The “Dishes of Rotherham” exhibition proved to be no flash in the pan as nearly 40,000 people came through the doors of Clifton Park Museum when it was on.
Food made by ten cooks from contemporary Rotherham was presented on historic tableware from the museum’s Rockingham collection.
The meals dished up on the beautiful 1830s crockery were captured by Professor Simon Grennan, from the University of Chester’s Department of Art and Design, and a film and photography team to tell the story of how Rockingham can be used today.
In the 1820s, 1830s and 1840s, one of the most famous and spectacular ways to dish up was provided by the porcelain tableware made by The Rockingham Pottery in Rotherham. The Rockingham factories made some of the most colourful, exuberant, lavish and expensive tableware available at the time.
The exhibition used tableware from the museum’s collection of more than 1,000 pieces. The cooks came from different cooking traditions, including Pakistani, Sudanese, Guinean, Ukranian, Czech, Yemeni, Chinese and British – all from Rotherham.
Each cook visited the Rockingham collection, chose Rockingham tableware and then cooked and styled their dishes to be served on the Rockingham items themselves.
Simon had been aware of the Rockingham collection at Clifton Park Museum for many years and the venue is well known for being a national leader in new ways of public engagement, arts commissioning and education. He had previously been invited to speak to staff about the ways in which he has have transformed Museum collections and archives with contemporary fine arts elsewhere, for example in Peoria, Stuttgart, Chester, Burnley and Stalybridge. He was able to see some of the collection during a visit and subsequently proposed and led the project and was closely involved in its fundraising.
Simon explains the idea behind the project: “Cooking, dishing up and eating together might appear to be ordinary tasks however, across every time and culture they are also important community activities, providing mental as well as physical well-being.
“Ceramics made at the Rockingham factories were world-leading in the 1830s. That meant that they were the most gorgeous in design with fine painting and ornate shapes and in the most lavish in materials such as 18 carat gold and bright colours with the most daring in technical skill that was sometimes very large or very, very delicate. They also produced a great deal, so it’s possible to buy a ‘box fresh’ Rockingham cup and saucer or set of plates for relatively little today. I have some which I use all the time. I love Rockingham.”
Simon organised the exhibition and also arranged a display of Rockingham as a magic grotto and imagined what the original owners of Rockingham porcelain would have used it for. A film about the making of these displays punctuates the exhibition.
He added that meeting the cooks and seeing them in action was a particularly enjoyable part of the project.
He said: “I got to know a range of social and professional networks in Rotherham to meet the cooks. These included local markets, growers’ organisations, churches, language, leisure and education organisations and Rotherham Show, which is a major hub for, well, knowledge exchange! Lots of people meet and exchange ideas and skills at the Show and have a great time. Rotherham has a lot of different cooking traditions – and cooks of course – so many, many people are on the doorstep.
“I most enjoyed working with the cooks in their kitchens. They whipped up a storm of celebration cooking and personally significant cooking. Sally (the photographer) and David (the filmmaker), the Museum conservation team and I were just an excuse for them to cook and dish up.
“Dishes of Rotherham is a celebratory, engaging artwork. The cooking celebrates the Rockingham and vice versa and, all the time, at the centre are the people we brought together to be with each other and to regard each other and the things that we share.”
Rotherham Council’s Museums, Arts and Heritage manager, Lisa Howarth said: “We were delighted to have Simon Grennan working with us on the Dishes of Rotherham project which was generously funded by the Arts Council and National Lottery Heritage Fund. It has been a wonderful opportunity for our teams to look at new ways to interpret our collections making them more accessible and relevant to the communities of Rotherham.
“We have enjoyed working collaboratively with both the cooks and the creatives, and we have learned so much along the way. We look forward to providing future opportunities to work with everyone after the project has ended.”
The exhibition was supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Arts Council England.
The next exhibition at Clifton Park Museum has recently been announced – “Giants of Rotherham” which celebrates Rotherham’s larger-than-life characters. The inventors, entertainers, daredevils and changemakers who have had big ideas, made enormous efforts, and huge contributions to our borough.