Sunday 31 January 2021

2021 - 2022 New Norcia

 Who would have thought that I would still be at New Norcia. How one's life can change - and all in a good way. I was so fortunate to be able to stay here and carry on with my volunteer work when the borders shut in March last year. I had the caravan packed and was ready to leave for a trip to Queensland! There is plenty to keep me occupied.  I now have a fancy overhead scanner to work with. Perfect for the very old hand-written & fragile books that dont like being flattened on a photocopier. The monks now have digital access to all these precious books. I have also 'progressed' to the Collections Office and have the interesting job of checking that all the artworks are where they are supposed to be according to the computer. Another steep learning curve.

The Hotel is now called a hostel and although no longer run as the local pub, is being used for group bookings. The Abbot - an ex chef - is doing wonderful 4 course fine dining experience about  every 3 months. They are proving hugely popular and sell out very quickly inspite of the $150 per head price. Many come from Perth and stay the night in the Hostel, Convents and the guest house. Between these dinners there are musical evenings with Fr Robert entertaining us on the piano with his amazing musical talents. These evenings are more intimate with 50 people in the bar. Once again the Abbot cooks, and the next one is a French theme.

I decided it was easier to add my Christmas newsletter here .

My delightful archivist boss sent me off up to the Collections office a year ago as there has been no manager there for the past 3 years. Talk about getting thrown in the deep end again! We spent a few days together going through the 45 racks in the climate controlled storeroom beside the office, and checking off all the paintings against the Mosaic database. Then he left me to it! Luckily Mosaic is a fairly easy program to learn and I only had to contact their help desk once,  I have found and updated the locations of nearly all of the rest of the artworks throughout the town – Art Gallery, Hostel & Guesthouse, Monastery and Colleges. Interesting exercise to say the least especially as the Abbot has been redecorating the  hostel and the other accommodation areas so I have had to record art movements, and make sure everything has a ‘didactic’.[Yes - I am learning a whole new language - read ‘info label’.] We hung the finalists of the Mandorla Art Awards in the art gallery and had a grand opening, then took them down a few weeks later and rehung other works.  Fr Anscar [83] took me through the monastery to find all the artworks there. That was special as people don't normally get to see the monks’ personal spaces. He took me into his room which is absolutely full of books, artworks and many artefacts from his 28 years in Kalumburu. The Abbot’s apartment was off limits though! The monastery is 3 stories in places and most of it around 165 years old, so some rooms are out of bounds as the floors are unstable.
I  spent a few weeks in the old convent framing room listing original paintings and moving them to the coolstore until I ran out of room - and inspiration. Try describing another version of ‘Madonna and Child’ in different terms LOL.  There is talk of a new store to be set up so I decided it would be easier to deal with them when/if they are shifted, rather than trying to work around a heap of old frames stacked against the wall. There is another room full of statues and stuff, some of which is listed and needs to be shifted but that will be a huge job, and I may struggle to describe things properly being the heathen that I am. I was delighted to find a book describing church vestments which has been invaluable, along with Mr Google! I have catalogued the 200+ books in the Collections Office as well. Many lovely ‘coffee table’ books among them, and other ‘how to’ books e.g.to look after museum things and artworks!

Beside my office there is a storeroom with wardrobes and drawers full of old vestments, linen, processional banners etc; another huge room full of shelving absolutely full of church paraphernalia, old school and monks stuff, clocks, musical instruments;  then another full of furniture, smaller farm tools, kitchen stuff, every old typewriter, till, washing basket, wooden box ever used .... they throw nothing away! Most of the stuff in these rooms may have been catalogued since 1975 but I am working my way though them to update the system. A 4th storeroom I avoid! Known as the snakepit due to the odd snake seen there, it is piled floor to ceiling with very old stuff – furniture, book shelves, beds, horse gear, school sports gear, pews, boxes of jars ..... 100+ years of accumulation!

I can now add ‘Assistant Museum Curator’ to my CV!
The most satisfying thing this year though, has been helping do the new museum display called ‘Dreaming Spires’. There have been 4 proposed cathedrals between 1900 -1960, the last being the Nervi one designed in Italy, complete with 2 scale models, blueprints and artist impressions in a big fancy box, all being sent to Aus. around 1960. Apparently the 3 huge stained glass windows were made there but no-one knows where they are now – Vatican storage? Fortunately, due to lack of funds it did not go ahead. The proposed monastery was to house 114 monks – there are only 6 left here! The cathedral was to seat 800 with room for 1000 to stand. These days there may be 20 – 50 who attend church regularly! We knew what was available and designed frames with Perspex and black foam board bolted together for the original drawings, photocopied some plans which I put into $8 A3 frames, and a wall TV was installed to loop a 2 minute virtual tour that had been made by University students in 2012. I spent time reading, then cutting and pasting bits out of several articles for the 4 big info boards, which the archivist went through and tidied up and sent off to be commercially printed. I sewed a black skirt to hide the legs on the model’s display table and made didactics. Then we spent 3 days framing the old drawings before carting it all up to the museum, along with the 7 previously framed pictures of the Nervi cathedral, plus blueprints and books to go in the display cabinets. It took a day to hang with the help of 2 maintenance men, then a final tweak by the Abbot and it was done.  I don't know how long it will be on display but probably for a year or more.

That busy week was followed by the Archives, Library and Collections Studies weekend so a couple of days work for me checking names, doing the 90 name badges, and making lists.  We thought we had it all under control at 2 pm the day before only to be told that the ceiling was about to fall down in the old lecture hall, so a quick panic before it was decided that we could use the chapel in St Gertrudes instead. This was an excellent choice as registrations and meals were there as well. Over the 2 days I heard really interesting speakers, had wonderful lunches with wine included, and met lots of people whose names I have become familiar with so that was fun.

I  usually spend the alternate weeks in Archives when the archivist is here for his four days. I have now scanned 97 old hand written books using the amazing overhead scanner they bought me last year, and have done spreadsheets with lists of names etc. for many of them. I think Fr David [88] appreciates not having to go to the vault anymore to get the books he needs to refer to – just opens a scan! I am in the process of typing the last of the baptism records up – luckily these are in English not Latin!

My social life.... 4 times a year the fabulous ‘Abbots Table’ dinners are held although I only went to 2 this year. They are fully booked for next year already. Fr Robert’s themed musical soirees are also a great success and also held 4 times a year. I have been to all of these.  Xmas, Spanish, 1920’s, Spring, and the latest is Chopin. The Abbot cooks for these also. A lovely Staff Xmas party was held at the hostel. Otherwise I visit family and friends here, and the occasional trip to a local pub.

I have been kept busy knitting beanies and crocheted water bottle holders for the past 2 years. They have been for sale in the roadhouse and the museum shop. I also sold a couple Aran jerseys in the shop and made a few jerseys to order for staff here so that keeps me amused in the evenings and brings in some pocket money. Jerseys? I am told they are sweaters or pullovers and that a jersey is what soccer players wear. 
So what is in store for 2022?  At this stage I will probably hook up my caravan and wander off around WA in April for a few months and see if I can get the travel bug out of my system. Even though I will be 75 next year I don't feel ‘incapable’ at all – yet! I think I could come back here for a week once in a while just to update things as required.


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