Curator’s Blog – Rediscovering Our Collections

Curator’s Blog – Rediscovering Our Collections

Since my last post I’ve been working on drafting text for the redeveloped museum landing and have got volunteers started on documenting the taxidermy collections so we have an up-to-date catalogue on our database.
Yesterday I went down to London to look at the American Dream exhibition at the British Museum and then I went over to the Horniman Museum to meet the Natural History curator there to discuss new ideas for displaying taxidermy.

The American Dream exhibition was fantastic with lots of works by famous pop artists such as Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. I really liked the film area that the British Museum set up where one screen showed footage of events in American history like Martin Luther King doing his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech while on the wall at the side of the historical footage there was another screen showing pop art from the same period that was often made in response to what was happening at the time.

In the afternoon I caught the train down to Forest Hill and went to the Horniman Museum where I first saw the Robot Zoo exhibition that featured robotic animals like a fly and a bat and had lots of interactives to help explain the biology behind some animals, for example how a grasshopper jumps. When I visited there were lots of families as well as a school visit so it was really busy and everyone was really enjoying getting hands on, which was great. After my visit to Robot Zoo I met with the Natural History Curator at the Horniman, Jo Hatton, to talk about how the Horniman have displayed their taxidermy and what they have found works and what doesn’t work. Jo also very kindly told me about different artists that they have worked with and how popular this has been with visitors as well as the hands on area that has been created. It was a very interesting visit with lots of useful hints and tips from Jo.

The image is from the Horniman’s latest temporary natural history exhibition entitled ‘Memorial: A Tribute to Taxidermy’ by ethical taxidermist Jazmine Miles-Long.

 

Posted on 17 March 2017 under Museum

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