Content, Ideas, Art Direction and Publication by Laura Burgess, Siena Clarke, Beth Hawkins, Sophie Higgins and Pin Sheng Leong.
Grizzly Tales, telling the never before told story of the Bear Pit, St James Barton.
Thursday 5th November 2020 Interactive museum opening under the Bear Pit Free entry for opening day! Grizzly Tales, the revolutionary take on the archive. You bring in something to share with Bristol’s future and take away the knowlege and stories of others. Grizzly Tales aims to reach out to all ages and inspire them to learn more about Bristol through objects, film, stories, sound and interaction with the museum.
Thursday 5th November 2020 Interactive museum opening under the Bear Pit
Grizzly Tales, the revolutionary take on the museum. You bring in something to share with Bristol’s future and take away the knowlege and stories of others. Grizzly Tales aims to reach out to all ages and inspire them to learn more about Bristol through objects, film, stories, sound and interaction with the museum.
Contents
Introduction
9
Location
10
List of some of the exhibits
11
Look and feel
12-15
Archive submission form
17
Pictures
19-22
Bear Pit Improvement Group
23-24
Maps
25-27
Peoples’ Republic of Stokes Croft
28-29
Timetable of showings
30
Gift shop
31-32
Credits
33
9
Introduction
Grizzly Tales was founded on 5th November 2014, in order to tell the story of the Bear Pit and its surrounding features. It is located on the outskirts of the city centre, Bristol, with the purpose to establish lines of learning extending from years into the past to present day, encouraging curiosity within people of all ages about the area and Bristol as a whole; including its history, the arts, people, general knowledge and the culture running through Bristol its self. It’s founders, visitors and the locals supply the museum on a regular basis with relevant artefacts that they wish to preserve for posterity. Therefore the vaults are continuously changing and evolving as certain objects become more important and others less so. The museum uses its unique gallery and layout to inspire all its visitors and create a forum for sharing cultural knowledge with the widest possible reach.
10
Location The Grizzly Tales museum has been isntalled beneath the Bear Pit its self. Using a series of tunnels and underpasses the archive is be accessible from street level and from the sunken pit also.
Housing the museum under the pit was an ideal location because of the transport links and the proximity to Temple Meads Station and to the city centre. Grizzly Tales hopes to attract business from all walks of Bristol: »» »» »» »» »» »»
School Trips, Tourists, Stokes Croft Residents, Cabot Circus And Broadmead Traffic, Parents/Grandparents And Children, Newcomers To Bristol.
11
List of some of the exhibits »» »» »» »» »»
Framed photos on the walls Maps Newspaper cuttings about the pit and its neighbours 3D models of surrounding houses Posters – advertising put up there and posters put up by the BPIG
»» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »»
Images of all the graffiti that’s been in the Bear Pit and around Bear Pit café menu Recordings of buskers playing in the tunnels Information about the ‘community bus’ Bristol transport information Records of the old trams that used to run near by Artifacts found after the bombings in WW2 Blue prints about where the benches have been moved through time – Ref: James Dixon, urban archeology. List of all the events that have happened in the pit e.g. markets, homeless money raising events etc. More detailed maps of where the city was bombed during the war Photography books of exhibitions that have been held there The bear its self The car that used to be on display at the top Rubble from the war
»» »» »» »» »» »» »» »»
Criminal records from the area Any found objects like lost and found, but from each decade to try and bring context to the objects The ping pong table Information about the urban garden planning, ‘grow up’ Transition screens showing how the pit has changed List of local artists that have contributed to the pit Time-lapse videos of buskers, commuters and people walking through the pit daily and nightly. Real time camera showing what’s going on in the pit above at all times. This will project onto a large, bare wall.
And things contributed by the public showing what they want to be remembered through time, telling the real story of the pit’s neighbors and inhabitants. These can be 2D, 3D, sound or video pieces.
12
Look and feel As the museum is totally underground it has no natural lighting whatsoever. This means lots of daylight bulbs and wayfinding devices are being used within. The bear paw logo is installed in LED lights along the floor to mark emergency exits, in the case of fires etc. and mostly daylight bulbs are used to make it feel less scary for younger children. As it is subterranian it also has elevators and ramps down into the pit and further down into the museum to make it more accessible for all.
13
There is a main enclosure room within the body of the museum in the shape of an oval. The walls are covered, from floor to ceiling, with varying sized shelves, each housing the paraphernalia contributed form sources around the city.
Each tunnel leading down into the museum has a long TV with infomercials about Bristol and the Pit, alongside Bear Pit history films and interviews.
14
Then there are a number of tables in the centre displaying the 3D models of nearby houses and display cases with artefacts and other miniature replicas. On one of the walls has a tube of the lesser important objects brought in by the public, and as more content becomes available to the museum the tube will be filled closer to the top.
15
The Grizzly Tales team worked alongside the Improvement Group to create something that was friendly to the traffic already present through the pit, like bicycles and walkers, but also to make the area feel more safe and wholesome. For this reason we included floodlighting on the outer section of the entrance ways.
Name Age Address
Chosen object
Why did you choose this object?
Date of submission
ARCHIVE SUBMISSION FORM
Submit an object you would like to keep in the archive for future generations to see!
19
Pictures
2014
1950’s
Pictures displayed within the museum are all protected with glass or perspex casing. They have all been copyright checked and preserved. Images come from a range of years and are clearly labelled within the museum.
2014
20
1960’s vs 2014
21
1902
22
1959
This quote has become one of their main inspirations:
‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.’ Margaret Mead, Anthropologist
23
The Bear Pit Improvement Group
In 2009 a survey was carried out in Bristol and the Bear Pit scored consistently highly as an unsafe area of the city. This group was formed by local residents and traders to try and turn the Bear Pit and its bad reputation around. With the support of Bristol Civic Society and the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft, thr group met for the first time in 2010. Years on the Bear Pit has become a beloved place by many locals and they have made it something to be treasured and proud of, not avoided at all costs any longer.
24
Over the years the BIG has been in operation they have brought about many events and formed subtle strategies to turn the pit around. One oexample of this was the Grow Wild exhibition in 2013. This was a collaberation between the BIG, Grow Wild, Groundwork South and the local residents to transform the submerged Bristol roundabout.
Grow Wild - a small totally organic vegitable company who also distributes throughout the UK.
This action won them a grant from Grow Wild to raise a wildflower mobile garden in the middle of the construction site that was, at the time, taking up the pit
25
Maps 1750
The maps on display throughout the museum were sorced from a variety of loactions; some collections, some shops, private stores and internet sites etc. so the reliability of each map is not always guarenteed. We urge our visitors to consider this when looking around.
1828
26
1880
1946 ariel
2013 ariel
28
Peoples’ Republic Of Stokes Croft
Stokes Croft is an area of Bristol that boasts much of the city’s creativity and artistic output. In 2010 Stokes Croft housed the longest street of independent shops in the UK, and there is a certain magic in the air around that area; something very home made and friendly about the place. In the past it has been called Bristol’s cultural and artistic quarter.
The Peoples’ Republic of Stokes Croft have worked in conjunction with the Bear Pit Improvement Group all through the pit’s journey, since around 2011 when the BIG was formed. The two organisations share directors and goals within the city, so it makes sense for them to collaborate.
29
As the PRSC work with artists, and call themselves ‘the cultural quarter of Bristol’ they agreed to share directorship for the museum. This partnership has allowed artists to be more involved in the project also, using the museum as an art space in the evenings and curating shows amongst the exhibits.
30
Timetable of showings
Monday*
10:00 - 17:00
Tuesday
10:00 - 17:00
Wednesday
10:00 - 17:00
Thursday
10:00 - 17:00
Friday
10:00 - 19:00
Saturday*
09:00 - 19:00
Sunday*
09:00 - 19:00
* Excludes bank holiday weekends
Bank holiday timetable Monday
09:00 - 19:00
Saturday
09:00 - 19:00
Sunday
10:00 - 17:00
31
Gift shop
Merchandise includes: phone cases tablet cases mugs coffee cups pillows duvets t-shirts stationary posters and prints etc.
32
Clothing
Bedding and prints
Mugs
Coffee cups
33
Credits
Miriam Delogu and Tina Hart from the Bear Pit Improvement Group The Peoples’ Republic of Stokes Croft All the kind strangers who gave the team at Grizzly Tales their time in the early stages of the project John Hawkins, interviewee and local to the area Chris Agiasotis, creator of Cap Construct font - used through this publication as the header Fernando Diaz, creator of Fenix font - used through this publication as the body text Laura Burgess, Siena Clarke, Beth Hawkins, Sophie Higgins and Pin Sheng Leong.