Crispin Paine asks:
How common are objects coming to life in Western culture? I’m thinking of flying snowmen and so on. Religious studies have given much attention recently to objects in very many cultures which carry spirit/soul and thus have ‘agency’: relics, nkisi figures, icons, images and so on. But I don’t know if anyone has explored the borderland between the statue inhabited by a god, and folk stories about ‘living’ objects.
Could you send you comments to crispinpaine1@gmail.com
Crispin Paine convenes the Religion & Collections Heritage Group - https://religioncollections.wordpress.com/
7/8/22 Liskeard & District Museum Folklore Exhibition: New Case Request
We are looking for a case, or relevant funding to allow us to purchase a case, for our Cornish Folklore exhibition. The case will include a knocker made by a local artist specifically for this exhibition. There will also be documents from local “witch-finder” William Paynter, who researched and wrote about folklore throughout the 1900s.
Although the museum is owned by the council, we are self-funded via donations for anything relating to exhibitions. I recently got a quote for a new free-standing display case made to our specs, and that matches the other cases in the rooms (although it is not imperative that the case matches should we be able to get a second hand one), and it will cost upwards of £5k. We have enough money currently to probably pay for half of this, whilst still leaving enough money in reserve and to pay for other aspects of this and other exhibitions.
Folklore is a big part of Cornish history and we would love to bring that to light at the Liskeard and District Museum as it is something that has not been displayed here since the museum opened in the early 2000s. We also have a lot of William Paynter’s original manuscripts stored away and it would be great to display them and share his legacy. There are many stories from the local area that we can bring into one small exhibition at the museum, and a lot of events we could plan to go alongside it as the exhibition will be in the room where we run children’s activities
If you can help or suggest other avenues for funding please contact India Jolly india-whitney@hotmail.co.uk