilst the Lower Hall windows were draped and barriers erected to channel the expected crowds. Huge crowds were admitted (estimates range from 15,000 to 30,000) in a renewed outpouring of grief since the victory at Trafalgar. On the morning of the 8 January Nelson’s coffin was borne to the River where it was taken in a huge procession up the river to St Paul’s Cathedral for his state funeral.
In 1869 the Hospital was closed, and in 1873 the complex of buildings became the Royal Naval College, where officers from all over the world came to train in the naval sciences. The Navy moved out in 1998 to merge with the RAF and Army at a new Joint Services Staff College in Shrivenham.
With the departure of the Royal Navy from Greenwich, responsibility for the Old Royal Naval College passed to the Greenwich Foundation. The Foundation is a registered charity established to look after, and interpret, the buildings and their grounds for the benefit of the nation.
For further information, photographs and interviews please contact
Isabel Keim, Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College on 020 8269 4763 - ikeim@greenwichfoundation.org.uk
